Returnee Entrepreneurs Research Articles

Reducing the resource acquisition costs for returnee entrepreneurs: role of Chinese national science parks

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to empirically explore the mechanisms through which Chinese National Science Parks' (NSPs) services facilitate returnee entrepreneurs' (REs) acquisition of resources for their new ventures. Resource acquisition is crucial for new ventures, but it inevitably leads to significant costs increase. Although the NSPs offer various services to REs to reduce these costs, they still struggle to find the right mix of services.Design/methodology/approachFrom the transaction cost's perspective, an exploratory multiple-case study was conducted with data collected from six NSPs in China.FindingsThe results reveal that four types of NSP services (mentoring and training, social event, promotion of REs and accreditation of resource holders (RHs)) have both individual and joint effects on reducing REs' resource acquisition costs. Specifically, the “accreditation of RHs” service directly helps REs reduce search costs. The combination of “accreditation of RHs”, “promotion of REs” and “social event” services help REs and RHs to establish guanxi. Further, guanxi, working along with the “mentoring and training” service, helps REs to reduce contracting, monitoring and enforcement costs.Originality/valueThis study is among the first to explore the matching mechanisms between science parks’ services and entrepreneurs' cost reduction. This helps reconcile the inconsistent findings on science parks' effect by explaining why some NSPs are able to provide strong support to REs while others are less successful. In addition, the findings are useful for NSPs to develop the right mix of tailored services for REs. Finally, REs will find this study useful to evaluate which NSP is a more suitable location for their new ventures.

Entrepreneur Foreign Study Experience and Firm Innovation: Institutions and Resources

Research in the international business and social psychology literature has explicitly or implicitly adopted the intellectual capital or developmental perspective and demonstrated a positive relationship between entrepreneur foreign study experience and creativity and innovation. In a departure, we argue that entrepreneur foreign study experience does not necessarily benefit firm innovation. Adopting institutional and resource substitution perspectives, we examine conditions under which the positive relationship found in prior research may or may not hold. We argue that institutional forces condition the extent to which intellectual capital associated with foreign study experience benefits innovation, while resources via local connections and political participation substitute such intellectual capital. Using a unique large dataset of private firm entrepreneurs in China, we found that returnee entrepreneur participation in political system, membership in communist party, and firm Guanxi orientation weakened the positive effect of foreign study experience on firm innovation. Contrary to our prediction, local government support for private business attenuated rather than strengthened the relationship.

Return migration, online entrepreneurship and gender performance in the Chinese ‘Taobao families’

This paper centres on analysing how return migrants' participation in online businesses impacts marital power dynamics in rural families alongside the rise of e‐commerce in rural China. During 2016 and 2017, I conducted an ethnographic study in a Chinese ‘Taobao village’ which I have termed ‘Xinyi’ whereby the majority of villagers make their livelihoods by selling furniture via the online marketplace Taobao. The boom of e‐commerce has attracted many migrants to return to the village and start their online businesses. Inquiring into whether and how rural women's increased access to online entrepreneurship challenges the gender norm that upholds male dominance in marriage, I delineate the power relations in ‘Taobao families’ within which rural women jointly operate online shops with their husbands. Drawing from my ethnographic data, I propose a conceptual framework incorporating the lenses of returnee entrepreneurship, flexible inner‐outer boundary and performance of gender to examine discrepancies between the gender norm that upholds gender hierarchy, and the practice regarding the husbands and wives' equal engagements in online merchandising. This framework is developed to shed a more positive light on the nuances of women's exercise of agency that entails nominal conformity to the gender norm.

Returning to drive small business exports: diaspora entrepreneurs in Ghana's fruit processing clusters

Returnee entrepreneur (RE) businesses have extensively contributed to economies around the world. However, REs ability to galvanise and coordinate local business networks and permeate the international markets within countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) have mostly been overlooked, particularly in the context of exporting activities in Africa. This paper posits that diaspora 'returnee entrepreneurs' can become potent channels for the promotion and facilitation of the internationalisation of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in developing economies. An original piece of empirical research on two exporting food processing clusters in Ghana shows that REs can introduce external technology, develop and sustain international customer networks and are able to meet international standards, thus becoming carriers for internationalisation from the onset. African returnees are able to build trust-based relationships within home country formal business structures and establish strong ties with international customers that accommodate operational and institutional bottlenecks.

