The Embedding of Transnational Entrepreneurs in Diaspora Networks: Leveraging the Assets of Foreignness

Abstract

The Strathprints institutional repository (https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk) is a digital archive of University of Strathclyde research outputs. It has been developed to disseminate open access research outputs, expose data about those outputs, and enable the management and persistent access to Strathclyde's intellectual output. Abstract In this paper we examine how foreign actors capitalize on their ethnic identity to gain skills and capabilities that enable them to operate in a new and strange environment. We explore the mechanisms by which Bulgarian entrepreneurs in London use their ethnic identity to develop competitive advantage and business contacts. We find that the entrepreneurs studied gain access to a diaspora network, which enables them to develop essential business capabilities and integrate knowledge from both home and host country environments. The diaspora community possesses a collective asset (transactive memory) that allows its members to remove competition from the interfirm level to the network level (i.e., diaspora networks vs. networks of native businesspeople). Additionally, the cultural identity and networks to which community members have access provide bridging capabilities that allow diaspora businesspeople to make links to host country business partners and thus embed themselves in the host country environment. Thus, this paper adds to the growing body of work showing how foreignness can serve as an asset in addition to its better-known role as a liability. RESEARCH ARTICLE

Breaking-out? A reconceptualisation of the business development process through diversification: the case of Polish new migrant entrepreneurs in Glasgow

“…Critical labour market barriers, access to resources from various sources, and targeted clientele (Ley 2006;Deakins et al 2009;Kitching et al 2009) characterise ethnic and/or migrant entrepreneurs' distinctiveness from other host-country entrepreneurs (Engelen 2001;Rusinovic 2008aRusinovic , 2008bDeakins et al 2009). The role of co-ethnics is critical (Light and Bonacich 1991;Waldinger 1993;Dana 1997;Zhou 2004;Deakins et al 2005;Dana and Morris 2007;Light and Dana 2013;Stoyanov et al forthcoming), particularly as they are targeted as clients and enable access to resources (Light 1984;Ward and Jenkins 1984;Portes 1998;Davidsson and Honig 2003;Deakins et al 2007;Sepulveda et al 2011;Rumbaut and Portes 2014). Indeed, most (but not all) ethnic entrepreneurs do not access resources through formal sources of support and advice (Smallbone et al 2003;Deakins et al 2005).…”

Diaspora entrepreneurs’ push and pull institutional factors for investing in Africa: Insights from African returnees from the United Kingdom

“…A great deal of research in entrepreneurship has demonstrated that immigrant and diaspora entrepreneurs contribute substantially not only to their countries of origin's small and medium enterprises (SMEs) development but also their host countries' economies (Chand, 2016;Chrysostome, 2014;Newland and Tanaka, 2010;Riddle and Brinkerhoff, 2011;Stoyanov, Woodward and Stoyanova, 2018b). In particular, diaspora entrepreneurs contribute to job creation, foreign currency inflows and economic growth in their countries of origin (Brinkerhoff, 2016;Coniglio and Brzozowski, 2016;Riddle and Brinkerhoff, 2011;Riddle, Hrivnak and Nielsen, 2010;Mani 2004) and develop self-employed businesses, SMEs and niche market products in their countries of residence (Crick and Chaudhry, 2013;Jones, Ram, Edwards, Kiselinchev and Muchenje, 2014;Smallbone, Bertotti and Ekanem, 2005).…”

The Identity of Entrepreneurs: Providing Conceptual Clarity and Future Directions

“…2013; Stoyanov et al . 2018) (21 articles in this review). Others even link identity to venture success, for example by showing the effects of family nurturer and entrepreneurial identities (Miller et al .…”