The “Gospel” of Pentecostalism and Entrepreneurship

Sieving through the avalanche of dissertations on the Pentecostal movements this chapter attempts to analyze the African Pentecostalism's structural arrangement to generate a deeper understanding of its operations and how the movement is re-inventing itself in contemporary epoch. This was done by appraising in-depth knowledge in concrete terms rather than in abstraction through the combination of notions of the market, entrepreneurship, diaspora, and development. Thus, the chapter develops a new sociological understanding of the differences and similarities between religion and the market in ethnic/diaspora entrepreneurship market space. It argues that the success of African Pentecostalism, both in Africa and the diaspora, is predicated on its ability to smoothly connect the past with the present. Whilst synthesis of African culture in the movement's liturgy is a proficient engagement with the past, inculcating the efficiency ethos of the market economy in its operations signifies a commitment to the present.

Interfacing with Diaspora/Ethnic Entrepreneurship

The chapter deals with the issue of diversity in society and changing markets combined with matters dealing with marketing strategies. The increasing diversity of the UK's ethnic population suggests that firms/organizations have a need to pay closer attention to the needs of different ethnic groups in order to generate value and competitive advantage in the marketplace. One way of understanding those needs involves, not only hiring competent ethnic personnel but allowing them to play substantive strategic management roles in the firm/organization. The paper highlights the opportunities and challenges of an ethnically heterogeneous workplace through illustrations in four industrial sectors in the UK. Consequently, a theory of practice is formulated for a successful outcome of, not only diaspora/ethnic businesses but other non-ethnic and large firms/organizations.

The Migration History of Black Africans to Britain

The purpose of this chapter is to provide the history of migration of black Africans into Britain and a backdrop for subsequent chapters. An understanding of the migration history of Black Africans is important as it helps us to understand the nature and extent of their entrepreneurial and transnational activity. The conveniently splits into three sections covering three phases or waves of migration covering the period between the 1960s to the beginning of the 21st century. The chapter shows that the reasons and motivation of migration is different with each of the phases of migration. The first phase (1960s – 1970s) consisted of restrained migration from a few African countries namely Nigeria and Ghana and was driven by the desire to acquire education. The second phase (1980s – 1990s) consisted of limited migration from an increased number of countries and still driven by education and some limited refugees. The third phase (Mid 1990s onwards) consisted of unrestrained migration largely driven by economic reasons.

Understanding Transnational Diaspora Entrepreneurship and the Role of Values

Transnational diaspora entrepreneurship and its role linking two or more countries and generating business receive increasing attention. Diaspora entrepreneurs act often as pioneers and change agents bringing new ideas, products and services with them. In the context of ethnic enclaves, ethnic entrepreneurs face a different situation than those who target the mainstream economy and need to tackle with the value differences and challenges created by such cultural dimensions. Moreover, the development path in a transnational setting sets its own dynamics on the business development, but the value employment remains unknown. Whose values are in use and how these values are implemented? This longitudinal case study focuses on one Cypriot-Finnish entrepreneurial firm, which evolves from a start-up to a major player in the Finnish food business in imports of ethnic food products. The analysis examines values and cultural dimensions and contributes to better understanding on the transnational diaspora entrepreneurship, its dynamics and adopted philosophy on values-in-use across generations.

Diaspora and Transnational Entrepreneurship

The dynamic development in the field of Diaspora and Transnational entrepreneurship reveals a wide range of challenges and perspectives. These intensely tense up ‘conventional wisdom', stretch knowledge frontiers, and simultaneously expose fundamental paradoxes in the characterization of ethnic minorities' diaspora and transnational groups in the context of their entrepreneurship. Prior efforts at researching and advancing knowledge in this sphere have been hugely complicated, not less by the problematic of nomenclature but by researchers' application of terms. Against this background, this chapter aims to expand current understandings on the dialectic, dilemma, and paradoxical signals emitted by the events of diaspora and transnational entrepreneurship's economic activities both theoretically and practically. The significance resides in its capacity to enlarge our understanding of the dynamic process of individual agency in cross-border entrepreneurial relations.

