This book offers an empirically grounded analysis of entrepreneurial decision-making under constraint in developing economies. Drawing on Jamaica’s SME sector, it examines why strong entrepreneurial intention does not always become immediate start-up action and how feasibility, timing, exposure, finance, networks, informality, and institutional support shape whether entrepreneurs initiate, delay, enter in stages, or withhold action. These issues matter because, in many developing economies, entrepreneurship is not simply a lifestyle choice but a pathway to economic survival, inclusion, and opportunity. By integrating established entrepreneurship theory with evidence from a small-state context, the book offers globally relevant yet contextually grounded practical and theoretical guidance for scholars, policymakers, educators, and practitioners seeking to strengthen SME development, entrepreneurial support, and inclusive economic growth in developing economies.

Noel D. Morgan is a scholar-practitioner specializing in entrepreneurship, SMEs, finance, and development in small and emerging economies. He holds a Doctorate in Business Administration and is a Chartered Accountant and Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Jamaica and the Caribbean, with more than three decades of experience in senior finance, administration, and higher education leadership across the Caribbean. His research examines entrepreneurial intention, decision-making, feasibility constraints, and ecosystem conditions, drawing on original empirical work conducted in Jamaica. He serves in senior financial leadership at The University of the West Indies Global Campus and has worked with entrepreneurs, SMEs, policymakers, and development agencies across the region. His scholarship integrates the Theory of Planned Behavior, Decision Theory, Shapero’s Entrepreneurial Event Model, entrepreneurial ecosystem analysis, and the Carland Entrepreneurship Index to explain how entrepreneurs initiate, delay, stage entry, or withhold action under structural constraint.