From employees to entrepreneurs: Unveiling the antecedents of migrants’ spinouts in the mainstream market

Abstract

Despite its relevance, migrant entrepreneurship beyond ethnic niches remains underexplored. To address this gap, this paper investigates the antecedents that enable migrants to establish businesses in mainstream markets. Adopting an inductive approach, the study develops the Migrant Employee Spinout (MES) framework to interpret the transition from employment to entrepreneurship. Semi-structured interviews were held with 24 migrant entrepreneurs operating in three strategic sectors of the Italian economy. Findings reveal that migrants leveraged prior employment in native-owned firms to acquire technical and managerial competencies and access professional networks embedded in the local business ecosystem. Moreover, the organisational environment of the parent firm, combined with migrants’ agency, shaped their entrepreneurial intentions. In addition, some context-specific factors, such as institutional proximity, fostered migrants’ entrepreneurial transition, whereas the contribution of ethnic communities was marginal. This study highlights growing similarities between migrant and native firms, particularly in the role of employment as a pathway to entrepreneurship.