Enhancing the productive engagement of COVID-19-driven workers' exodus through micro-entrepreneurship: accentuated role of de-globalization and local innovations

Komboltz's happenstance learning theory (HLT) posits that uncertainty in the environment has a deep impact on occupational choices. Accordingly, the choice of occupation is the outcome of planned and unplanned events during the life cycle of a person. Through evidence from literature, this article draws theoretical strength to a conceptual framework in which the affective status of COVID-19-driven workers' exodus (an unplanned event) could encourage them to undertake micro-entrepreneurship as an occupational choice. The framework extends the HLT by adding risk propensity in a mediating role and evaluates de-globalization and local innovation as exogenous changes in influencing micro-entrepreneurial initiatives. The interplay between affective status, risk propensity, and micro-entrepreneurship in light of de-globalization and local innovation is conceptualized uniquely, and in this manner, the study presents a novel application of HLT. As an outcome, the framework supports the idea that in a situation of forceful reverse migration, affective status along with risk propensity, in an environment of reducing globalization as well as local innovations, is advantageous for micro-entrepreneurship. The proposed framework offers insight into the productive engagement of COVID-19-driven workers' exodus, thus abating the remigration of workers, which would be a win-win situation for rural and urban societies.