Transnational entrepreneurship (TE) has been in the spotlight as an emerging field during the last decade. Previously being viewed from international entrepreneurship (IE) and ethnic entrepreneurship (EE) perspectives, TE has recently demarcating its own territory. However, the exact boundary in which TE differs from IE and EE is yet to be studied. This research is aiming to explore the interface of TE, IE, and EE through the entrepreneurs’ sets of resources—economic, social, cultural, and symbolic capital. By studying the case of ten immigrant entrepreneurs in Jönköping context, we found four key features that distinguish TE with the rest: access to the sets of resources, economic and social development, ownership structure, and business operations.

This dissertation will examine the Vietnamese communities of Texas and consists of two parts. The first part explores the circumstances that stimulated the growth and eventual dominance of Vietnamese immigrants in two entrepreneurial niches – the nail salon and the shrimping industry. This study is thus a sociological examination of private enterprise, and the first research objective is to investigate the roles of the various market and non-market factors that were crucial in fueling the development of these two businesses. In the sociology of entrepreneurship, a key concern is locating the causal determinants of entrepreneurship. That is, aside from regular market forces, the social conditions associated with patterns of entrepreneurship need to be investigated. This study therefore explores the political, institutional, and cultural circumstances that help to explain the development of the nail salon and fishery businesses in Texas that market forces cannot govern. The second research objective of this dissertation is to use a racial formations framework to investigate the racial implications of the proliferation of these two entrepreneurial niches in their respective communities. The growth and spread of these businesses have had consequences for the loss of traditional community, the construction of racial identity, and the maintenance or reconstruction of new racial identity in the context of a multicultural work setting that includes other racial and ethnic minorities. The following seeks to provide insight into these racial phenomena by way of the case of Vietnamese Americans engaged in entrepreneurship. / text

<p>The issue of unemployment among immigrants in Sweden started from 1980s when a large amount of immigrants had no access to the labour market (Sördersten, 2004). Many foreign born citizens who could not find any jobs have to live on social welfare. Some of them have found a way to solve their unemployment by becoming self-employed. In 2003, Swedish Integration Board reported that the proportion of self-employment in Sweden was 7.4 percent. This proportion was higher among foreign-born (8.8 percent) compared to native Swedes (7.3 percent).</p><p>It is of great academic interest for our group to conduct research on immigrant’s business entry decisions. This thesis specifically focuses on identifying and understanding the factors that influence immigrants’ decision to start up their business. This research was conducted in Jönköping municipality by doing a case study on nine ethnic entrepreneurs who come from Non-EU countries, namely: China, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Uganda and Vietnam.</p><p>Many studies have been carried out on the topic of ethnic entrepreneurship by researchers such as Waldinger et al. (1990), Basu (1998), Curran and Blackburn (1993), Najib (1999) and Ram (1994). Previous studies will be treated in this thesis as a source of evidence and theoretical framework.</p><p>Qualitative method was used in this thesis. Case study is particularly chosen as the most appropriate tool in qualitative method to conduct this specific research. In order to obtain information for this case study, semi-structured interview with guideline questions was used. Nine cases including: five restaurants, one clothing store, one cosmetic shop, one assembling company and one carpet shop were selected in this study.</p><p>The results of this study showed that, the factors that motivated ethnic entrepreneurs’ decision to start their own business were: selective immigration, entrepreneurial traits, blocked mobility, opportunity recognition, level of education, desire for independence and autonomy, financial betterment, business background and previous business experience, business culture values, interests and hobbies.</p><p>However, opportunity recognition, level of education, desire for independence and autonomy and financial betterment were the factors that played a significant role in immigrant business decision making process.</p><p>The result also shows that positive (pull) factors outweighed negative (push) factors in immigrants’ decision to enter self-employment.</p><p>One alternative to unemployment is to become self-employed. It is highly possible that self-employment will lead to lower unemployment among immigrants (Hammarstedt, 2001). It should be in interest of the Swedish government to support self-employment since it will contribute to the growth of the Swedish economy.</p><p>This thesis may be of interest to Jönköping municipality and other governmental organizations as well as policy makers. It might help them to improve the integration level of immigrants into Swedish society, unemployment level or encourage self-employment by understanding the factors affecting immigrants to start up their own businesses.</p>

