Unpacking the process of overseas knowledge recontextualisation in returnee entrepreneurship - a learning perspective : a study of returnee entrepreneurs in Vietnam
Abstract
International entrepreneurship research has recently been directed towards returnee
entrepreneurship, a phenomenon in which individuals who acquire knowledge in
overseas developed markets return to start businesses in their home emerging markets.
Returnee entrepreneurs serve as knowledge brokers in their home country. However,
research has yet to explain how they transform their overseas knowledge, which is
contextually bound, into entrepreneurial outcomes – a process termed overseas
knowledge recontextualisation. The thesis positions itself at the intersection of returnee
entrepreneurship, international knowledge transfer, and entrepreneurial learning, and
explores the phenomenon from both a learning and a socio-cognitive perspective. It
approaches the recontextualisation process at an individual entrepreneurial level to
answer three research questions: (1) What constitutes the knowledge brought back by
returnee entrepreneurs?; (2) What is the process by which returnee entrepreneurs
recontextualise their overseas knowledge?; and (3) How do returnee entrepreneurs learn
to facilitate the process of overseas knowledge recontexualisation?
A qualitative exploratory approach was employed comprising 14 in-depth cases of
returnee entrepreneurs in three cities in Vietnam - an emerging economy in South East
Asia where returnee entrepreneurship has become increasingly prevalent. To ensure the
rigour and validity of the research, multiple data sources were used for triangulation.
Given the dynamics of the recontextualisation process and the aim to build a data driven
theory, the analysis was underpinned by process thinking and grounded theory principles.
The thesis contributes to three distinctive strands of literature. First, it extends the
returnee entrepreneurship literature by unpacking the holistic process model of
knowledge recontextualisation which involves sensemaking, experimenting, and
integrating knowledge, each of which is facilitated by the respective learning
mechanisms and intertwined with entrepreneurial outcomes. Second, it adds new
understanding at an individual entrepreneurial level to international knowledge transfer
literature by highlighting the idiosyncratic role of returnees as simultaneous transferors
and receivers of knowledge. Specifically, it elucidates mixed-embedded knowledge
structures of returnees and identifies key recontextualisation practices pertaining to
returnee entrepreneurship. Third, it adds on entrepreneurial learning literature by
unpacking the complex learning mechanisms that facilitate the process of
recontextualisation. Finally, it proposes that, throughout the recontextualisation process,
returnees not only enact the overseas knowledge per se, they also transform themselves
and influence the home country through cognitive, social, psychological and
behavioural processes which denote the micro-foundations of the entrepreneurial
dynamic capability displayed by returnees.