Returning to drive small business exports: diaspora entrepreneurs in Ghana's fruit processing clusters

Returnee entrepreneur (RE) businesses have extensively contributed to economies around the world. However, REs ability to galvanise and coordinate local business networks and permeate the international markets within countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) have mostly been overlooked, particularly in the context of exporting activities in Africa. This paper posits that diaspora 'returnee entrepreneurs' can become potent channels for the promotion and facilitation of the internationalisation of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in developing economies. An original piece of empirical research on two exporting food processing clusters in Ghana shows that REs can introduce external technology, develop and sustain international customer networks and are able to meet international standards, thus becoming carriers for internationalisation from the onset. African returnees are able to build trust-based relationships within home country formal business structures and establish strong ties with international customers that accommodate operational and institutional bottlenecks.

PhiChem: An Entrepreneurship Case Study of a Hidden Champion in China

The case study of Shanghai PhiChem examines a returnee entrepreneur from the United States to China who started a high-technology chemical material firm. It shows how the entrepreneur started the business with limited resources but later successfully grew the business to an initial public offering. Its success factors and innovative strategies have been identified and analyzed in detail. Specifically, Shanghai PhiChem has focused more on the high value-added components of the smiling curve and has excelled as a hidden champion in China. Implications are given to entrepreneurs and managers in the emerging market from the perspectives of market entry, operations, and customer management.

Closing the Digital Entrepreneurship Gap the Case of Returnee Entrepreneurs in Morocco

Despite the growing rates of Internet penetration and inflows of returnee entrepreneurs (REs) from Silicon Valley, there are still few examples of successful digital entrepreneurship ventures from emerging markets reaching international markets. Positioning itself at the intersection of returnee entrepreneurship, digital entrepreneurship and internationalization, this article is based on the case studies of the REs starting up digital ventures in Morocco. The results show that Moroccan digital entrepreneurship is driven by well-educated REs with working experience from the United States and Europe. These entrepreneurs play a dominant role in fostering the local digital entrepreneurship scene, and they have an international ambition in their ventures from the outset. The dominance of the REs also reveals vulnerability in the local digital ecosystem—reluctance of the indigenous business community to engage in the digital sector and a lack of domestic investors, programmers and start-up clusters. However, Moroccan digital start-ups struggle with the fierce competition among the global Internet firms, which benefit from an underdeveloped policy framework. This article contributes new insights to the complexity of the returnee and digital entrepreneurship and demonstrates the pivotal role of Moroccan REs in the country’s trajectory towards closing the extant digital entrepreneurship gap vis-à-vis developed markets.

Role of overseas ethnic and non-ethnic ties and firm activity in the home country in the internationalization of returnee entrepreneurial firms

Abstract Using a sample of 210 Chinese returnees' entrepreneurial firms, we examined how the overseas ethnic and non-ethnic ties of the returnee entrepreneurs affected their firms' internationalization in the returnees' former host countries. We found that both types of overseas ties were correlated with increased levels of internationalization and they interact positively. We then investigated whether the impacts of overseas ethnic and non-ethnic ties on firm internationalization were moderated by the length of the firms' domestic operations. We found that longer domestic operations were correlated with increased positive impacts of overseas ethnic ties, but decreased positive impacts of overseas non-ethnic ties on firm internationalization. These findings indicate that the returnees' host country ties and firm activity in home country had joint effects on returnee entrepreneurial firms seeking to internationalize their businesses.

