This research aims to enhance our knowledge and understanding of refugee entrepreneurship by investigating the Syrian refugees’ entrepreneurial journey in the UK through the lens of structuration theory. While the extant literature provides limited research about refugee entrepreneurship, there is a shortage of knowledge about the dynamic interaction between the structural environment in host countries and the refugee entrepreneurs and how this impacts their entrepreneurial journey. Following a phenomenological perspective, data was collected using 25 semi-structured interviews with Syrian refugee entrepreneurs, both male and female, who started their entrepreneurial journey in the UK after being displaced as a result of the civil war in Syria in 2011. Building on the structuration theory, this research identified favourable and unfavourable structural factors, as well as agency factors, which influence the entrepreneurial journey of Syrian refugees in the UK. The research classifies the entrepreneurial journey into two phases- development of entrepreneurial intentions and transformational of entrepreneurial intentions into actions (i.e., setting up ventures). The findings of this research reveal that the two phases are a result of dynamic interaction between the structural factors and agency factors. To be more specific, regarding the first phase, this research finds that agency factors in a context, i.e., prior knowledge and experience to manage business activities, develop other agency factors, i.e., self-confidence. While pre-existing agency factors mean agency factors exist from the beginning, i.e., knowledge and experience, do not influence the structure, the agency factors that are newly developed, i.e., self-confidence, create an influence on the structure. This research finds that self-confidence enabled Syrian refugees to overcome unfavourable structural factors to create their entrepreneurial intention. Regarding the second phase, the research findings suggest that the refugees' journey influences the entrepreneurial journey. Here, the refugees’ journey is one structure, and the entrepreneurial journey is another. However, they both involve the same agents, i.e., Syrian refugee entrepreneurs. This research reveals that agency factors that influence a structure, i.e., risk resilience and flexibility, helped Syrian refugees to establish their ventures in the UK, and these agency factors were developed from another structure, i.e., the refugee journey
| Date of Award | 12 Jul 2024 |
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| Original language | English |
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| Supervisor | Jun Li (Main Supervisor) & Honglan Yu (Co-Supervisor) |
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