Abstract
This paper conducts an inductive case study to build a theory on the role of family in both the host and home countries in immigrant entrepreneurs’ attempts at creating entrepreneurial opportunities. We used the perspectives of the opportunity creation process and family social capital. We relied on data collected from four cases of immigrant entrepreneurs from Lebanon, Syria, Cameroon and Mexico who have established businesses in Sweden. The paper identified three sources of family social capital: family duties, family trust and family support as being relevant for creating opportunities. While family duties triggered the process of forming an entrepreneurial idea, this process was advanced by the existence of family trust. Family support was then the building block for launching an entrepreneurial idea. By identifying these three sources of family social capital we show that families in the host and home countries contribute to immigrant entrepreneurs’ opportunity creation in different ways.
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
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
