IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/jes/wpaper/y2022v14i3p206-222.html

Romanian migrants’ journeys as transformational entrepreneurs in London

Author

Listed:
  • Iuliana Maria CHITAC

    (visiting lecturer and researcher at Westminster University, London, United Kingdom)

Abstract

Migrant entrepreneurship is recognized as an essential economic driver for host and home countries. However, Eastern European entrepreneurs’ social initiatives and contributions are rarely acknowledged, shadowed by their image of precarity and economic survival in host countries. This Interpretative Phenomenological Study (IPA) challenges this paucity by investigating how 18 London-based Romanian migrant entrepreneurs interviewed (LRMEs) enable transformational entrepreneurial practices transcending their “individual subsistence to create jobs and income for others” (Schoar, 2010, p.5) and contributing positively to Britain’s social fiber. Specifically, this interdisciplinary study draws on Berry’s acculturation model (1997, 2003, 2005) and social learning and self-efficacy theories (Bandura, 1971, 1977). This article contributes to the nascent transformational entrepreneurship scholarship and practice (TE) and policy. Specifically, it demonstrates how these Romanian migrant entrepreneurs enable acculturative belonging for themselves and other stakeholders as they enact through their everyday transformational entrepreneurship practices of role modelling, encouraging other migrants to pursue a socialeconomic entrepreneurial path and acculturative mentoring, supporting them to become custodians of bicultural values and customs, empowered to address social injustice and discrimination.

