Search Results (24)

In informal economic contexts, migrant entrepreneurs have been extolled as highly resilient and adaptable. This study critically investigates the adverse psychological foundations inherent in such enterprises, focusing on how dark triad personality traits emerge in the leadership orientations of marginal migrant entrepreneurs. Following a qualitative ethnographic approach, this research engaged 10–15 migrant employees through participant observation, field notes, and semi-structured interviews in an informal economic context. Thematic analysis revealed five dominant patterns: narcissistic leadership with entitlement and emotional disrespect; Machiavellian behavior of manipulation and deception; psychopathic detachment in emotional callousness; absence of light triad actions such as empathy, humility, and selflessness; and moral disengagement through rationalizations such as “everyone does it” or system blame. Migrant business owners prefer to rationalize their exploitative acts as being necessary for economic survival, thus legitimizing immoral conduct and suppressing moral self-regulation. The findings indicate that marginality not only drives entrepreneurial innovation, but also has the potential to create exploitative inclinations that are institutionally and morally unchecked. Solving this issue requires not only mere psychological awareness, but also systematic reforms that foster ethical robustness and emotional sensitivity. This study ultimately asserts the need to reframe migrant entrepreneurship discourse, including both ethical and psychological accountability. Full article

There is scant literature on migrants with an entrepreneurial background and who return to their country of origin. Using a transnational theoretical approach, we seek to contribute to research in this field by analysing the return strategies and expectations of Colombian migrant entrepreneurs participating in the Programme Migration and Diaspora (PMD). This programme is implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH (German Society for International Cooperation, Eschborn, Germany) on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ, Berlin, Germany). To this end, a mixed-methods study was conducted. Likert scale questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were applied to twenty-seven entrepreneurs participating in the programme, analysing quantitative and qualitative variables. Migrants seek to contribute to Colombia’s development through entrepreneurship, looking for various commercial connections for which security and planning conditions are necessary. They see entrepreneurship as sustenance, which in most cases results in transnational links between Germany and Colombia. For that to happen, contacts and acquired experiences are fundamental, as well as tangible and intangible resources, amongst which the information and support for entrepreneurship granted by GIZ stand out. Generally, it is essential to continue strengthening differentiated and comprehensive support strategies for all types of migrant entrepreneurs in destination countries. Full article

This study examines the effect of China’s Pilot Policy for Migrant Workers Returning Home for Entrepreneurship on High-Quality Agricultural Development (HQAD) at the county level. Despite extensive research on return migration and rural development, few studies have focused on how such entrepreneurship policies affect HQAD. We analyze county-level panel data from 2014 to 2021 using a difference-in-differences (DID) approach to assess the policy’s effectiveness and its regional variations across China. We further validate our findings through robustness tests, including parallel trend tests, placebo tests, and propensity score matching combined with difference-in-differences analysis (PSM–DID). The results indicate that the pilot policy significantly enhances HQAD (β = 0.216, p < 0.001), with more pronounced effects in the Eastern region (β = 0.401, p < 0.001) than in the Central region (β = 0.312, p < 0.001), and no significant effects in the Western region. Additionally, our analysis shows that population agglomeration (β = 0.306, p < 0.001) and technological innovation (β = 2.970, p < 0.001) positively moderate the policy’s impact, whereas e-commerce development (β = −0.257, p < 0.001) has a negative moderating effect. These insights highlight that the success of return entrepreneurship policies is heavily dependent on regional characteristics and supportive development factors, offering crucial implications for refining policies in rural development strategies. Full article

This quantitative research analyzes the entrepreneurial competencies of in-migrant women in the Children’s Village of the Lambayeque Region. With a sample of 79 women, 39 Peruvian and 40 Venezuelan, online surveys and observation forms were operated for 18 months (2021–2022). Using a Likert scale of 55 questions and nine dimensions, competencies such as opportunity seeking, risk anticipation, persistence, self-exertion, and more were assessed. Data were analyzed using correlations, ANOVA, logistic regression, and principal component analysis (PCA). The results revealed significant differences between nationalities, with Venezuelan women having higher competencies. The study identified two principal components that explain 57.663% of the total variance, representing initiative and quality, as well as control and responsibility. These findings suggest the need for specific training programs to strengthen the entrepreneurial competencies of these women. The inductive methodology and quantitative analysis provided a clear vision of entrepreneurial competencies, contributing to the improvement of support and training programs. Full article

