Social networks for cross-border business activities: a comparison between transnational and domestic Moroccan migrant entrepreneurs

Abstract

The existing literature shows that social contacts and resources available through social networks are particularly important for migrant entrepreneurs. This seems to apply also to transnational migrant entrepreneurs, who are migrants involved in entrepreneurial activities crossing national borders. It is still not entirely clear which kind of social contacts they use, nor the differences with migrant entrepreneurs conducting a domestic (namely, non-transnational) business. The paper focuses on the use of social networks by transnational and domestic entrepreneurs, by illustrating the case of Moroccan migrant entrepreneurs in Amsterdam and Milan. The research reveals that transnational entrepreneurs have more heterogenous, geographically dispersed and territorially articulated support networks, which are both more extensive and less dense than those of domestic entrepreneurs. Transnational entrepreneurs exploit their capacity to have contacts with different people in different places. In contrast, domestic entrepreneurs tend to mobilize resources within their dense, homogeneous, and locally based networks.