Facilitating a Culture of Entrepreneurship: An Investigation of the Influence of Institutional Frameworks, Educational Systems, and Socioeconomic Policies on Entrepreneurial Growth in Uganda

This article focuses on the interconnected contributions of the existing institutional frameworks, educational systems, and socioeconomic policies in Uganda to the emergence of a new entrepreneurial culture. On the one hand, Uganda is still one of the most entrepreneurial countries in the world with very high levels of entrepreneurship. But, on the other hand, the low levels of enterprise sustainability and innovation reflect that there are still existing barriers at a system's level which need to be removed first before individual initiatives can be successful. The authors adopt classical economic theories—mainly focusing on Schumpeterian innovation, institutional economics, and human capital theory—and they set their work in Marxist–Leninist political economy in order to create an integrated conceptual framework that connects institutional quality, education, and policy coherence to entrepreneurial culture and outcomes. They argue that entrepreneurship is a phenomenon which has both structural and ideological features, which are determined by governance, availability of resources, and class relationships. The framework suggests that, in general, institutional transparency, practice-based education, and inclusive socio-economic policies promote entrepreneurship through the mediation of finance, networks, and social norms. However, at the same time, structural inequalities in the form of class, gender, and between regions alter these impacts, so that equitable participation becomes more difficult. The paper states that in order to really promote entrepreneurship in Uganda it is necessary to make systemic reforms that are composed of enhancing the capacity of the state, changing the education system, and adopting redistributive policies. The authors argue that the political economy approach of Uganda allows them to develop a critical, context-specific model for understanding that the institutional and social structures do not only shape the entrepreneurial culture but also the sustainability of development outcomes.