Immigrants' entrepreneurial motivation in Europe: liabilities and assets
International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research
ISSN: 1355-2554
Article publication date: 19 August 2020
Issue publication date: 11 November 2020
Abstract
Purpose
This paper examines how the institutional distance between immigrants' country of residence and country of origin, as well as the regulative and normative aspects of institutions in immigrants' country of residence, social context variables and individual psycho-behavioural factors, condition immigrants' entrepreneurial motivation (i.e. mainly by necessity, by a combination of necessity and opportunity, or mainly by opportunity), which is in contrast to the previous literature on immigrant entrepreneurship that mainly focuses on micro-level factors.
Design/methodology/approach
By using hierarchical linear regression models to test our hypotheses, the authors analyse 468 first-generation immigrant entrepreneurs settled in 31 European countries using data from the European Working Conditions Survey (6th EWCS; Eurofound, 2015 database) combined with other datasets to derive the macro-level variables (i.e. the Doing Business Project; Hofstede et al., 2010).
Findings
The authors find that distance in the normative aspects of institutions harms entrepreneurial opportunity motivation. At the same time, however, opportunity motivation is likely to benefit from both the normative aspects of institutions that reduce locals' opportunity motivation and the distance in the regulative aspects of institutions.
Originality/value
This article analyses immigrant entrepreneurship in Europe, which has been under-examined in the extant literature, and takes into account the micro-, meso- and macro-level factors affecting the entrepreneurial motivation of immigrants in Europe. This analysis responds to the need already highlighted by previous research to include not only micro-level factors but also meso- and macro-level factors in the analysis of immigrant entrepreneurship (Aliaga-Isla and Rialp, 2013).
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to Paco Liñán for his contribution in an earlier version of this article. Financial support from Spain’s National Economic, Industry and Competitiveness Department (Project: ECO2016-80518-R) is gratefully acknowledged by Antonia M. García-Cabrera and Ana M. Lucia-Casademunt.
Citation
García-Cabrera, A.M., Lucía-Casademunt, A.M. and Padilla-Angulo, L. (2020), "Immigrants' entrepreneurial motivation in Europe: liabilities and assets", International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, Vol. 26 No. 8, pp. 1707-1737. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEBR-01-2020-0042
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited