Transnational Entrepreneurship in South East Asia

Front matter

ney a and International Policy Studies

TÀ m @

Kazuko Yokoyama Sarah Louisa Birchley

Preface

This book is the result of our curiosity; of course, not only as academic researchers, but also as women who have traveled the world and worked overseas ourselves. Over the years, our careers have spanned different continents, providing us with various experiences and opportunities to interact with the world. I (Yokoyama) embarked on an international career when I graduated from university. When I returned to Japan at the age of 35, in 1990, the Japanese-style employment scheme was the mainstream in Japanese society. However, convinced that after having experience in different working styles while in overseas, I felt that Japanese HRM would likely change in the future. And it has. It now incorporates performance-related management practices and a more global outlook. I (Birchley) arrived in Japan in 2001, having just graduated with a degree in geography and having spent a short time working in Spain. In the early 2000s, with no cell phone or social media, living in a small, rural village in Gunma Prefecture, I quickly became embedded in the culture and ways of life in Japan; each day I found myself becoming more and more curious about the interactions I witnessed between my colleagues in the office and how my colleagues were supported in their work, what motivated them and how they worked together. I questioned what made them enjoy their work? Were they interested in leaving Japan, like I had left my home country? What was it like to live and work in another country? The geographer and business-mind in me was curious.

We both became motivated to research this topic as we had a strong idea that an increasing number of young Japanese passing through our classrooms might be suited to or decide to seek an international career and/or had a desire to work for the improvement of society. The first step for me (Yokoyama) was to write a book called Human Resource Management in the UN: A Japanese Perspective, edited with Sarah, where I conducted research on Japanese UN staff and found that 40% of Japanese UN staff quit Japanese companies and made a UN career. This meant that they knew and had experience of both systems. In addition, I conducted in-depth interviews with these expatriate employees. After completion of the book, I wanted to develop my research by interviewing Japanese self-initiated expatriate entrepreneurs in Southeast (SE) Asia. Similarly, I (Birchley) began to explore viii Preface self-initiated expatriate academics working in Japan, arguing that psychological contracts among these expatriates are indicative of communication within the organization and form a useful basis for better understanding of intercultural workplaces. This research leads to an interest in expatriate entrepreneurs in Japan and entrepreneurship, workplace and career education.

Having successfully worked together previously, we joined forces again to undertake this research. Over the past two years, I (Yokoyama) visited seven SE Asian countries and undertook interviews with over 60 Japanese expatriates. Out of these, 52 cases qualified our requirements as entrepreneurs. All interview records were transcribed, and then analyzed and conceptualized by Birchley. As a pair, we worked with and to each others’ strengths in order to produce this research, drawing on our interdisciplinary backgrounds.

Initially, we didn’t have any networks in SE Asia but through the networks of Japanese Overseas Association, I (Yokoyama) was able to build the networks and find collaborators. Meanwhile, while conducting the research and preparing the manuscript, I (Birchley) was on sabbatical in the United States, South America and Europe, exploring perspectives of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship education outside Japan. Therefore, this work exemplifies how two individuals can collaborate in this borderless world. We could not have done this alone, but by combining our skills, knowledge, passion for research and curiosity, we made the most of every opportunity presented to us, at times in spite of our heavy teaching and administration load.

We sincerely hope to inspire others as much as we have been inspired by the cases in this book and endeavor to continue to analyze and share the narratives of these fascinating entrepreneurs.

Tokyo, Japan Kazuko Yokoyama June 2019 Sarah Louisa Birchley

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to express their very great appreciation to Toyo Gakuen University, the IC* Institute at the University of Texas at Austin, and Cardiff University for their support. The research was funded by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (KAKENHI (Multi-year Fund)) (C) 2017-2019 received from the Japanese Government, under the research title: Japanese Self-Initiated Expatriation: Lessons for Entrepreneurship and Education in Asia (JSPS 17K03948) and additional funding provided by the Special Research Fund and Publication Fund of Toyo Gakuen University, Tokyo, Japan.

