IJMB Journal – Abstracts

International Journal of Management and Business

IJMB Volume XI, Issue 1

 

Motivations and Performance Conditions for Immigrant Entrepreneurship

Radjabu Mayuto*, Égide G. Karuranga, Zhan Su
Faculty of Business administration, Université Laval, Québec, Canada

E-mail:radjabu.mayuto.1@ulaval.ca

ABSTRACT

The growing number and importance of immigrants, and particularly immigrant entrepreneurs (IEs), deserves more attention from international business practitioners and scholars. Their integration within western host countries is increasingly becoming an international issue. Immigrants can be a source of socioeconomic vitality. However, the positive potential of immigration can only be realized if inter alia entrepreneurial integration into host societies is successful. Our objective is to generate a theoretical framework for understanding the factors influencing immigrants’ performance. We use qualitative research with IEs in Canada to argue that the performance of IEs depends in large part on their motivation to perform into their host country, which is largely explained by their motivation to create business. We derive from the qualitative data four different types of immigrant entrepreneur, and suggest that the type will determine the performance of the immigrant. The relationship between the motivation to create and the motivation to perform as well as the relationship between the motivation to perform and the performance is moderated by “strategy”, “commitment” and “opportunity”, such that the effects of these, in turn, vary with type. Recognition of the types of IE and the moderating factors will be valuable for practitioners, as well as opening up new investigation avenues for academics.

Keywords: immigrant entrepreneur, motivation to create, motivation to perform, performance, strategy, opportunity, commitment.

Click for full manuscript (PDF) or back to Volume 11-1, Table of Content.