Institutional Reform And Diaspora Entrepreneurs

"An investigation of diaspora institutional entrepreneurship"--

"This book analyses the role that the diaspora play when returning as entrepreneurs to their homeland. Returnee entrepreneurs are defined as individuals who have moved away from their home country and lived as part of the diaspora, and have later returned home to live, invest or both. With increased movements of people around the world, the role of transnational economic activity is becoming ever more significant, yet little is still understood about the motivations and contribution of those who return to their homeland to undertake entrepreneurial activity. The book examines return to post-conflict economies, with the returnees initially forced to move due to war. In doing so, it examines policy approaches to return, the intentions of returnees and highlights the important role that emotional attachment plays in harnessing return. The book recognises the undoubted potential of diaspora entrepreneurs to benefit their homeland. Yet it also recognises the challenges in doing so. Not all diaspora entrepreneurship will be beneficial. Not all policy interventions will be effective, despite good intentions. Yet the lessons contained within this book are that by understanding the challenges and opportunities associated with diaspora return entrepreneurship, more effective strategies can be put in place"--

Résumé de l'éditeur : "This book develops a novel understanding of four types of diaspora entrepreneurs based on their linkages to de facto states and different global contexts, and a theory about their interactions with host-land foreign policies, homeland governments, parties, non-state actors, critical events, and limited global influences"

Externally-promoted institutional reform, even when nominally accepted by developing country governments, often fails to deliver lasting change. Diasporans-immigrants who still feel a connection to their country of origin-may offer an In-Between Advantage for institutional reform, which links problem understanding with potential solutions, and encompasses vision, impact, operational, and psycho-social advantages. Individuals with entrepreneurial characteristics can catalyzing institutional reform. Diasporans may have particular advantages for entrepreneurship, as they live both psychologically and materially between the place of origin they left and the new destination they have embraced. Their entrepreneurial characteristics may be accidental, cultivated through the migration and diaspora experience, or innate to individuals' personalities. This book articulates the diaspora institutional entrepreneur In-Between Advantage, proposes a model for understanding the characteristics and motivational influences of entrepreneurs generally and how they apply to diaspora entrepreneurs in particular, and presents a staged model of institutional entrepreneur actions. I test these frameworks through case narratives of social institutional reform in Egypt, economic institutional reform in Ethiopia, and political institutional reform in Chad. In addition to identifying policy implications, this book makes important theoretical contributions in three areas. First, it builds on existing and emerging critiques of international development assistance that articulate prescriptions related to alternative theories of change. Second, it fills an important gap in the literature by focusing squarely on the role of agency in institutional reform processes while still accounting for organizational systems and socio-political contexts. In doing so, it integrates a more expansive view of entrepreneurism into extant understandings of institutional entrepreneurism, and it sheds light on what happens in the frequently-invoked black box of agency. Third, it demonstrates the fallacy of many theoretical frameworks that seek to order institutional change processes into neatly definable linear stages.

Diaspora Business provides interdisciplinary views and empirical research on diaspora in the global business and economy. It presents developed, emerging and developing countries and aspects from investments to institutional support.

Diasporas large-scale ethnic migrations have been a source of growing concern as we try to understand the nature of community, identity and nationalism. Traditionally, diaspora communities have been understood to be pariah communities, and most work on diasporas has focused on specific groups such as the Jewish or African Diaspora. This book is unique in arguing against traditional interpretations and in taking a comparative look at a range of diasporas, including the Jewish, Arab, Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Maltese, Greek and Armenian diasporas.Taking the past four centuries into consideration, the authors examine diaspora trading networks across the globe on both a regional and international level. They investigate the common patterns and practices in the enterprises of diaspora peoples and entrepreneurs. The regions covered include Western Europe, the Mediterranean, South West Asia and the Indian Ocean, and South East Asia. Global networks of diaspora trading groups were crucial to international trade well before the twentieth century, yet because they were not part of established institutions they have remained elusive to economists, sociologists and historians.Through an understanding of diaspora trading networks, we learn not only about diaspora communities but also about the roots of the modern global economy.

This contributed volume focuses on diasporans, their characteristics, networks, resources and activities in relation to international business and entrepreneurship. It presents an overview of diaspora concepts from an economic perspective, and analyzes the global-economic and societal effects and mechanisms, revealing both positive and negative aspects of diaspora activities. Providing insights into the socio-cultural influences, it discusses diaspora entrepreneurship and international business, the respective organisational models, investments and business types. Lastly it offers an assessment of managing diaspora resources and policymaking. This book was created by an interdisciplinary team of editors, co-authors and reviewers including historians, sociologists, psychologists, linguists and ethnologists, as well as experts in public policy, international business, marketing and entrepreneurship. This unique team (many of the authors are themselves diasporans with an extensive understanding of their topic) provides the first global academic platform on the subject, combining the latest empirical evidence from developing, emerging, transitional and developed countries with various combinations of diaspora flows that to date have received little attention.

The advancement and progression of migrant businesses has increased significantly in the globalized modern society. As such, current research has emerged regarding the characteristics of transnational economic activities. Diasporas and Transnational Entrepreneurship in Global Contexts is an essential reference publication for the latest material on the nature, process, and outcome of migrant entrepreneurs’ economic activities expanding from their countries of origin to their countries of residence. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics, such as regional growth, industrial development, and employment generation, this book is ideally designed for researchers, advanced-level students, practitioners, managers, and policy-makers seeking current research on how economic development can be encouraged and nurtured among ethnic entrepreneurs and businesses.