Advice and constructive criticism given by Prof. Chris Brewster, Prof. Jay Mitra and Prof. Mitsuhide Shiraki was of great help in completing this manuscript. Additionally, we thank Ms. Kawakami and all the team at Springer for this opportunity to publish. We would also like to thank the following individuals, companies and associations for their assistance with the collection of data: Ms. Mika Kagawa, Mr. Tadashi Miura, former President of the Japanese Overseas Entrepreneurs Association, WAOJE and JETRO in Shanghai, China.

We wish to thank our dedicated friends, family, students and colleagues for their unwavering encouragement and support.

Finally, our special thanks are extended to all the research participants in South East Asia for generously sharing their time, knowledge and experience with us as we collaboratively interpreted their lived experiences. We also thank those who allowed us to use their offices for the interviews. This book would not have been possible without their collaboration. With the deepest thanks.

Contents

3 Japanese Self-initiated Expatriate Entrepreneurs in South East -T ARET E E E E E S A ST EET EET 41 3.1 The Context of South East Asia 4.2625 esrsisrsieariosriss 41 Sa EMBO os 562d eben G etd sorarak tebe ath he bee 46 Jal County LONER 14426 sh3 os eu ee hs poe ab ees weey ae 47 Da CS eas re eee eee ee ee eee ee ee ee ee ee 48 xi xii

Contents

3.4.1 Country Context Ship ed Ow Gas . A

Chapter 1 A Perspectives on Transnational cet Entrepreneurship 1.1 Introduction

What motivates an individual to leave his/her home country to explore business opportunities? What experiences foster a global entrepreneurial mindset in the individual and can this mindset be taught? What are the implications of transnational entrepreneurship for education and future societies? At the time of writing, there is much change in the world, socially, economically and politically; indications of a shift in global politics to the far right, a migrant crisis in Europe, a renewed focus on Asia and emerging economies, border wall disputes in North America, increasing economic inequality in Europe, political unrest in South America, growing disillusionment with larger collaborative bodies such as the European Union and many individuals suffering from a sense of loss over their national identity and values. While these events are happening, some individuals remain steadfast in their home countries. They seek shelter from the global chaos and try to protect the society from changes associated with internationalization. Yet, others see this disruption as an opportunity for growth and development, embracing the chance to connect with their global neighbors. Individuals are now able to develop and self-manage an international career by taking advantage of the multitude of opportunities afforded to them by our increasingly interconnected world (Inkson and Arthur 2001). Whereby previously, international assignments were characterized by expatriate business people sent on low-risk international assignments to work at a subsidiary for a short, fixed period of time, recently, an increasing number of expatriates are seeking a more high-risk endeavor; establishing their own companies outside their home country minus the safety net of a parent company. Who does this? Why do they do it? How do they do it? The implications of this trend are far reaching, in terms of both the economy and society.

Japanese business people are no different in terms of how they interact with the world. Events such as the Olympic Games in 2020 are drivers of a form of internationalization already observed in many sectors of society. As changes take hold,

© The Author(s) 2020 1 K. Yokoyama and S. L. Birchley, Transnational Entrepreneurship

in South East Asia, Emerging-Economy State and International Policy Studies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9252-9_1

Japanese human resource management practices are already in the crux of change and individuals are starting to explore new career opportunities outside Japan. This book seeks to share the narratives and lived experiences of Japanese business men and women engaged in transnational entrepreneurship (TE) and the ramifications for society, education, culture and the economy.

We begin by providing an overview of the field of entrepreneurship, how we conceptualize entrepreneurs and the individuals who are the crux of this research, self-initiated expatriate entrepreneurs (SIEEs). We then share cases of Japanese SIEEs who are working throughout South East Asia, before presenting various theoretical ideas to be explored. The book will provide the reader with rich case examples from which we can build knowledge and theory not only in entrepreneurship but also in migration studies, international business and management, and education. It will not provide definitive answers to the multiple questions surrounding transnational entrepreneurship but will shed light on the lived experiences of people who choose to set up businesses internationally and provide an insight into their motivations. We aim to provide substantive theory in the hope that it can help in building theory of a higher level of generality.

