Immigrant entrepreneurship and the institutional context: A theoretical exploration

The entrepreneurial resurgence that started in the United States in the early 1970s was not recognised immediately. Buried in the annual avalanche of statistics, both this resurgence and the conspicuous role played by immigrant entrepreneurs were barely evident. In retrospect the United States turned out to be only the front-runner of a much wider renaissance that eventually occurred in many other advanced economies as well (OECD, 1992). Notwithstanding this clear international dimension, comparative research on immigrant entrepreneurs in different countries has thus far been very thin on the ground. There is, however, a rapidly accumulating literature on immigrant entrepreneurship within single countries. Case studies of specific groups (for example Boissevain and Grotenbreg, 1986), specific industries such as the garment industry (for ertample Waldinger, 1989b), of one group of immigrants in two or more cities (for example Min, 1996; Waldinger and Tseng, 1992) and of different groups of immigrants in one or more cities (for example Light and Rosenstein, 1995b; Razin and Langlois, 1996) do exist, but research mainly seems to stop at the border. Admittedly there has been some research presenting case studies from different countries (cf. Barrett et nl., 1996; Body-Gendrot and Ma Mung, 1992; Waldinger et al., 1990a, 1930c). These studies, however, refrain from engaging in genuine international comparative research into immigrant entrepreneurship. As this relatively recent history of research on contemporary immigrant entrepreneurship would lead us to believe - first case studies, then comparisons within one city or of one group in a number of cities, and more recently comparisons of different groups in several cities - the next stage will surely entail true international comparisons.