Immigrant entrepreneurship : towards the realization of immigrants' entrepreneurial performance and success in Norway

Abstract

The area of immigrant entrepreneurship is emerging as significant research area in the field of entrepreneurship. This is especially pronounced in the countries where there has been a marked growth in the number immigrant population. In the last few decades Norway has also become one of the preferred destinations of many immigrants, and the number of self-employed immigrants is considerably increasing in the country. Despite this positive trend however, many of the immigrant ventures in Norway are prone to failure and thus, are short lived. Immigrants face other specific challenges in addition to the challenges faced by the local entrepreneurs when they embark upon running their own ventures. Studies in the area of immigrant entrepreneurship in Norway are not only few but also limited in scope. In light of this therefore, this study explores ways through which immigrant entrepreneurial performance and success can be realized in Norway. Through semi-structured interviews with immigrant entrepreneurs, this study investigates how the purpose of becoming entrepreneur influences entrepreneurial performance and success of immigrants. It also explores how the challenges and opportunities these immigrants meet in Norway on one hand, and the resources (ethno-cultural and class) they bring with them, as well as government policy and other institutional frameworks on the other hand, influence entrepreneurial performance and success of these immigrants. This study indicates that, the role of labor market experience, regardless of whether the immigrants are necessity or opportunity driven, is largely in giving them an impetus in mobilizing their resources (personal, ethno cultural, and class) in order to find business opportunities with good return potential. This study maintains that the overall entrepreneurial performance and success of immigrants is influenced by the quality of the immigrants’ resources, how well the immigrants exploit these resources in finding and sustaining good entrepreneurial opportunities, as well as external dynamics, such as the government policy (and other relevant institutional frameworks). The main argument of this study is therefore, entrepreneurial performance and success of immigrants in Norway is dependent on the type of the businesses the immigrants start, how it is operated, its target customers, the characteristics (resources) of the immigrants themselves as well as access to finance and the institutional frameworks.