Second Generation Migrant Entrepreneurs: How do culture and embeddedness influence opportunity perception and the resulting strategy formation?

Abstract

This paper researches second generation migrant entrepreneurship in the Twente region in the Netherlands. It looks at how embeddedness and culture affect the perception of economic opportunities by second generation migrant entrepreneurs (SGMEs). Moreover, by looking at those relationships more closely, this study figures out the interdependences of these factors which finally influence the strategy formation of SGMEs. Culture has a direct influence on embeddedness and network formation and it also has direct influence on opportunity perception, less however than on embeddedness. Through these effects it indirectly affects strategy formation. Embeddedness plays a large role on opportunity perceptions of SGMEs, as well as on the strategy formation and thus has a more significant direct effect.