Title: The role of family social capital in immigrants' entrepreneurial opportunity creation processes

Authors: Quang Evansluong; Marcela Ramírez-Pasillas

Addresses: Faculty of Business and Law, Bristol Business School, University of the West of England, Bristol, UK; Gothenburg Research Institute, School of Business, Economics and Laws, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden ' CeFEO, Centre for Family Enterprise and Ownership, Jönköping International Business School, Jönköping University, Jönköping, Sweden

Abstract: This paper conducts an inductive case study to build a theory on the role of family in both the host and home countries in immigrant entrepreneurs' attempts at creating entrepreneurial opportunities. We used the perspectives of the opportunity creation process and family social capital. We relied on data collected from four cases of immigrant entrepreneurs from Lebanon, Syria, Cameroon and Mexico who have established businesses in Sweden. The paper identified three sources of family social capital: family duties, family trust and family support as being relevant for creating opportunities. While family duties triggered the process of forming an entrepreneurial idea, this process was advanced by the existence of family trust. Family support was then the building block for launching an entrepreneurial idea. By identifying these three sources of family social capital, we show that families in the host and home countries contribute to immigrant entrepreneurs' opportunity creation.

Keywords: immigrant entrepreneurship; opportunity creation; family social capital; entrepreneurial ideas; home country; host country; family duty; family trust.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESB.2019.096973

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2019 Vol.36 No.1/2, pp.164 - 188

Received: 05 Jul 2016
Accepted: 12 May 2017
Published online: 14 Dec 2018 *

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