Young Chinese Entrepreneurs in Australia: Migrant Networks in a New Land

Abstract

The study explores the phenomenon of young migrant Chinese entrepreneurs in Brisbane, Australia and the various ways in which they use networks to advance their business interests. While the concept of networking is an integral component of the Chinese way of doing business for Chinese entrepreneurs in Asian countries, the highly regulated business environment in Australia poses many challenges and restrictions to Chinese network reliance. The notions of 'entrepreneur', 'network' and 'entrepreneurial networks' are discussed before examining these concepts in the Chinese in Asia context. The study utilised personal interviews and questionnaires with a group of six migrant Chinese entrepreneurs in Australia, all below 40 years of age. It was found that the three entrepreneurs who did not have any networks in Brisbane before their arrival found it relatively easy to purchase franchises and begin business operations immediately, without the need for preexisting networks. The three participants who did have pre-existing network contacts in Brisbane started up private businesses with the extensive assistance of their Chinese community networks. The implications of this study on business migration issues are discussed.

The multiple institutional constraints facing new Chinese immigrant entrepreneurs in Australia

“…While the culturalist explanations provide succinct conceptualizations they are flawed by their failure to account for the much broader context in which immigrant entrepreneurs are embedded (Gao, ; Jones & Ram, ). This flaw is also reflected in the failure to explicitly distinguish immigrant entrepreneurs from other segments of ethnic entrepreneurs who are embedded in dissimilar and changing contexts (e.g., Batonda & Perry, ; Kariv et al, ; Lund et al, ).…”

“…In this study, these Chinese immigrant entrepreneurs, who are first‐generation immigrants emigrating from mainland China since 1980s, are referred to as new Chinese immigrant entrepreneurs (NCIEs) to distinguish them from other segments of ethnic Chinese entrepreneurs. This approach follows the tradition of mainstream research on Chinese immigrants (Chan & Koh, ; Gao, ; Ren & Liu, ; Zhou & Liu, ), although not all studies make this distinction (e.g., Batonda & Perry, ; Lund, Woods, Hibbins, & Barker, ).…”

The Importance of Cross-Cultural Capabilities for Chinese Immigrant Entrepreneurs in Australia

“…As discussed previously, several studies have shown that immigrant entrepreneurs lack language competency (e.g., Collins & Low, 2010;Lund et al, 2006;Mora & Dávila, 2005). This may be why a lack of language competency creates a barrier to communicating with others, which is part of psychic distance (Johanson & Wiedersheim-Paul, 1975).…”

“…Family and community networks are important to these individuals, as this is a mechanism for building trust and reliability (Collins, 2002;Lund, Woods, Hibbins, & Barker, 2006). With respect to networks, researchers discovered that Chinese immigrant entrepreneurs in Australia can make their own businesses successful by leveraging their networks, which contributes to economic outcomes (Dai et al, 2011).…”