Title of Research: An analysis of the start-up and operation of Chinese entrepreneurial immigrants in Maputo, Mozambique

Supervisor: Theus Louw and Professor Lynette Louw

Abstract: 

China’s motivation to expand into Africa is largely based on resource exploitation, creating political alliances, trade, and investment. Africa, a land rich in natural resources, has become a destination for China to establish entrepreneurial endeavours. Chinese immigrants have become particularly attracted to Mozambique’s healthy business environment and growing economy. There is, in particular, an opportunity for Chinese immigrants to engage in entrepreneurial activities in the retail sectors that fall into the classification of the Mozambican “small, medium and micro-sized enterprises” (SMMEs). To realise their entrepreneurial intentions, Chinese immigrants must have access to business opportunities in the market and to resources.  The aim of this study is to explore the entrepreneurial intentions of Chinese immigrants in the SMME retail sector in Maputo, Mozambique. This study will contribute to a better understanding of how Chinese entrepreneurial immigrants use their resources to start and operate their enterprises in Maputo. This study is further motivated by the limited research available on Chinese immigrant entrepreneurship in Mozambique. In this study, entrepreneurial intentions are identified through push factors (emigration motives in home country) and pull factors (opportunities in host country) using Tengeh’s (2011) framework on effective start-up and operation of businesses. This study falls within the interpretive paradigm, owing to the qualitative nature of the study. The unit of analysis is Chinese entrepreneur immigrants who own and operate enterprises in the SMME retail sector in Maputo. Non-probability purposive sampling and the snowball technique were used to gather data. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 Chinese entrepreneurs in the SMME retail sector with the assistance of a translator who is proficient in Portuguese, English and Mandarin. Content analysis will be used in analysing the data. To conclude, in this abstract the context of this study was set, the purpose was stated and an overview of the research methodology was given. The analysis of the data is a work in progress. It is anticipated that the preliminary findings could be presented at the SAIMS conference in September.

 Biography

 E-mail: geyserfiona@gmail.com

Last Modified: Sun, 12 Nov 2017 23:03:14 SAST