IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/jouent/v20y2011i1p33-53.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Entrepreneurs because they are Immigrants or Immigrants because they are Entrepreneurs?

Author

Listed:
  • Prescott C. Ensign

    (Prescott C. Ensign is Associate Professor, Telfer School of Management, University of Ottawa, Canada)

  • Nicholas P. Robinson

    (Nicholas P. Robinson is with the Faculty of Law, McGill University, Montreal, Canada)

Abstract

Conventional wisdom suggests that immigrants are forced into selfemployment. Although there is veracity in this assertion, it is equally probable that there is a certain level of entrepreneurial drive and spirit exhibited when an individual departs from his or her homeland. This article provides a much-needed and critical second look at the realm of ethnic entrepreneurship and in particular, the two-way relationship between the immigrant entrepreneur and the established business community. Isomorphism is seen to ebb and flow among newcomers and existing institutions. Mimetic behaviour as well as the introduction of innovations is seen to occur on both sides of a bilateral exchange.

Suggested Citation

  • Prescott C. Ensign & Nicholas P. Robinson, 2011. "Entrepreneurs because they are Immigrants or Immigrants because they are Entrepreneurs?," Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Emerging Economies, Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India, vol. 20(1), pages 33-53, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:jouent:v:20:y:2011:i:1:p:33-53
    DOI: 10.1177/097135571002000102
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/097135571002000102
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/097135571002000102?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lloyd L. Wong & Michele Ng, 2002. "The emergence of small transnational enterprise in Vancouver: the case of Chinese entrepreneur immigrants," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(3), pages 508-530, September.
    2. David Audretsch & Dirk Dohse & Annekatrin Niebuhr, 2010. "Cultural diversity and entrepreneurship: a regional analysis for Germany," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 45(1), pages 55-85, August.
    3. Jock Collins, 2003. "Cultural diversity and entrepreneurship: policy responses to immigrant entrepreneurs in Australia," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(2), pages 137-149, January.
    4. Marger, Martin N., 2001. "Social and human capital in immigrant adaptation:: The case of Canadian business immigrants," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 169-170, March.
    5. Yasuhiro Yamakawa & Mike W. Peng & David L. Deeds, 2008. "What Drives New Ventures to Internationalize from Emerging to Developed Economies?," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 32(1), pages 59-82, January.
    6. Cliff, Jennifer E. & Jennings, P. Devereaux & Greenwood, Royston, 2006. "New to the game and questioning the rules: The experiences and beliefs of founders who start imitative versus innovative firms," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 21(5), pages 633-663, September.
    7. Chaganti, Rajeswararao (Raj) S. & Watts, Allison D. & Chaganti, Radha & Zimmerman-Treichel, Monica, 2008. "Ethnic-immigrants in founding teams: Effects on prospector strategy and performance in new Internet ventures," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 113-139, January.
    8. Ozgen, Eren & Baron, Robert A., 2007. "Social sources of information in opportunity recognition: Effects of mentors, industry networks, and professional forums," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 174-192, March.
    9. Covin, Jeffrey G. & Slevin, Dennis P. & Heeley, Michael B., 2000. "Pioneers and followers: Competitive tactics, environment, and firm growth," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 15(2), pages 175-210, March.
    10. Clark, Kenneth & Drinkwater, Stephen, 2000. "Pushed out or pulled in? Self-employment among ethnic minorities in England and Wales," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 7(5), pages 603-628, September.
    11. Prescott C. Ensign, 2009. "Knowledge Sharing among Scientists," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-0-230-61713-1, December.
    12. Neri Karra & Paul Tracey & Nelson Phillips, 2006. "Altruism and Agency in the Family Firm: Exploring the Role of Family, Kinship, and Ethnicity," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 30(6), pages 861-877, November.
    13. Rogoff, Edward G. & Heck, Ramona Kay Zachary, 2003. "Evolving research in entrepreneurship and family business: recognizing family as the oxygen that feeds the fire of entrepreneurship," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 18(5), pages 559-566, September.
