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The Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) has a socialist transition economy with a high growth rate of entrepreneurial families compared to other member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Economic Community. A significant challenge for entrepreneurial family growth includes vigorously seeking the capital assets necessary for their survival, due to ongoing competition. The purpose of this paper is to estimate the capital assets of Laotian entrepreneurial families require to be competitive in the garment industry.

The study adopted a multi-stage sampling technique, with a representative sample size of 350 Laotian entrepreneurial families. The approach was a structural schedule interview at participating families home addresses between August and December 2017. The study uses a three-stage least squares (3SLS) regression model to estimate whether capital assets have a positive association with competition and was organised with the assistance of Stata 16, a software programme.

The main findings show that, using the 3SLS regression model as the instrument, the values are almost identical and fit the data well. The model shows that capital assets (human, financial, social, physical and natural) have a positive and significant relationship with competition. The study suggests that financial capital is a major determinant of the capital assets to build competitive advantage.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first research to estimate the capital assets of Laotian entrepreneurial families in Vientiane, Lao PDR. The findings contribute to research about existing optimal capital assets that can be used to maintain long-term competitive advantage.

Transnational migration is a key challenge in migrant-sending and host-receiving countries. However, relatively little is known about how migrants use network capital to foster small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore how network capital fosters Laotian migrant workers in Thai family SMEs.

This research was conducted using qualitative network analysis (QNA). Referral snowball sampling was used to draw 20 participants from December 2021 to March 2022. Data analysis was performed using Gephi, a software package developed for QNA (coding, network features, measure nodes and network metrics).

The main findings are the following four emerging themes: chain networks, social networks, human networks and financial networks are associated with network capital for fostering Laotian migrant workers in Thai family SMEs.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first QNA to explore how Laotian migrant workers use network capital in Thai family SMEs.

The purpose of this study is to apply a grounded theory (GT) approach to develop a theory of resistance to change in the financial management of Laotian family firms.

The research adopts a GT approach, using a theoretical sampling procedure. Interviews were conducted with 36 Laotian family firms between April 2017 and May 2019. The in-depth interview transcriptions were analyed using open coding, axial coding and selective coding.

The interviewees identified that strategic planning, budgeting and management processes are factors influencing resistance to change. Research results show that accounting portfolios, investment decisions and return on assets are aspects of financial management that are particularly prone to change. The authors, therefore, suggest that Laotian family firms’ reduction in confidence and loss aversion may activate resistance to the adoption of more efficient financial management practices.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first research to attempt to use grounded data to emerge a theory of resistance to change in financial management in Laos.

This paper aims to explore the contextual role of social-cultural capital in youth entrepreneurship between Malaysia and Lao PDR/Laos, comparing two different entrepreneurial ecosystems designed to identify emergent factors that stimulate and/or stifle the genesis of youth entrepreneurship while identifying similar and divergent entrepreneurial identities and traits among young people from these two sovereign contexts.

Utilizing qualitative-based case study design approach, data collections were garnered from 30 informants through in-depth personal interviews, focus group studies coupled with personal observation conducted via purposive cum snowball sampling.

Thematic analysis reveals a pattern-based outcome that discloses a variety of inter-related factors within the social network ecosystem that stimulate and sometimes stifle youth entrepreneurship, primarily through the active agency of social-cultural capital.

Entrepreneurial ecosystem contextual differences between Malaysia and Laos demonstrate the unifying factor of social-cultural capital through social network in stimulating youth entrepreneurship and unveiling practical similarities and differences that can be used to promote youth entrepreneurial endeavors among varying sovereign socio-economic contexts in ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Countries).

This study specifically focuses on the unambiguous contextual differences of two sovereign entrepreneurship ecosystems. Contextual differences may not necessarily demarcate further the gulf of differences within and between two sovereign entrepreneurship ecosystems but, on the contrary, may close the gap through the dynamic role of social-cultural capital via social network ties in youth entrepreneurship.

The purpose of this study is to explore the drivers of innovative behaviour of sustainable community-based enterprises (SCBEs) in the Mahasarakham province, Thailand.

