What drives return and entrepreneurial engagement among malay overseas-educated returnee students?
Abstract
This interdisciplinary paper blends the principles anchored in two distinguished theories namely; migration and entrepreneurship. In Malaysia and in many other countries, the drivers of international students’ return and their entrepreneurial engagement have not been well researched, and the resulting findings not fully unveiled. As such, policy makers are deprived of valuable insights on an important part of the potential that returnee students could bring to the local economies. This paper focused on the scantly-researched field of returnee entrepreneurship in the context of overseas-educated students. It aimed to understand the return conditions of Malay returnee students who chose entrepreneurial career, and the drivers of their entrepreneurial choice. To do this, the study employed a generic qualitative exploratory design to reflect on the entrepreneurial experience of these students. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect in-depth data which were subsequently analysed using thematic analysis. Our findings revealed that students’ return is shaped by two drivers namely: social concerns and institutional obligations which often occur immediately after the end of study. Additionally, the entrepreneurial choice’s drivers are autonomy, role model, employment conditions, and formation of business ideas overseas. Interestingly, we found evidence that the development of business ideas overseas and employment-related issues, as elements that reflect return conditions, were among the reasons that influenced the entrepreneurial choice, and that the development of entrepreneurial intention during the overseas stay was also observed among students who received study sponsors and had a commitment to return. The implications of these findings were discussed.
Keywords: Conditions, entrepreneurship, Malay, overseas-educated, returnee, students
Keywords
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Ahuis, L., Grewe, M. L., Otten, F., & Rolf, H. (2017). Previous Research on Returnee Entrepreneurship. Lemex Research Papers on Entrepreneurship, 2, 28-34.
Alberts, H. C., & Hazen, H. D. (2005). “There are always two voices…”: International students' intentions to stay in the United States or return to their home countries. International migration, 43(3), 131-154.
Alves, E. (2022). Student Mobility: Between Returning Home and Remaining Abroad. In R. King. & K. Kuschminder, (eds.). Handbook of Return Migration (pp. 255-269). Edward Elgar Publishing.
Ammassari, S. (2004). From nation‐building to entrepreneurship: The impact of élite return migrants in Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana. Population, Space and Place, 10(2), 133-154.
Amofah, K., & Saladrigues, R. (2022). Impact of attitude towards entrepreneurship education and role models on entrepreneurial intention. Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, 11(1).
Boddy, C. R. (2016). Sample size for qualitative research. Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, 19(4), 426-432.
Bosma, N., Hessels, J., Schutjens, V., Van Praag, M., & Verheul, I. (2012). Entrepreneurship and role models. Journal of Economic Psychology, 33(2), 410-424.
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77-101.
Cassarino, J. P. (2008). Conditions of modern return migrants–Editorial introduction. International Journal on Multicultural Societies, 10(2), 95-105.
Cassarino, J. P. (2004). Theorising return migration: A revisited conceptual approach to return migrants.
Chur-Hansen, A. (2004). Returning home to work: Malaysian students who studied medicine overseas. Medical Teacher, 26(4), 343-348.
Clark, J. R., & Lee, D. R. (2006). Freedom, entrepreneurship and economic progress. The Journal of Entrepreneurship, 15(1), 1-17.
Del Carpio, X. V., Ozden, C., Testaverde, M., & Wagner, M. (2016). Global migration of talent and tax incentives: evidence from Malaysia's returning expert program. The World Bank.
Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM). (2025). Graduates Statistics 2024.
Ellis, J. L., & Hart, D. L. (2023). Strengthening the Choice for a Generic Qualitative Research Design. Qualitative report, 28(6).
European Union Global Diaspora Facility - EUGDF (2025). Diaspora Engagement Mapping: Malaysia.
Fabeil, N. F., Langgat, J., Pazim, K. H., & Mahmud, R. (2022). Self-employment among graduates during the COVID-19 pandemic: Necessity or opportunity entrepreneurship driven. Economics and Business Quarterly Reviews, 5(1).
Gutema, D. M., Pant, S., & Nikou, S. (2024). Exploring key themes and trends in international student mobility research-A systematic literature review. Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education, 16(3), 843-861.
Gruenhagen, J. H., Davidsson, P., & Sawang, S. (2020). Returnee entrepreneurs: A systematic literature review, thematic analysis, and research agenda. Foundations and Trends in Entrepreneurship, 16(4),
-392.
Gruenhagen, J. H. (2021). Returnee entrepreneurship: How home-country institutions, estrangement and support influence entrepreneurial intentions. Journal of Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies, 13(5), 945-966.
Hari, A., Nardon, L., & Zhang, H. (2023). A transnational lens into international student experiences of the COVID‐19 pandemic. Global Networks, 23(1), 14-30.
Hoffmann, A., Junge, M., & Malchow-Møller, N. (2015). Running in the family: Parental role models in entrepreneurship. Small Business Economics, 44(1), 79-104.
Hofstede, G. (2001). Culture's Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions and Organizations Across Nations. Sage publications.
Hoo, Q. C., Zainal, S. R. M., & Chai, G. E. (2014). Return intentions of Malaysia’s diaspora: The push and pull factors. Case studies in Business and Management, 1(1), 140.
Hugo, G. (2011). Migration and development in Malaysia: An emigration perspective. asian population studies, 7(3), 219-241.
