Title: Financial ambidexterity of the immigrant family businesses: the role of boundary work and behavioural complexity

Authors: Bryan Malki

Addresses: Jönköping International Business School, Center for Family Entrepreneurship and Ownership – CeFEO, Jönköping University, Gjuterigatan 5, 55111 Jönköping, Sweden

Abstract: The immigrant entrepreneurs' limited financing choices, and the various barriers preventing their access to the necessary financing in host countries have been extensively covered by the immigrant entrepreneurship literature. However, little is known about how immigrant family businesses (IFBs), at their start-up level, manage to overcome these barriers and survive in host countries. Thus, this paper introduces the concept of financial ambidexterity of IFBs as the behavioural ability that some IFB owners develop to flexibly explore and exploit financing opportunities in both co-ethnic and mainstream contexts in host countries. In doing so, the paper draws on the complementary role of boundary work and behavioural complexity in determining the IFBs' financial ambidexterity. As such, the paper contributes to the literature on entrepreneurial finance, and to the intersection between family business and immigrant entrepreneurship literature by introducing a mechanism that enables IFBs to overcome financing barriers in host countries.

Keywords: immigrant entrepreneurship; immigrant family business; IFB; financial ambidexterity; entrepreneurial finance; behavioural complexity; social boundaries; boundary work.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESB.2024.140300

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2024 Vol.53 No.1, pp.21 - 41

Received: 14 Jan 2022
Received in revised form: 31 May 2022
Accepted: 31 May 2022
Published online: 02 Aug 2024 *

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