Immigrant Entrepreneurship - A Tale of Two Worlds Bibliometric Domain Analysis 2009 -2019

Abstract

This comprehensive bibliometric study aims to analyze the nomological structure of the immigrant entrepreneurship domain 2009-2019 by means of citation and co-citation analysis for highlighting research trends, theoretical shifts and providing insights on future domain developments. SSCI citation data was initially used to return lists of most-cited authors, journals and publications. Co-citation matrixes were subsequently tabulated and visualized with VosViewer for three consecutive time intervals to highlight shifts in the otherwise evolving structure of knowledge. The shifts in the knowledge structure are analyzed and discussed with regards to the findings of 3 systematic literature reviews, published between 2013 and 2019 and a bibliometric predecessor study from 2013. The results show that the immigrant entrepreneurship domain transformed into a management research domain with seminal theorization shifting toward structuralistic models. Prominent phenomenon of contemporary research include ethno-national variations, Super-diversity, transnationalism and refugee entrepreneurship, which amplify the need for theoretical refinement of the field. ‘Simultaneous-embeddedness’ appears a most promising starting point for its conceptualization of the home country next to the host country context, though it must be extended to include additional contexts including the digital arena to better reflect the newly emerging complexities of contemporary immigrant entrepreneurship. Our study is the first update on the state of the immigrant entrepreneurship domain since 2011 and the results serve as an important point of reference regarding theoretical and empirical domain trends for established and new scholars in the growing field of immigrant entrepreneurship.