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Southeast Asia’s documented returnee-founder movement emerged mainly during the 2010s.

The Claim

The trend of returnee founders establishing startups in Southeast Asia began developing during the 2000s.

Verified by Lenz ·

The Short Version

Available evidence places Southeast Asia’s recognizable returnee-founder movement mainly in the 2010s, not the 2000s. Sources cited for the earlier period discuss general startup growth or returnee entrepreneurship in China and India rather than a Southeast Asian trend. Although isolated returnee founders may have operated earlier, that does not establish the claimed regional development timeline.

Caveats

  • General startup investment does not establish a trend specifically involving returnee founders.
  • Evidence about China and India cannot be applied directly to Southeast Asia.
  • Isolated earlier founders would not by themselves demonstrate a regional trend.

The Receipts

  1. Entrepreneurial patterns and network leveraging in returnee entrepreneurship: a qualitative study of returnee entrepreneurs in Vietnam

    doi.org

  2. WIDER Research Paper 2006-142 International Mobility of Engineers and the Rise of Entrepreneurship in the Periphery

    wider.unu.edu

  3. Start-up Asia (EN)

    oecd.org

  4. How to Build a Returnee Entrepreneurship Technology Capacity in Developing Countries Using A Learning Economy Approach? Replicating the Chinese Experience in Malaysia

    doi.org

  5. Returning Entrepreneurs vs Indigenous Entrepreneurs: An Investigation of High Technology SMEs in Emerging Markets

    doi.org

  6. Innovation in Southeast Asia (EN)

    oecd.org

  7. Returnee entrepreneurs and the performance implications of political and business relationships under institutional uncertainty - ScienceDirect

    sciencedirect.com

  8. Returnee entrepreneurs in an emerging country context: the role of Ilustrados in the Manila startup ecosystem

    doi.org

  9. Social ties and venture creation by returnee entrepreneurs

    ideas.repec.org

  10. Southeast Asian 'turtles' return home to hatch tech startups

    asia.nikkei.com

Filed Under

Returnee EntrepreneurshipSoutheast Asia

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