Aki Harima

To Try or Not to Try? A Story of Diaspora Entrepreneurship

Abstract Purpose The purpose of this study is to present how a German-origin diaspora entrepreneur successfully introduces a new concept to Uzbekistan by orchestrating diaspora and local resources into a transnational diaspora venture, a kind of international new venture. Diaspora entrepreneurs can act as catalysts for market entry of innovations as they possess unique perspectives and competencies. Thus, the study increases the understanding of transnational diaspora entrepreneurship. Methodology/approach A single embedded case study supported with ethnographic methods was employed. The explorative strategy assisted to discover ways how the entrepreneur succeeded in entering this difficult market with a totally novel concept. Findings Perceived opportunity triggered the migration of the entrepreneur. Her transnational entrepreneurial competences and perspectives together with an efficient usage of various network resources in host and home country enabled a successful entry of the new venture as opposed to normal entry barriers. The study illustrates how diaspora effects can be employed for right timing and achieving first-mover advantages in diffusion of innovation and market entry. Originality/value The study contributes to the emerging stream of research on transnational diaspora entrepreneurship and introduces a unique “rich-to-emerging” diaspora venture entry in a transition economy. This is among the first catalyst cases that provide implications for the organization of entry process, diaspora entrepreneurship, and management. It represents a new form of international new ventures that succeeded where big players like Starbucks and McDonalds did not.

Network Benefits for Ghanaian Diaspora and Returnee Entrepreneurs

Objective: The objective of this paper is to investigate how diaspora and returnee entrepreneurs use networks in the country of origin (COO) and country of residence (COR) and which benefits they gain from such networks. Research Design & Methods: In the face of the early state of research and the complexity of the subject, exploratory case study research was chosen. One case was conducted with a Ghanaian diaspora entrepreneur in Germany and the other with a Ghanaian returnee entrepreneur back from Germany. Face-to-face semi-structured interviews with both of the entrepreneurs were conducted to identify their network dynamics. Findings: Ghanaian diaspora entrepreneurs benefit mainly from networks in the COR and Ghanaian returnee entrepreneurs from networks in the COO. These findings are not fully consistent with the assumption of previous scholars that diaspora and returnee entrepreneurs intensively use both COO and COR networks. Implications & Recommendations: The network usage of diaspora and returnee entrepreneurs varies to a large extent depending on industry, personal background and human capital. It is necessary to research more intensively the heterogeneity within diaspora entrepreneurship. Contribution & Value Added: This paper contributes to the development of understanding of heterogeneity in diaspora and returnee entrepreneurship. The cases present that the degree and balance of mixed embeddedness of returnee and diaspora entrepreneurs in COO and COR may differ to a large extent and they influence how they benefit from different type of networks in both countries. This difference may arise from the physical absence/presence of entrepreneurs in the country or the structure of their business. We identified several dimensions to be considered in future research.

Diaspora Business Model Innovation

This paper explores how diasporans achieve business model innovation by using their unique resources. The hypothesis underlying the paper is that the unique backgrounds and resources of the diaspora businesses, due to different sources of information and experiences as well as multiple networks, contributes to business model innovation in a distinctive manner. We investigate the English school market in the Philippines which is established by East Asian diaspora who innovate a business model of conventional English schools. Two case studies were conducted with Japanese diaspora English schools. Their business is analyzed using a business model canvas (Osterwalder & Pigneur, 2010) and contrasted with the conventional business model. The empirical cases show that diaspora businesses use knowledge about their country of origin and engage with country of residence and multiple networks in different locations and constellations to identify unique opportunities, leading to a business model innovation.

Refugee Entrepreneurship: Learning from Case Evidence

With a meta-perspective on the 16 rich cases of refugee entrepreneurs portrayed in this book, this concluding chapter discusses the following eight central themes to be considered in the future research on refugee entrepreneurship: (1) typical settings of refugee entrepreneurship and refugee entrepreneurship itself; (2) the sequence of events and its consequences; (3) refugees’ perspectives; (4) perceptions of their countries of residence; (5) types of businesses; (6) critical resources: enablers and constraints; (7) psychological factors; and (8) outcomes of refugee entrepreneurship. The overview and outlook, which observe diverse types of refugee entrepreneurs worldwide from different perspectives, are developed at the end of the chapter.

Umayyad: A Syrian Refugee Business in Bremen, Germany

This case presents the entrepreneurial story of Muhannad and his business. Muhannad is a Syrian refugee who had established a successful life as a sales manager for an established firm before he decided to flee to Europe. Facing difficulties in finding suitable jobs with his qualifications in Germany, Muhannad decided to open a restaurant called “Umayyad” in Bremen, Germany. Thanks to his broad experience and friendly personality, as well as strong supports from local German friends, Muhannad managed to start his business in a very good location—in the middle of the city center of Bremen—only a year after his arrival in Germany. This case shows how an entrepreneurial refugee can overcome resource and institutional constraints within a short time through supports from different host country institutions.

Case Studies: Japanese Entrepreneurs in Emerging Countries

Despite of the increasing number of Japanese entrepreneurs in emerging countries, scholars in diaspora and migrant entrepreneurship have paid little attention to their business activities. It is still largely unknown, what make Japanese decide to leave their homeland which apparently offers favorable economic and political conditions and to take a risk to develop a new business in countries with lower economic standards, and what opportunities they identify in their special settings, and how they use their homeland resource to create economic and social values. This chapter presents three cases with Japanese entrepreneurs in emerging countries, Argentina, Philippines and Guatemala. The findings are analyzed based on the similarities three entrepreneurs share and differences between cases. These multiple case studies find out that Japanese entrepreneurs are unique in motivation and resource, while maintaining key diasporic characteristics. They are motivated by non-financial reasons and combine technology and ‘privilege’ ethnic resources in idiosyncratic manners. The findings and analysis of this chapter will provide the current research on diaspora entrepreneurship with future dimensions.

Motivation of Japanese Descending Diaspora Entrepreneurs

This paper explores entrepreneurial motivation of Japanese diaspora entrepreneurs conducting their business in emerging countries. While diaspora entrepreneurs play an increasingly significant role in the modern transnationalizing economy (Newland & Tanaka, 2010), previous scholars have predominantly focused on those who originate from developing countries and migrate to more developed ones. There are, however, also entrepreneurs who originate from developed countries and establish their business in emerging countries. These people are almost invisible in the previous research even though their entrepreneurial activities are assumed to have positive impacts on the local economy. They transfer knowledge, resources and information from developed countries to emerging countries. In the first place, it sounds rather counter-intuitive that they move from richer and more secure contexts to apparently less attractive conditions. We know still very little about their entrepreneurial motivations. This paper takes a first step to investigate their highly complex motivations by conducting multiple case studies with Japanese entrepreneurs in several emerging countries. The central research question to be answered is: what drives Japanese diasporans to become entrepreneurs in emerging countries? A grounded theory (Charmaz, 2014) approach will be chosen and the empirical data will be analyzed descriptively and coded. At the end of this paper, six main motivational factors are identified through an empirical study.