Ismail, M., Kamaruddin, N. A. Y., Baki, N. U., & Rasdi, R. M. (2014). Predictors of career aspiration of Malaysian returnees from European and non-European countries. In Conference paper presented at 15th International Conference on Human Resource Research and Practices Across Europe (pp. 4-6).
Ismail, M., Umar Baki, N., Yeop Kamaruddin, N. A., & Malik, A. (2016). Reverse Brain Drain: Career Aspirations of Malaysian Repatriates. Global Business & Management Research, 8(4), 1-19.
Kahlke, R. M. (2014). Generic qualitative approaches: Pitfalls and benefits of methodological mixology. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 13(1), 37-52.
Kelly, B. C. (2010). Sampling and recruitment issues in qualitative drugs research: Reflections on the study of club drug users in metro New York. Substance Use & Misuse, 45(5), 671-683.
Kenney, M., Breznitz, D., & Murphree, M. (2013). Coming back home after the sun rises: Returnee entrepreneurs and growth of high- tech industries. Research Policy, 42(2), 391-407.
Lim, H. E., Soon, J. J., & Duan, H. (2021). Does entrepreneurial career choice lessen the graduate unemployment problem? The case of Malaysian graduates. Global Business Management Review (GBMR), 13(1), 37-56.
L&CO Chartered Accountants (2026). Malaysia Returning Expert Programme (REP) Overview.
Mohamed, M. A., & Abdul-Talib, A. N. (2020). Non-pecuniary Factors Influencing Diaspora Homeland Investment. In N. Zakaria, A. N. Abdul-Talib, & A. Amelinchkx. (eds.), Transcending Cultural Frontiers: Practices, Challenges, and Strategy for International Business. Springer.
Mohd Nasir, N. F. W. M., Aziya, J. A., & Pazil, N. H. A. (2022). COVID-19 and its effects on social connectedness among Malaysian Malay living abroad. Geografia-Malaysian Journal of Society and Space, 18(2), 236-247.
Mosbah, A., Wahab, K. A., Alharbi, J. A., & Almahdi, H. G. (2020). The influence of length of stay on immigrant entrepreneurship. International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 40(3), 309-321.
Mosbah. A., Beshr, B. A. H., Roslan, S. N. M., Queiri, A., & Al-Jubari, I. (2023). How to build a returnee entrepreneurship technology capacity in developing countries using a learning economy approach? Replicating the Chinese experience in Malaysia. Journal of Law and Sustainable
Development, 11(12), e2414-e2414.
Mosbah, A. (2024). Ensuring Reliability and Validity in Qualitative Social Sciences Research. In Principles of Conducting Qualitative Research in Multicultural Settings (pp. 130-145). IGI Global.
Nyame-Asiamah, F., Amoako, I. O., Amankwah-Amoah, J., & Debrah, Y. A. (2020). Diaspora entrepreneurs’ push and pull institutional factors for investing in Africa: Insights from African returnees from the United Kingdom. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 152, 119876.
Onwuegbuzie, A. J. & Leech, N. L. (2005). The role of sampling in qualitative research. Academic Exchange Quarterly, 9(3), 280.
Reynolds, P., Autio, E., De Bono, N., Servais, I., Lopez-Garcia, P., Chin, N., et al. (2005). Global enterprise monitor: data collection design and implementation 1998–2003. Small Business Economics, 24(3), 205–231
Robinson, O. C. (2014). Sampling in interview-based qualitative research: A theoretical and practical guide. Qualitative research in psychology, 11(1), 25-41.
Roslan, R., Misnan, N. I., & Musa, D. (2020). The influence of higher learning environment and role model towards an entrepreneurial intention among TVET students. Jurnal Intelek, 15(1), 133-142.
Sobel, R. S. (2015). Economic Freedom and Entrepreneurship. In D. J. Boudreaux (Ed.), What America’s Decline in Economic Freedom Means for Entrepreneurship and Prosperity (pp. 37-66). Fraser Institute.
Sirat. M. (2023). Higher Education in Malaysia:Impacts of Study Abroad Programson Academic Institutions. JICA Ogata Sadako Research Institute for Peace and Development.
Sun, J., Li, P., & Wang, Y. (2025). Can the pilot policy of returnee entrepreneurship promote labor income?. Finance Research Letters, 85(C), 108046.
US. International Trade Administration – ITA. (2022). Malaysia Country Commercial Guide.
Van der Zwan, P., Thurik, R., Verheul, I., & Hessels, J. (2016). Factors influencing the entrepreneurial engagement of opportunity and necessity entrepreneurs. Eurasian Business Review, 6(3), 273-295.
Wahab, M. A. (2014). The occurrence of brain drain in Malaysia: Perceptions on to work or not to work overseas in the future. Journal of emerging trends in economics and management sciences, 5(5), 480-489.
Wang, H., & Bao, Y. (2015). Survey on Chinese Returnee Entrepreneurship. In H. Wang, & Y. Bao, (eds), Reverse Migration in Contemporary China (pp. 72-94). Palgrave Macmillan.
Wassink, J. T., & Hagan, J. M. (2018). A dynamic model of self-employment and socioeconomic mobility among return migrants: The case of urban Mexico. Social Forces, 96(3), 1069-1096.
World bank. (2011). Malaysia economic monitor: Brain drain (No. 61483).
Zhang, K., Zeng, N., & Zhang, K. (2022). Remain or return? An empirical study of influencing factors on the return of Chinese international students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 1-17.
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.