1.2 Positioning the Research

Although grounded in the field of international business and management as a study on transnational entrepreneurship, this book is interdisciplinary in nature. Figure 1.1 shows the academic fields related to the research and as you progress through the book, you will see how we have straddled the disciplines to better understand the entrepreneurs. The inherent complexity of nature and society

Fig. 1.1 Academic Migration disciplines related to Studies/Geography entrepreneurship research.

Source Authors

International Anthropology Business and Management Education Economics Psychology

Sociology

1.2 Positioning the Research 3 requires us to explore the basic research problems at the interface of different disciplines. According to Klein and Newell (1997), interdisciplinary studies is a process of answering a question, solving a problem, or addressing a topic that is too broad or complex to be dealt with adequately by a single discipline or profession and draws on disciplinary perspectives and integrates their insights through construction of a more comprehensive perspective (Klein and Newell 1997). It differs from multidisciplinary in that the research integrates insights to better understand the subject at hand.

We take a contextualized view of entrepreneurship in understanding that economic behavior can be better understood within institutional, social, spatial, historical and temporal contexts. Three general trends in approaching entrepreneurship—the economic approach, the socio-environmental approach and the psychological approach— are combined in this book to provide a holistic approach. This has been possible by combining the skills of a pair of researchers who themselves have interdisciplinary backgrounds. The author Yokoyama, Japanese, is a professor of human resource management in Tokyo. She has a background as an assigned expatriate working internationally in the United Nations, before she returned to Japan and became an academic. The author Birchley, Welsh, is a self-initiated expatriate academic, business professor within the same faculty but has an interdisciplinary research background in geography, educational management, entrepreneurship, and experience as an English language teacher, and herself an 18-year expatriate of Japan. Both bilingual, we have combined our knowledge, experience and understanding of Japanese business, education and culture from an insider and outsider perspective with our interdisciplinary backgrounds to present the entrepreneur narratives you will explore in this book. We encourage you, the reader, to engage with these stories, as we have, putting yourselves in the shoes of Japanese transnational entrepreneurs as they journey through their careers, in order to better understand transnational entrepreneurship and the lived experiences of SIEEs in the context of South East Asia.

1.3 What Is It Exactly that We Are Exploring?

First, how do we view entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs? Are the opportunities that entrepreneurs take ‘out there?’ Are they objective? Something to be found? Or are they constructed through a process? Similarly, is entrepreneurship itself a final goal, a final state to one’s career? Or more a step on a path, more ‘transient,’ not a destination? The same can be said for the entrepreneur him/herself. Is an entrepreneur born or made? Is the disposition to become an entrepreneur something in our DNA or the result of our environment and experiences? And if someone decides to be an entrepreneur what makes them successful? Is it a result of experience? Is it luck or good fortune? Let’s first look at entrepreneurship.

1.3.1 Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship is a contested term. It is particularly problematic to define due to its flexibility and subjective-ness. Is it an art or a science? Is it both? Since scholars began articulating entrepreneurship, there are many different schools of thought and theories proposed. Table 1.1 summarizes the main theories based on Kwabena and Simpeh (2011).

Our understanding of entrepreneurship aligns with Cuervo et al.’s (2008), in that entrepreneurship—the function—is conceptualized as the discovery of opportunities and creation of new economic activity.

