Title: Immigrant Entrepreneurship - Case studies of challenges faced by immigrant entrepreneurs in a large and small Swedish city. Purpose: The purpose is to investigate if the challenges faced by immigrant entrepreneurs in Sweden differ between large and small cities. Method: Eight case studies, four in Jönköping and four in Stockholm of seven Asian and one Eastern Europe immigrant entrepreneurs in the restaurant business. Results: The typical Jönköping case and the typical Stockholm case are similar with respect to some challenges faced: a lack of finance, marketing and sales skills are key challenges, and language is not a strong challenge in either city. The typical cases are different with respect to whether or not working longer hours, high rent and administrative and regulatory requirement are challenges. Keywords: Challenges, Entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship, Immigrant Entrepreneurs, Immigrants, Jönköping and Stockholm

This research is to give a contribution to  international business and start-ups by showing which keyele ments are essential in establishing a new business and make itsustainable, in our case a golf business.

Entrepreneurship has become a much discussed subject in the past years when the business world together with universities discovered that one of the factors that will help the national economy, level of innovation are the entrepreneurs. And even though there are different attitudes towards whether entrepreneurs are born or made, everyone agreed that the role of academic education is important in the creation of new entrepreneurs and developing them. Now the question is whether the universities in the way that they are conducting studies are able to offer the appropriate environment for an entrepreneur to develop or national culture has a more powerful impact on the young graduates’ entrepreneurial initiatives. The study attempts to understand how culture and education influence students to go towards an entrepreneurial career rather than preferring the security of a job. A qualitative research was conducted with groups of students from two different countries in order to better see the effects culture has, as it is an abstract concept. First, a literature review was conducted in order to clarify different concepts and to create the basis for the analysis and interpretation. Next, gathering the data- focus groups and interviews conducted with students- was an important step in being able to understand how culture and entrepreneurial education interact to each other. Afterwards, the analysis was made and the data gathered was examined through the theory previously chosen. The results lead to a framework, developed by the author, which explains the relationships between entrepreneurial education, culture and new venture creation- entrepreneurial intentions. Further research and recommendations were added at the end of the study to guide the future studies.

Entrepreneurial failure, in this thesis defined as bankruptcy, is an area within the entrepreneurship research where little or no emphasis has been placed. By combining entrepreneurial failure and learning, it is possible to provide a more balanced view as well as point to the fact that a bankruptcy does not necessarily have to be of negative nature as valuable learning outcomes might be gained. The purpose of this thesis was thus to explore the learning outcomes and its implications from an individual entrepreneur’s failure. A qualitative approach, in the form of a case study, was taken. Seven semi-structured face-to-face interviews were performed to gather primary data which was analyzed. Three research questions helped to fulfill the task, by covering the pragmatic and psychosocial responses, the personal and professional learning outcomes and also the ways that these learning outcomes are used and applied. The respondents reacted to the bankruptcy by blaming external factors, such as the environment, the strategy/structure or the available resources. Through deeper analysis, we found that the entrepreneurs themselves had a clear impact on the bankruptcy. The fact that most of the entrepreneurs rather blamed factors out of their control, than realizing their own involvement, can constitute a barrier for constructive reflection on the failure, which ultimately forms the basis for learning. Most of the learning outcomes, seen from a personal and professional perspective, were classified as corrective. That is; they involved improvement of professional skills and not the personal life. Further, the respondents also showed insight in terms of reforming and intrinsic learning. While the corrective learning outcomes were firm specific, the intrinsic ones were more focused on personal insight. Further, the reforming learning outcomes pointed to issues that had a big impact on both the personal and professional lives of the entrepreneurs. The unproportionally low number of cursory learning outcomes indicate that opportunities of learning from a bankruptcy exist and are large both in terms of personal and professional aspects. Lastly, the majority of the entrepreneurs make use of their learning since they have passed the double loop in Argyris and Schön’s (1996) Single and Double loop learning model. This indicates that an entrepreneurial failure is an important experience and the learning out-comes that can be drawn from it is applied in the entrepreneurs’ daily life in the form of new firms and projects, consultancy firms or even in new ways of living. The conclusions drawn in this section point to the importance of realizing that a failure is not always negative. By this, we suggest that through conscious and honest reflection, a failed entrepreneur can gain insights that could not possibly be gained without going trough a setback.

