Abstract
Orientation: There is a growing prevalence of entrepreneurial activity by immigrant entrepreneurs in different sectors of various economies across the world. Immigrant entrepreneurs seek to identify opportunities to grow and sustain their businesses in hostile business markets. Immigrant entrepreneurs use an array of channels of communication to gain insight of the opportunities in the market.Research purpose: The study sought to investigate the communication channels used by Chinese immigrant entrepreneurs to identify opportunities in the host community market.Motivation for the study: The study was undertaken given the dearth of research on the role of communication channels in enabling the identification of opportunities by immigrant entrepreneurs.Research design, approach and method: A qualitative research design was adopted in which purposive and snowball sampling were adopted. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 21 Chinese immigrant entrepreneurs operating small businesses in the South African context.Main findings: The results indicate that the immigrant entrepreneurs identified opportunities in the business environment through establishing channels of communication that manifested as networks with family members, customers, local employees and competitors. Building relationships through networks was key for the process of identifying opportunities.Practical/managerial implications: The study provides evidence that information about opportunities in the market is identified through dynamic channels of communication characterised by networks with different stakeholders.Contribution/value-add: Communication channels are pivotal in enabling the identification of opportunities in the business environment. Immigrant entrepreneurs actively create and sustain their relationships with various stakeholders in the business environment to be able to identify opportunities in the business environment.
Highlights
Immigrant-owned businesses are increasingly becoming key contributors to the overall economic and social development of host countries through fostering job creation, entrepreneurial activity and poverty alleviation (Fatoki & Oni 2014; Sahin, Nijikamp & Baycan-Levent 2006)
Immigrant entrepreneurs would communicate with family members to gain insight of opportunities of products to sell in the host environment
This finding is in support of the assertions by several scholars who suggest that immigrant entrepreneurs use family members and their ethnic ties to obtain resources to start up their businesses and identify opportunities
Summary
Immigrant-owned businesses are increasingly becoming key contributors to the overall economic and social development of host countries through fostering job creation, entrepreneurial activity and poverty alleviation (Fatoki & Oni 2014; Sahin, Nijikamp & Baycan-Levent 2006). Sahin et al (2006:1) argue that ‘studies on immigrant entrepreneurship in both the USA and Europe have recognised the significant share of immigrants in small business activities’. These studies focus on various management practices such as teamwork, resource mobilisation and communication. Several scholars (Chrysostome 2010; Halkias et al 2007; Sahin et al 2006; Wadhwa et al 2007) suggest that entrepreneurship by immigrants has a direct positive impact on the host economies. Halkias et al (2007) add that immigrant-founded companies contribute positively to the levels of employment in the host country. Despite the prevalence of such literature at an international level, not much is known about the contribution and management of immigrant-owned small businesses in South Africa
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