Building entrepreneurial potential abroad – exploring return migrant experience

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how entrepreneurial potential is built abroad during the periods of EU economic migration and how this affects the entrepreneurial behaviour of individuals after returning to their home country. Design/methodology/approach A mixed-methods approach was employed via developing a structured interview discussion guide with open and closed questions centred around the topic of migration, reasons for starting a business and capital (e.g. human, financial, relational) gained abroad. The study covered 54 Polish return entrepreneurs identified through random purposive sampling. Findings The findings suggest an important role of migration on the decision to start a business as almost half of the respondents formulated a business idea during the migration. The capital gains affecting entrepreneurial potential development were mostly observed in terms of financial and human capital with relational capital only applied to a business idea. This may explain individual preferences to setting up a business when returning to the home country. Overall, the findings confirm the important role of economic migration in building the entrepreneurial potential of returnee entrepreneurs. Originality/value The study explores an alternative to the mainstream assumptions on migration by investigating entrepreneurial individuals, processes and practices that happen during reverse migration. Furthermore, by applying the resource-based view of the firm theory, this research expands the understanding of the inter-relationship between processes of economic migration and entrepreneurial potential development.

Returnee and Transnational Entrepreneurship in Bosnia and Herzegovina – Does Location Matter?

Returnee and Transnational Entrepreneurship in Bosnia and Herzegovina – Does Location Matter?

How ordinary returnees and foreigners drive firms’ exports?

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of ordinary returnee and foreign employees in firm export performance, whose impacts have been overseen in prior research. This study also explores whether returnee and foreign employees function as substitutes or complements, and simultaneously considers the impacts of contextual factors on the relationship between returnee (foreign) employees and firm export performance.Design/methodology/approachUsing panel data of Beijing’s Zhongguancun Science Park manufacturing firms over a seven-year period, from 2009 to 2015, the paper applies panel Tobit regression to deal with the left-censoring dependent variable.FindingsThis paper finds the number of returnee and foreign employees has significantly positive influence in promoting firm export performance; however, substitution effects exist between them. In addition, the positive effects of returnee and foreign employees on firm export performance are conditional. For foreign employees, the presence of corporate president with international background and firm imports will weaken their positive impacts. In terms of returnee employees, their positive influence proves not to be significantly reduced by corporate president’s international background but weakened by firm imports.Originality/valuePrevious research only highlights returnee entrepreneurs’ and top managers’ positive influence on firm export performance. However, with the development of emerging countries, for instance, China in this paper, ordinary returnee and foreign employees are playing more and more critical roles in firms’ internationalization process. This paper responds to the practical needs to focus on ordinary returnee and foreign employees.

Returnee entrepreneurs and the institutional environment: case study insights from China

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the phenomenon of returnee entrepreneurs, their venturing efforts and the impact of the institutional environment they operate in, and thereby to propose a conceptual model depicting how returnee entrepreneurs create and operate new ventures and interact with the institutional environment.Design/methodology/approachThis study followed a multiple case study approach based on data collected from in-depth inquiries into 11 returnee entrepreneurs and their ventures in China which was analysed inductively.FindingsAnalysis of case study data resulted in a conceptual model of returnee entrepreneurs illustrating micro-level characteristics of the phenomenon and the interplay with the institutional environment of an emerging economy. Insights from the case study are discussed in terms of implications for entrepreneurial motivations, human and social capital, estrangement from the home country, internationalisation behaviour and objectives of returnee-owned ventures.Originality/valuePrevious research on the phenomenon of returnee entrepreneurs is highly fragmented and has largely focussed on specific and isolated outcomes. This study offers a holistic inquiry contributing to a better understanding of the phenomenon as a whole and presenting key properties of the phenomenon.

