Abstract
Copyright © 2019 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Not all diasporans face the same opportunities and challenges in the entrepreneurial process. Some are forced to the periphery in terms of proximity to essential business resources and networks considered important for overcoming liabilities of foreignness, size and newness. The paper, therefore asks: how do diaspora entrepreneurs from the periphery and non-mainstream markets emerge, survive and grow? The question is addressed through the lens of social network theory and a case study of Golden Krust Caribbean Bakery and Grill (GK), the largest Caribbean eatery in the USA and its CEO and founder the Jamaican-born Lowell Hawthorne. The article underscores the role of family, co-ethnic networks as well as the cultural knowledge and resources from the country of origin in helping entrepreneurs from the periphery to start, grow and mainstream their enterprises.
Highlights
IntroductionOver the last few years, there has been increasing attention on entrepreneurial opportunities in general (Ardichvili, Cardozo & Ray, 2003; Zahra, 2008; Korsgaard 2011; Suddaby, Brutton & Si, 2015) and immigrant entrepreneurship in particular (Ram, Theodorakopoulos & Jones, 2008; Jones, Ram, Edwards, Kiselinchev & Muchenje, 2012; Bolívar-Cruz, Batista-Canino & Hormiga, 2014)
In line with immigrant entrepreneurship literature (e.g., Ram et al, 2008), our study shows that family support is important as a source of family social capital to exploit entrepreneurial ideas in the host and home countries by relying on families for getting new contacts which are useful in shaping entrepreneurial ideas
Our unit of analysis was the process of opportunity creation where we examined the sources of family social capital as identified in our empirical study
Summary
Over the last few years, there has been increasing attention on entrepreneurial opportunities in general (Ardichvili, Cardozo & Ray, 2003; Zahra, 2008; Korsgaard 2011; Suddaby, Brutton & Si, 2015) and immigrant entrepreneurship in particular (Ram, Theodorakopoulos & Jones, 2008; Jones, Ram, Edwards, Kiselinchev & Muchenje, 2012; Bolívar-Cruz, Batista-Canino & Hormiga, 2014). Developing entrepreneurial opportunities implies that immigrant entrepreneurs rely on networks and resources in two contexts – the host and home countries -- to generate entrepreneurial ideas (Bagwell, 2008; Kloosterman, 2010; Bolívar-Cruz, Batista-Canino & Hormiga, 2014). While general literature on entrepreneurial opportunities identifies the importance of family in creating these opportunities (Aldrich & Cliff, 2003; Evansluong, 2016), there is scarce literature on the role of the family in the process of creating entrepreneurial opportunities
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