Many scholars have tried to articulate the field in other ways: Brush (1992) identified four categories; individual characteristics; the environment; the organization; and the entrepreneurial process. Cunningham and Lischeron (1991) suggest five schools of thought: classical economic; management intrapreneurship; leadership; great man; and trait. Hjorth (2004) brings these more concisely to three:

Table 1.1 Summary of theories of entrepreneurship

Theory Summary

Economic entrepreneurship theory

Classical Free trade, specialization, competition, land, capital, labor Neo-classical The importance of exchange Austrian market process Schumpeter (1934), human action in the context of an economy of knowledge. Awareness of profit-making opportunities

Psychological entrepreneurship theories

Personality traits theory Behavioral characteristics

Locus of control theory Rotter (1966), perception of life events

Need for achievement Perceptions about the rewards and punishments in life (Pervin theory 1980), entrepreneurs are driven by the need to succeed Sociological Focus on the social context; social networks, life stage, ethnic entrepreneurship theory identification, population ecology

Anthropological Focus on the cultural entrepreneurship model. Culture leads to entrepreneurship theory attitudes toward innovation, behavior

Opportunity-based Drucker (1985), entrepreneurs do not cause change but they entrepreneurship theory exploit opportunities

Resource-based entrepreneurship theories

Financial capital theory Access to resources is most important. If people have access to money, they will be more likely to start a venture (Clausen 2006)

Social capital or social The idea that if an individual is embedded in a strong network

network theory structure, they may have more opportunities to recognize opportunities that might exist

Human capital Based on education and experience (Becker 1975; Shane and

entrepreneurship theory Venkataraman 2000)

Source Authors, based on Simpeh (2011)

1.3. What Is It Exactly that We Are Exploring? 5 corporate, organizational and psychological, while Jack and Anderson (2002) explore more: economic; social; population ecology; trait; psychodynamic; and behavioral. Our study is holistic in nature but it falls within the sociological, social capital and human capital domain.

As there are various definitions and theories of entrepreneurship, so too are there various types of entrepreneurship based upon activities, ecosystems and contexts the businesses engage in and with. Table 1.2 summarizes the main domains of entrepreneurship. Of course, the types can be integrated, such as agricultural social entrepreneurship or transnational academic entrepreneurship. These domains show the sheer vastness of the field.

Within entrepreneurship, as can be seen above, there are a number of types that are concerned with opportunity recognition, trade and people crossing international borders. It is this element that we are concerned with in this book.

1.3.2 Defining Transnational Entrepreneurship

To narrow the focus of this book, we are looking specifically at transnational entrepreneurship. The fields of entrepreneurship, human resource management and migration studies have all seen increase in literature on transnational entrepreneurship (TE), yet like entrepreneurship itself, the term is vague and contested. The work of Bailette (2018) provides the most contemporary definition of transnational entrepreneurship to date:

Cross border investment to acquire, combine and recombine specialized individuals and heterogeneous assets to create and capitalize value for the company under conditions of institutional distance and uncertainty (2018:34).

Table 1.3 provides a summary of definitions of transnational entrepreneurship based on Bailette’s (2018) review of the literature.

Similarly, Brzozowski et al. (2009), Chen and Tan (2009) and Prashantham et al. (2018) describe the facets behind TE and cross-cultural business and how firms take advantage of cross-cultural opportunities. Figure 1.2 shows the intersection of

Table 1.2 Domains of entrepreneurship

Private/individual entrepreneurship Agricultural entrepreneurship Corporate entrepreneurship Social entrepreneurship

Public sector entrepreneurship Transnational entrepreneurship Joint entrepreneurship (public and private sector) Ethnic entrepreneurship Academic entrepreneurship Diaspora entrepreneurship Intrapreneurship Migrant entrepreneurship Political entrepreneurship International entrepreneurship

Table 1.3 Definitions of transnational entrepreneurship in the literature

Definition Transnational entrepreneurship...

