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A NARRATIVE PERSPECTIVE OF IMMIGRANT ENTREPRENEURIAL IDENTITY: LITERATURE REVIEW AND IMPLICATIONS FOR STUDIES IN THE POST SOCIALIST SOCIETIES

European Journal of Business and Economics

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Title A NARRATIVE PERSPECTIVE OF IMMIGRANT ENTREPRENEURIAL IDENTITY: LITERATURE REVIEW AND IMPLICATIONS FOR STUDIES IN THE POST SOCIALIST SOCIETIES
 
Creator Židonis, Žilvinas; Institute of Public Administration, faculty of Public Policy and Management, Mykolas Romeris University, Vilnius
 
Subject immigrant entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial identity, narrative analysis
D78, D83
 
Description This article aims to contribute to better understanding of immigrant entrepreneurial identity formation from the perspective of autobiographical narrative analysis. Research on immigrant entrepreneurship identity has been dominated by works of scholars who basically fall into two main steams. The first one deals with such issues as ethnic, female entrepreneurship, and in many cases it reduces immigrant entrepreneurship identity to an ethno-cultural phenomenon, which exists outside or at least in the margins of official economy and mainstream society. The second research stream elaborates on rapidly emerging field of transnationalism studies. From the perspective of identity, transnational entrepreneurs are considered as new “nomads” who migrate from one country to another and maintain linkages with their former country of origin. The article argues that, in spite of extensive and numerous research studies, little has been said about how individuals identify themselves as immigrant entrepreneurs. The article delivers two main propositions. First, instead of “labelling” immigrant entrepreneurs, such as “ethnic”, “female”, or “transnational”, we should approach identity phenomena from the perspective of opportunity discovery and opportunity realisation. Proposition is based on the assumption that opportunity is the generic theme in entrepreneurial discourse. Second, the article proposes autobiographical approach to show how immigrants construct entrepreneurial identity by narrating opportunity, which lies in the centre of any entrepreneurship story.
 
Publisher CBU, o.p.s.
 
Contributor This research has been funded by Lithuanian Research Council (Project “Research on the Use of Lithuanian Diaspora Professional Network Potential”, No. : MIP-13353-Patikslinta)
 
Date 2015-04-30
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
Peer-reviewed Article
 
Format application/pdf
 
Identifier https://ojs.journals.cz/index.php/EJBE/article/view/551
10.12955/ejbe.v10i1.551
 
Source European Journal of Business and Economics; Vol 10, No 1 (2015)
1804-9699
10.12955/ejbe.v10i1
 
Language eng
 
Relation https://ojs.journals.cz/index.php/EJBE/article/view/551/520
 
Rights Copyright (c) 2015 Žilvinas Židonis
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/