Title: Immigrant and indigenous youth in Europe: entrepreneurial intention building on human, financial and social capital

Authors: Thomas Schøtt

Addresses: Department of Entrepreneurship and Relationship Management, University of Southern Denmark, 6000 Kolding, Denmark

Abstract: Young people form vocational intentions, e.g., to become entrepreneurs and start a business. Entrepreneurial intention is often promoted by resources, notably human, financial and social capitals, which differ between indigenous youth and immigrants, who differ in the cultural capital they bring from their origins. The purpose is to account for how immigrant and indigenous youths' origins and human, financial and social capital affect entrepreneurial intention. A sample of 53,775 youths, including 6,117 immigrants, has been surveyed around Europe in the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor. Although immigrants have less education and financial capital than indigenous youth, they have more entrepreneurial competencies and intentions, especially those originating from Africa and Middle East. Second generation immigrants are opportunity-alert and network more than indigenous and first generation immigrants, enhancing their entrepreneurial intention. Complementing the focus on immigrants' education and status attainment in earlier studies, this study focuses on their entrepreneurial competencies and intentions as shaped by their embeddedness in entrepreneurially intense home-societies. Policies can beneficially be tailored to transforming the immigrants' entrepreneurial competencies and intentions into enterprising.

Keywords: immigrants; dual embeddedness; human capital; financial capital; social capital; entrepreneurial intention; Europe; indigenous youth; entrepreneurship; young people; youth entrepreneurs; cultural capital; culture; education levels; entrepreneurial competencies; immigrant entrepreneurs.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESB.2017.081981

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2017 Vol.30 No.3, pp.374 - 394

Received: 09 Nov 2015
Accepted: 17 Jun 2016
Published online: 31 Jan 2017 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article