The aim of this thesis is to understand the phenomenon of succession among South Asian small family businesses based in Scotland. It explores the reluctance of the younger generation towards choosing family businesses as their careers. The thesis aims to understand the career orientation of potential inheritors leading to succession or a lack of succession by understanding their socialisation process. Thereby it integrates the literatures of family business succession, socialisation and career development. The thesis presents a conceptual framework of the nature/interaction of factors such as personal factors, familial, cultural, those pertaining to the economic environment, education and family business factors, its effects on Career Orientation and choice of Career pathways leading to succession or not among ethnic minority small family enterprises. This is presented in the context of the changing economic, social and cultural environment in which these businesses operate. Research questions focus on understanding the process of socialisation in a dual cultural context i.e. Asian as well as British, its effects on career orientations and most importantly on Asian family business succession. Although family business succession is presented as a widely researched subject area, this thesis particularly highlights the gaps arising due to an understanding that has specifically developed in the past from the founder or incumbent owners’ perspective. This thesis researched from the perspective of the potential inheritor, to understand the process of socialisation and its effects on career orientation leading to succession in Asian family businesses and contributes to fulfilling the theoretical gap in the literature. The focus of the empirical research is the Scotland based Asian community owned small retail businesses that are family owned. Succession is important for continuity and failure to succeed are seen to have adverse effects on the long term inter-generational continuity. At the same time succession among the second generation is looked at as a career choice which is influenced by a career decision making process. Hence a conceptual framework is necessary that looks at the concepts of socialisation, career decision making and succession together. Having the family and business interdependent in this complex system, it is not just the economic environment that shapes these factors, but also the dynamics within the family, society and community pressures, religion, a conflicting multigeneration perspective on business, culture and life in the UK. These demand a qualitative methodology, using personal interviews with both old and young generations and key informants as well as informal conversations with members of the community for sample selection, data collection and theory generation. The data collection process was guided by the newly formulated theoretical framework. Data was categorised as per themes from the framework and coded into categories in order to understand the process of socialisation and career orientation. This was then used to draw out the various career pathways that the individuals selected providing an understanding of reluctance towards joining the family business. The findings revealed that integrating the concepts of socialisation, career development and orientation provided a greater understanding of the process of decision making about succession among potential inheritors from Asian small family businesses. However, a number of other themes emerged from the findings, these are an emphasis on work-life balance as key to decision making. In addition, other themes that emerged were increased desire for paternal bonding, status and prestige from chosen careers, boundedness due to Asian stereotype, and parental or societal pressure and expectations. Moreover, trans-generational entrepreneurial continuity emerged as an important theme in which the older as well as the younger generation realised alternatives to continuing the existing family business and that true succession possibly is the transfer of entrepreneurial skills and abilities, something that the older generation developed and utilised when starting their own businesses as migrants. The thesis makes a contribution to the theoretical understanding of succession among South Asian family businesses. The findings emphasise the understanding of the succession process as a career decision making process particularly when looked at from the potential inheritors’ perspective. It also contributes to the socialisation literature by developing the multi-dimensional understanding of bi-cultural identity formation due to the dual impact of factors such as culture, religion, peers, family and broader society. This thesis also makes recommendations to policy by suggesting a conscious shift in policy orientation from the traditional first generation migrant to the young generation British Asian child of a migrant who due to their different socialisation has unique needs and orientations. The thesis recommends, on the basis of findings, for policy to be sensitive to the needs of the younger generation and for it to be focused on developing self-employment among this new generation of Asians.

The issue of unemployment among immigrants in Sweden started from 1980s when a large amount of immigrants had no access to the labour market (Sördersten, 2004). Many foreign born citizens who could not find any jobs have to live on social welfare. Some of them have found a way to solve their unemployment by becoming self-employed. In 2003, Swedish Integration Board reported that the proportion of self-employment in Sweden was 7.4 percent. This proportion was higher among foreign-born (8.8 percent) compared to native Swedes (7.3 percent). It is of great academic interest for our group to conduct research on immigrant’s business entry decisions. This thesis specifically focuses on identifying and understanding the factors that influence immigrants’ decision to start up their business. This research was conducted in Jönköping municipality by doing a case study on nine ethnic entrepreneurs who come from Non-EU countries, namely: China, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Uganda and Vietnam. Many studies have been carried out on the topic of ethnic entrepreneurship by researchers such as Waldinger et al. (1990), Basu (1998), Curran and Blackburn (1993), Najib (1999) and Ram (1994). Previous studies will be treated in this thesis as a source of evidence and theoretical framework. Qualitative method was used in this thesis. Case study is particularly chosen as the most appropriate tool in qualitative method to conduct this specific research. In order to obtain information for this case study, semi-structured interview with guideline questions was used. Nine cases including: five restaurants, one clothing store, one cosmetic shop, one assembling company and one carpet shop were selected in this study. The results of this study showed that, the factors that motivated ethnic entrepreneurs’ decision to start their own business were: selective immigration, entrepreneurial traits, blocked mobility, opportunity recognition, level of education, desire for independence and autonomy, financial betterment, business background and previous business experience, business culture values, interests and hobbies. However, opportunity recognition, level of education, desire for independence and autonomy and financial betterment were the factors that played a significant role in immigrant business decision making process. The result also shows that positive (pull) factors outweighed negative (push) factors in immigrants’ decision to enter self-employment. One alternative to unemployment is to become self-employed. It is highly possible that self-employment will lead to lower unemployment among immigrants (Hammarstedt, 2001). It should be in interest of the Swedish government to support self-employment since it will contribute to the growth of the Swedish economy. This thesis may be of interest to Jönköping municipality and other governmental organizations as well as policy makers. It might help them to improve the integration level of immigrants into Swedish society, unemployment level or encourage self-employment by understanding the factors affecting immigrants to start up their own businesses.

