Publication Date

10-1-2022

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

International Business Review

Volume

31

Issue

5

DOI

10.1016/j.ibusrev.2022.101997

Abstract

Second generation immigrant entrepreneurs (SGIEs) in developed economies have contributed to the emergence of new areas of business activity, especially in information technology, business services, and creative industries. An understanding of their growth strategies can shed light on the role of individual immigrants in the founding of potentially global firms competing with large multinational enterprises. Based on eleven case studies of SGIEs of Indian origin in the UK, our findings reveal that SGIEs are heterogeneous in their growth strategies contingent on their a) founding or succession context, and b) use of social ties. Founder SGIEs combining non-co-ethnic ties with non-family co-ethnic ties geographically expand outward to other foreign countries, including their country of origin. In contrast, successor SGIEs combining non-co-ethnic ties with family ties expand their product/ service scope within the UK; they exploit foreign market links, including their country of origin, to source supplies or customers through inward internationalization. These findings contribute to the immigrant entrepreneurship, international business and international entrepreneurship literatures.

Keywords

Geographic diversification, Growth strategies, Immigrant entrepreneurs, Inward internationalization, Outward internationalization, Product diversification, Second-generation, Social ties

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Department

Global Innovation and Leadership

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