Exploring the Foundations of New Venture Success among Indian American Immigrant Entrepreneurs

Abstract

Several recent studies have evidenced that Asian American immigrant entrepreneurs of Indian origin have been playing an increasingly important role in the economic growth in the United States. Despite their success, there are few holistic studies on this population. The purpose of the study was an indepth qualitative exploration of entrepreneurial cognitions and behaviors that are involved with the seeing of and acting upon opportunities for this population. The findings of the study indicated that the entrepreneurs came to the United States either as skilled technology workers or to pursue high education. The entrepreneurs obtained the start-up capital primarily from personal savings and through bootstrapping without reliance on intuitional loans. Entrepreneurs in the study experienced micro entrepreneurial events at prior jobs and pursued a single known opportunity that they had good knowledge about through prior work experience. The entrepreneurs in the study split self-efficacy into entrepreneurial and technical components and relied on collective efficacy of their teams. Based on the findings, a model for opportunity processing used by high-growth Asian Indian immigrant entrepreneurs is proposed.