    14. Gamal Ibrahim & Vaughan Galt, 2003. "Ethnic Business Development: Toward a Theoretical Synthesis and Policy Framework," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(4), pages 1107-1119, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Prescott C. Ensign & Nicholas P. Robinson, 2016. "Offensive and Defensive Corporate Entrepreneurship: Learning to Think Like an Outsider," Journal of Enterprising Culture (JEC), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 24(02), pages 169-191, June.
    2. Chengguang Li & Rodrigo Isidor & Luis Alfonso Dau & Rudy Kabst, 2018. "The More the Merrier? Immigrant Share and Entrepreneurial Activities," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 42(5), pages 698-733, September.
    3. Dheer, Ratan J.S. & Lenartowicz, Tomasz, 2020. "Effect of generational status on immigrants’ intentions to start new ventures: The role of cognitions," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 55(3).
    4. Jan Wiers & Didier Chabaud, 2022. "Bibliometric analysis of immigrant entrepreneurship research 2009–2019," Journal of Global Entrepreneurship Research, Springer;UNESCO Chair in Entrepreneurship, vol. 12(1), pages 441-464, December.
    5. Grichnik, Dietmar & Brinckmann, Jan & Singh, Luv & Manigart, Sophie, 2014. "Beyond environmental scarcity: Human and social capital as driving forces of bootstrapping activities," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 310-326.
    6. Ratan J. S. Dheer, 2018. "Entrepreneurship by immigrants: a review of existing literature and directions for future research," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 14(3), pages 555-614, September.
    7. A. Arrighetti & G. Foresti & S. Fumagalli & A. Lasagni, 2018. "Are Migrant Firms Actually Different From Native Firms?," Economics Department Working Papers 2018-EP05, Department of Economics, Parma University (Italy).
    8. Jahn, Vera & Steinhardt, Max Friedrich, 2018. "Immigration and new firm formation: Evidence from a quasi-experimental setting in Germany," Ruhr Economic Papers 787, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    9. Kingsley E. Haynes & Haifeng Qian & Sidney C. Turner, 2012. "The location of business support programs: does the knowledge context matter?," Chapters, in: Charlie Karlsson & Börje Johansson & Roger R. Stough (ed.), Entrepreneurship, Social Capital and Governance, chapter 13, pages 302-324, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    10. James J. Chrisman & Jess H. Chua & Franz Kellermanns, 2009. "Priorities, Resource Stocks, and Performance in Family and Nonfamily Firms," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 33(3), pages 739-760, May.
    11. Arz, Christopher, 2019. "Bridging the micro-macro gap: A multi-layer culture framework for understanding entrepreneurial orientation in family firms," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 10(3), pages 1-1.
    12. Randerson, Kathleen & Bettinelli, Cristina & Fayolle, Alain & Anderson, Alistair, 2015. "Family entrepreneurship as a field of research: Exploring its contours and contents," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 6(3), pages 143-154.
    13. Kidwell, Roland E. & Hoy, Frank & Ibarreche, Santiago, 2012. "“Ethnic” family business or just family business? Human resource practices in the ethnic family firm," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 3(1), pages 12-17.
    14. Carlos Poblete & Vesna Mandakovic, 2021. "Innovative outcomes from migrant entrepreneurship: a matter of whether you think you can, or think you can’t," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 571-592, June.
    15. Clinton, Eric & McAdam, Maura & Gamble, Jordan Robert, 2018. "Transgenerational entrepreneurial family firms: An examination of the business model construct," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 269-285.
    16. Clyde Eiríkur Hull & Zhi Tang & Jintong Tang & Jun Yang, 2020. "Information diversity and innovation for born-globals," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 37(4), pages 1039-1060, December.
    17. Maribel Guerrero & Vesna Mandakovic & Mauricio Apablaza & Veronica Arriagada, 2021. "Are migrants in/from emerging economies more entrepreneurial than natives?," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 527-548, June.
    18. Martina Musteen & Deepak K. Datta & Marcus M. Butts, 2014. "Do International Networks and Foreign Market Knowledge Facilitate SME Internationalization? Evidence from the Czech Republic," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 38(4), pages 749-774, July.
    19. Daniela Bolzani & Maw Der Foo, 2018. "The “why” of international entrepreneurship: uncovering entrepreneurs’ personal values," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 51(3), pages 639-666, October.
    20. Astrachan, Joseph H., 2010. "Strategy in family business: Toward a multidimensional research agenda," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 6-14, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:jouent:v:20:y:2011:i:1:p:33-53. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.ediindia.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.