What Enables and Restrains Business Entrepreneurship in Refugee Camps in Malawi? A Search for Technology-Related Causal Mechanisms

This paper examines business entrepreneurship in the Dzaleka refugee camp in Malawi. In particular, the research seeks to discover the underlying causal mechanisms that both enable and restrain entrepreneurship in this context. We leverage a critical realist-based philosophical research approach andmethodology to hypothesize these causalmechanisms, and a methodological approach based on critical realism is presented. The research finds that while technology is an important component in the overall environment required for business entrepreneurship to flourish within the refugee camp, the causal mechanisms identified suggest that technology is a not significant enabling or restricting mechanism in this case. Instead, we posit that other non-technology related mechanisms have a more significant enabling or restricting impact on business entrepreneurship in the Dzaleka refugee camp. This is somewhat surprising, as other recent research claims that technology is an integral component required for successful business entrepreneurship. The causal mechanisms that were hypothesized using our methodology are presented, and the implications associated with the lack of technology-related mechanisms in this case, and the associated consequences for future ICT4D related research, are discussed.