The impact of overseas human capital and social ties on Chinese returnee entrepreneurs’ venture performance

PurposeEntrepreneurship research clearly documents the importance of human and social capital and stresses the way in which entrepreneurs take advantage of their own social affiliations and network strategies in pursuit of their entrepreneurial goals, yet the research on returnee entrepreneurs’ human and social capital is not sufficiently studied in the international context, in particular when returnees’ overseas human capital and social capital may be a misfit with local business environment. Using the data from Chinese returnee entrepreneurs’ venture activities in China, the purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of returnee entrepreneurs’ overseas capital (human and social) and domestic capital (human and social) on their venture performance in China, and further explore the interaction effect of different social and human capital with China’s entrepreneurial environment.Design/methodology/approachThis study surveyed 500 start-up businesses created by returnee entrepreneurs in China to collect data. Self-administered questionnaires were used to collect data on their demographic information, the information about the human and social capital of these returnee entrepreneurs, including domestic and overseas capital, various performance measures, and other control variables ending up with 226 usable questionnaires.FindingsThe results show that Chinese returnee entrepreneurs’ overseas human capital and social capital, as well as their domestic social capital, but not domestic human capital, have a significant impact on their venture performance. In addition, while domestic entrepreneurial environment does not affect the impact of overseas human and social capital on venture performance, it does provide an important contextual setting for domestic capital to improve returnee entrepreneurs’ venture performance.Originality/valueThe findings help enrich the understanding of the dynamic interplays among Chinese returnee entrepreneurs’ domestic human capital and social capital, overseas human capital, and social capital, as well as the entrepreneurial environment for returnee entrepreneurs’ success, which makes an important contribution to the international entrepreneurship theory by showing that overseas human capital and social capital are not a misfit with local markets. It also provides empirical support for the mediating effect of entrepreneurial opportunity identification. The important role of entrepreneurial opportunity is empirically supported in an international context: entrepreneurship is all about the discovery of entrepreneurial opportunities and exploitation of this opportunity to create viable business entities for new products and services, even in the Chinese context, a culture which is very different from the ones where the entrepreneurship theory was developed.

Forgotten or not? Home country embeddedness and returnee entrepreneurship

Building on the social network and strategic entrepreneurship literature, we investigate the overall relationship between returnee entrepreneurs’ networks in different periods and locations, domestic resource acquisitions and firm performance. While the labor mobility literature emphasizes the “gone but not forgotten” networks in the prior location of migrants, other studies argue that returnees suffer from a lack of local networks. Our findings show that returnee entrepreneurs are different in the extent of their home country embeddedness while they are overseas, which indicates different degrees of enduring networks in the home countries. The effect of home country embeddedness improves the performance of returnee entrepreneurship via domestic resource acquisition, and this effect could be substituted by pre-overseas local ties and the presence of local top management team (TMT) members. This study extends returnee research by shedding light on the importance of network maintenance in determining whether the home country’s network endures or decays and by highlighting the interactions of ties in the different periods of pre-overseas, during overseas, and after return.

Agency Theory Approach For The Performance Of Returnee Entrepreneurs

A returnee entrepreneur playing an important role in China market is a notable phenomenon. While their advanced knowledge and overseas networking in developed countries have advantages over local counterparts, their lack of local knowledge and connection may mitigate their advantages. This study explores the research questions how and why external management control of returnee entrepreneur is inferior to local counterpart. Based on the data collected in year 2002 from Chinese technology venture companies in Zhongguancun Science Park (ZSP), we find that the performance of returnee entrepreneur’s firms is lower when they have more local subsidiaries and when they are owned by foreigners. It implies that returnee entrepreneurs may be less effective in management control over local subsidiaries which may indicate a low level of headquarters control. It also implies that foreign ownership gives rise to increase in agency conflicts between returnee entrepreneurs and foreign investors and thus has a negative impact on firms’ innovation performance.

