Accounting for the transitions after entrepreneurial business failure: An emerging market perspective.

• The paper examines the institutional obstacles in Ghana. • Examine the transitional path of serial entrepreneurs after business failure. • Informal and formal entrepreneurship in Africa are examined. • Government policy and changes in government in Ghana are examined. • Entrepreneurial development in Ghana is examined. This study builds on prior scholarly works on institutions and entrepreneurship by examining the process of transitions and institutional obstacles that force serial entrepreneurs' shift to operate in the formal or informal sector after entrepreneurial business failures. Using insights from 32 serial entrepreneurs in Ghana, a framework was developed and utilized to explicate how the pull and push motivations for the transition into or persisting with formality or informality after business failure unfolds over time. Our analysis sheds light on the processes and effects of the motivations on the persistently high level of entrepreneurial activities in the informal sector for many emerging economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]