A systematic literature review of determinants of immigrant entrepreneurship motivations

Abstract

Immigrant entrepreneurship (IE) has significant impacts on socioeconomic development in ethnic communities and in host and home countries. Understanding immigrant entrepreneurial motivation (IEM) is therefore crucial for scholars, policymakers and practitioners. This paper undertakes a systematic literature review to identify and analyze individual and environmental factors that pull or push immigrants into entrepreneurship. The review identifies five dimensions of individual push-pull factors that predominantly determine IEM: demographics; personal circumstances; personal values and other personality characteristics; business ideas and opportunities; and self-efficacy. IEM is also determined by three dimensions of environmental factors: the ethnic enclave and host- and home-country contexts. Furthermore, the analysis indicates that pull factors (e.g., entrepreneurial desire, prior experience, need for personal improvement) have greater effects on IEM than push factors (e.g., lack of skills or legal migration documents, discrimination). The paper confirms that having the motivation to set up a business based on one’s own skills is the most effective IEM pull factor, followed by prior business experience and family business background. The paper also finds that lack of labor market competition due to the liability of foreignness and discrimination is a critical IEM push factor.