Liabilities of native and immigrant entrepreneurship in the processes of globalization

Abstract

This chapter introduces the main issues addressed in the book by examining the liabilities of native and immigrant entrepreneurship in local contexts from a multidisciplinary perspective. Immigration leads to the presence of different cultures in the same place of settlement. This may push immigrant entrepreneurship into ethnic enclaves because of discrimination and racism. However, through globalization, native entrepreneurship can also lose centrality and become peripheral in global markets compared with the transnational networks. Both groups (immigrants and natives) can experience liabilities of outsidership, and acculturation stress. The local liabilities are associated with costs, competitiveness losses, and missed business opportunities. These liabilities may significantly affect the development of Prato's industrial district, on which the city's economic prosperity relies. The liabilities of native and immigrant entrepreneurship are so many and so varied, that they do not solely concern market relationships. Considering the second generation of immigrants adds another layer of complexity to analyzing the local liabilities. The second generation hold great promise for the improved integration of the Chinese community in Prato in the future. The radical social transformation provided by smartphones and similar technologies, can help immigrants to maintain contacts and business with their community of origin. We propose examining the local liabilities of native and immigrant entrepreneurship in terms of degrees of outsidership, rather than from clearly bounded positions of insidership or outsidership. Finally, we compare the disciplinary points, providing a broad context for the chapters that follow.