New land of opportunity : Premises and constraints for immigrant entrepreneurship in Sweden

Abstract: Globalization has affected nearly all aspects of life as people gain mobility to cross national borders and live in different countries. Along with the other developed countries, Sweden has become a popular destination for immigration contributing to the phenomenon of immigrant entrepreneurship. Naturally, these type of entrepreneurs are exceedingly susceptible to various factors that impact business development. This thesis will investigate the obstacles that immigrant entrepreneurs face in the pursuit to establish and operate a successful business. Additionally, an examination into the incentivising schemes that are available to benefit and encourage immigrants to implement entrepreneurial activity. Besides, the thesis aims to identify how the business supporting organizations may facilitate illumination of the most significant constraints for implementation of entrepreneurial activity among immigrants. The research is conducted by using qualitative method based on four cases and unstructured interviews of representatives of business organizations. The results were analysed by comparing the cases between each other and extrapolation with the theoretical framework. The outcome of this thesis suggest that the primary driving forces for immigrant entrepreneurship in Sweden referred to discovery and exploration of business opportunity as well as to the factors that necessitate the immigrants to establish a new business venture. However, it is suggested that the necessity alone cannot be the decisive factor if the prospective entrepreneur fails to explore business opportunity. The primary constraints for immigrant entrepreneurship involve the internal and external barriers that may refer to the social and human capital as well as the access to the resources necessary for the implementation of entrepreneurial activity. Finally, it has been found that the entrepreneur supporting organization can significantly facilitate the entrepreneurship among immigrants through granting an excess to unique information, advice and support of the foreign-born entrepreneurs that may partially illuminate the most crucial barriers.