Sverige avsätter idag över en miljard kronor på att hjälpa arbetslösa att starta eget och därmed bli entreprenörer. Hög self-efficacy är en grundförutsättning för att lyckas som entreprenör och våra erfarenheter av att lyckas är den enskilt största källan till self-efficacy. Miljön som arbetslös är både fysiskt och psykiskt påfrestande och ofta kantad av motgångar, något som i teorin skulle kunna leda till sänkt self-efficacy. Studiens syfte var att undersöka om arbetslösas self-efficacy förändras med tiden de förblir arbetslösa. En enkätundersökning med 107 arbetslösa från en arbetsförmedling i Mellansverige genomfördes. Resultatet visade inte på något samband mellan långtidsarbetslöshet och sänkt self-efficacy. Studien visade däremot på flera intressanta skillnader i hur starkt de olika informationskällorna bidrog till self-efficacy.

New venture team composition lies at the heart of this thesis. Drawing on social-psychological explanations and human capital reasoning, the thesis addresses the social as well as the instrumental foci facing new venture teams. This is done by addressing four research questions: 1) What are the characteristics of new venture teams and their team members? 2) What impact does team composition and firm performance have on team dynamics? 3) What impact does team member characteristics and individual deviation have on individual dynamics? 4) How does team composition and team dynamics influence firm performance? Dynamics is studied by investigating the adding and dropping of team members. Research on entrepreneurial teams is characterized by several methodological challenges that this thesis takes on. First, there is a lack of longitudinal studies. Second, no studies are based on truly random samples of teams. Third, the unit and level of analysis has been the team and the firm. Rarely is the individual considered. In addition, the thesis sheds light on team diversity and its effects as well as the relationship with performance, both as an antecedent and as a consequence. The empirical setting is based on a unique database covering all individuals entering into self-employment in knowledge-intensive industries in Sweden during the 1996 to 2000 period. Their firms are tracked annually up to 2002, providing a census panel three to seven years long consisting of five cohorts. This is done by using secondary data from Statistics Sweden (SCB) covering information on individuals as well as their firms. By combining individual and firm level data, the thesis demonstrates how team level constructs can be obtained. Overall, the hypothesized relations predicting team member and individual exits receive strong support. Entries to teams and the performance of the firms are not as well explained by the chosen constructs. The findings show that greater internal diversity along some but not all demographic dimensions is positively associated with a higher rate of team member exits. More precisely,when diversity can be linked to status differences, the impact is more pronounced. Furthermore, the findings show that deviation from others in the group has an impact on which individual is likely to leave the team. There are also considerable differences in behavior between teams consisting of spousal pairs and other teams. In fact, the findings show that spousal couples venturing together are very common and that the typical team does not match the entrepreneurial team as it often is portrayed in the literature. In sum, the study suggests that diversity in attributes related to status can influence team stability. In addition, trust and prior relationships appear to be especially important for the creation and development of new venture teams.

This study paper not only to do the comparison study of competition strategy analysis , also cover the other two dimensions¡¦s comparison of entrepreneurship and innovation strategy analysis. Through these three dimensions analysis to do the case study of Starbucks, and further to do comparison between two selected restaurant , 85 C & Cha for tea with the Starbucks (1992, before IPO) then try to concluded to future tea restaurant model. The production of Taiwan tea leaf industry, drop from per year 4 thousand tons to Around 2 thousand tons, but actually the total industry sales value still keep same level as the peak year, the major reason is cause by the growth from three market segment ,First segment , the tradition tea shop ,sale more then 4 thousand tons tea leaf ,mainly Oolong tea & Green tea ,total sales amount around 11 Bio NTD . Second segment, the ready-to- drink ,tea drink beverage industry ,consume more then 6 thousand tons tea leaf, total end product sales amount over 15 Bio NTD, Third segment , tea house + tea stand and tea restaurant ,consume around 7 thousand tons tea leaf,total end product sales amount around 18 Bio NTD. Base on above three segment , we can see tea house + tea stands and the tea restaurant are the major growing segment for the whole tea industry, also if we counts in the total involve labors ,still this segment share the biggest contribution. Then we foresee as long the innovation growth from this segment will in final contribute to Taiwan tea industry. This paper then focus on the future dream model of tea restaurant , while review the history of Stuarbucks & Taiwan tea restaurant ,It is very interesting to found that both starting from early 1970, till 1992, come out to be huge difference, Starbucks start its IPO in 1992 then continuous to do the internationalize extension, and become a worldwide leading specialty coffee house and famous brand . In the mean time , Taiwan tea restaurant ,diversity growth in Taiwan inland and east Asian, there been a lot success medium & small chain store , without a realy internationalize teaestaurant. I select Starbucks in 1971- 1992 before IPO period as target benchmark to do the case study, after screening the local tea restaurant and chain store , found that the 85 C coffee house and Cha for tea Tea restaurant was the best candidates to be a dream module as the comparison study. Case study ,start from background introduction of Taiwan tea house+tea stands and tea restaurant's history. Second part, Collect the theory and analysis model for success strategy and innovation strategy. Third part, outline Starbucks success model, utilized the external market environment and internal value chain and plus entrepreneurships & innovation strategy to outline the success of Starbucks . The final part is to do the details comparison between 85 C coffee house and Cha for tea Tea restaurant with Starbucks ,Then concluded to the future dream model of tea restaurants.