Entrepreneurship among immigrants is steadily increasing in Europe and is playing an increasingly important role in the social and economic structure of European cities. In Malmö, Möllevången the ethnic businesses are continuingly thriving in the Swedish society. They fill a versatile and in many ways unique feature. They also fill gaps in the market; help to give new life to downturn urban areas, offering new products and services. But the questions are, are these immigrants forced to become entrepreneurs or have they chosen to be? What factors lie behind? How did they start their business in the beginning? To answer these questions, a qualitative method was used, where the semi- structured interviews with 5 respondents from different backgrounds were recorded, such as Iraq, Iran, Palestine, Poland and Serbia. The analysis and conclusion of this study showed that ethnic entrepreneurs both chose and were forced to enter self-employment. The five respondents mentioned several factors that had motivated them to self-employ, which are language barriers, discrimination, traditions, low wages, education and to be your own boss. The respondents did not follow theories used in this study about how entrepreneurs start their own business, but instead followed other stages that we call “Stages of starting your own for ethnic entrepreneurs”.

The aim of this thesis is to demonstrate how immigrants from Turkey try to create flexible identities through their entrepreneurial practices in order to achieve social mobility within the regimes of state, market and social networks in Berlin. To put it differently, the aim of the study is to indicate how immigrant entrepreneurs try to develop strategies and maneuvers vis-&agrave / -vis the regulatory mechanisms like immigrant and citizenship laws, high degree of labor market rules, class based corporatist policies, social welfare policies and social networks acting as habitus for order and stability through social control and surveillance. These strategies and maneuvers, which are reflected on the flexible identities of immigrant entrepreneurs, are crucial for them to have social mobility and thus to remain competitive in the capitalist market economy and its political and social dynamics. That is to say through flexible identities immigrant entrepreneurs enable themselves to benefit from the economic, political and social conditions in Turkey and Germany, and also adapt themselves to the changing circumstances in these countries. In this manner, immigrant entrepreneurs are not only passive subjects of the regimes of state, market and social networks, which are constituted and conditioned with various norms, laws and values, but also active agents, who are able to create flexible identities in order to be mobile and competitive within these regimes.

Submitted by Marouane EL KHADIR (marouane.el-khadir@hec.edu) on 2016-11-23T12:00:01Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Thesis_Marouane_El_Khadir_finalv.pdf: 2045081 bytes, checksum: 8e837263c2c3c5ce44b922c99844f995 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Josineide da Silva Santos Locatelli (josineide.locatelli@fgv.br) on 2016-11-23T12:47:29Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Thesis_Marouane_El_Khadir_finalv.pdf: 2045081 bytes, checksum: 8e837263c2c3c5ce44b922c99844f995 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-11-23T13:30:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Thesis_Marouane_El_Khadir_finalv.pdf: 2045081 bytes, checksum: 8e837263c2c3c5ce44b922c99844f995 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-10-28 / Brazilians of Lebanese descent occupy high positions in economic, political and cultural fields. This community is widely associated with the image of success in the country’s collective psyche. Historically, most of the first Lebanese immigrants have started their journey in Brazil as entrepreneurs, concentrating on trade and moving later to industry. This focus on entrepreneurial activities still holds true today. Their early success in business then led to the emergence of a powerful elite whose influence goes beyond the economic sphere. This study deals with this case of ethnic entrepreneurship and aims at presenting and explaining why and how this phenomenon took place. It also shows that entrepreneurship can not only be an economic activity but also lay the foundation of a community and structure its identity. This work thus brings a contribution to the study of ethnic entrepreneurship which can be important in order to understand the economic and social rise of certain minorities or immigrant groups and draw up possible inspirational models. This dissertation also outlines several factors that participate to the success of entrepreneurs. / Os brasileiros de origem libanesa ocupam posições bem elevadas em áreas econômicas, políticas e culturais. Esta comunidade é amplamente associada com a imagem de sucesso na psique coletiva do país. Historicamente, a maioria dos primeiros imigrantes libaneses começaram como empresários, com foco no comércio e, em seguida, movendo-se para a indústria. Este foco em atividades empresariais ainda é verdade hoje. Seu sucesso inicial no negócios levou depois ao surgimento de uma poderosa elite cuja influência vai além da esfera econômica. Este estudo aborda esse caso de empreendedorismo étnico. Ele tem por objetivo apresentar e explicar por que e como esse fenômeno ocorreu. Ele também mostra como o empreendedorismo não pode ser apenas uma atividade econômica mas também lançar as bases de uma comunidade e estruturar a sua identidade. Portanto, este trabalaho traz uma contribuação para o estudo do empreendedorismo étnico que pode ser importante para compreender o crescimento económico e social de algumas minorias e grupos de imigrantes e elaborar modelos possíveis de inspiração. Esta dissertação também descreve vários fatores que participam para o sucesso dos empreendedores.

