From ‘Varieties of’ to ‘Variegated’ entrepreneurship: Understanding heterogeneous and interrelated contexts through a Polanyian lens

This article is concerned with how we theorize heterogeneous and multilevel contexts as they intersect in place, whilst prioritizing the role of entrepreneurial action in shaping context and driving change. We analyze an emerging stream of context research based upon varieties of capitalism institutional theory, drawing on theoretical developments from political economy and geography fields. This sheds light on how ‘varieties of entrepreneurship’ risks reproducing static and mechanistic studies, which instead of meeting the promise of diversifying contexts, sets nations on path dependent trajectories that sideline possibilities for entrepreneurial agency. We suggest Polanyian inspired variegated capitalism as providing potential for understanding the interrelated, multilayered, heterogeneous contexts of entrepreneurship.