Capital Is Not Enough: Innovation in Developing Economies

Economic development and social entrepreneurship often conceive of poverty as a resource allocation problem in which a lack of capital prevents the poor from increasing their income through entrepreneurship. This allocative view, however, represents only one possible approach to conceptualizing entrepreneurial opportunity. The alternative discovery‐ and creativity‐based views place a greater emphasis on innovation which implies that superior ideas are also needed if poverty is to be reduced through firm performance. Drawing from a survey of 201 small business owners involved in a microcredit programme in Nairobi, Kenya, we find that the financial, social, human capital–performance relationships are mediated in part by innovation. Further, we find that differentiation‐related innovations lead to better firm performance than novelty‐related innovations.