Drawing on insights from a qualitative case study method, this paper uses a purposive sampling technique with 30 SCBEs from December 2019 to December 2020. This study uses in-depth interviews and applied content analysis (e.g. theme, categorisation, quotation and coding), using the ATLAS.ti software.

This case study shows that transforming the community into an enterprise is related to creation, venture and innovative management, sustained in community-based enterprises. The findings reveal that innovative behaviour is associated with intention, thinking, orientation, product development, service, collaboration, competition and technology, which drives SCBEs.

This study contributes to the understanding of community-based group and cooperative community-based enterprise with innovative behaviour, which can drive SCBEs growth.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the sources of financing accumulation that women entrepreneurs of family businesses use for start-up capital in the garment sector of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR).

This study presents insights gleaned from a qualitative case study into the ways in which women in Lao PDR finance their family businesses in the start-up phase. The authors conducted 36 in-depth interviews – the study used this purposive sample in each of its five rounds of data collection. The data were collected between December 2018 and April 2019 and were analysed by conducting a content analysis assisted by the software programme ATLAS.ti.

The results, though highly case specific, show Lao women’s ability to: accrue their experience, apply their knowledge, engage in self-employment, support their families and aspire to become entrepreneurs. The findings clearly illustrate that women are opportunity and necessity driven, can accumulate income, possess savings behaviour, can manage working capital, investment and accounting and have access to finance (loan and debt) and thus have the potential to become successful entrepreneurs.

By contextualizing women’s entrepreneurial practices, the paper contributes to an understanding of the sources of financing accumulation used for start-up capital in Vientiane, Lao PDR. Theoretically, the paper extends the knowledge of women entrepreneurs seeking the optimal stock of finance which has the potential to drive family business success.

Understanding student’s intentions with regard to entrepreneurship as a possible career pathway is important for the development of the formal economy. Presented here are the results from a longitudinal study conducted between 2010 and 2014 involving a sample of 1,513 undergraduate students, of which 54 agreed to be interviewed. The research is qualitative and has combined the Opportunity Structure with the Theory of Planned Behavior to understand the reasons why students chose to start a business either just prior to or within one year of entering university, and their intentions upon graduating. The results show that many of these businesses sit within the informal economy, and may be categorized as low growth businesses with few skill requirements. Importantly, the research has discovered that these students are also highly strategic with regard to educational pathways, and many of these businesses are focused on delivering and/or sustaining a particular lifestyle while at university.

The relationship between the offshore oil and gas industry and southern Louisiana has been one of ongoing, mutual adaptation. The industry has long been cyclical, responding to price changes, corporate decisions, and federal and state policies. Today, however, the industry offers little guarantee of employment, difficult terms of advancement, and, in general, an uncertain future. Many of the young men and women of the communities of southern Louisiana are looking elsewhere for work. As the local labor sources diminish, companies seek out new labor supplies, including workers from outside the region and from other parts of the world. This paper discusses some of the processes that corroded the unique relationship between the region, its people, and this industry.

With the state in Massachusetts in debt, rising taxes, plummeting housing prices, rising unemployment and a recession, complete with bank failures, company closings and bankruptcies, the Miracle, on which its former Governor Dukakis hoped to enter the White House, has become more of a Massachusetts Black Hole. Like most events, its collapse were a result of its apparently great successes. The collapse, which began in 1989 and was readily apparent by 1990, was in fact predestined by a peak which had occurred in the early 1980s. Small events through the middle of the decade also gave plenty of warning to observant watchers.

The introduction of the 22 member countries of the 4+10+2+6 model of the Asian economy is the immediate task. Japan, Korea, China, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar constitute the now-famous 4+10 model. Following the principle of inclusion, Mongolia, Chinese Taipei, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan, the Maldives, and Sri Lanka, as they belong to the regional map of the continent of Asia, are the eight remaining member countries (see Chapter 1). An overview of Asia's 22 member continental economy the AE-22, with its 3.6 billion people (2006) who have made the region of Asia their home in a land area of 20.5 million km² should be welcome. To put these figures in perspective, the AE-22 comprises only 13.7 percent of the world's land area, but is home to over half the world's population. Tables 2.1–2.4, presented below, illustrate the various figures relating to population, land area, GDP, and GDP per capita of the member nations of the AE-22.