Suggested Citation

  • Iuliana Maria CHITAC, 2022. "Romanian migrants’ journeys as transformational entrepreneurs in London," CES Working Papers, Centre for European Studies, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, vol. 14(3), pages 206-222, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:jes:wpaper:y:2022:v:14:i:3:p:206-222
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ceswp.uaic.ro/articles/CESWP2022_XIV3_CHI.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Antoinette Schoar, 2010. "The Divide between Subsistence and Transformational Entrepreneurship," Innovation Policy and the Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 10(1), pages 57-81.
    2. Lisa Berntsen & Tesseltje de Lange & Ivana Kalaš & Romy Hanoeman, 2022. "Migrant Entrepreneurship Enablers: From Chance Encounters to Community Development," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 36(2), pages 271-289, April.
    3. Karl Wennberg & Saurav Pathak & Erkko Autio, 2013. "How culture moulds the effects of self-efficacy and fear of failure on entrepreneurship," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(9-10), pages 756-780, December.
    4. Zoltán J. Ács & Erkko Autio & László Szerb, 2015. "National Systems of Entrepreneurship: Measurement issues and policy implications," Chapters, in: Global Entrepreneurship, Institutions and Incentives, chapter 28, pages 523-541, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    5. María Villares-Varela & Caroline Essers, 2019. "Women in the migrant economy. A positional approach to contextualize gendered transnational trajectories," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(3-4), pages 213-225, March.
    6. Friederike Welter & Ted Baker & Katharine Wirsching, 2019. "Three waves and counting: the rising tide of contextualization in entrepreneurship research," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 52(2), pages 319-330, February.
    7. Xu, Feng & Jin, Linlin, 2022. "Impact of daily entrepreneurial stressors on long-term transformational leader behaviors and well-being: Differences in experienced and nascent entrepreneurs," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 280-291.
    8. Michael Wyrwich & Michael Stuetzer & Rolf Sternberg, 2016. "Entrepreneurial role models, fear of failure, and institutional approval of entrepreneurship: a tale of two regions," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 46(3), pages 467-492, March.
    9. Sergei Shubin & Heather Dickey, 2013. "Integration and Mobility of Eastern European Migrants in Scotland," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 45(12), pages 2959-2979, December.
    10. Welter, Friederike, 2020. "Contexts and gender: Looking back and thinking forward," Working Papers 01/20, Institut für Mittelstandsforschung (IfM) Bonn.
    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. Maha Aly & Galal Galal-Edeen, 2021. "Why is Germany less entrepreneurial? A behavioral reasoning perspective," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 46(5), pages 1376-1416, October.
    2. Kantis, Hugo D. & Federico, Juan S. & García, Sabrina Ibarra, 2020. "Entrepreneurship policy and systemic conditions: Evidence-based implications and recommendations for emerging countries," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    3. Aparicio, Sebastian & Urbano, David & Stenholm, Pekka, 2021. "Attracting the entrepreneurial potential: A multilevel institutional approach," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    4. Christopher J. Boudreaux & Daniel L. Bennett & David S. Lucas & Boris N. Nikolaev, 2023. "Taking mental models seriously: institutions, entrepreneurship, and the mediating role of socio-cognitive traits," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 61(2), pages 465-493, August.
    5. Chong Kyoon Lee & Griffin W. Cottle & Sharon A. Simmons & Johan Wiklund, 2021. "Fear not, want not: Untangling the effects of social cost of failure on high-growth entrepreneurship," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 57(1), pages 531-553, June.
    6. Jip Leendertse & Yvette Baggen & Maral Mahdad & Sharon Dolmans, 2025. "Logics at play: How logics shape interactions across entrepreneurial ecosystems," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 65(1), pages 667-691, June.
    7. Leendertse, Jip & Schrijvers, Mirella & Stam, Erik, 2022. "Measure Twice, Cut Once: Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Metrics," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(9).
    8. Sönke Mestwerdt & Matthias Mrożewski & Christoph Seckler, 2025. "An institutional perspective on fear of failure and its effects across three entrepreneurship stages," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 1-25, December.
    9. Welter, Friederike, 2020. "Contexts and gender: Looking back and thinking forward," Working Papers 01/20, Institut für Mittelstandsforschung (IfM) Bonn.
    10. Kleinhempel, Johannes & Estrin, Saul, 2024. "Realizing expectations?," MPRA Paper 120863, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Urbano, David & Aparicio, Sebastian & Guerrero, Maribel & Noguera, Maria & Torrent-Sellens, Joan, 2017. "Institutional determinants of student employer entrepreneurs at Catalan universities," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 271-282.
    12. Kamran Hameed & Khuram Shahzad & Naveed Yazdani, 2023. "Global Incidences of Inclusive Entrepreneurial Ecosystem: Conceptualization and Measurement Framework," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 14(4), pages 5033-5064, December.
    13. Johannes Bloh & Tom Broekel & Burcu Özgun & Rolf Sternberg, 2020. "New(s) data for entrepreneurship research? An innovative approach to use Big Data on media coverage," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 55(3), pages 673-694, October.
    14. Luca Farè & David B. Audretsch & Marcus Dejardin, 2023. "Does democracy foster entrepreneurship?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 61(4), pages 1461-1495, December.
    15. Franz Huber & Alan Ponce & Francesco Rentocchini & Thomas Wainwright, 2020. "The Wealth of (Open Data) Nations? Examining the Interplay of Open Government Data and Country-level Institutions for Entrepreneurial Activity at the Country-level," SPRU Working Paper Series 2020-13, SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex Business School.
    16. Funmi (Olufunmilola) Ojediran & Alistair Anderson, 2020. "Women’s Entrepreneurship in the Global South: Empowering and Emancipating?," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-22, November.
    17. Amila Gankandage & Ruwan Jayathilaka, 2025. "Unveiling the challenges: exploring start-up hurdles faced by small and medium-sized enterprise entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(1), pages 1-13, December.
    18. Christian Fisch & Michael Wyrwich & Thi Lanh Nguyen & Joern H. Block, 2020. "Historical institutional differences and entrepreneurship: the case of socialist legacy in Vietnam," Jena Economics Research Papers 2020-002, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
    19. Christine Volkmann & Klaus Fichter & Magnus Klofsten & David B. Audretsch, 2021. "Sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystems: an emerging field of research," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 56(3), pages 1047-1055, February.
    20. David B. Audretsch & Erik E. Lehmann, 2023. "Narrative entrepreneurship: bringing (his)story back to entrepreneurship," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 60(4), pages 1593-1612, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:jes:wpaper:y:2022:v:14:i:3:p:206-222. 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: Alupului Ciprian (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/csjesro.html .

    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.