The role of social capital in the growth and innovation of immigrant-founded enterprises

B. Yasanthi Perera, Claudia Gomez, Judith Y. Weisinger and David H. Tobey

International Journal of Innovation and Learning, 2013, vol. 13, issue 1, 33-49

Abstract: Immigrant-founded enterprises contribute significantly to host country economies. Research indicates that immigrant entrepreneurs garner benefits from their social capital within co-ethnic communities. Relationship strength, community norms, and the level of community embeddedness seem to influence the potential for developing immigrant-founded businesses. Despite its start-up phase benefits, co-ethnic social capital may impose limitations on these enterprises. We offer a theoretical analysis connecting social ties, and network structure with the ability of immigrant-founded enterprises to innovate. This paper expands our understanding of immigrant-founded enterprises, and informs interested parties of the value of developing the immigrant entrepreneurs' social capital beyond co-ethnic communities.

Keywords: immigrant entrepreneurs; weak ties; strong ties; immigrant communities; co-ethnic social capital; community norms; community expectations; bridging ties; bonding ties; immigrant-founded enterprises; host countries; immigrants; immigration; ethnicity; relationship strength; community norms; community embeddedness; start-up benefits; limitations; social ties; networks; network structures; entrepreneurship; USA; United States; Canada; North America; innovation; learning. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=50580 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ids:ijilea:v:13:y:2013:i:1:p:33-49

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in International Journal of Innovation and Learning from Inderscience Enterprises Ltd
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sarah Parker ().