Skip to main navigation menu Skip to main content Skip to site footer

Challenges experienced by immigrant entrepreneurs in a developing non-Western country: Malaysia

Abstract

Objective: The objective of the article is to explore the challenges experienced by immigrant entrepreneurs in a developing non-Western immigrant-receiving country.

Research Design & Methods: Through a qualitative approach, this study examined the experiences of immigrant entrepreneurs from Indonesia, Pakistan, and South Korea in one host country, Malaysia.

Findings: The findings suggest that the formal aspects of host country institutions are mainly instrumental in the commencement stages of immigrant entrepreneurs’ ventures and the informal aspects of institutions are predominantly influential in the developmental stages of immigrant entrepreneurs’ ventures. Specifically, the findings indicate that the challenges experienced by immigrant entrepreneurs in the host country mainly stem from (1) governing institutions, (2) resource-providing institutions, (3) local society and (4) competition in the host country.

Implications & Recommendations: Through the model, this study provides a layer of knowledge in immigrant entrepreneurship activities conducted in developing non-Western countries, which is a fertile area of interest in immigrant entrepreneurship. Practice-wise, this study provides useful evidence in assisting immigrant entrepreneurs and host country’s policymakers who deal with trade and migration to create a more sustainable landscape for immigrants to conduct entrepreneurship activities.

Contribution & Value Added: This research contributes to the immigrant entrepreneurship literature by further gauging the way home-host country dynamics influence the experiences of immigrant entrepreneurs in conducting their ventures in a foreign country.

       

