The role of (transnational) social capital in the start-up processes of immigrant businesses: The case of Chinese and Turkish restaurant businesses in Finland
Restricted accessResearch articleFirst published online May, 2012
The role of (transnational) social capital in the start-up processes of immigrant businesses: The case of Chinese and Turkish restaurant businesses in Finland
The article focuses on the business start-up process of Chinese and Turkish restaurant owners in Finland. Of particular interest are the role of social capital in establishing restaurant businesses and how variations in access to bonding and bridging social capital can explain differences between the two groups. The study is based on two sets of research: one which concentrates on Chinese restaurant owners and the other on the owners of Turkish, kebab fast-food outlets in southern Finland. Regardless of the general similarities of the groups, a closer look at the start-up processes and business activities reveals distinct patterns and processes associated with the entry pattern in Finland: that is, who entered Finland, why they entered the country and how. The two studies indicate that relevant social capital can be accumulated in different ways depending on the migration pattern of the group.
AldrichHZimmerC (1986) Entrepreneurship through social networks. In: SextonDSmilerR (eds) The Art and Science of Entrepreneurship. New York: Ballinger, 3–23.
2.
AltinayLAltinayE (2006) Determinants of ethnic minority entrepreneurial growth in the catering sector. The Service Industries Journal26(2): 203–221.
3.
BainesSWheelockJ (1998) Working for each other: Gender, the household and micro-business survival and growth. International Small Business Journal17(1): 16–35.
4.
BaschLGlickSNSzantonBC (1994) Nations Unbound. Amsterdam: Gordon and Breach.
5.
BasuAAltinayE (2002) The interaction between culture and entrepreneurship in London’s immigrant businesses. International Small Business Journal20(4): 371–393.
6.
BentonGPiekeF (eds) (1998) The Chinese in Europe. London: Macmillan.
7.
BianY (1997) Bringing strong ties back in: Indirect ties, networks bridges and job searches in China. American Sociological Review62(3): 366–385.
8.
BianYAngS (1997) Guanxi networks and job mobility in China and Singapore. Social Forces75(3): 981–1005.
9.
CopeJJackSRoseM (2007) Social capital and entrepreneurship. International Small Business Journal25(3): 213–219.
10.
DavidssonPHonigB (2003) The role of social and human capital among nascent entrepreneurs. Journal of Business Venturing18(3): 301–331.
11.
DeakinsDIshaqMSmallboneD. (2007) Ethnic minority business in Scotland and the role of social capital. International Small Business Journal25(3): 307–326.
12.
EtzioniA (1988) The Moral Dimension. Toward a New Economics. New York: Free Press.
13.
EtzioniALawrencePR (eds) (1991) Socio-economics: Toward a New Synthesis. New York: M.E. Sharpe.
14.
FaistT (2000a) Economic activities of migrants in transnational social spaces. In: Body-GendrotSMartinielloM (eds) Minorities in European Cities. London: Macmillan, 11–25.
15.
FaistT (2000b) The Volume and Dynamics of International Migration and Transnational Social Spaces. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
16.
FlapHKumcuABulderB (2000) The social capital of immigrant entrepreneurs and their business success. In: RathJ (ed.) Immigrant Businesses: The Economic, Political and Social Environment. London: Macmillan, 142–161.
17.
ForsanderA (2004) Social capital in the context of immigration and diversity: Economic participation in the Nordic Welfare States. Journal of International Migration and Integration5(2): 207–227.
18.
GreveASalaffJ (2003) Social networks and entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice28(1): 1–22.
19.
GranovetterM (1973) The strength of weak ties. American Journal of Sociology78(6): 1360–1380.
20.
GranovetterM (1985) Economic action and social structure: The problem of embeddedness. American Journal of Sociology91(3): 481–510.
21.
GranovetterM (1995) The economic sociology of firms and entrepreneurs. In: PortesA (ed.) The Economic Sociology of Immigration: Essays on Networks, Ethnicity and Entrepreneurship. New York: Russell Sage, 128–165.
22.
HamabataMM (1990) Crested Kimono. Power and Love in the Japanese Business Family. London: Cornell University Press.
23.
IshaqMHussainAWhittamG (2010) Racism: A barrier to entry? Experiences of small ethnic minority retail businesses. International Small Business Journal28(4): 362–377.
24.
JonesTRamM (2010) Review article: Ethnic variations on the small firm labour process. International Small Business Journal28(2): 163–173.
25.
JonesTRamMEdwardsP (2006) Ethnic minority business and the employment of illegal immigrants. Entrepreneurship and Regional Development18(2): 133–150.
26.
KatilaS (2002) Emotions and the moral order of farm business families in Finland. In: FletcherD (ed.) Understanding the Small Family Business. London: Routledge, 180–191.
27.
KatilaS (2008) The gendered moral order of Chinese immigrant business families. In: GuptaVLevenburgNMooreLLetal. (eds) Culturally-sensitive Models of Gender in Family Business. A Compendium Using the GLOBE Paradigm. Hyderabad: Icfai University Press, 184–201.
28.
KatilaS (2010) Moral orders in Chinese business families in Finland. Constructing family, gender and ethnicity in a research situation. Gender, Work and Organization17(3): 297–319.
