Diaspora Networks in International Business ― Perspectives for Understanding and Managing Diaspora Business and Resources

This contributed volume focuses on diasporans, their characteristics, networks, resources and activities in relation to international business and entrepreneurship. It presents an overview of diaspora concepts from an economic perspective, and analyzes the global-economic and societal effects and mechanisms, revealing both positive and negative aspects of diaspora activities. Providing insights into the socio-cultural influences, it discusses diaspora entrepreneurship and international business, the respective organisational models, investments and business types. Lastly it offers an assessment of managing diaspora resources and policymaking.

This book was created by an interdisciplinary team of editors, co-authors and reviewers including historians, sociologists, psychologists, linguists and ethnologists, as well as experts in public policy, international business, marketing and entrepreneurship. This unique team (many of the authors are themselves diasporans with an extensive understanding of their topic) provides the first global academic platform on the subject, combining the latest empirical evidence from developing, emerging, transitional and developed countries with various combinations of diaspora flows that to date have received little attention.

Dr. Maria Elo holds a PhD in economics from Abo Akademi University, Finland. She is a Distinguished Professor of International Business and Entrepreneurship at the School of Economics, Shanghai University, and at the Belt & Road Institute of International Business. She has worked as a consultant for various institutions and businesses; as an international entrepreneur, as a visiting assistant professor of international business at George Washington University, USA; as a professor of international management at FHDW, Germany; as a postdoctoral researcher at Turku School of Economics, University of Turku, Finland; and as a Migration Fellow at the Institute of Migration, Finland. She is a visiting professor at Catolica Porto Business School in Portugal and has lectured in the USA, China, Sweden, Denmark, Greece, Belgium, Germany and Kazakhstan. She is the founder of the Diaspora Networks in International Business and Synergia platforms and the co-founder of the Diaspora Business and Migration and Diaspora Entrepreneurship Conferences and the Finnish-Hellenic Chamber of Commerce. She has acted as a board member of The Society for the Study of Ethnic Relations and International Migration (ETMU). She is also an active reviewer and guest editor, an editorial board member of International Journal of Business and Globalisation and an editorial review board member of European Journal of International Management. Her research focuses on international business, internationalization processes, business networks, migration,diaspora networks, diaspora entrepreneurship, transnational entrepreneurship, intercultural competences and transfer of values and knowledge. Her work is presented in various conferences and published in books, such as Diaspora Business co-edited with Liesl Riddle, Global Mobility of Highly Skilled People, Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Self-initiated Expatriation co-edited with Driss Habti and journals, such as Industrial Marketing Management, International Journal of Manufacturing Technology and Management, Journal of Entrepreneurship, Management and Innovation, International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, Diaspora Studies, Journal of International Entrepreneurship and Journal of International Management.