Immigrant Entrepreneurship: The Effect of Early Career Immigration Constraints on New Venture Formation

We examine how institutional factors may affect microlevel career decisions by individuals to create new firms by impacting their ability to exercise entrepreneurial preferences, their accumulation of human capital, and the opportunity costs associated with new venture formation. We focus on an important institutional factor—immigration-related work constraints—given that technologically intensive firms in the United States not only draw upon immigrants as knowledge workers but also because such firms are disproportionately founded by immigrants. We examine the implications of these constraints using the National Science Foundation’s Scientists and Engineers Statistical Data System, which tracks the careers of science and engineering graduates from U.S. universities. Relative to natives, we theorize and show that immigration-related work constraints in the United States suppress entrepreneurship as an early career choice of immigrants by restricting labor market options to paid employment jobs in organizational contexts tightly matched with the immigrant’s educational training (job-education match). Work experience in paid employment job-education match is associated with the accumulation of specialized human capital and increased opportunity costs associated with new venture formation. Consistent with immigration-related work constraints inhibiting individuals with entrepreneurial preferences from engaging in entrepreneurship, we show that when the immigration-related work constraints are released, immigrants in job-education match are more likely than comparable natives to found incorporated employer firms. Incorporated employer firms can both leverage specialized human capital and provide the expected returns needed to justify the increased opportunity costs associated with entrepreneurial entry. We discuss our study’s contributions to theory and practice.

The Regional Determinants of the New Venture Formation in China’s Car-Sharing Economy

New ventures play an important role in promoting regional economic growth, employment and innovative development. In China, the new business model centered on the sharing economy has grown rapidly in a short time, especially with regard to car-sharing, which has become one of the new governmental strategies to promote economic development in China. New car-sharing ventures have been recognized as the leading sector in sustainable development for the circular economy and resource reuse. This paper explores the regional determinants of new firm formation in the nascent car-sharing industry in China. We used panel data from 449 car-sharing new ventures established in 257 cities in China from 2011 to 2019 to conduct an empirical analysis. The findings show that the urbanization economy, human capital and venture capital in the region have a positive impact on the establishment of new ventures. At the same time, the regional population density, localization economy, innovation capacity and competitive environment have no significant relationships with the establishment of new car-sharing firms. This paper provides insights for startups entering the field of car-sharing and a theoretical basis for the subsequent research on startups in the sharing economy industry.

Confucian Values and Entrepreneurial Firm Legitimacy

This paper offers a model based on institutional theory to explain differences in the level of new venture formation and development between the Confucian-based societies of East-Asia and Western countries such as the United States. We propose that the Confucian values underlying the institutional and cultural environments of East-Asian countries adversely affect the social legitimacy of entrepreneurial firms thereby inhibiting new venture formation and growth. The theoretical model and propositions developed in this paper extend the theoretical understanding of the interplay between Confucian values, cognitive behavior, and entrepreneurial firm legitimacy. Implications for international entrepreneurship research are discussed.

Immigrant entrepreneurs in the USA

Purpose Given the growing number of immigrant entrepreneurs in the USA, the purpose of this paper is to better understand the behaviors of this subgroup of entrepreneurs. Specifically, the paper aims to understand the unique challenges faced by immigrant entrepreneurs and how environmental challenges affect decisions to grow or abandon their ventures. Design/methodology/approach To make the theoretical arguments in this conceptual paper, the authors draw on the theory of planned behavior developed by Ajzen (1985), which suggests that a person’s behavior is predicted by their intention, and intentions are predicted by one’s attitudes, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control. Findings The paper provides theoretical insights on the effect of demands of immigration on the intentions of immigrant entrepreneurs to engage in three specific entrepreneurial behaviors: new venture formation, growth and abandonment. The authors propose that immigrant entrepreneurs deal with increased stress yet continue to maintain higher intentions to found new ventures compared to non-immigrants. Contrastingly, the authors also propose that the stress and obstacles immigrant entrepreneurs face reduce their intentions to grow their firms and increase their intentions to abandon their firms. The authors also explore entrepreneurial resilience as a possible moderating factor between stress and entrepreneurial intentions of immigrant entrepreneurs. Research limitations/implications First, the authors do not distinguish between immigrants from different nations or parts of the world or having different backgrounds. Second, the authors do not fully develop or incorporate the element of coping. Also, our paper is limited to behaviors of immigrant entrepreneurs with micro- and small-businesses. Practical implications Venture capitalists could benefit from empirical results of these propositions as funding decisions may need to include consideration of the proposed effects of stress and demands of immigration. Originality/value This paper meets an identified need to examine the effects of immigrant-specific issues such as the demands of immigration on the behaviors of this growing group of entrepreneurs.

Social entrepreneurship: A solution for transforming the disadvantaged community of Nellmapius

In this article, I investigate the concept, social entrepreneurship, as a potential lever in economic and social transformation of the poorest-of-the-poor community of Nellmapius township, east of Pretoria, South Africa. I identify definitions of ‘entrepreneurship’ and ‘social entrepreneurship’, and delve into the historical development of the concept ‘entrepreneur’. South Africa is in an era where it needs more new venture creation. Hence, I have studied new venture formation, especially from the perspective of Schumpeter’s theory of ways of forming a new firm. South Africa lags behind in new venture development compared toother developing countries; I investigated the causes behind this and suggest remedies to address this. Postfoundationalist practical theology is seen as a way of doing theology in the midst of those who suffer poverty and lack. The methods of this approach are dealt with in this article, which also asks what theology can bring to the table of interdisciplinary engagement?

Building intellectual capital in incubated technology firms

Purpose – The value of relational capital generated by entrepreneurs with their internal and external environment (Hormiga et al., 2011a, b), provides considerable resources when properly leveraged. It is particularly important in environments such as the high tech sector of incomplete information and weak economic markets such as new products, markets or technologies (Davidsson and Honig, 2003). The purpose of this paper is to examine how incubated technology entrepreneurs build relational capital for a new venture formation in the social context of a Higher Education Institution. Design/methodology/approach – The study took a qualitative approach based on content analysis of business plans and in-depth interviews with 25 technology entrepreneurs on an incubation programme – South East Enterprise Platform Programme – for technology graduates in the South East of Ireland. Findings – The study found that technology entrepreneurs during new venture formation engaged in four types of relational capital activities, namely, development of networks and contacts, relationship building, accessing and leveraging knowledge experts and members of associations. Practical implications – Incubator programmes need to actively support social building activities of technology entrepreneurs. Higher Education Institutes knowledge assets and networks are critical elements in supporting incubator technology entrepreneurs. Originality value – The study identified four types of relational capital building. The authors also found using Jones-Evans (1995) categorisation of technology entrepreneurs that users, producers, opportunists and non-technical entrepreneurs engaged in client focused relational capital building, whereas researcher types networked with service providers and displayed arms length relational capital building styles.