Public policy and expatriate entrepreneurs

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between demographic and public policy with the entrepreneurial related variables of entrepreneurial orientation, self employment, customer service, and leadership. Design/methodology/approach – Results from 264 first generation expatriate entrepreneurs from Lebanon are used in order to examine the relationships between the variables using a mail questionnaire. Findings – It was found that educational level was important with all of the dependent variables and that the public policy variable of Property Rights was related to entrepreneurial orientation. Research limitations/implications – The major limitation of the research is that there was range restriction in the dependent variables, likely due to the sample characteristic of them all being expatriate entrepreneurs. The major implications of the study include that additional research should examine the importance of public policy variables with entrepreneurs and the importance of education in encouraging entrepreneurial activities. Originality/value – Very little research has examined expatriate entrepreneurs and nearly none has examined the relationship between public policy and expatriate entrepreneurship.