Against the backdrop of urban–rural integration development in China, the government has further strengthened its support for rural migrant workers’ urban employment and entrepreneurship, as well as their urbanization. Nevertheless, influenced by the current urban–rural development environment and public policies, a portion of rural migrant workers have evolved into two distinct groups: those with clear intentions to settle in cities or return to their hometowns and those trapped in a “neither-nor” situation, who are unable to fully integrate into urban life or seamlessly return to the countryside. This study, based on field investigations conducted in 21 cities across seven major geographical regions in China, reveals a ternary differentiation in migration intentions among rural migrant workers: “Retain in the cities”, “Return flow”, and “Blind direction”. In advancing the urban–rural integration strategy, the “clearly-oriented” groups, choosing to stay or return, can serve as dynamic forces in reconciling resources between urban and rural areas, thereby fostering closer urban–rural ties. Conversely, the “aimless wandering” group, characterized by stagnation, confusion, frequent mobility, and recurrent unemployment, poses numerous negative impacts on urban–rural interaction and coordination, hindering the in-depth integration of urban and rural areas to some extent. Drawing upon the internationally recognized Push-Pull Theory and Social Integration Theory within the field of population migration, this study conducts an empirical analysis of large-scale sample data to explore the characteristic factors and formation mechanisms underlying the “staying”, “returning”, and “blind direction” intentions, with a particular focus on the internal dynamics shaping and evolving the “aimless wandering” group. Finally, grounded in the empirical findings, this study advocates a collaborative approach between the Chinese government and various sectors of society to address the issue by promoting employment guidance, enhancing security measures, and other initiatives that encourage rural migrant workers to either stay in cities or return to their hometowns. It aims to provide policy recommendations for a definitive resolution of the rural migrant worker issue during the crucial period of urban–rural integration development. Full article

Globally, environmental regulatory pressures are mounting, eliciting concern for their effects on migrant workers who return home to found businesses. These entrepreneurial migrants contribute to rural economic growth and urbanization, yet concurrently confront the challenge of stringent environmental rules. The study aims to dissect the environmental regulatory pressure’s influence on the legitimacy of these entrepreneurial migrants and the underlying mechanisms. It further investigates the role of a green entrepreneurial orientation as a mediator and the moderating influence of entrepreneurial narratives on this relationship. Utilizing quantitative research methodologies, the analysis is grounded in extensive, firsthand data from an empirical study of migrant entrepreneurs. The findings corroborate a direct link between environmental regulatory pressure and the legitimacy of migrant entrepreneurs while highlighting the mitigating impact of green orientation and the moderating role of narratives. Specifically, environmental regulatory pressure significantly enhances the legitimacy of migrant entrepreneurs. Green entrepreneurial orientation buffers this impact, while entrepreneurial narratives moderate the relationship. This research offers a novel theoretical framework for comprehending the legitimacy dynamics of migrant entrepreneurs amidst environmental regulation and provides actionable guidance for these entrepreneurs to pursue green entrepreneurship in compliance with regulatory demands. Full article

One of the effective ways to crack the “Three Rural Issues” and promote rural revitalization is to improve agricultural labor productivity (ALP). However, at this stage, improving China’s ALP is still facing many obstacles and bottlenecks. Promoting migrant workers returning home for entrepreneurship is an important breakthrough point for solving this problem. This paper regards the pilot policy of migrant workers returning home for entrepreneurship as a quasi-natural experiment and empirically investigates the influence of migrant workers returning home for entrepreneurship on ALP and explores its potential mechanism and heterogeneity using county area panel data from 2011–2019. It found the following: Firstly, the policy of migrant workers returning home for entrepreneurship significantly increases ALP. Secondly, migrant workers returning home for entrepreneurship indirectly leads to a rise in ALP through the promotion of agricultural mechanization production. Thirdly, the heterogeneity test demonstrates that migrant workers returning home for entrepreneurship purposes have a significant influence in enhancing ALP in the eastern areas, plains areas and non-agricultural strong areas. The findings of this paper not only provide an important real-world basis for the government to further support migrant workers returning home for entrepreneurship but also provide useful policy insights for the modernization and development of agriculture and rural areas. Full article

