AMRITA SAHA

Research

Bittersweet Company: Relational Frames and Entrepreneurial Pursuit in a Post-Deregulation Cocoa Industry

Revise and Resubmit at Organization Science

  • Best Paper Proceedings, OMT Division, Academy of Management 2026

Why do economically disadvantaged actors often choose not to use their access to resources and opportunities for entrepreneurship? Drawing on ethnographic and survey data spanning seven years following a market-oriented reform in Trinidad and Tobago, I examine the business decisions of 54 smallholder cocoa farmers. Despite owning valuable fine flavor cocoa beans, only 12 out of 54 farmers persistently pursued entrepreneurial activities a decade after deregulation. Existing resources did not predict pursuit. Rather, I propose the concept of ‘relational frames‘ to explain differences in actors’ pursuit of entrepreneurial activities. Through relational frames, farmers evaluated economic opportunities by what they would mean for their interactions with others. Farmers approached new economic activities with uncertainty about the rules of engagement with new industry agents. While all farmers shared components of the existing relational frame, only those who experienced frame change—shifting from a hierarchical frame to one focused on co-creation—sustained entrepreneurial activities over time. The frame change process consisted of internalization—not simply adoption—of industry agents’ standards and development of farmers’ own roles as creators. By theorizing entrepreneurial pursuit as a relational process, this study contributes a new perspective on how relational experiences shape entrepreneurial willingness in emerging economies.

Recursive Intermediation: Institutional Intermediaries and Discretionary Resource Distribution in an Emerging Market

Preparing for submission
Institutional intermediaries play a central role in emerging markets by mobilizing knowledge, resources, and legitimacy for entrepreneurs. Yet intermediaries in early-stage markets often operate under conditions of material constraint and uncertainty, likely requiring them to exercise discretion in how they allocate limited resources. The literature on institutional intermediation has yet to examine whether and how intermediaries exercise such discretion and how these decisions shape the kinds of businesses entrepreneurs ultimately build. Drawing on an inductive, longitudinal study of the post-deregulation cocoa industry in Trinidad and Tobago, I examine how intermediaries allocate resources across 136 potential intermediary–entrepreneur pairs spanning 34 enterprises and 4 intermediary organizations. I show that intermediaries’ own goals, constraints, and performance pressures shape which entrepreneurs they engage beyond formal programs and how they allocate critical discretionary resources. Through this selective engagement, intermediaries channel qualitatively different forms of knowledge, product development support, and market access across relationships, producing systematic differences in entrepreneurial development. These differences give rise to distinct trajectories that are strongly aligned with entrepreneurs’ social class backgrounds. In contrast to the common depiction of intermediation as a one-way process, I conceptualize it as a recursive process that differentially structures access to resources. This study contributes to research on institutional intermediation and entrepreneurship by explaining who gains access to intermediated resources and how that access shapes the ventures they develop. In doing so, it shows how the social reproduction of inequality can become embedded in efforts to build new markets rather than arising solely from competitive dynamics.

Communal Governance in Emerging Economies: Boundary Conditions and Ways Forward

Writing stage
Research on economic exchange in emerging economies increasingly emphasizes communal governance—shared norms, social ties, and collective monitoring—as an alternative to formal contracting. While this perspective has productively challenged “institutional voids” accounts, it often assumes levels of social cohesion that are unevenly distributed across emerging-economy contexts. This paper develops a contingency perspective on communal governance by examining how social fragmentation—manifested in mistrust, fear, violence exposure, and weak horizontal ties—shapes the feasibility of norm-based exchange. Using Ostrom’s design principles as a diagnostic framework, I theorize how conditions of insecurity and fragmented social relations undermine the mechanisms through which communal governance is expected to function.

Research

Bittersweet Company: Relational Frames and Entrepreneurial Pursuit in a Post-Deregulation Cocoa Industry

Revise and Resubmit at Organization Science

  • Best Paper Proceedings, OMT Division, Academy of Management 2026

Why do economically disadvantaged actors often choose not to use their access to resources and opportunities for entrepreneurship? Drawing on ethnographic and survey data spanning seven years following a market-oriented reform in Trinidad and Tobago, I examine the business decisions of 54 smallholder cocoa farmers. Despite owning valuable fine flavor cocoa beans, only 12 out of 54 farmers persistently pursued entrepreneurial activities a decade after deregulation. Existing resources did not predict pursuit. Rather, I propose the concept of ‘relational frames‘ to explain differences in actors’ pursuit of entrepreneurial activities. Through relational frames, farmers evaluated economic opportunities by what they would mean for their interactions with others. Farmers approached new economic activities with uncertainty about the rules of engagement with new industry agents. While all farmers shared components of the existing relational frame, only those who experienced frame change—shifting from a hierarchical frame to one focused on co-creation—sustained entrepreneurial activities over time. The frame change process consisted of internalization—not simply adoption—of industry agents’ standards and development of farmers’ own roles as creators. By theorizing entrepreneurial pursuit as a relational process, this study contributes a new perspective on how relational experiences shape entrepreneurial willingness in emerging economies.

Recursive Intermediation: Institutional Intermediaries and Discretionary Resource Distribution in an Emerging Market

Preparing for submission
Institutional intermediaries play a central role in emerging markets by mobilizing knowledge, resources, and legitimacy for entrepreneurs. Yet intermediaries in early-stage markets often operate under conditions of material constraint and uncertainty, likely requiring them to exercise discretion in how they allocate limited resources. The literature on institutional intermediation has yet to examine whether and how intermediaries exercise such discretion and how these decisions shape the kinds of businesses entrepreneurs ultimately build. Drawing on an inductive, longitudinal study of the post-deregulation cocoa industry in Trinidad and Tobago, I examine how intermediaries allocate resources across 136 potential intermediary–entrepreneur pairs spanning 34 enterprises and 4 intermediary organizations. I show that intermediaries’ own goals, constraints, and performance pressures shape which entrepreneurs they engage beyond formal programs and how they allocate critical discretionary resources. Through this selective engagement, intermediaries channel qualitatively different forms of knowledge, product development support, and market access across relationships, producing systematic differences in entrepreneurial development. These differences give rise to distinct trajectories that are strongly aligned with entrepreneurs’ social class backgrounds. In contrast to the common depiction of intermediation as a one-way process, I conceptualize it as a recursive process that differentially structures access to resources. This study contributes to research on institutional intermediation and entrepreneurship by explaining who gains access to intermediated resources and how that access shapes the ventures they develop. In doing so, it shows how the social reproduction of inequality can become embedded in efforts to build new markets rather than arising solely from competitive dynamics.

Communal Governance in Emerging Economies: Boundary Conditions and Ways Forward

Writing stage
Research on economic exchange in emerging economies increasingly emphasizes communal governance—shared norms, social ties, and collective monitoring—as an alternative to formal contracting. While this perspective has productively challenged “institutional voids” accounts, it often assumes levels of social cohesion that are unevenly distributed across emerging-economy contexts. This paper develops a contingency perspective on communal governance by examining how social fragmentation—manifested in mistrust, fear, violence exposure, and weak horizontal ties—shapes the feasibility of norm-based exchange. Using Ostrom’s design principles as a diagnostic framework, I theorize how conditions of insecurity and fragmented social relations undermine the mechanisms through which communal governance is expected to function.