Business On Fire: A Study Of Motivations Behind Entrepreneurial Activities of Internally Displaced Persons in Kyiv

Abstract: This study explored an exemplifying case of the business activities of Donbasi Internally Displaced Persons in order to examine a relationship between entrepreneurs’ necessity motivation and growth orientation. Three main questions were addressed to generate this knowledge: How are displaced entrepreneurs making a living? Why are they doing what they are doing? How do they foresee the future of their activities? An extensive qualitative data collection included document review, expert interviews, fieldwork observations and two rounds of semistructured interviews with 12 displaced entrepreneurs. The findings of this empirical material showed that displaced entrepreneurs’ activities are differently influenced by the context. They are pushed to pursue entrepreneurial activities in order to secure their livelihoods. Yet, the study also found that this necessity can motivate people to innovate or seek profit opportunities that were not available before the conflict. This research found that restoring their former quality of life and livelihood is a factor that may motivate displaced entrepreneurs’ future growth ambitions. Based on this evidence, the study concluded that necessity-motivated entrepreneurial activities result from different motivations in short and long-term perspectives. For this reason, necessity motivation can not predict the growth ambitions and contribution potential of entrepreneurs.