Entrepreneurial Ecosystems im Post-Konflikt-Kontext: Syrische Entrepreneure im institutionellen Spannungsfeld [Entrepreneurial Ecosystems in a Post-Conflict Context: Syrian Entrepreneurs amid Institutional Tensions]

English version

Syrian entrepreneurs operate in a post-conflict context characterized by weakly enforced formal institutions, where stakeholder groups such as the diaspora, NGOs, and investors exert influence alongside local family and patronage networks. This study examines how entrepreneurs navigate competing market and community logics. Its theoretical framework draws on Oliver’s (1991) spectrum of strategic responses, Pache and Santos’s (2013) concept of selective coupling, and the hybridizer role developed by Minbaeva et al. (2021).

Twelve semi-structured interviews with six Syria-based entrepreneurs and six diaspora entrepreneurs are analyzed using structured qualitative content analysis. The findings reveal a narrowed response spectrum, with 91.2% of responses concentrated in acquiescence, compromise, and avoidance. Selective coupling appears in 42.5% of the statements, primarily within acquiescence and compromise. It generates hybrid legitimacy by enabling entrepreneurs to address both stakeholder groups in parallel through a combination of high-salience and lower-salience practice elements.

The findings are organized along a macro–meso–micro logic, in which institutional asymmetry, a fragmented stakeholder landscape, and position-dependent embedded agency jointly shape the observed response patterns.