Sources

1. | ...is a multi-faceted process, in which immigrant Chen and Tan (2009, entrepreneurs discover and enact business opportunities p. 1080) across national borders

2. | ...represents a form of economic transnationalism that Sequeira et al. (2009, immigrants engage in for different purposes p. 1026)

3. | ...iS a process of economic adaptation based on mobilization | Patel and Conklin (2009, of social networks across borders... pp. 1047, 1050) ...to leverage resources from two different social fields to create competitive advantage

4. | ...involves entrepreneurial activities that are carried out in a | Drori et al. (2009, cross-national context and initiated by actors who are p. 1001) embedded in at least two different social and economic arenas

5. | ...[occurs when] immigrants simultaneously engage in two | Lin (2010, p. 127) or more socially embedded environments and maximize their resource base by doing so

6. | ...is the ability to mobilize social networks in dual Patel and Terjesen (2011, institutional settings p. 64)

7. | ...implies immigrant business engagement not only in the | Brzozowski et al. (2014, host country, but also in the country of origin p. 551)

8. | ...encompasses immigrant and (although on a smaller scale) | Brzozowski et al. (2017, ethnic entrepreneurs who maintain regular cross-border p. 107) operations, marking their economic presence (at least) in two countries: the host and home economy

9. ...[is] the pursuit of entrepreneurial cross-national Prashantham et al. (2018, opportunities by actors embedded in different p. 4) socio-economic arenas

10. | ...[features] individuals who migrate to another country Santamaria-Alvarez et al.

while maintaining business linkages with both the country of origin and the country of destination

Source Bailette (2018)

Fig. 1.2 Transnational entrepreneurship

International Entrepreneurship

Diaspora Entrepreneurship

Transnational Entrepreneurship

1.3 What Is It Exactly that We Are Exploring? 7 research streams in TE, as initially outlined by Droi et al. (2009), which illuminates the context of this book.

The definitions above and Bailette’s review of the literature focus on the action and the firm, as opposed to the individual entrepreneur, yet who is the entrepreneur we are studying?

1.4 Who Is the Entrepreneur in This Book?

In our research, we seek to hone in on the individual, recognizing that the actors engaging in TE use a sophisticated network of personal contacts combined with various education and life experiences to set up their ventures. To that end, it is important to explore definitions of international and transnational entrepreneurs— the who of TE. We have established the what, as a form of transnational entrepreneurship, yet how do we define the who in this book? When embarking on the study, we were very clear on who we wanted to focus our research on, yet there are various scholarly definitions of who the entrepreneur actually is, which proved complex to navigate. In general terms, we are studying about Japanese who decide to leave Japan and set up their own business overseas in South East Asia. Academically speaking, are these people transnational entrepreneurs? Are they migrant entrepreneurs? Are they diaspora entrepreneurs? We recognize that the entrepreneurs in our study straddle the context of transnational and diaspora entrepreneurship and we ascertain that we are researching in the field of transnational entrepreneurship.

There is a plethora of terms to label entrepreneurs in the transnational context. Table 1.4 highlights some differences in definition based on the literature and our own understanding.

According to research by Inter Nations, an independent research company, in a recent survey of around 14,000 people, they found that the typical expatriate entrepreneur is male, works in business services or consulting, he has a high satisfaction with his work and life balance and more than seven out of ten are in a committed relationship, with a quarter raising children. Their study also found that among business owners and entrepreneurs, 19%—more than six times the global average of 3%—wanted to start their own business in their destination, with 12% citing they are seeking a better quality of life as the reason for their move abroad. Interestingly, Kazakhstan, Malta, Peru and Costa Rica find it easy to attract business owners and Egyptians are more likely to be business owners (18%) than any other nationalities.

Specifically exploring how scholars have defined transnational entrepreneurs, Portes et al. (2002) define them as self-employed immigrants whose business activities require frequent travel abroad and who depend for the success of their firms on their contacts and associates in another country, primarily their country of origin. Drori et al. (2009) class them as an entrepreneur who migrates while maintaining business-related linkages with both their home country of origin and host country, and Rusinovic (2008) defining them as entrepreneurs who use their

Table 1.4 Typology of entrepreneurs working internationally

Term

Consumers-as-international entrepreneurs

Definition

Individual consumers and online communities of consumers who identify, evaluate and exploit opportunities across national borders to create and distribute products for both financial and non-financial reasons (Chandra and Coviello 2010). With the rise of e-commerce sites, such as Amazon, anyone, anywhere, with internet connection can potentially trade internationally

