From Host Country Nationals to Entrepreneurs: Insights from Professional Service Ventures in Vietnam

Working for multinational companies (MNCs) is often viewed as a privilege for host country nationals (HCNs) in emerging economies. This raises the question: Why do HCNs leave their jobs to pursue the hardship of establishing their own business? This article addresses this question by adopting a phenomenon-based approach to study 12 professional service firms in Vietnam. We explore why HCNs initially become entrepreneurs and identify how they make this transition. We reveal several idiosyncratic motivations and identify four types of migration pathways: MNC returnee, committed hybrid, transitional hybrid, and direct spin-off. Our findings address the shortcomings of the existing HCNs literature that centers on MNCs’ view and employee entrepreneurship literature that overlooks the context of emerging markets. We find evidence that institutional voids often promote, rather than suppress, entrepreneurship in emerging markets. Importantly, by taking a local perspective, our findings help MNCs increase their awareness that in the fast-growing market of Vietnam, a brain drain might occur as a result of HCNs becoming entrepreneurs. 在新兴经济体中，就职于跨国公司 (MNC) 常被东道国公民 (HCN) 视为一种荣耀。可是为什么有些人会辞去在跨国公司的工作，转而开始艰辛创业呢？为探索此问题，本文采用基于现象的方法研究了越南的 12 家专业服务公司，集中探讨这类人群为何选择成为创业者，并识别他们如何实现这一身份转变的过程。本文发现，新兴市场的制度缺失非但没有压制——反而促进了创业精神的发扬。作者揭示了若干创业动机，并确定了四种类型的身份转变途径：跨国公司海归创业、创业和就业双栖、从就业过渡到创业、和直接离职创业。本文的结果弥补了现有文献以跨国公司视角为中心的不足，以及员工创业文献忽视新兴市场背景的缺陷。更重要的是，本文采用当地视角的研究结果有助于跨国公司认识到，在象越南这一类快速增长的市场中，他们很可能因为本土员工想自己创业而失去人才。