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Entrepreneurship in developing countries is arguably the least studied significant economic and social phenomenon. Previous studies focused on describing the attributes of entrepreneurship rather than providing a framework, in which entrepreneurs and policy makers alike can rationally plan and execute innovative business models. Current issues facing Malaysian entrepreneurs include low level of technology, lack of innovation through research and development, low working capital, and of highly domestic orientations. This led to a lack of resilience and efficiency among the entrepreneurs, thus rendering them ill‐equipped to compete globally. This adverse scenario is increasingly apparent among Bumiputera (Native of Malaysia) entrepreneurs as the growth of entrepreneurial activity has not been in tandem with the pace of the overall development of the nation. Hence, this study seeks to identify factors leading to success and failure so that Bumiputera entrepreneurs can prevent failure by correcting problems, and appreciate what it takes to succeed. Ultimately, a framework of success is proposed as a comprehensive tool to enhance their survival in a competitive global economy.

A survey instrument was used, and a total of 1,500 Bumiputera entrepreneurs participated, covering all the states in Malaysia.

The findings confirmed that eight factors are vital to the success of Bumiputera entrepreneurs. In rank order of importance, these factors are advancement drive, achievement oriented, commitment, decision‐making ability, managing risk, tenacity, networking, and optimism. As for the factors leading to the failure of Bumiputera entrepreneurs, inability to compete, lack of competency and capital, customer‐related problems, employee‐related problems, unfavourable economic conditions, bureaucracy, supplier discrimination, and negative community attitudes were found to be crucial.

The paper develops a framework to aid the success of Bumiputera entrepreneurs in Malaysia.

The purpose of this study is to explore the elements of the Marwari business community’s sociocultural context, which influence entrepreneurial behaviour. The entrepreneurial behaviour of the Marwari community is interrogated in the context of the wider indigenous entrepreneurship literature.

The study adopts a qualitative approach in exploring the thoughts, feelings, beliefs and effectual entrepreneurial behaviour of a sample of Marwari entrepreneurs. An exploratory, qualitative content analysis method was adopted to highlight the emerging insights into traditional entrepreneurship.

The study identifies unique, traditional Marwari behavioural constructs such as Sakh and Samai and the role it plays in trust-based business relationships. Overall, the study finds that although the Marwari practices and ecosystem enable a deep understanding of the entrepreneurial and business process, they do not facilitate creative innovation or entrepreneurial experimentation as seen within modern start-up incubation ecosystems.

The study took a conscious decision to restrict further data collection upon saturation and used a purposeful sampling technique to increase the richness of this study rather than enlarge the sample and dilute the quality of the data.

The study identifies nuances of Marwari’s traditional practices that have come to determine their effectual tendencies that support business growth and sustainability. The study, however, finds that the restrictiveness of the Marwari ecosystem practices on fluency of doing business rather than creative innovation and thought experimentation risks the longevity of the traditional ecosystem advantage enjoyed by the Marwaris for centuries.

The study broadens the understanding of the uniqueness of traditional business communities, which are comparatively marginalized in mainstream entrepreneurship research. Via this study, it is seen that the Marwari form of entrepreneurship is collectivist rather than individualist in nature, which differentiates them from their Western counterparts. This helps to explain why entrepreneurs tend to behave differently; hence, achieving a universal definition of entrepreneurship remains a challenge.

While the relationship between the sociocultural aspects of communities and their entrepreneurial behaviour is known, the role of the constituent elements of the Marwari sociocultural context and influence on business is unclear. This study takes the lead in identifying such elements of the Marwari sociocultural construct and argues how these elements can play a role in the Marwaris demonstrating tendencies of effectual behaviour.

This paper aims to examine the pattern of publications, using a bibliometric analysis of the Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy (JEC) for the period between 2007 and 2021.

The study uses relevant bibliometric metrics and procedures. The analysis covers mainly the number of articles published in JEC, most influential years in terms of the number of publications and citations, top productive countries, most prolific authors, most influential institutions, funding institutions, co-authorship trends, keywords co-occurrence, and vital themes of JEC articles between 2007 and 2021.

The journal’s influential impact in terms of citations has increased over time, with 83.62% of the published works receiving at least one citation. Léo-Paul Dana has been recognised as the most prolific author by virtue of his contribution of articles in JEC, and the maximum contribution to JEC comes from the USA, followed by Canada and the UK. University of Canterbury, New Zealand and La Trobe University, Australia were the leading contributing institutions. The study identified “indigenous entrepreneurs”, “gender”, “social entrepreneurship”, “education” and “innovation” as contemporary keywords in the study of enterprising communities. These issues present a clear opportunity for research-related topics for the JEC.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first comprehensive piece in the journal’s history that provides a general overview of the journal's major trends and researchers.