From displacement to economic agency: Afghan refugee women’s entrepreneurial integration

Purpose To understand sustainable entrepreneurial integration in conflict affected displacement context, this study aims to examine how Afghan refugee women create economic agency through entrepreneurship. Design/methodology/approach Using the gioia methodology for systematic inductive theory, in-depth interviews were conducted with 14 Afghan women entrepreneurs. The analysis included document analysis, observational fieldwork and secondary informant interviews. Findings The study resulted in the following aggregate dimensions: a) Necessity-driven economic agency construction b) cultural brokering as market strategy c) enclave-embedded network mobilisation d) trust building through embodied labour and e) gendered legitimacy navigation. A five-stage integrated process model was developed from these dimensions focusing on development from crisis-driven commencement to market adaptation, legitimacy consolidation and identity rehabilitation. Research limitations/implications The study theorises gendered refugee entrepreneurial agency as relational and processual. It applied mixed embeddedness theory to contexts in the global south informal economy. Policymakers, NGOs and host communities have specific recommendation for stage specific legislative frameworks and collective organisation development. The study shows how entrepreneurship can help displaced women achieve cultural preservation, dignity and cross community integration. This has implications for peacebuilding through business. Originality/value The study extends mixed embeddedness theory to informal global south economies by theorising the normality of informality as a structural condition. It conceptualises cultural brokering as a social innovation mechanism rather than a heritage commodification. It identifies embodied labour as a trust-substitution mechanism under institutional voids and it advances a processual, five stage model of refugee women’s entrepreneurial integration.