Refugee entrepreneurship survey 2023

Refugee entrepreneurship initiatives (REIs) play a significant role in rebuilding livelihoods and fostering positive social impacts among displaced communities. REIs provide a variety of activities that support people with refugee experiences to create and pursue new business opportunities. REIs have been deployed in camps[i] and host country settings[ii] around the world, gaining traction with global agencies, including UNHCR[iii] and the World Bank[iv]. Interest in these initiatives has been heightened by the intuitive connection between the global focus on refugee self-reliance and the process of starting a business. However, growth in interest masks the reality that business support for individuals with refugee backgrounds can be complex to bring to life and difficult to scale. Little is known about the collective reach and impacts of these initiatives, both on business related outcomes and on refugees’ personal development. The extent to which REIs typically monitor or estimate reach and impact is also unknown.</p

Institutional Support for Entrepreneurship and New Venture Internationalization: Evidence from Small Firms in Ghana

Drawing on institutional theory, we propose that emerging market new venture internationalization is impacted by the entrepreneur-institution fit (the compatibility between home institutional support for entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial alertness, and political ties). Using two sets of primary data from 203 and 194 Ghanaian new ventures respectively, we tested our three-way interaction model. Our results show home country institutional support for entrepreneurship has a positive relationship with new venture internationalization. This relationship appears the strongest for founders with higher levels of entrepreneurial alertness and weaker political ties. This paper enriches the literature of international entrepreneurship and institutional theory by (1) introducing an overlooked entrepreneurship factor, entrepreneurial alertness, to the international entrepreneurship literature; (2) context-theorizing the construct of emerging market new venture internationalization; and (3) drawing upon the context-relevant formal institution (institutional profile for entrepreneurship) and connecting it with the informal institution (political ties) to investigate their impacts on new venture internationalization

External knowledge resources and new venture success in developing economies: Leveraging innovative opportunities and legitimacy strategies

This study draws insights from entrepreneurial opportunity and organizational legitimacy perspectives to specify an intervening role of opportunity recognition and the contingency effect of entrepreneurial legitimacy to explain how and when external knowledge resources are associated with new venture performance. The conceptual model is tested on primary data from 230 new ventures operating in a sub-Saharan African economy: Ghana. Findings from the study indicate that the relationship between external knowledge resources and new venture performance is mediated by opportunity recognition and that high levels of both strategic and regulatory legitimacy strategies strengthen the indirect relationship. Theoretical implications and new venture management lessons drawn from these findings are discussed. </p

Growth implications of creation and discovery behavior among family firms: the moderating role of venture age

Purpose The aim of the study is to examine the effects of opportunity creation and discovery on the performance of family firms. Specifically, from the tenets of dynamic capabilities and organizational contingency perspectives, this study proposes and tests a framework of how family firms' creation and discovery behavior impact venture growth and the conditions under which such impact can vary. Design/methodology/approach The study uses moderated-hierarchical regression to analyze survey data from 156 family-owned small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating within a sub-Saharan African economy. Findings The findings indicate that creation behavior has a curvilinear U-shaped relationship with venture growth, while discovery behavior has a direct positive relationship with venture growth. Further analysis reveals that the curvilinearity of the U-shaped relationship between creation and venture growth will be stronger for older family firms than for younger ones. Research limitations/implications The study findings may be limited by the cross-sectional nature of the data and the specific focus on family firms only. Practical implications The results highlight the significance of pursuing both opportunities among family firms. In fact, both creation and discovery opportunities are significant drivers of family firm growth, albeit in different capacities. Relatedly, managers of older family firms (compared to younger firms) can invest more in exploiting creative opportunities. Social implications From these findings, governments and other stakeholders should create enabling environment and institutional frameworks conducive to exploiting opportunities by entrepreneurial firms. Originality/value The study is novel – as it provides unique findings on the performance implications of creation and discovery behavior of entrepreneurial family firms within developing economies.</p

Entrepreneurial Alertness and Business Model Innovation in Dynamic Markets: International Performance Implications for SMEs

