Chinese immigrant entrepreneurship: Embeddedness and the interaction of resources with the wider social and economic context

Abstract

This article investigates the factors that influenced the entrepreneurial start-up businesses among Chinese immigrants who had been granted residency under three different immigration policies in Australia. These immigrant groups differed in their resources and experienced different market conditions which led to different opportunity structures and subsequent choices of entrepreneurial activities. The mixed embeddedness model was identified as being useful for analysing the factors contributing to the business start-ups of these Chinese immigrant entrepreneurs. The research contributes to the existing literature by developing a dynamic analysis of the interaction of personal resources and economic conditions in the pursuit of business ventures. Also, the intersectionality of gender, race and class is analysed in relation to the mixed embeddedness model. Importantly, this research emphasises the need to look beyond either broad cultural factors or single factors in attempting to analyse the pathways selected by immigrant entrepreneurs.