Self-initiated expatriate entrepreneur

Hi-impact self-initiated expatriate social entrepreneur

Individuals who expatriate themselves from their home country without the support of an employing company and set up their own enterprise

Individuals who expatriate themselves from their home country without the support of an employing company and set up their own enterprise, but who also have a profound impact on their host country

Diaspora entrepreneur

Migrants and their descendants who establish entrepreneurial activities that span the national business environments of their countries of origin and countries of residence (Riddle et al. 2010)

Immigrant/migrant entrepreneur

An entrepreneur who has recently arrived in a country other than their country of origin and who start their own companies as a means of economic survival

Trailing spouse entrepreneur

The spouse of a business person who has been seconded overseas. He/she sets up a business in their new country and when their spouse is given a new assignment, the entrepreneur either ceases business or continues it at the next destination

Ethnic entrepreneur

An entrepreneur who has a regular set of connections and interactions with others who share a common national background

Minority entrepreneur

Business owners who do not belong to the majority population

Expat-preneur

Expat-preneurs are businesspeople who have moved abroad on their own initiative and started or joined a new commercial venture in the host country (Vance et al. 2016)

contacts in their home country to conduct business in their new host country. Many of these definitions show an entrepreneur who maintains a strong link between his/ her host and home country, however in our study, although the entrepreneurs do this to some extent, they are more independent in that they choose to start a business in the host country without necessarily having a connection to the home country. Thus, based on a review of the literature, for the purpose of this book, the entrepreneurs in our study are defined as self-initiated expatriate entrepreneurs (SIEEs).

In this sense, if we define transnational entrepreneurs as individuals who carry out cross-national trade and who are embedded in two different societies, then our

1.4 Who Is the Entrepreneur in This Book? 9

SIEEs are somewhat different as you will see from their stories, the majority of them do not depend on success, both at home and host country.

Table 1.5 highlights a sample of expatriate entrepreneur research that has been conducted over the last 15 years, found through a search of the term expatriate entrepreneur, in order to position our study in the context of a wider field of research (at the top of the table). All the samples we explored had some degree of difficulty in definitively defining expatriate entrepreneur.

By no means is this an exhaustive list, but it does begin to shed light on the types of studies researchers are engaging in that fall under the expatriate entrepreneur umbrella.

Table 1.5 Sample of expatriate entrepreneur research

Seven countries in South East Asia

Theme

Author(s)

Yokoyama and Birchley (2019)

Denmark Adjustment issues; performance; impact of Basaiawmoit and initiatives to attract entrepreneurs Normann (2013)

Various Bamboo network; Chinese expatriate Weidenbaum and entrepreneurs Hugley (1996)

France/Spain Self-employed expatriates with lifestyle Stone and Stubbs objectives; lifestyle expats (2007)

Honduras Personality; investment activity Befus et al. (1988)

Norway Tourism entrepreneurs Iversen et al. (2016)

Thailand EU expatriate coping strategies and culture of | Egan and

Tosanguan (2009)

United Kingdom

Korean expatriate business owners; sensemaking and adjustment issues

Lowe et al. (2011)

Vietnam Westerners in Vietnam; hybrid expatriate McHenry and entrepreneurship Welch (2018)

Namibia Chinese expatriate entrepreneurs opening Dobler (2009) shops

The Gulf Indian entrepreneurs Vora (2011)

Qatar White collar Indian expatriate entrepreneurs; Kanchana (2012)

United Kingdom emergence of new sectors

Potential of South African expatriate entrepreneurs du Plessis (2009)

The Gulf

Globalized knowledge society and expatriate entrepreneurs

South Korea

Motivational success factors and foreign entrepreneurs

Walcutt (2015)

