The impact of immigrant entrepreneurs’ social capital related motivations

Abstract

The immigrant entrepreneurship literature indicates that immigrant entrepreneurs reap numerous benefits from their co-ethnic communities’ social capital. These benefits, however, often come at a price because scholars note the potential for this community social capital to impose limitations on the entrepreneurs. While the literature largely focuses on the benefits of social capital, there is no research on what motivates the immigrant entrepreneurs to engage with their co-ethnic community in terms of contributing to, and utilizing, their co-ethnic communities’ social capital, and the consequences these may have on their enterprises. Addressing this gap in the literature is important in the development of successful immigrant enterprises. Thus, based on a model posited by Portes and Sensenbrenner (1993), we suggest that immigrant entrepreneurs’ motivations will influence their use of, and contributions to, co-ethnic community social capital, impacting, in turn, business success. We contribute to both the immigrant entrepreneurship and social capital research through exploring how entrepreneurs’ motives, with respect to their co-ethnic communities’ social capital, influence business success.

Keywords

• social capital
• immigrant entrepreneurship
• immigrant entrepreneurs
• motivations
• coethnic
• ethnic entrepreneurship