Mobilising diaspora to promote homeland investment: The progress of policy in post-conflict economies

Abstract

This is a repository copy of Mobilising diaspora to promote homeland investment: The progress of policy in post-conflict economies.

Social influences in cross-border entrepreneurial migration policy

“…By adding a social dimension to the analysis of impact produced by migrant entrepreneurship, the present research complements and advances the findings of economists, and answers the newly emerged call to offer alternative theoretical views and address social context of entrepreneurial migration (Thai & Turkina, 2013;Neville et al, 2014). The proposed theory expands the socio-economic role of migrant entrepreneurs from that of job creators (Kerr & Kerr, 2018;Kauffman Foundation, 2015), capital investors (Flisi & Murat, 2011;Mullings, 2011), knowledge providers (Levin & Bernard, 2013), and institutional change agents (Williams, 2018) to socio-psychological role models who are able to stimulate micro-level changes in the entrepreneurial perceptions and attitudes of local individuals. The conceptual ideas proposed in the study could serve as a theoretical basis for the development of applied policy tools for policy intervention through entrepreneurial migration.…”

“…These emotional ties encourage them to contribute economically and socially to their home countries; their motives are not entirely financial (Nielsen & Riddle, 2010). Thus, the policies targeting these two groups of migrants aim mostly at increasing their pre-defined investment interest in the domestic economy by easing navigation of the local institutional environment, providing access to the market and operational information, and mitigating the financial risk associated with a potentially unfavorable local business environment (Williams, 2018). So-called ''diaspora institutions'' (Gamlen, 2014), matching funding schemes, and ''one-stop-shops'' (Nielsen & Riddle, 2010) are respectively used to address these purposes.…”

“…Public policy has made attempts to involve diaspora networks in business advice and mentorship in their home countries in order to affect the prevailing social norms related to entrepreneurial activity (Williams, 2018). Entrepreneurship policy research has, however, largely overlooked the fact that social norms are not the only constituting element of entrepreneurial perceptions.…”

“…The study is unique in developing a theoretical argument that, apart from the stimulation of entrepreneurial activities with financial, regulatory, normative, and cognitive mechanisms of influence, public policy has the potential for leveraging the socio-psychological influences produced by migrant entrepreneurs in a cross-border setting. The proposed theory expands the socio-economic role of migrant entrepreneurs from that of job creators (Kerr & Kerr, 2018;Kauffman Foundation, 2015), capital investors (Flisi & Murat, 2011;Mullings, 2011), knowledge providers (Levin & Bernard, 2013), and institutional change agents (Williams, 2018) to socio-psychological role models who are able to stimulate micro-level changes in the entrepreneurial perceptions and attitudes of local individuals. The notion of immigrant role models is new to international business and migration policy research, as immigrants themselves have conventionally been approached as objects of the influence of role models in the host country (Aldrich & Waldinger, 1990;Saxenian, 1999;Contin-Pilart & Larraza-Kintana, 2015;Mayer, Harima, & Freiling, 2015).…”

“…The notion of immigrant role models is new to international business and migration policy research, as immigrants themselves have conventionally been approached as objects of the influence of role models in the host country (Aldrich & Waldinger, 1990;Saxenian, 1999;Contin-Pilart & Larraza-Kintana, 2015;Mayer, Harima, & Freiling, 2015). Although the literature on diaspora entrepreneurship acknowledges the role of diaspora in inspiring home-country entrepreneurs (Williams, 2018), the mechanisms through which migrant role models exert their influence, the relative effectiveness of social influences produced by different types of entrepreneurial migrants, and the ability of public policy to benefit from these influences have not been previously studied.…”