Crisis perceptions among Ukrainian refugee entrepreneurs: Psychological antecedents and venture progress

How to circumvent adversity? Refugee-entrepreneurs' resilience in the face of substantial and persistent adversity

Purpose The past two decades have witnessed a surge in entrepreneurship training (ET) programmes among religious organisations in Ghana. Despite this, current studies on the topic have revealed a gap in the perception of ET initiatives and the actual needs and expectations of trainees. This paper aims to explore the characteristics of ET programmes in Christian organisations in Ghana and the perception of beneficiaries on the relevance of these schemes. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative research approach was used for the study. The study used interviews and document reviews as data collection instruments. In investigating research questions one and two for case study one, interviews were used. For case study two, data were collected mainly through a review of documents for research question one and interviews for research question two. The data were analysed using thematic analysis techniques. Findings The results show some similarities in ET characteristics in the two cases studied, specifically regarding objectives and target outcomes. Therefore, ET programmes identified in both cases were targeted at both potential and practicing entrepreneurs in the congregations. Further, content appears adequate with an emphasis on topics that develop business management skills. The teaching approach varied within the studied religious organisations and although some practices were similar to best practice guidelines suggested in literature, there are lapses in the system. Regarding respondents? perception on the relevance of the ET programmes, the authors observed a positive outlook among all respondents who argued that the scheme addressed key issues at individual, organisational and national levels. However, the study revealed that religious institutions were unwilling to provide seed funding to beneficiaries. Research limitations/implications Further studies will need to validate findings in other Christian denominations not captured in the study. Furthermore, replicating this study among non-Christian religious institutions would be beneficial for policymaking. Practical implications This study suggests that managers of ET programmes in churches need to be helped to focus their programmes on developing business competencies, specifically technical skills. Originality/value There is a gap in understanding of the nature of ET programmes in religious institutions in Ghana and globally. This study provides insights on the characteristics of ET programmes in churches; thus allowing us to understand how they can be supported to deliver effectively.

Research Summary Designing effective entrepreneurship training programs is still a challenge despite the investments in training made by governments and private institutions, and its importance for economic growth. We report a case of impact measurement of a social entrepreneurship program based on repeated randomized controlled trials (RCTs), discuss challenges of conducting repeated RCTs, and implications for policy evaluation. Impact measures from the first edition of the program showed no detectable treatment effects. The second edition was adjusted by reducing leadership training and increasing traditional entrepreneurial skills training, and had strong treatment effects on entrepreneurial activities, the creation of a new venture during the program, and subsequent start‐up activity. Employing sequential field experiments can improve entrepreneurship training programs despite the challenges of executing RCTs in the field. Managerial Summary Governments, institutions, and businesses increasingly invest in innovative entrepreneurship training programs that tackle societal problems. However, we know very little about the effectiveness of such trainings. To measure the causal impact of a social entrepreneurship training program we use an experiment where we assign one group of applicants randomly to training. A comparable group is selected randomly to not obtain the training. There were no detectable differences between the two groups the first time the program was run. After substantial changes were made, where analytical skills training was boosted at the expense of a reduction in social leadership skills training and social entrepreneurial identity development, and individualized coaching intensified, we find a large impact on entrepreneurial activities, both during the program and 3 years later.

Research Summary Although entrepreneurship training programs are designed to help necessity entrepreneurs acquire skills and capabilities to take entrepreneurial action, participants in these programs often fail to do so. In partnership with a local government agency, we conducted a randomized field experiment involving 165 entrepreneurs in rural Tanzania where in addition to providing technical‐skills training, approximately half of the participants also received “growth mindset” psychological training. Those who received the growth mindset training displayed more entrepreneurial action in their business than those in the control group. Importantly, higher levels of entrepreneurial self‐efficacy mediated the positive impact on entrepreneurial action displayed by participants who received the growth mindset training. We discuss how complementing traditional technical‐based training with growth mindset training can improve the efficacy of entrepreneurship training programs. Managerial Summary Entrepreneurship training programs often fall short in translating knowledge into action. To address this issue, we conducted an experiment with 165 entrepreneurs in rural Tanzania. All participants received technical‐skills training, but half were also exposed to “growth mindset” training. Those who received the growth mindset training displayed greater initiative in business growth. The newfound confidence and grit they gained empowered them to apply learned principles effectively, ultimately enhancing the effectiveness of entrepreneurship training programs.

