Managing work–life borders in global mobility: work–life balance and resilience among expatriate entrepreneurs in Dubai’s tourism sector

Purpose This study examines how expatriate entrepreneurs in Dubai’s tourism sector experience work–life balance (WLB) challenges, negotiate work–life boundaries and develop resilience in a host-country context shaped by cultural dislocation, service intensity and entrepreneurial uncertainty. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on work–life border theory, the study adopts a qualitative design based on semi-structured interviews with 30 expatriate entrepreneurs operating tourism-related businesses in Dubai. The data were analysed thematically to identify work–life pressures, boundary-management strategies and resilience processes. Findings The findings show that expatriate entrepreneurs experience chronic work–life imbalance due to constant availability expectations, emotional labour, seasonality, financial uncertainty and limited social support. Participants manage these pressures through flexible temporal boundaries, selective use of technology, peer support and evolving definitions of entrepreneurial success. Participants described resilience as developing through ongoing boundary recalibration rather than reflecting a fixed personal trait. Originality/value The study proposes the compounded border vulnerability and resilience (CBVR) Model, which maps how expatriate tourism entrepreneurs move from structurally compounded border vulnerability, through adaptive boundary negotiation, to emergent resilience. The proposed model extends work–life border theory by suggesting how self-employment, expatriation and tourism-sector intensity jointly produce structurally weak work–life borders and reconceptualises resilience as a developmental outcome of repeated boundary recalibration rather than a fixed personal trait.