The non-farm sector is critical in supporting sustainable economies, alleviating poverty, and improving human well-being. However, the drivers of non-farm income and how it impacts income inequality remain underexplored, especially in alpine regions worldwide. Herein, we conducted face-to-face interviews using semi-structured questionnaires with 665 herder households across 54 villages in North Tibet from 2018 to 2020. We assessed the role of non-farm income in household economies and explored the determinants of household income using basic statistical methods, Gini coefficient analysis, and mixed-effects modeling. Our results showed that non-farm income accounted for approximately 80% of the total household income. It contributed to lower income inequality in rural North Tibet, with government subsidies playing a more vital role than wages and business income in this reduction. Results indicated that the number of migrant workers was the most significant positive predictor of both non-farm income and total household income, whereas livestock units dominated farm income. Given the modest contributions of livestock-derived income (~5%) and wage and business revenues (~18%) to overall earnings, this study suggests that policies should primarily focus on strengthening rural livestock husbandry. Simultaneously, it is imperative to foster environments that encourage entrepreneurship and non-farm activities and to expand access to skill-based training. Such initiatives and measures are essential for diversifying livelihood strategies and improving resident welfare in North Tibet. Full article

Since China entered the 21st century, a phenomenon of return migrants moving back from urban to rural areas has been noted, especially in central regions such as Hubei Province. Despite its significance, this phenomenon remains inadequately understood. Employing ethnographic research methods, we conducted multiple rounds of fieldwork in Guangzhou, Wuhan, and three of Wuhan’s neighbouring county-level cities—Hanchuan, Xiantao, and Tianmen—where rising garment industrial enclaves and return migration have been observed. Our findings reveal that the pro-growth policies of megacities like Wuhan and Guangzhou, aimed at industrial transformation while eliminating ‘low-end’ manufacturing, have forced migrants to leave large cities. Among these individuals, return-migrant entrepreneurs (RMEs), comprising entrepreneurs and family workshop owners, have had a profound impact on advancing county urbanisation in Hubei Province. Specifically, we identified three features for return-migrant urbanisation. First, entrepreneurs took their return as an opportunity to expand and promote their businesses, thereby fostering industrialisation in Hanchuan. Second, local state activities in Xiantao, encompassing the construction of highways, logistics systems, and other facilities, coupled with institutionalised arrangements, triggered return migration and township urbanisation. Third, households and individuals with entrepreneurship dominated the development of the informal workshop industry in Tianmen. Overall, our study contributes to the nuanced understanding of new types of urbanisation in China. Full article

Balanced regional development affects high-quality and sustainable development. Previous studies have shown that regional talent allocation, technology business incubators, industrial ecology, cross-regional cooperation, and balanced investment in higher education have positive effects on sustained regional development. Therefore, discussing more influencing factors that promote regionally balanced development is necessary. As far as China is concerned, with the spread of the migrant population to the central and western regions, it is of certain significance to explore the factors affecting the development of the western region from the perspective of migrant entrepreneurs’ flow. Urban public services, as an important way for the government to attract talent, directly affect the residence intentions of migrant entrepreneurs in the future. This paper uses the matching data of the 2017 China Migrants Dynamic Survey and 289 prefecture-level city data from the China City Statistical Yearbook to study the impact of urban public services in the western region on the residence intention of migrant entrepreneurs and further examines the heterogeneous impact of urban public services in the western region on the residence intention of migrant entrepreneurs. We find that urban public services in the western region significantly affect the residence intention of migrant entrepreneurs; that is, the higher the level of urban public services, the stronger the residence intention of migrant entrepreneurs. According to the heterogeneity analysis of household registration differences, generational differences, family structure differences, employment identity differences, and industry and flow range differences, this paper finds that public services have a positive impact on the residence intention of non-urban migrant entrepreneurs, the older generation of migrant entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs with small family structures, migrant entrepreneurs in low-tech industries, self-employed entrepreneurs, cross-province migration, and intra-province migrant entrepreneurs. Further analysis indicates that the level of education, culture, medical care, and transportation services in cities significantly enhances the permanent residence intentions of migrant entrepreneurs. The research conclusion not only provides reference and inspiration for China to achieve common prosperity through entrepreneurship and poverty reduction practices, but it can also, to some extent, alleviate population aggregation in large cities and promote the formation of a scientific and reasonable urbanization pattern. In addition, this paper explores the attractiveness of public services to migrant entrepreneurs in the western region of China from the perspective of entrepreneurs’ mobility and complements the relevant research on promoting regional balanced development. Full article