Continuous increase in unemployment has negatively impacted the lives of Nigerians. The effect of COVID-19 pandemic has made it worse- as many companies/employers keep laying off their staff continuously. If the increasingly high unemployment rate is not urgently reversed, the consequences will be the prevalence of crimes and criminality. Therefore motivating or stimulating people to be entrepreneurial and to set up new businesses is vital for their emancipation and global economic sustainability. Meanwhile, many faith-based organisations (FBOs) in Lagos have been engaging their members with entrepreneurial training programmes to support government moves and in response to their members' economic challenges. The FBOs are driven to partake in members' economic emancipation by promulgating trainings that are impactful to start businesses. However, some factors have been underscored as the motivating influence for the trainees starting businesses. Little is known about the influence of educational qualification in participation of entrepreneurial training and entrepreneurial activities. Hence this study investigates the education qualifications of participants in the entrepreneurial training programmes of selected FBOs towards business start-ups. Out of 643 copies of the questionnaire distributed, 620 copies were retrieved, accounting for 96.4% response rate, which is considered adequate and appropriate for analysis. This study's data were subjected to relevant statistical analysis, including descriptive statistics using SPSS version 25. Frequency distribution and percentage analysis were used to present the educational background of the respondents. Respondents with HND/BSc/BA qualification have the highest participation of 296 which accounts for about 47.6% in the entrepreneurial training programme. This is followed by respondents with OND/NCE qualification with 163 and about 26.4%. Respondents with MSc/MA/MBA qualifications have 88, which is about 14.2%. Respondents with SSCE qualifications' participation was 52 (8.4%). Trainees/graduates should not be discouraged to continue with their higher educations because it gives room for better entrepreneurial awareness that can lead to start-ups.

Objective: This exploratory article analyses the entrepreneurial activities of Ukrainian immigrants in Poland from 2018 to the present. We examine immigrant and refugee entrepreneurship as part of socio-economic adaptation. Despite being the largest immigrant group, Ukrainian entrepreneurship remained limited until 2022. The article highlights three key events-the Revolution of Dignity, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Russian invasion-and their effects on entrepreneurial activity. Research Design & Methods: We used a mixed methods approach, focusing on three waves of qualitative surveys with Ukrainian entrepreneurs in Małopolska, Southern Poland. The first round (April-August 2018) included 32 interviews. The second round (May-August 2021) during the COVID-19 pandemic involved 20 immigrant entrepreneurs, including seven Ukrainians. The third round (May-October 2023) focused on 10 Ukrainian refugees. This qualitative data is supplemented by two large-scale surveys: one with 607 respondents (November 2021-January 2022) and another with 500 Ukrainian refugees (May-June 2022), both in Małopolska. Findings: Initially, Ukrainian entrepreneurs in Poland focused on mainstream businesses with limited use of ethnic or transnational networks. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted business but prompted proactive measures. Paradoxically, border closures increased demand for ethnic goods and services. Businesses established by refugees after 2022 now mainly cater to ethnic customers, marking the rise of an ethnic enclave economy. Implications & Recommendations: Our study shows that refugees benefit from an expanded ethnic market and ethnic solidarity when settling in areas with established immigrants from the same background. However, the key factor is Poland’s favourable entrepreneurial environment, with ease of starting a business. Poland’s laissez-faire approach, marked by limited social benefits, can support socio-economic integration, especially when refugees have immediate access to the labor market and the ability to start businesses. Contribution & Value Added: This study contributes to the literature on immigrant and refugee entrepreneurship in several ways. First, it highlights the unique dynamic between economic immigrants and war refugees in the Ukrainian diaspora in Poland, where refugees leverage existing ethnic networks for socio-economic adaptation. Second, the cultural and linguistic proximity between Poles and Ukrainians aids smoother integration. Third, despite the war, many Ukrainian entrepreneurs maintain transnational networks with clients and partners in Ukraine.

