Understanding the process of starting up and managing the performance of a refugee enterprise: a critical realist case study

This study applies a critical realist framework of agential reflexivity to investigate the process by which an African refugee woman and her family established and developed a social enterprise in London. More specifically, the study examines how agential reflexivity can help to understand the process through which a refugee entrepreneur transforms potential business opportunities into a successful business. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected from a case study conducted at Bravo from 2010 to 2023. The findings show that over the years, the entrepreneurial process progressed through fractured, autonomous, communicative, and metareflexive processes. The entrepreneur combined strategic decisions with routine actions that were adapted to each business context. Potential business opportunities continued to emerge, and the reflexive entrepreneur transformed them into a successful venture, illustrating how the process of structural conditioning and internal conversation actualised the realisation of business potential.