This dissertation demonstrates how ACE has successfully equipped thousands of poor Filipinos with the tools necessary for them to raise themselves out of poverty by offering them a culture-specific curriculum that they can implement in their businesses. Furthermore, it will be argued that ACE's culture-specific curriculum could theoretically be applied in Mexico, where the "culture of poverty" exists in abundance.

Sweden has a long tradition of strict alcohol policies and market regulations have been used in order to keep down the consumption among the population. The state has controlled the market through monopolies and high alcohol taxes. When Sweden entered the European Union four of the five monopolies were abandoned. At the same time entrepreneurial micro-breweries started to enter the market. The market is regulated by a retail monopoly (Systembolaget) and regulation considering marketing and production of alcohol products. The aim of the study was to investigate how the regulations have affected the entrepreneurs in the industry and which strategies they are using in order to compete with the big breweries which are dominating the market. Further, because it is an industry still under development, the issue of legitimacy for new industries is also included in the study. In order to develop the understanding of how the entrepreneurial process might look like and which strategies that are available at an early stage in the process a theoretical framework was constructed. This includes theories about opportunity discovery and creation, market driven or market driving entrepreneurship, branding, and industry legitimacy. The study has been done through a qualitative method based on interviews with three entrepreneurs who are founders of micro-breweries. The results of this study shows that the market regulations act both as a support and as a hinder for the entrepreneurial activity in the industry. Due to Systembolaget's formal procedures for selecting products to their assortment, the small companies are able to compete at same condition as the bigger players in the process. However, there are regulations which hinder an effective marketing of the companies, especially when potential customers are visiting the breweries and do not have the possibility to buy the product on site. The lack of understanding among politicians for the values which guide the micro-breweries work is one reason to why the industry still struggles to gain legitimacy. A micro-brewers association has recently been founded in order to organize the entrepreneurs in a better way. This might lead to increased knowledge about their work in the future.

An entrepreneur is an innovator, someone who transforms innovations and ideas intoeconomically viable entities; independent on whether in the process she creates oroperates a firm (Baumol 1993). When these firms are created however, sometimes theydo not achieve a viable sustainability; they often face problems and are forced to gobankrupt. When Bankruptcy occurs the entrepreneur is logically affected not onlyeconomically but also mentally and emotionally. Different situations have differenteffects on the entrepreneur´s emotions. Lazarus´ Cognitive Appraisal Theory states that when faced with a problem or situationpeople "appraise" or perceive it in different ways. The Primary Appraisal happens whenthe entrepreneur first comes into the realization of the problem; she can view itdifferently, either as an event that deserves indifference, an opportunity, or as a harmfulthreat. The Secondary Appraisal happens when the entrepreneur analyses what resourceshe has available and what strategy he will proceed to use in order to tackle the situation.Furthermore, during the course of the situation the entrepreneur may come into therealization of new information that might change his way of perceiving things, this iscalled an Appraisal. The Cognitive Appraisal Theory is closely linked to the CopingTheory which talks about how entrepreneurs "cope" or deal emotionally with theiradversities. Coping can be divided into two types, Problem focused and Emotion focusedCoping. Problem focused coping intents on coming up with viable and practical solutionsto improve the situation, whereas Emotion focused intends on externalizing the blame andreacting with a worsened emotional state that does not help the situation in the long run. This report is an exploratory research and bases its empirical data on the case studyapproach of five different cases of entrepreneurs leaving in Sweden who had theexperience of engaging in an enterprise that ended up in bankruptcy. During the course ofthis investigation a qualitative method was used and the empirical findings wheregathered by engaging in interviews that were later analyzed and correlated with thetheoretical framework. In the Analysis we take apart the information gathered in the interviews and try tocorrelate the events to the theories while at the same time striving to find similarities ordifferences between the subjects. We also try to find patterns that may help us understandmore about the subject and finally allows us to address the problem and achieve thepurpose of this report which is to understand how an entrepreneur copes when faced witha business failure. In our conclusion we came to the realization that people tend to follow specific patterns ofemotional reaction that concretely support the pre established theories. This report servesas a base or foundation of a tool for entrepreneurs. We find that if entrepreneurs hadprevious knowledge of ways to deal with failure they might be more prompt to avoid itentirely and consequently this can be an invaluable tool for them..3