A significant yet rarely probed question in the international entrepreneurship literature is to what extent and when entrepreneurial alertness (EA) manifests into international performance for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Using survey data from 214 SMEs in the United Arab Emirates, this study investigates the relationships between EA, business model innovation (BMI), domestic market dynamism and internationalisation scope of SMEs. The study finds that BMI (i.e., entrepreneurial action) significantly mediates the relationship between EA (i.e., entrepreneurial capability) and SMEs' internationalisation scope (i.e., international performance). Furthermore, when domestic market dynamism is high, the effect of BMI on internationalisation scope is strengthened. These findings provide theoretical and practical implications for international entrepreneurship research in the SME context</p

Grand challenges and emerging market small and medium enterprises: The role of strategic agility and gender diversity

This paper examines the role played by strategic agility and gender diversity in enabling the creation of value for grand challenges (VCGCs) by small and medium-sized enterprises originating from emerging markets (ESMEs). ESMEs face significant challenges due to the dynamic environments in which they operate and the limited support they receive from formal institutions. In such contexts, strategic agility enables ESMEs to drive VCGCs through responsible collaborative innovation. We further argue that gender diversity is an important boundary condition that influences the effect of strategic agility on VCGCs via responsible collaborative innovation. Utilizing 228 survey responses from ESMEs originating from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), our findings shed light on the vital role played by strategic agility in enhancing ESMEs' VCGCs. Specifically, our findings indicate that responsible collaborative innovation acts as an important mediating mechanism between strategic agility and VCGCs. In addition, gender diversity emerges as an important moderating factor in that, in the presence of more heterogeneous senior management teams, the effect of strategic agility on VCGCs through the mediating mechanism of responsible collaborative innovation is higher. These findings contribute to the literature on dynamic capabilities, upper echelons, and grand challenges by providing important insights into the mechanisms and boundary conditions of VCGCs in the context of emerging market firms.</p

Leveraging foreign diversification to build firm resilience: A conditional process perspective

Foreign diversification is crucial for risk management, but its role in building resilient international firms is underexplored. This research combines the organizational information processing theory with international business literature to examine how and when foreign diversification relates to firm resilience in the context of SME exporters. The study suggests that while foreign diversification may contribute to firm resilience, foreign market scanning mediates this effect under varying supply chain disruption conditions. An analysis of primary data from 272 SME exporters in Ghana reveals that foreign diversification alone does not explain firm resilience. Instead, the results support the arguments that foreign market scanning positively mediates the foreign diversification – firm resilience relationship, and that this indirect relationship is stronger in highly disruptive supply chain environments. Implications of these findings for international business research and practice are discussed.</p

Enhancing export intensity of entrepreneurial firms through bricolage and international opportunity recognition: The differential roles of explorative and exploitative learning

This study proposes and tests a framework relating to the effect of entrepreneurial bricolage on international opportunity recognition (IOR) and the influence of the latter on export intensity. Survey data from 193 export-oriented entrepreneurial firms operating in Ghana indicates that entrepreneurial bricolage has an inverted U-shaped relationship with IOR – and that IOR has a positive effect on export intensity. A further analysis reveals that explorative learning enhances the inverted U-shaped relationship between bricolage and IOR, while exploitative learning improves the IOR–export intensity relationship. Our findings present important implications for international entrepreneurship research and the management of export-oriented entrepreneurial firms in developing economies. </p

Owner-managers failure experience and business model innovations in B2B firms: The roles of coopetition, managerial persistence, and financial resource slack

This study proposes and tests a model of how and when previous failure experience can impact on subsequent business model innovation of business-to-business (B2B) SMEs. Analysis of survey data from a sample of 182 B2B SMEs in Ghana indicates that failure experience is positively related to business model innovation – and that coopetition capability mediates this failure experience. Further analysis of boundary condition effects reveals that high levels of financial resource slack strengthen the positive relationship between coopetition and business model innovation, while the level of managerial persistence has no effect on failure experience and coopetition relationship. We discuss the theoretical and managerial implications of these findings.   </p