2022 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Transnational Entrepreneurship: Japanese Diaspora Entrepreneurs in Latin America
| Project/Area Number |
20K01857
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| Research Institution | Toyo Gakuen University |
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Principal Investigator |
バーチュリ セーラ 東洋学園大学, 現代経営学部, 教授 (50508562)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
横山 和子 東洋学園大学, 現代経営学部, 兼任講師 (50230660)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2020-04-01 – 2024-03-31
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| Keywords | Diaspora / Entrepreneurship / Latin America / Japanese / Nikkei / Embeddedness / Multifocality |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
In February-March 2023, we visited Sao Paulo, Brazil and Mexico City, Mexico. In Brazil, we conducted interviews with 7 diaspora entrepreneurs and 16 transnational self-initiated expatriate entrepreneurs. We visited their businesses and spent time engaging with the local nikkei population to gain an insight into the history and culture of the area. We visited various museums of immigration to track the history of Japanese migration and a coffee museum which helped us to understand the working conditions and background of the Japanese migrants to Brazil. In Mexico, we interviewed 6 transnational self-initiated expatriate entrepreneurs and 7 diaspora entrepreneurs. We can now proceed with our book on “Transnational Diaspora Entrepreneurship: Cases from Mexico, Brazil, and Japan.” We have altered the theoretical framework through which we will explore this topic. The theory of multifocality is a better fit for our context. Transnational entrepreneurship conceptualizes the role of multiple places and multiple groups in the creation, identification and seizing of opportunities by transnational migrant entrepreneurs. Multifocality (Solano, 2016) recognises that entrepreneurs belong to a number of groups, may have multiple identities, and work in multiple sites. We want to renew attention on how these individuals and their businesses should be understood beyond the common focus on the ‘country of residence-country of origin’ dichotomy, aiming to look at the complexities of entrepreneurship in this context.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
As the pandemic subsided, we were able to complete field research in Brazil and Mexico, collecting rich interview and field data for analysis. We are currently transcribing and analyzing interview data, checking the contents with the collaborators, and working on writing the first few chapters of the book. We hold weekly meetings to verify the interview records and finalize the theoretical framework. We have an expected publication date of 2024-early 2025. We will also be attending various conferences within 2023 to ensure that we are up to date with the latest research.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
The next steps are to transcribe all the interviews from Mexico and Brazil and get the interview records checked by each collaborator by the end of summer 2023. As we go along we will also be coding and analysing the data. We aim to complete two more chapters to submit to our publisher for initial review within the coming months and work to produce the first draft of the book by Spring 2024.
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| Causes of Carryover |
We will use the remaining funds to support the preparation of a book for publication (interview transcription costs/analysis tools) and to fund international conference participation to disseminate the research findings. The reason for this is because due to the pandemic, we were not able to attend as many conferences as usual and we have developed our findings significantly since the start of the study. In addition, we have a responsibility to publish the book not only to the publisher but also to the collaborators and publish in English, Japanese and also Spanish/Portuguese if funds allow.
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