The past economic dictate of large-scale production has worn out; the era of the managed economy has eventually come to an end. Instead, entrepreneurship is taking over as the new driver of worldwide economic development. Today, the people from the Lebanon have become an allegory for successful entrepreneurial endeavours abroad. Existing theories demonstrated that the experiences arising from migration enhance the ability to discover entrepreneurial opportunities. However, only a few academic sources actively discussed and explored the phenomenon of Lebanese entrepreneurship, thus leaving a gap for research. On these grounds, the purpose of this thesis is to gain a deeper understanding of how entrepreneurs of Lebanese origin engage in entrepreneurial activities in Sweden. The country of Sweden is facing a major transformation in its economic structure. Previously dependent on the export of raw materials, Sweden is now moving towards a knowledge-intensive economy, a shift that naturally results in an increase of entrepreneurial activities. In the theory chapter, various sub-concepts of entrepreneurship, the entrepreneurial process as well as the definition of a diaspora and its characteristics are explored. The following research question was elaborated: How does the entrepreneurial process of entrepreneurs with Lebanese origins, building up their economic activities in Sweden, look like? In order to gather the necessary empirical data to address the research question, four semi-structured interviews were conducted. In the analysis chapter, the collected data was scrutinized and matched with frameworks and theories extracted from the theory chapter. The final chapter contains the conclusion and limitations of this study, and makes suggestions for further research. This thesis contributes to existing research by providing information about the entrepreneurial process of immigrants, when setting up a business in Sweden. The main implication of this thesis constitutes that each entrepreneur has pursued their unique entrepreneurial path. Similarities were detected in the willingness to contribute to the Swedish society by proving their capabilities and the shared affiliation to their Lebanese heritage. Variances were found in the entrepreneurial processes as well as in the reasons for their involvement in entrepreneurial activities. To illustrate, some of the surveyed entrepreneurs discovered an entrepreneurial opportunity, whereas others created opportunities through their deliberate action.

<p>Immigrant and ethnic entrepreneurship is a subject that has received increased attention in recent years. Many immigrants or people with ethnic backgrounds different from the majority population run their own businesses, in Sweden as well as in most countries and contexts in the world. However, ambitious research shows that there are great differences in business activity, behaviour and performance between different ethnic groups. Besides, it is easy to argue that differences also occur at the individual level. Thus, a person is not predetermined just because he/she belongs to a definable ethnic group. Another important question is the fact that the industrial setting and the context of the individual firm also affect the activity of the firm and the entrepreneur. E.g. in high tech environments, innovative competences may be of greater importance compared to business activity in the restaurant or retail sectors, where one could imitate already successful concepts.</p><p>In this dissertation immigrant as well as ethnic enterprises (where ethnic entrepreneurs are those who have clear ethnic involvement in terms of accessing and utilising different forms of ethnic resources) in different industries are studied. The work hypothesis, or rather assumption, is that the industry of the individual business plays an important role for the access to and utilisation of different forms of resources (organisational, financial, cultural, social, human, ethnic). Further, the industry of a business is also assumed to have an effect on the access to and utilisation of ethnic resources and the own ethnicity as a resource. The purpose of this study is to through a number of case studies explore the influence of ethnic background for immigrant businesses in different industries. The focus is on how ethnic involvement, thus ethnic resources, and identity as immigrant and/or ethnic business influence firms in their resource bases and resource acquisition efforts. That is, if the objective ethnic background is important for the firms in their resource acquisition efforts.</p><p>Since I want to study individual firms in an open and complex way I use a qualitative methodology with a multi-method approach, including ethnographic elements, direct observations, participant observations and interviews. This way, the possibility exists to grasp individual personal and firm characteristics that pay attention to the complexity and variation of immigrant and ethnic entrepreneurship, an issue that tends to be forgotten in broad descriptions of the subject. The Kista district hereby provides an interesting example with its high technology context, mixed with a considerable amount of immigrants living in the area.</p><p>The exploratory study of seven businesses shows that there are important differences between firms in different industries. However, apart from type of firm and kind of venture opportunity exploited, the action mode of the individual(s) involved and the degree of confirmation and legitimacy the businesses have experienced influence and affect the importance of ethnic background for these firms.</p>