When young entrepreneurs in Iraq started a movement in 2013 to build a new startup ecosystem, they aimed to reinvent the troubled country’s economy. But as funding for their activities dried up and two of their startups were acquired, their original ideals softened and transformed.

A new research paper considers the question of how activists trying to solve big social problems “can accept to negotiate their vision for the field’s future and, therefore, how such ideologies can dissipate, turning into negotiable ideas.”

The author, Anne-Sophie Sabbatucci, is a PhD student at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business, where she is studying entrepreneurship. At the heart of her research is the idea of grand challenges, large social problems that evade simple solutions and require mass action to solve. Over the past decade, Iraqis have confronted the massive problem of how to reinvigorate their war-destroyed economy.

Sabbatucci’s work focused on the movement that a group of idealistic young businesspeople formed to seed and nurture Iraqi startups. These founders had high standards: They wanted to build a private sector free from corruption, greedy corporations, and an oppressive and unhelpful government.

The group received funding from development agencies to support their activities and created a community of entrepreneurs who formed new companies and hired employees. But over time the members’ shared ideology came under pressure, as funds dried up. When large corporations acquired two of the first startups, would members change their mindset and no longer rail against corporate influence?

In response, the group adopted a more pragmatic outlook and softened their stance. The movement’s evolution sheds light on how ideologies can change over time as the real world intrudes on firmly held beliefs: “Initial ambitious objectives and visions for the field are often modified,” she writes.

Sabbatucci employs theories from micro-sociology to study Iraq's startup movement's development between 2013 and 2024, making three trips to Iraq since 2022. She conducted 90 interviews before January 2023 and another 75 after, sometimes with the same interview subject. She also listened to 64 interviews from a local podcast on entrepreneurship; read through 5,000 pages of reports, blogs, and social media posts; and assembled a trove of documentaries, webinars, and audio recordings.

Read the full article about Iraq's startup movement by Chana R. Schoenberger at Stanford Social Innovation Review.