Female Transnational Entrepreneurs (FTEs): A Case Study of Korean American Female Entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley

June Y. Lee and Jane Yeonjae Lee

Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Emerging Economies, 2020, vol. 6, issue 1, 67-83

Abstract: Abstract Increasingly, studies of entrepreneurship and migration have examined the role of immigrant entrepreneurs in revitalising and diversifying the economy of the host society. Further, recent transnational skilled entrepreneurs have been understood as being much more mobile in building international networks and collaborations between their home and host societies. These studies have tended to focus on the technically oriented entrepreneurs and to produce a single grand narrative about a particular migrant group that transfers knowledge and becomes a technical pioneer in their home society. This article scrutinises a group of first-generation Korean American female transnational entrepreneurs (FTEs) living in Silicon Valley and builds a nuanced understanding about the diversity and complexity of being transnational entrepreneurs. Through a multi-layered qualitative approach, the study illustrates that three major mechanisms are at play: 1) the ecosystem of Silicon Valley; 2) the dynamics of gender and ethnicity; and 3) the adoption to live in a transnational social field. These mechanisms shape the motivations, experiences, and performances of Korean American FTEs. This article reveals the contesting ways in which these three mechanisms work simultaneously with each other.

Keywords: Female transnational entrepreneurs; minority entrepreneurship; transnational entrepreneurship; South Korea; Silicon Valley; transnational social field (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2393957519881925 (text/html)

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:sae:jouent:v:6:y:2020:i:1:p:67-83

DOI: 10.1177/2393957519881925

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Emerging Economies from Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().