Investing in entrepreneurship may be costly, and therefore risky, and entrepreneurship is also an economic endeavor that is highly dependent on entrepreneurial ability and risk appetite. In this study, data from 669 famers in southwest China were used as the sample, and we used three different methods to measure farmers’ risk aversion level, including DOSPRET (Domain-Specific Risk-Taking), SOEP (Simple Self-Report), and BRET (Bomb Risk Elicitation Task). This paper studies the impact of farmers’ risk aversion on entrepreneurial choices and the moderating impact of the migrant work experience (MWE) on the relationship between risk aversion and entrepreneurship. The results can be summarized as follows: Firstly, entrepreneurial farmers have lower average levels of risk aversion than non-entrepreneurial farmers. Secondly, risk aversion has a significant negative impact on farmers’ choice of entrepreneurship, corporate entrepreneurship and portfolio entrepreneurship. Thirdly, MWE can reduces the negative impact of risk aversion on a decision to enter entrepreneurship or portfolio entrepreneurship. Fourth, MWE in local or nearby areas reduces the negative effects of risk aversion on entrepreneurship and portfolio entrepreneurship, while MWE in coastal and developed cities increases the negative effects. Full article

Education is considered to be one of the most critical factors when it comes to finding work or starting a business. However, for women migrants, other factors can have an even more decisive influence, since they are starting out with the double disadvantage they face as women and migrants. This manuscript sets out to identify and analyse the individual and external factors that affect the employability and entrepreneurship of women migrants. To do this, we conducted a systematised qualitative review of recent literature. The studies analysed address different aspects of integration and employment but agree on many of the factors that hinder employability and entrepreneurship, such as traditional gender mandates, racism, socioeconomic status, the migration process, age or human capital. However, the scientific literature continues to mask the reality of women migrants who face discrimination or inequalities derived, for example, from their belonging to the LGBTQ+ collective or their functional diversity. Full article

Entrepreneurship is the driving force behind the creation of rural employment opportunities and the promotion of the sustainable development of the rural economy. Based on the data of five rounds of national surveys covering the period from 2010 to 2018 conducted by the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), this paper uses probit and other regression models to empirically study the impact of internet use on the entrepreneurship of returned migrant workers. The results show that the use of the internet can not only increase the probability of returned migrant workers starting a business but also increase the scale of entrepreneurial investment by 18% and the number of enterprises founded by 36%, which is particularly prominent among those rural areas with great potential for internet penetration. In rural areas with low levels of internet application, governments should continue to increase the level of support aimed at assisting returned migrant workers with founding their own businesses, to focus on enhancing the information literacy of returned migrant workers, and to accelerate the construction of information technology in rural areas with backward internet infrastructure to drive sustainable economic development through entrepreneurship. Full article

Migration and migrants’ integration are prominent aspects of globalized contemporary society. In this respect, a key question appears of how to foster the full participation of migrants in the host society. This article investigates the role of migrant entrepreneurship as a vector of integration. Based on case-study research conducted among Bangladeshi vendors in Nuovo Mercato Esquilino in Rome, the article highlights the potentialities in terms of social and market innovation of such activity. However, it points out that this way forward cannot be considered a generalized solution, relying on strong social and cultural capital that not all migrants, in particular asylum seekers, may have. Thus, it proposes a normative adjustment to empowering migrants and facilitating their endeavors. Full article

The relative poverty statuses of female and male migrant workers are complex: (i) as a group, migrant workers are relatively better off than their rural hometown fellow residents but are deprived compared to the long-term residents of the cities to which they have immigrated, and (ii) gender differences exist between female and male subgroups, resulting from the interaction of gender bias and empowerment. The former can be further decomposed into characteristic-led bias and bias arising from discrimination. However, little is known about the different facets of gender-differentiated poverty that pose challenges for migrant workers. This study used data collected from Chinese Family Panel Studies (CFPS) during the period 2012–2018 to address this research deficiency. This study conducted a poverty aggregation using a multidimensional relative poverty index system based on the Alkire and Foster (A–F) method to offer an overview of the gender differences in the overall relative poverty statuses of Chinese migrant workers. Further, to validate the existence of gender bias, this study conducted a decomposition analysis based on unconditional quantile regression (UCQR) of the explanatory model of relative poverty. The results of the combination of the aggregation and decomposition analysis data imply that, despite the gender discrimination that female migrant workers encounter, they are generally better off than male migrant workers due to their slight characteristic-led advantages and, more importantly, their autonomous poverty reduction activities. This study theoretically contributes to an in-depth understanding of gender differences in migrant workers’ relative poverty. In addition, this study advocates more targeted and sustainable poverty reduction solutions. For instance, more targeted payment transfer and long-term (vocational development, entrepreneurship, and lifestyle) empowering projects should be highlighted. Full article