Global Entrepreneurship Monitor : Scotland 2020 Report

The decrease of the community’s carrying capacity in Waluran Mandiri Village in the utilization of potential land resources has resulted in the change of abandoned agricultural land into illegal mining, which in turn creates negative impact to the environment surrounding it. This sad reality is also saddled with the large number of women who become migrant workers abroad. (baiknya di sini ditambahin satu kalimat yg menjadi penghubung dari masalah ke situasi yg ada, misalnya: However, the village is gifted with an abundance of Job’s tears locally called Hanjeli.) The cultivation of Job’s tears as an effort to empower the community has been initiated with the concept implementation of the Hanjeli Eduwisata Village. The purpose of this study is to describe the process of woman farmer groups’ empowerment in Hanjeli Eduwisata Village, and to analyze the business of hanjeli products carried out through the groups’ entrepreneurial activities. The study used a survey method with purposive sampling of a group of woman farmers located in Hanjeli Eduwisata Village, Waluran Mandiri Village, Sukabumi Regency. The data were then analyzed using descriptive quantitative method by presenting tabulations and diagrams. The results showed that the community empowerment of former migrant workers in Hanjeli Eduwisata Village was pioneered by a woman's farmer group named Mekar Mandiri through an entrepreneurial process. Furthermore, the empowerment activities were carried out in stages, namely: establishing business working groups and entrepreneurship training, forming farmer groups, revitalizing abandoned land, and carrying out entrepreneurship training programs regarding cultivation techniques, product processing as well as marketing of Hanjeli products. Even though the average production of Hanjeli was low due to intercropping and intercropping with huma rice on an average land area of 0.43 ha, Hanjeli farming still provided benefits to Mekar Mandiri woman farming group in two growing seasons per one year. Likewise, the the business of processed Hanjeli products by KWT Mekar Mandiri showed a positive profit margin. To increase the woman farming group’s entrepreneurial efforts in the cultivation and processing of hanjeli, the application of branding, packaging, and marketing strategies for local food products integrated with online media for the promotion of Hanjeli tourism village were introduced.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize business incubators and their support for entrepreneurial refugees. While the number of initiatives supporting refugees’ entrepreneurial activities has increased in recent years, we still know little about how they differ from other types of business incubators. Design/methodology/approach This case study investigates a business incubator in Hamburg, Germany, targeting enterprising refugees. For this paper, 14 in-depth interviews with program participants and incubation managers were conducted. Findings This paper inductively derives five functional domains of refugee business incubators: providing structured entrepreneurial knowledge; alleviating anxiety related to institutional differences; guiding through the process at the incubator and motivating participants; understanding and tapping into social capital in the host country; and providing soft support concerning personal matters. The findings show that business incubators could and possibly should address specific needs of refugees and that there is much room for improvement. This study suggests that the five domains listed above represent key characteristics that distinguish refugee business incubators from traditional business incubators. Practical implications This paper offers valuable practical insights for refugee business incubators, which need to consider and develop functional domains listed above. Because these kinds of incubators are a fairly recent phenomenon, there is a general lack of and need for blueprints. The findings of this paper suggest that business incubators could integrate and support entrepreneurial refugees provided that they consider the five functional domains identified here. The findings also provide evidence that entrepreneurship can be a possible means of vocational integration for refugees and one way of institutions and policy-makers in host country seeking to support refugees’ entrepreneurial activities, for example, by developing or subsidizing business incubators targeting refugees. Originality/value This paper’s contributions are twofold. First, this paper addresses a gap in the literature on refugee entrepreneurship by providing insights concerning the important role of support institutions. Second, this paper conceptualizes business incubators for enterprising refugees as a distinctive type of business incubators. This paper has, however, some limitations. Because it only considered a relatively small number of refugee entrepreneurs, it is difficult to generalize the findings. The cross-cultural setting of the empirical study, with its potential for linguistic and cultural misunderstandings, may have affected the results.