Various Middle eastern expatriate entrepreneurs and Jaramillo et al. the Rokeach value survey (2012) Poland Foreign entrepreneurs in Poland; arrival Johnson (2006)

narratives

1.5 Self-initiated Expatriate Entrepreneurs

To provide a concrete definition of SIEEs, it is helpful to understand self-initiated expatriates (SIEs). SIEs are defined as individuals who expatriate themselves from their home country without the support of an employing company (Inkson and Richardson 2010). Research on self-initiated expatriates (SIEs), in general, has been increasing significantly in the past 10 years (Beitin 2012; Cao et al. 2013; Al Ariss and Crowley-Henry 2013; Doherty et al. 2011). As Vaiman et al. (2015) state, there is no clear definition of SIEs. The definition criteria by Cerdin and Selmer (2014) go some way to defining the SIEs described in our study, in that the SIE engages in self-initiated international relocation. Research on Japanese SIEs, in particular, is an under-explored field. Peltokori and Froess (2009) identified differences between organizational expatriates (OEs) (those who are dispatched by their home companies to international posts) and self-initiated expatriates (SIEs) (those who make their own decision to live and abroad). However, the target group of this study was Japanese expatriates who work overseas.

The key difference is that SIEs in our research choose not to work for an already established company and are not relocated by their company, but to set up their own company in a host country; therefore, they are termed self-initiated expatriate entrepreneurs (SIEEs). Research on this aspect of TE in a non-Western context, particularly Japanese, is a new addition to the field and contributes to Al Ariss and Crowley-Henry’s (2013) call for research that is context-specific.

In order to qualify for this study, the SIEEs presented in this book fulfill the following criteria, loosely based on Cerdin and Selma (2014):

(a) the entrepreneur was born in Japan or has Japanese nationality;

(b) the entrepreneur engaged in self-initiated international relocation;

(c) the entrepreneur has regular employment (intentions) through his/her own company;

(d) the entrepreneur has intentions of a temporary stay (initially);

(e) the entrepreneur has skills/professional qualifications.

Thus, the entrepreneur is ultimately, solely in charge of his/her own international mobility and success. In line with Dyer’s (1994) theory on entrepreneurial careers, SIEEs are acutely aware that it is their own choice to veer from a traditional path to engage in an entrepreneurial career. Research on overseas expatriates shows there are many factors that drive an individual to pursue this kind of career, such as their human and social capital (Davidsson and Honig 2003), their family background and personal circumstances (Vance and McNulty 2014), their personality (Baron et al. 2011), their ability to take risks (Hayward et al. 2010), their exposure and connection to the new country (Vance and McNulty 2014), the attitudes and mindsets, global and entrepreneurial, that they exhibit (Yokoyama and Birchley 2017) similarly; these can also be studied in the context of SIEEs.

1.5 Self-initiated Expatriate Entrepreneurs 11

As suggested at the start of this book, the world is globalizing and becoming even more connected. The migration of people, knowledge and ideas, and the study of the nexus of these elements are increasingly pertinent for our understanding of the world. Particularly in South East Asia, as you will see in Chap. 3, the changing economy and inter-regional migration patterns make a study on transnational entrepreneurship essential for gaining a better understanding of the region and its possible future. From a Japanese perspective, little has been written about Japanese entrepreneurs, let alone Japanese self-initiated expatriate entrepreneurs, in English, hence we are pleased to be able to share the stories of these entrepreneurs with a wider audience to aid understanding of the culture, business and economics of the country and wider region, and to encourage debate on how best to research these themes.

1.6 How Are We Approaching Transnational Entrepreneurship?

In this book, we view TEs through a constructivist lens and interpretive paradigm. We are not the first researchers to use social constructivism and we hope there may be more who expand the research agenda on these ideas. We agree with Chandler (1994) that any phenomenon that results from human agency (such as entrepreneurship) does not occur naturally; it is shaped by social, political, cultural and historical contexts. As this research is set in a constructivist paradigm, that means it is conceptualized as having aspects of both the post-positivist and interpretivist paradigms—ontological critical realism with epistemological subjectivism. In this study, meaning is created through an interaction of the interpreter and the interpreted (Crotty 1998). The findings are produced by the interaction between the interpreter and the interpreted, as situated in society, thus knowledge of the observed, in this case the SIEEs, is constructed rather than discovered.