Immigrants and international entrepreneurship: transnational dynamic capability and dual social network embeddedness

Abstract

The availability of inexpensive means of communication and affordable transportation are significant drivers for immigrants to engage in transnational entrepreneurship. Transnational Entrepreneurs (TEs) are individuals that migrate from one country to another, concurrently maintaining business-related linkages with their former country of origin (COO), and currently adopted country of residence (COR) and using such dual embeddedness in their COO and COR to advance their entrepreneurial firms. Based on the dynamic capability perspective and the relational theory of social networks, this chapter offers a theoretical framework explaining how TEs develop their competitive advantage to succeed in a global market. This theoretical framework suggests an explanation of the process TEs may use to recognise opportunities and benefit from the social networks of their COO and COR. It also explains how TEs’ ethnic and nonethnic ties improve firm performance through the mediating effects of TEs’ dynamic capabilities and the moderating effect of institutional distance between the COO and the COR.