Unfolding refugee entrepreneurs' opportunity-production process — Patterns and embeddedness

Abstract

We observe the opportunity-production processes of aspiring refugee entrepreneurs in their host countries. Our process data from eighteen refugee entrepreneurs reveal heterogeneity in how entrepreneurs move across the opportunity-production stages of conceptualization, objectification, and enactment. We identify four patterns, which are characterized by differences in iteration, order, and continuity. By theorizing on process characteristics and connecting these characteristics to embeddedness and temporality, we provide insights into how cognitive alignment and use of networks from home countries versus host countries help expand the explanatory scope of the opportunity-production theory from ordinary entrepreneurs to entrepreneurs who are subject to disruption in their lives.