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Migration is among the main factors influencing economic development in the twenty-first century. And while much research has explored the role of migration on economic growth, the role of diaspora for the development of the country-of-origin entrepreneurial ecosystems remains virtually unknown. We advance evidence that the entrepreneurial activity in a country does not depend only on the activities of the current residents but also on the ties that keep them interconnected via its diaspora to global entrepreneurial hubs and on the (intangible) resources that the diaspora makes available to local entrepreneurs. We perform a mixed-method study and provide evidence consistent with the idea that the diaspora stimulates opportunity-driven entrepreneurial activity despite potential conditions of a brain drain, by contributing essential social and human capital to the resources available locally.

Drawing on brand and innovation management literature, this article presents the development and testing of a theory about the way strong brands shape innovation orientation under conditions of institutional uncertainty. Using a unique database of sixty-two large Latin American multinationals (multilatinas), we illustrate that the strong brands of emerging multinationals interact with institutional uncertainty in the host market to shape the firms’ innovation orientation. We confirm the robustness of the results, by using secondary data on foreign direct investments, advertising, and R&D investments. The implications of our findings for managers of multinational companies are clear: While strong brands enhance the innovation orientation of emerging multinationals, conditions of institutional uncertainty in host markets weaken this relationship.

Domestic peacebuilding initiatives are frequently part of the national agenda in emerging economies. Many emerging MNCs (EMNCs) are called to build their international competitive advantage while p...

We study how the proximate and distal sociocultural environments affect the well-established relationship between entrepreneurial self-efficacy and entrepreneurial intentions. We focus on the institutional individualism–collectivism orientation of nations and the presence of nascent entrepreneurs as moderators of this relationship to account for the multilayered nature of the context. We observe that for individuals with entrepreneurial self-efficacy the positive effect of knowing nascent entrepreneurs as a driver of entrepreneurial intentions is weaker than for individuals who do not believe to be able to successfully launch a business venture. This effect is contingent on the individualistic–collectivistic character of the national culture.

We analyze the role of industry-related factors in the performance of Colombian firms between 1995 and 2012. Using hierarchical linear models for variance decomposition, we find that the role of industry-related factors varies considerably when different measures of firm performance are analyzed and that it is smaller than the share of total variance explained by firm-specific factors. The estimations also allow exploring the role of intangible assets in profitability, revealing that intangible assets play a prominent role among the firm-specific drivers of performance. The evidence confirms the resilience of intangible assets as drivers of competitive advantage in an emerging environment.

This chapter is the first attempt to characterize Balkan entrepreneurial ecosystems that draws on well-recognized secondary sources as well as on primary data from startup applications and interviews with key stakeholders. It also highlights the entrepreneurial success stories that not only inspire but also create templates and offer insights for those interested in building and consolidating entrepreneurial ecosystems in the region and beyond. The strengths of and challenges facing Balkan entrepreneurs have previously been presented via traditional proxies and measures that overwhelmingly fail to reflect the energy, dynamics and prevailing optimism shared by participants in the entrepreneurial ecosystems. The chapter advances that Balkan entrepreneurial ecosystems are genuine and well-grounded and that they are well set to change the political and economic landscape of the region.

This chapter reviews the concept of an entrepreneurial ecosystem, taking the extant research as a point of departure. It positions the story of the young Balkan entrepreneurial ecosystem as an opportunity to inspect and enrich the concept and highlights the pivotal role of the mindset change that was provoked by the Balkan entrepreneurial pioneers. It celebrates entrepreneurship by showing how it can be embraced as a value and a way of thinking in societies with limited entrepreneurial traditions.