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Institutional Reform and Diaspora Entrepreneurs: The In-Between Advantage

Online ISBN:
9780190278250
Print ISBN:
9780190278229
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Book

Institutional Reform and Diaspora Entrepreneurs: The In-Between Advantage

Jennifer M. Brinkerhoff
Jennifer M. Brinkerhoff

Professor, Public Administration and International Affairs

Professor, Public Administration and International Affairs, Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University
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Published online:
18 August 2016
Published in print:
29 September 2016
Online ISBN:
9780190278250
Print ISBN:
9780190278229
Publisher:
Oxford University Press

Abstract

Externally promoted institutional reform, even when nominally accepted by developing country governments, often fails to deliver lasting change. Diasporans—immigrants who still feel a connection to their country of origin—may offer an in-between advantage for institutional reform, which links problem understanding with potential solutions, and encompasses vision, impact, operational, and psychosocial advantages. Individuals with entrepreneurial characteristics can catalyze institutional reform. Diasporans may have particular advantages for entrepreneurship, as they live both psychologically and materially between the place of origin they left and the new destination they have embraced. Their entrepreneurial characteristics may be accidental, cultivated through the migration and diaspora experience, or innate to individuals’ personalities. This book articulates the diaspora institutional entrepreneur in-between advantage, proposes a model for understanding the characteristics and motivational influences of entrepreneurs generally and how they apply to diaspora entrepreneurs in particular, and presents a staged model of institutional entrepreneur actions. I test these frameworks through case narratives of social institutional reform in Egypt, economic institutional reform in Ethiopia, and political institutional reform in Chad. The book articulates an approach to doing development differently and fills a gap in our understanding of agency in institutional reform, including a more complete understanding of entrepreneurism.

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