Entrepreneurial passion, competencies, and success among refugee entrepreneurs in Uganda: the moderating role of optimism

As governments and development partners increasingly use entrepreneurship to accelerate refugees’ socio-economic integration, it is essential to understand the factors that drive successful refugee entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship can serve as an effective pathway to integration only when refugee-owned businesses succeed. This study contributes to understanding the psychological attributes underlying successful refugee entrepreneurship. Specifically, this study investigated whether optimism moderates the associations between entrepreneurial passion and specific entrepreneurial competencies, including entrepreneurial self-efficacy, entrepreneurial alertness, and risk tolerance, and entrepreneurial success among refugees in Uganda. The study also examined whether these entrepreneurial competencies mediate the association between entrepreneurial passion and success . Using a sample of 214 refugee business owners drawn from urban and rural settlements in Uganda, the study established that entrepreneurial passion indirectly affects entrepreneurial success through the three entrepreneurial competencies. Additionally, optimism moderates both the direct and indirect association between entrepreneurial passion and success. The study is among the initial efforts to demonstrate the substantial roles of entrepreneurial passion and optimism as indicators of personal agency in successful refugee entrepreneurship. Given that these attributes are malleable and subject to development, the study underscores the need to incorporate strategies to foster their development into refugee entrepreneurship promotion and support interventions.