Principal Topic

Entrepreneurship must be understood in its social and historical context, and in recent years an increasing body of knowledge has evolved on ethnic and immigrant entrepreneurship. However, most of this work has been American. In order to get a better theoretical understanding of the phenomenon it would be advantageous if these finding could be country-specific, related to e.g. cultural and institutional conditions within particular countries. This paper is an effort in that direction and Sweden is the context.

Method

The data used for the analysis has been taken from a unique longitudinal data set containing a cohort of 7,256 businesses started in Sweden in 1994. This cohort of businesses was repeatedly surveyed in 1995, 1998, and 2000. Size apart, this data-set carries some unique features, most notably being a true random sample from a comprehensive sampling frame as well as constantly reaching response rates in the range of 85–90% in each wave.

Results and Implications

The research is concerned with immigrant entrepreneurship in Sweden and with comparisons between immigrant and native businesses. Immigrant entrepreneurs are defined as individuals starting a business who themselves, or whose mothers/fathers are born in a country other than Sweden. 20% of the businesses were started by immigrants. The paper portrays the distinct features of immigrant businesses in Sweden by analysing the characteristics of the individuals starting the business as well as the characteristics of their businesses. Variables pertaining the business start-up include industry, legal form, motives for start-up, educational background, initial size, sales and profitability, main problems and obstacles to growth, and future intentions. Some initial results show that unemployment is not the main reason for immigrants to start a business, and it also kills the myth of immigrants lacking proper education, and immigrants are sometimes better equipped with human capital than native Swedes. However, so far, the study raises further research questions, such as the differentiation between different immigrating nationalities, what specific advantages they possess, etc. The discussion combines up-to-date knowledge on ethnic entrepreneurship and findings with the debate on uniformity and diversity in organisations as well as in society and economy.

CONTACT: Ethel Brundin, Jonkoping International Business School, P.O. Box 1026, SE 551 11 Jonkoping, Sweden; ethel.brundin@jibs.hj.se