Determinants of Middle Eastern immigrants’ entrepreneurial success in Australia

Abstract

This paper presents findings on Middle Eastern immigrant entrepreneurs in Australia. The extent to which perceived discrimination and acculturation influence their social and psychological capital, and the effects of social and psychological capital on their firm performance, are explored. We found that such immigrants, who are highly acculturated to the mainstream culture, not only tend to have many social interactions outside their community but also possess strong psychological capital. Although perceived discrimination has been associated with low social involvement outside an immigrant community, we found that perceived discrimination does not exert a statistically significant effect on psychological capital. Importantly, both social and psychological capital are found to exert positive effects on firm performance. The findings have implications for enhancing the capacity of policy makers to provide high impact to immigrant entrepreneurs. Specific interventions are suggested to assist such entrepreneurs to leverage their social and psychological capital.