Abstract
Transnational Nigerian immigrant entrepreneurs have been in Ghana for a long time, operating by utilizing a wide range of resources available to them. Key among these resources are their own socio and ethno-cultural norms which have yet to be explored in the existing scholarship. We explore these patterns and norms in the articulation of transnational entrepreneurship among these immigrants in Ghana. We do this by relying on qualitative data gathered through in-depth interviews, observations and market conversations—with 41 Nigerian immigrant entrepreneurs in Accra, Kumasi, and Ashaiman. We argue that these transnational Nigerian immigrant entrepreneurs in Ghana are embedded in their own ‘socio and ethno-cultural heritage’. This argument is anchored in multiple logics. First is the notion of transnational entrepreneurial activity that is ethnically and culturally inspired. Secondly, these entrepreneurship activities are inextricably embedded in informality and intensely rely on informal power brokerage system. Thirdly, there is an embeddedness in the entrepreneurs’ own traditional apprenticeship system. These lines of socio and ethno-cultural embeddedness provide useful pathways for understanding not only the operations and future prospects but also the patterns of transnational (mixed) embeddedness of the Nigerian immigrant entrepreneurs in Ghana.
Highlights
The mixed embeddedness approach has seen application in different contexts and in different domains since its export into the field of immigrants’ entrepreneurship in the late 1990s by Dutch scholars Kloosterman et al (1999)
We argue in this paper that, far, the empirical application of the mixed embeddedness theory has tended to focus on North American and to a much greater extent, the European contexts, to the neglect of other important geographical regions, the African region
We draw this paper from an ethnographic fieldwork by the first author on Nigerian immigrant entrepreneurs in three Ghanaian cities, namely Accra (n = 17), Kumasi (n = 14) and Ashaiman (n = 10)
Summary
The mixed embeddedness approach has seen application in different contexts and in different domains since its export into the field of immigrants’ entrepreneurship in the late 1990s by Dutch scholars Kloosterman et al (1999). (Barrett et al, 2002; Jones et al, 2014; Kloosterman, 2003a;), Australia (Peters, 2002), US (Chacko, 2015; Price & Chacko, 2009) and elsewhere (Aliaga-Isla & Rialp, 2013). Despite these efforts, there are yet, many aspects of the theory that suffer in terms of empirical application including how immigrants’ own social, ethnic and cultural patterns implicate their entrepreneurial careers. We argue in this paper that, far, the empirical application of the mixed embeddedness theory has tended to focus on North American and to a much greater extent, the European contexts, to the neglect of other important geographical regions, the African region
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