Returnee Entrepreneurship

Migration and development have been linked in recent studies in which skilled migrants are assumed to display agency role and act as important bridges, helping to promote the transfer of knowledge and skills in their countries of origin. But, within the nexus of the migration and development literature, the contributions of returnee entrepreneurs have not been visible. Through the perspective of second-generation diaspora and transnational entrepreneurship, this paper analyzed the motivation of the second-generation entrepreneurs to invest in their ‘ancestral' country of origin. The hurdles they might face and the strategies they could employ to effectively navigate the unfamiliar terrains of their parents' country of origin are briefly evaluated through a literature review and a case study methodology. The intention is to contribute to the growing literature on the social and economic impacts of returnee entrepreneurs to their parents' country of origins' development.

Returnee Entrepreneurship and Occupational Health and Safety in Nigeria

This exploratory paper focuses on the well-being of diaspora returnees seeking entrepreneurial opportunities in Nigeria, with an emphasis on health, safety and development. The paper is based, in part, on a review of literature on diaspora migrants' returnees' well-being. However, in the absence of large scale quantitative research, the report presents partial and anecdotal evidence on the well-being of specific groups of migrants in Nigeria that may not readily be generalized to the whole livelihood-seeking, cross-border migrant population in the SSA region. The paper concludes that returnee entrepreneurs should prepare to contribute meaningfully to controlling occupational health and safety in informal sector of Nigerian economy.

Social Entrepreneurship in Sub-Saharan Africa

There has been a growing interest in “social entrepreneurship”, but very few analyses have attempted to go beyond definitional disagreements in capturing the role of the diaspora within a theoretical and evidence-based framework. It is in this context that this chapter systematises competing perspectives on social entrepreneurship, that is, the neo-liberal conception, the institutional/social organisation framework and the agenda of social transformation. On the basis, we proceed to analyse how far so-called “social impact investments” in Sub-Saharan Africa by the diaspora has contributed to poverty alleviation and a fundamental social transformation. Our study will not only clarify competing viewpoints, but also place the diaspora at the centre of this process. While great strides have been made in the institutional context by the African diaspora such as Mutombo and Akon in making the world a better place, there are limitations to what they can do. Indeed, our alternative social transformation conception of social entrepreneurship teases out these limitations, politically and socially.

New Perspectives on the Internationalisation of Micro-Businesses

Micro businesses are increasingly playing a significant role in the economic growth of most developed and developing countries. Despite this increasing trend, not much attention has been given to such businesses in the management literature. Policymakers have given little attention to their growth and internationalisations. Consequently, the increasing trend of the micro business internationalisation has also failed to receive deserved attention. The chapter uses qualitative data from two micro businesses in the UK to explicate the reasons and challenges of internationalisation. Findings reveal that reasons and challenges of internationalisation of micro and larger firms may be similar, but resource constraints shape the approaches and scale. In particular, growth and internationalisation of micro firms are often inhibited by the embeddedness of firm-specific knowledge in individuals. Significantly, micro firms with explicit knowledge can exploit international expansion via franchising/licencing, compared with those with tacit knowledge who export.

Transnational Entrepreneurs and Their Global Market Entry Modes

This chapter presents an exploration into the market entry modes of transnational entrepreneurs. It focusses on the effects of knowledge acquisition and learning to the process. Specifically, it addresses the role of the transnational entrepreneur in acquiring knowledge that results in market entry. The empirical data consists of transnational entrepreneurs from three industries namely, food manufacturing, agriculture and information technology who are engaged in international activities. The research is qualitative using case study. The data collection tool is semi-structured interviews with the data analysed using thematic and content analysis. The findings suggest that transnational entrepreneurs adopt mostly the network or in some cases, the international new venture (born-global) market entry strategy rather than the stage by stage approach. They also reveal that transnational entrepreneurs adopt a self-learn approach that makes them more proactive with their knowledge acquisition resulting in market entry. The implications for the study are also discussed.