With the most extensive coverage and as the most influential project ,College Students' Innovative and Entrepreneurial Training Program belonging to Teaching Quality and Reform Project of Undergraduate Teaching in Colleges and Universities ,the project is aimed at cultivating college students’ entrepreneurial quality and innovative spirit.The paper covers the research on the application of Information System to the Training Program .The paper mainly refers to the structure and function of intelligent management system of Innovative and Entrepreneurial Training Program .Besides ,it also touches on the application ,the informatization management in the project review ,management of project process ,information management of assistance ,monitoring and supervision on project research as well as informatization management of project funds .At the end of the paper ,the article concludes effects of Informatization Management on the College Students' Innovative and Entrepreneurial Training Program in Harbin University of Commerce ,and make a positive attempted research on the innovation of the the management style and means of the College Students' Innovative and Entrepreneurial Training Program in Provincial Colleges and Universities . Keywords—information technology ; innovation and entrepreneurship; application research Ministry of Education has implemented college students' innovative and entrepreneurial training program since 2007, which will subsidize students in colleges and universities to develop some practical activities, including research learning and innovative experiment, design of entrepreneurial program, practical research of corporate operation, simulation of corporate operation and real entrepreneurship[1]. Since implementation of the project, more than 250,000 college students in colleges and universities around China have participated in it, which involves in twelve subjects, such as science, engineering, agriculture, literature and law, and thus becomes the most widely coverage and biggest influence item in the undergraduate teaching quality and teaching reform project[2]. In 2012, selected by the Ministry of Education, Harbin University of Commerce became one of the first batch of colleges and universities in Heilongjiang province implementing the project of national college students' innovative and entrepreneurial training program. I. RAISE THE QUESTION Harbin University of Commerce (abbr: HUC) has got 89 national-level projects, 61 provincial-level pro jects and 362 school-level projects since 2012. Through operation and management of these projects, the problems we have discovered involves in many aspects. For instance, it is not easy to have a choice because applied project and people cover a wide range and quality of project is also rather spotty. It is also difficult for us to invite some advisers, and coordination work is not simp le[3]. Within the confinement of time and space, communication between teacher and student is limited. We have very little control over establishment, verification, defense of project and its fairness. We also difficultly take control of schedule so that we cannot accomplish the project on time. It is wide coverage area and large number that make summary statistics difficult[4]..Especially, storing the paper materials in a long period has not been done easily, which is not beneficial to refer and check. And how to manage research project fund and how to control effectively time arrangement are not simple problems to resolve on account of long-time span and complex procedure[5]. Serving for student and instructor is our duty of project management department. Through effective management, every valuable and meaningful project will be done smoothly, which makes students have the opportunity to participate in it, stimulates student’s innovative thinking and awareness, develops student’s entrepreneurial skill, creates innovative culture and thus improves the teaching quality. In order to solve the problems mentioned above and meet the requirement of innovative and entrepreneurial training program, we began to explore management method and process management mechanism, design and develop intelligent management system of innovative and entrepreneurial training program at Harbin University of Commerce in 2012, which has been put into usage and operation since 2013. Fund Project: National-level Project of College Student’s Innovative and Entrepreneurial Training Program,Code of Project: 201410240011 International Conference on Cultivating Undergraduate Entrepreneurship and Management Engineering (CUEME 2015) © 2015. The authors Published by Atlantis Press 104 II. STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION OF INTELLIGENT MANAGEMENT

The present study offers new input to the discussion of how entrepreneurship education and training programmes can be tailored to suit design professionals. To a large extent, existing entrepreneurship teaching for creative people is based on a traditional administrative management logic that often results in a clash between entrepreneurial demands and creative identities. The paper is based on the following rationale: the better we understand designers' reasoning and their struggles concerning becoming entrepreneurs, the better we are able to design entrepreneurship learning experiences that meet their needs. Since designers' career‐making tends to be highly driven by their strong sense of identity, the paper takes an identity perspective. The empirical foundation of the research is based on observation studies and phenomenological interviews conducted during an eight‐week entrepreneurship training program. Twenty‐five nascent design entrepreneurs with a professional background as designers participated in the voluntary programme. The paper offers novel and critical insights into designers' experiences of the entrepreneurial identity and reasoning as they participate in entrepreneurship training.