29.
KingN (2004) Using templates in the thematic analysis of text. In: CassellCSymonG (eds) Essential Guide to Qualitative Methods in Organizational Research. London: Sage, 256–270.
30.
KloostermanR (2010) Matching opportunities with resources: A framework for analysing (migrant) entrepreneurship from a mixed embeddedness perspective. Entrepreneurship and Regional Development22(1): 25–45.
31.
KloostermanRRathJ (2001) Immigrant entrepreneurs in advanced economies: Mixed embeddedness further explored. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies27(2): 189–202.
32.
KloostermanRvan der LeunJRathJ (1999) Mixed embeddedness: (In)formal economic activities and immigrant businesses in the Netherlands. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research23(2): 253–267.
33.
LightI (1979) Disadvantaged minorities in self-employment. International Journal of Comparative Sociology20(1–2): 31–45.
34.
LightIGoldS (2000) Ethnic Economies. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
35.
McEvoyDHafeezKKeoyKH (2010) Special Issue: Ethnic Minority Entrepreneurship and Management: Introduction from Special Editors. International Small Business Journal28(2)131–135.
36.
NakhaieRLinXGuanJ (2009) Social capital and the myth of minority self-employment: Evidence from Canada. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies35(4): 625–644.
37.
OxfeldE (1993) Blood, Sweat and Mahjong. Family and Enterprise in an Overseas Chinese Community. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
38.
PécoudA (2004) Entrepreneurship and identity: Cosmopolitanism and cultural competencies among German-Turkish businesspeople in Berlin. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies10(1): 3–20.
39.
PedrazaS (1991) Women and migration: The social consequences of gender. Annual Review of Sociology17: 303–325.
40.
PhizackleaARamM (1996) Being your own boss: Ethnic minority entreprenurs in comparative perspective. Work, Employment and Society10(2): 319–339.
41.
PortesA (1998) Social capital: Its origins and applications in modern sociology. Annual Review of Sociology24: 1–24.
42.
PortesABachR (1985) Latin Journey. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
43.
PortesASensenbrennerJ (1993) Embeddedness and Immigration: Notes on the social determinants of economic action. American Journal of Sociology98(6): 1320–1350.
44.
PutnamRD (1993) Making Democracy Work. Civic Traditions in Modern Italy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
45.
PutnamRD (2000) Bowling Alone. The Collapse and Revival of American Community. New York: Simon and Schuster.
46.
RamMHollidayR (1993) Relative merits: Family culture and kinship in small firms. Sociology27(4): 629–648.
47.
RamMJonesT (1998) Ethnic Minorities in Business. Milton Keynes: Small Business Research Trust.
48.
RamMTheodorakopoulosNJonesT (2008) Forms of capital, mixed embeddedness and Somali enterprise. Work, Employment and Society22(3): 427–446.
49.
RathJ (ed.) (2000) Immigrant Businesses: The Economic, Political and Social Environment. London: Macmillan.
50.
SandersJNeeV (1996) Immigrant self-employment: The family as social capital and the value of human capital. American Sociological Review61(2): 231–248.
51.
Siu-lunW (1991) Chinese entrepreneurship and business trust. In: HamiltonG (ed.) Business Networks and Economic Development in East and Southeast Asia. : Centre of Asian Studies Occasional Papers and Monographs, No. 99, 13–29.
52.
SongM (1997) Childrens labor in ethnic family business: The Case of Chinese take-away business in Britain. Ethnic and Racial Studies20(1): 690–716.
53.
Statistics Finland (2003) Foreigners and International Migration 2002. Helsinki: Statistics Finland.
StewartA (2003) Help one another, use one another: Toward an anthropology of family business. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice27(4): 383–396.
56.
TsengY-F (1996) Ethnic resources as forms of social capital: A study on Chinese immigrant entrepreneurs. Paper presented at the International Conference on Economic Governance in East Asia, Tsin-Hwa University, Taiwan.
57.
ValtonenK (2001) Cracking monopoly: Immigrants and employment in Finland. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies27(3): 421–438.
WahlbeckÖ (1999) Kurdish Diasporas: A Comparative Study of Kurdish Refugee Communities. Basingstoke: Macmillan.
60.
WahlbeckÖ (2004) Turkish immigrant entrepreneurs in Finland: Local embeddedness and transnational ties. In: Povrzanovic FrykmanM (ed.) Transnational Spaces: Disciplinary Perspectives. Malmö: Malmö University Press, 101–122.
61.
WahlbeckÖ (2007) Work in the kebab economy: A study of the ethnic economy of Turkish immigrants in Finland. Ethnicities7(4): 543–563.
62.
WaldingerR (1999) Network, bureaucracy and exclusion. In: BeanFBell-RoseS (eds) Immigration and Opportunity. Race, Ethnicity and Employment in the United States. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 228–259.
63.
WaldingerRAldrichHWardR (1990) Ethnic Entrepreneurs. Immigrant Business in Industrial Societies. London: Sage.
64.
YlänköM (2000) Measuring acceptance? Intermarriage levels as an indicator of tolerance in the Finnish context of integration. Yearbook of Population Research in Finland36: 179–197.