Local Government as Institutional Entrepreneur: Public–Private Collaborative Partnerships in Fostering Regional Entrepreneurship

AbstractDue to the intertwined nature of private and public interests, local governments tend to use collaborative partnerships involving entrepreneurs to promote regional entrepreneurship. However, there is still a gap in the theory with regard to the mechanisms underpinning these collaborative partnerships. Drawing on the institutional entrepreneurship literature, we identify the enabling conditions and articulate the role played by local government as an institutional entrepreneur in fostering regional entrepreneurship through entrepreneurial public–private collaborative partnerships. This paper explicates two distinct mechanisms – the establishment of new institutional arrangements by the institutional entrepreneur and the advocation of diffusion by other actors – that underpin entrepreneurial public–private collaborative partnerships. Importantly, we underscore the crucial role played by returnee entrepreneurs who interact collaboratively with the institutional entrepreneur in affecting institutional change and fostering regional entrepreneurship. We conduct in‐depth qualitative interviews with local government officials, entrepreneurs and high‐tech park managers, in conjunction with performing content analysis of policy documents in a peripheral region of China – areas that have largely been neglected in scholarly research. This paper concludes with some theoretical and policy implications for public management and entrepreneurship.

Making Modernity in China: Employment and Entrepreneurship among the New Generation of Peasant Workers

China is experiencing urbanization and modernization at the largest scale in human history. An army of over 280 million “peasant workers” are an integral part of this great transformation to modernity. Drawing on different data sources, including national representative random samples and the authors' first‐hand survey data, we provide systematic comparisons between the older and the younger generation of peasant workers and between young peasant entrepreneurs in cities and young returnee entrepreneurs. We found that, compared with the older generation, the younger generation of peasant workers is better educated, holds more stable jobs, has a higher income, lives a happier life and is more optimistic about the future. Our analysis of the two types of peasant entrepreneurs shows that they are the elites among peasant workers, running successful business and making handsome profits. We also note that discrimination and institutional obstacles, especially the hukou system, remain to be overcome in the peasant workers' transition to modernity.

Leveraging networks, capabilities and opportunities for international success: A study on returnee entrepreneurial ventures

By integrating social capital theory with a capability-based view on performance, this paper aims to examine the extent to which returnee entrepreneurial ventures (REVs) gain international performance advantages from the founding entrepreneurs’ experience with international networks. Using data on 200 Chinese REVs, the paper proposes and tests a structural model with a focus on the link between individual entrepreneurs and the subsequent development of firm capabilities. The results provide evidence that it is important that the returnee entrepreneurs have an international social network for the REV to develop an international network capability, which, in turn, mediates the effects on opportunity knowledge and the international performance of the REVs. The findings highlight the concurrent effect of the role of entrepreneurs and organizational learning in internationalization, and they provide an understanding as to the importance of the returnee-specific advantages for the international performance of these firms.

Empirical Investigation of Impediments to Returnees’ Entrepreneurship in Ghana: An Application of Structural Equation Modelling

AbstractIn recent years the issue of return migration and development has gained the unprecedented attention of practitioners, policymakers, and international organizations. In particular, the International Organization for Migration’s assisted voluntary return program seems to be the subject of increasing euphoria and optimism. However, the most overlooked aspect of return migration and entrepreneurship has been the binding constraints facing returnee entrepreneurs in their home countries. Drawing on field survey data, this study examines the impediments to returnees’ entrepreneurship in the Ghanaian capital city of Accra using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) techniques. The results show that only finance appears to be a key impediment, with a direct relationship with returnees’ entrepreneurial activities. Further synthesis of the path analysis of this study shows that access to credit and business training could facilitate returnees’ foreign acquired financial and human capital into sustainable entrepreneurial activities in Ghana.

Interrogating returnee entrepreneurship in the Nigerian context

PurposeThis study aims to intend to appraise the characteristics of returnee entrepreneurship and its contributions to development in form of transfer of knowledge and skills in the Nigerian context.Design/methodology/approachA case study approach complemented with situational observations was used. The lived experiences of two returnees were interrogated in semi-structured interviews for an in-depth analysis.FindingsFindings illustrate the dilemmas and challenges returnee entrepreneurs from the developed host countries confronted in their entrepreneurial endeavors in the homeland.Originality/valueThis paper highlights the misconceptions around relocation of immigrants’ business people back to their homeland. It contributes to the growing literature on the social and economic impacts of returnee entrepreneurs (as opposed to diaspora and transnational entrepreneurs) to their homelands’ development.