We investigated the effect of entrepreneurial satisfaction on personal initiative using a sample of 581 entrepreneurs in China. Entrepreneurial satisfaction was classified into 2 dimensions: satisfaction with income and satisfaction with firm size. The moderating roles of institutional trust and industry attractiveness were examined. We found that entrepreneur's personal initiative was lower for those who were more satisfied with their entrepreneurial progress, particularly satisfaction with firm size. Regarding the contingency effect, industry attractiveness assuaged the negative relationship between entrepreneurial satisfaction and personal initiative, but institutional trust did not. The study promotes understanding about Chinese entrepreneurial behaviors and has relevant practical implications for policymakers and new venture management.

Do entrepreneurs’ managerial and entrepreneurial experiences influence the effectiveness of the entrepreneurial training (ET) programs they receive? We address this question through a field experiment conducted within a pre-incubation program that involves 132 early-stage start-ups in Italy. Half of the participants received ET based on the scientific approach to decision-making, and the remaining received heuristic training. We exploit exogenous variation from the experiment to show that only entrepreneurs without any managerial or entrepreneurial experience see the effects of ET in terms of the termination of nonpromising projects and pivot decisions. Conversely, only entrepreneurs with previous managerial or entrepreneurial experience see the effects of ET in terms of superior early revenue generated. These findings highlight the importance of designing tailored ET programs according to the prior experience of entrepreneurs.

Objective: The objective of this article is to systematically analyse the current academic research on refugee entrepreneurship in Europe and beyond. Refugee entrepreneurship represents a burgeoning area of study that has become increasingly significant following the European migrant crisis in 2015 and the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. We seek to determine how studies on refugee entrepreneurship differ in their theoretical approaches and methodologies from traditional research on immigrant and ethnic entrepreneurship. Research Design & Methods: The study adopts a systematic literature review method to identify and analyse key articles which discuss refugee entrepreneurship. We analysed the content of 75 academic publications to get a deeper understating of the research methods, and theoretical approaches, analysed ethnic groups, and destination countries and the key findings. Specifically, we explore how the current literature portrays the latest wave of Ukrainian refugees in the European Union. Findings: Our study reveals that research on refugee entrepreneurship is still in its early, predominantly exploratory stages. Most of the articles we reviewed were empirical, with a distinct preference for qualitative methods. A significant limitation of existing research is its static analysis; most studies were cross-sectional, which fails to capture the dynamic nature of entrepreneurial activities. Furthermore, our review highlights a clear dichotomy in the circumstances of refugees displaced within Europe – primarily Ukrainians and those from the Balkans – compared to those originating from the Middle East or African countries. Implications & Recommendations: We advocate for a more comprehensive approach to the study of refugee entrepreneurship, particularly through longitudinal analyses that can track changes within refugee-owned firms and the evolving attitudes of refugees towards entrepreneurship. We also recommend further investigation into the interactions between refugees and economic migrants, especially those from the same country or those who speak a similar language and share cultural ties. Such interactions could influence the evolution of opportunity structures in the destination countries, potentially leading to the creation of ethnic enclaves. Contribution & Value Added: We contribute to the existing literature on refugee entrepreneurship by identifying key researchers and most cited articles, and by discussing the evolution and adaptation of the most popular theoretical approaches used in these studies.

Next, this chapter—“Refugee Entrepreneurs Building and Displaying Resilience”—examines how refugees can harness entrepreneurial action to find a positive identity and better life under difficult circumstances. Against a theoretical backdrop comprising resilience, positive psychology, and positive organizational scholarship, we explore the important role entrepreneurial action plays in generating positive outcomes by investigating long-term refugee entrepreneurs (in refugee camps and not in camps) over 15 months. In particular, we describe the motivation underlying entrepreneurial action in highly constrained environments (in which the constraints go beyond a lack of financial resources) and explain the causes and consequences of entrepreneurs’ resilience in the face of severe constraints that create significant and ongoing adversity. Overall, this chapter shows that entrepreneurial action can help individuals achieve resilient outcomes in the face of adversity without addressing the underlying source of that adversity. We also hope this chapter changes the way people think about refugees starting and running illegal businesses.