Keywords

Immigrant entrepreneurs, Malaysia, entrepreneurship

(PDF) Save

References

  1. Abd Hamid, H., O’Kane, C., & Everett, A. M. (2019). Conforming to the host country versus being distinct to our home countries: Ethnic migrant entrepreneurs’ identity work in cross-cultural settings. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior and Research, 25(5), 919-935. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEBR-02-2018-0097
  2. Aliaga-Isla, R., & Rialp, A. (2013). Systematic review of immigrant entrepreneurship literature: Previous findings and ways forward. Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, 25(9-10), 819-844. https://doi.org/10.1080/08985626.2013.845694
  3. Azmat, F., & Fujimoto, Y. (2016). Family embeddedness and entrepreneurship experience: A study of Indian migrant women entrepreneurs in Australia. Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, 28(9-10), 630-656. https://doi.org/10.1080/08985626.2016.1208279
  4. Barkema, H., Chen, X.-P., George, G., Luo, Y., & Tsui, A. (2015). West meets East: New concepts and theories. Academy of Management Journal, 58(2), 460-479. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2015.4021
  5. Boudreaux, C.J., Nikolaev, B.N., & Klein, P. (2019). Socio-cognitive traits and entrepreneurship: The moderating role of economic institutions. Journal of Business Venturing, 34(1), 178-196. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusvent.2018.08.003
  6. Bruton, GD., Ahlstrom, D., & Li, H.L. (2010). Institutional theory and entrepreneurship: Where are we now and where do we need to move in the future? Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 34(3), 421-440. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6520.2010.00390.x
  7. Bruton, G.D., Ahlstrom, D., & Obloj, K. (2008). Entrepreneurship in emerging economies: Where are we today and where should the research go in the future. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 32(1), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6520.2007.00213.x
  8. Brzozowski, J., Cucculelli, M., & Surdej, A. (2014). Transnational ties and performance of immigrant entrepreneurs: The role of home-country conditions. Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, 26(7-8), 546-573. https://doi.org/10.1080/08985626.2014.959068
  9. Busenitz, L.W., Gomez, C., & Spencer, J.W. (2000). Country institutional profiles: Unlocking entrepreneurial phenomena. Academy of Management Journal, 43(5), 994-1003. https://doi.org/10.2307/1556423
  10. Carney, M., & Andriesse, E. (2014). Malaysia: Personal capitalism. In M.A. Witt & G.S. Redding (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Asian Business Systems. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
  11. Carter, S., Mwaura, S., Ram, M., Trehan, K., & Jones, T. (2015). Barriers to ethnic minority and women’s enterprise: Existing evidence, policy tensions and unsettled questions. International Small Business Journal, 33(1), 49-69. https://doi.org/10.1177/0266242614556823
  12. Chaganti, R.S., Watts, A.D., Chaganti, R., & Zimmerman-Treichel, M. (2008). Ethnic-immigrants in founding teams: Effects on prospector strategy and performance in new Internet ventures. Journal of Business Venturing, 23(1), 113-139. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusvent.2006.07.004
  13. Cruz, E.P., Falcao, R.P. Q., & Barreto, C.R. (2018). Exploring the evolution of ethnic entrepreneurship: The case of Brazilian immigrants in Florida. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior and Research, 24(5), 971-993. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEBR-08-2016-0239
  14. Dheer, R.J.S. (2018). Entrepreneurship by mmigrants: A review of existing literature and directions for future research. International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, 14(3), 555-614. https://doi.org/ 10.1007/s11365-018-0506-7
  15. DiMaggio, P.J. (1991). Constructing an organizational field as a professional project: U.S. art museums 1920-1940. In W.W. Powell & P.J. DiMaggio (Eds.), The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis (pp. 267-292). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
  16. DiMaggio, P.J., & Powell, W.W. (1983). The iron cage revisited - Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields. American Sociological Review, 48(2), 147-160.
  17. DiMaggio, P.J., & Powell, W.W. (1991). Introduction. In W.W. Powell & P.J. DiMaggio (Eds.), The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis (pp. 1-38). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
  18. Elo, M. (2016). Typology of diaspora entrepreneurship: Case studies in Uzbekistan. Journal of International Entrepreneurship, 14(1), 121-155. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10843-016-0177-9
  19. Gioia, D.A., Corley, K.G., & Hamilton, A.L. (2013). Seeking qualitative rigor in nductive research: Notes on the Gioia Methodology. Organizational Research Methods, 16(1), 15-31. https://doi.org/10.1177/1094428112452151
  20. Greenman, A. (2013). Everyday entrepreneurial action and cultural embeddedness: An institutional logics perspective. Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, 25(7-8), 631-653. https://doi.org/10.1080/08985626.2013.829873
  21. Griffin-EL, E.W., & Olabisi, J. (2018). Breaking boundaries: Exploring the process of intersective market activity of immigrant entrepreneurship in the context of high economic inequality. Journal of Management Studies, 55(3), 457-485. https://doi.org/10.1111/joms.12327
  22. Hugo, G. (2011). Migration and development in Malaysia: An emigration perspective. Asian Population Studies, 7(3), 219-241. https://doi.org/10.1080/17441730.2011.608983
  23. Jafari Sadeghi, V., Nkongolo-Bakenda, J.-M., Anderson, R.B., & Dana, L.-P. (2019). An institution-based view of international entrepreneurship: A comparison of context-based and universal determinants in developing and economically advanced countries. International Business Review, 28(6), 101-117. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ibusrev.2019.101588
  24. Khalid, K.M., & Yacob, S. (2012). Managing Malaysia-Indonesia relations in the context of democratization: The emergence of non-state actors. International Relations of the Asia-Pacific, 12(3), 355-387. https://doi.org/10.1093/irap/lcr024
  25. Kloosterman, R.C., van der Leun, J., & Rath, J. (1999). Mixed embeddedness: (In)formal economic activities and immigrant businesses in the Netherlands. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 23(2), 252-266.
  26. Kostova, T. (1999). Transnational transfer of strategic organizational practices: A contextual perspective. Academy of Management Review, 24(2), 308-324. https://doi.org/10.5465/AMR.1999.1893938
  27. Lim, D.S.K., Oh, C.H., & De Clercq, D. (2016). Engagement in entrepreneurship in emerging economies: Interactive effects of individual-level factors and institutional conditions. International Business Review, 25(4), 933-945. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ibusrev.2015.12.001
  28. Luo, Y. (2016). Competing in complex cross-cultural world: Philosophical insights from Yin-Yang. Cross Cultural and Strategic Management, 23(2). https://doi.org/10.1108/CCSM-01-2016-0020
  29. Martinelli, A. (2004). The social and institutional context of entrepreneurship. In G. Corbetta, M. Huse, & D. Ravasi (Eds.), Crossroads of entrepreneurship (pp. 58-74). New York, NY: Springer.
  30. Mata, J., & Alves, C. (2018). The survival of firms founded by immigrants: Institutional distance between home and host country, and experience in the host country. Strategic Management Journal, 39(11), 2965-2991. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.2945
  31. Miles, M.B., & Huberman, M.A. (1994). Qualitative data analysis: An expanded sourcebook. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
  32. North, D.C. (1990). Institutions, institutional change and economic performance. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
  33. North, D.C. (2005). Institutions and the process of economic change. Management International, 9(3), 1-7.
  34. Omri, A. (2020). Formal versus informal entrepreneurship in emerging economies: The roles of governance and the financial sector. Journal of Business Research, 108, 277-290. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.11.027
  35. Ram, M., Theodorakopoulos, N., & Jones, T. (2008). Forms of capital, mixed embeddedness and Somali enterprise. Work, Employment and Society, 22(3), 427-446. https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017008093479
  36. Sharma, P., Luk, S.T.K., Cardinali, S., & Ogasavara, M.H. (2018). Challenges and opportunities for marketers in the emerging markets. Journal of Business Research, 86, 210-216. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.01.065
  37. Sundararajan, M., & Sundararajan, B. (2015). Immigrant capital and entrepreneurial opportunities. Entrepreneurial Business and Economics Review, 3(3), 29-50. https://doi.org/10.15678/EBER.2015.030303
  38. Taylor, S.J., Bogdan, R., & DeVault, M. (2015). Introduction to qualitative research methods: A guidebook and resource. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley.
  39. Terjesen, S., Hessels, J., & Li, D. (2016). Comparative international entrepreneurship: A review and research agenda. Journal of Management, 42(1), 299-344. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206313486259
  40. United Nations. (2019). Trends in international migrant stock: Migrants by destination and origin. from Department of Economic and Social Affairs https://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/migration/data/estimates2/estimates19.asp
  41. Vershinina, N., Barrett, R., & Meyer, M. (2011). Forms of capital, intra-ethnic variation and Polish entrepreneurs in Leicester. Work, Employment and Society, 25(1), 101-117. https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017010389241
  42. Verver, M. (2019). Contextualising ethnic minority entrepreneurship beyond the west: Insights from Belize and Cambodia. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior and Research, 25(5), 955-973. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEBR-03-2019-0190
  43. Wang, Y., & Warn, J. (2018). Break-out strategies of Chinese immigrant entrepreneurs in Australia. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior and Research (in press). https://doi.org/:10.1108/IJEBR-03-2017-0108
  44. Wiseman, J.P. (1979). The research web. In J.M. Bynner & K.M. Stribley (Eds.), Social research: Principles and procedures (pp. 113-121). New York, NY: Longman.
  45. Zonta, M. (2012). The continuing significance of ethnic resources: Korean-owned banks in Los Angeles, New York and Washington DC. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 38(3), 463-484. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2012.658547

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Similar Articles

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 > >> 

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.