We are delighted to share that PhD candidate Thazin Win, from the International Executive School, has published compelling research on how single mothers in Myanmar build and sustain businesses amid the economic collapse and social upheaval that followed the 2021 military coup. The study was co-authored with Dr. Zina Kyriakou.

Entrepreneurship research has long been shaped by Western, relatively stable contexts, leaving little room to understand the millions of women in the Global South who build livelihoods out of necessity while raising children alone, often in societies that stigmatize their family status. Win and Kyriakou’s study steps into this gap, centering the voices of single mother entrepreneurs navigating one of the most severe crises in Myanmar’s modern history.

The research traces how these women moved from necessity to agency, turned shared stigma into solidarity, and redefined entrepreneurial success around caregiving rather than profit. In doing so, it challenges deficit-based narratives about women’s entrepreneurship in the Global South, revealing instead the resilient, care-centered economies these women have quietly built for themselves and their families.

We congratulate Thazin Win on this meaningful contribution to feminist entrepreneurship scholarship, and take pride in supporting research that gives voice to women building lives and livelihoods under Myanmar’s most difficult circumstances.

Reference: Win, T., & Kyriakou, Z. (2026). Between Caregiving and Commerce: Single Mothers’ Entrepreneurship in Crisis-Era Myanmar. The Asian Conference on the Social Sciences 2026: Official Conference Proceedings.

Link to Study: Between Caregiving and Commerce: Single Mothers’ Entrepreneurship in Crisis-Era Myanmar – The IAFOR Research Archive