Refugee women's entrepreneurship: where from and where to next?

Abstract

PurposeThis reflective paper offers an overview on how refugee women's entrepreneurship scholarship evolved, and suggests research directions for the future development of the field.Design/methodology/approachA reflective approach encompassing the evolvement of the field of refugee women's entrepreneurship research.FindingsWhilst refugee women's entrepreneurship scholarship and research, and its interlinks with resilience, empowerment, gender, and livelihoods theoretical framings have flourished in recent years, it remains a relatively young scholarship area, evolving from a broad social science multi-disciplinary base including refugee studies, economics, and development, rather than mainstream business disciplines.Originality/valueRefugee women's entrepreneurship offers a novel approach and contribution to the broader and established gender and entrepreneurship field. Nevertheless, critical research questions and gaps remain within the growing refugee women's entrepreneurship scholarship regarding the potential of entrepreneuring to empower refugee women socially, economically, and politically.

Empowering Rohingya Refugees through Islamic Microfinance Exploring Prospects and Challenges in Bangladesh

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“…This study is important because it examines how Islamic microfinance can empower Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh (Abdul Zalim, 2022;Al-Dajani, 2022;Purwanto et al, 2022). The results will benefit policymakers, practitioners, and humanitarian organizations in refugee environments.…”

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“…Entrepreneurship research and family entrepreneurship literature is still dominated by publications that address the developed contexts in the Global North (Contreras and Dornberger, 2022). However, entrepreneurship has an increasing importance in development agendas in the Global South, in particular as an emancipatory tool for women’s social and economic advancement and women’s empowerment (Al-Dajani, 2022; Ojediran and Anderson, 2020; Bastian et al , 2019). Thus, the inclusion of this regional perspective enriches the existing literature, providing a more globally representative understanding of the interplay between family entrepreneurship, gender equality and women's empowerment.…”