Return Migrant Entrepreneurship (Silva et al., 2025) | ETP FT50

Welcome to Revise and Resubmit, the podcast where we break down cutting-edge research from the world’s most prestigious academic journals. If you’ve ever wondered what fuels the most compelling studies in business and management, you’re in the right place.

Today, we dive into a fascinating question: Why do some migrants return home and launch businesses?

Our featured article, Return Migrant Entrepreneurship: A Systematic Review and Future Research Agenda, is authored by Bárbara G. Silva, Nicholas C. Andriese, and James G. Combs. Published in Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice—one of the elite FT50 journals—this study systematically reviews 80 papers to unravel the institutional, social, and individual forces shaping returnee entrepreneurship. The authors construct a two-stage process model to bring clarity to this fragmented research space and propose a bold future research agenda for scholars in the field.

So, what really drives a return migrant to become an entrepreneur? Is it a homecoming fueled by nostalgia, necessity, or an untapped business opportunity?

Before we explore these ideas, a big thank you to the authors and to Sage Publishing for bringing this research to light. If you enjoy deep dives into groundbreaking academic work, don’t forget to subscribe to Revise and Resubmit on Spotify and check out our YouTube channel, Weekend Researcher. You can also find us on Amazon Prime and Apple Podcasts.

Reference

Silva, B. G., Andriese, N. C., & Combs, J. G. (2025). Return Migrant Entrepreneurship: A Systematic Review and Future Research Agenda. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1177/10422587251322402

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