Transnational Entrepreneurs: An Alternative Form of Immigrant Economic Adaptation

By A. Portes, W. Haller, L. Guarnizo. American Sociological Review, 2002

1,110 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The recent literature on immigrant transnationalism points to an alternative form of economic adaptation of foreign minorities in advanced societies that is based on the mobilization of their cross-country social networks. Case studies have noted the phenomenon's potential significance for immigrant integration into receiving countries and for the economic development in countries of origin. Despite their suggestive character, these studies consistently sample on the dependent variable (trans-nationalism), failing to establish the empirical existence of these activities beyond a few descriptive examples and their possible determinants. These issues are addressed using a survey designed explicitly for this purpose and conducted among selected Latin immigrant groups in the United States. Although immigrant trans-nationalism has received little attention in the mainstream sociological literature so far, it has the potential of altering the character of the new ethnic communities spawned by contemporary immigration. The empirical existence of transnationalism is examined on the basis of discriminant functions of migrant characteristics, and the relative probabilities of engaging in these kinds of activities is established based on hypotheses drawn from the literature. Implications for the sociology of immigration as well as for broader sociological theories of the economy are discussed.

Subfields: Demography, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/f7efc1459eda86e6cf6ce5239127128fdcf052bf

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Citations in the corpus

International Trade Fairs and Global Buzz, Part I: Ecology of Global Buzz (2010, background): “…and information ecology during international trade fairs, we are aware that similar or related forms of global buzz exist (Bathelt & Schuldt, 2008a), associated with, for instance, global business travelling (e.g. Wickham & Vecchi, 2008) or transnational epistemic communities (e.g. Portes, 2002).”
Studying Choice and Change: The Intersection of Institutional Theory and Entrepreneurship Research (2011, background): “Explanations suggest a number of material factors are at play (see Light 1972, Bonacich 1987, Portes et al. 2002) but they also highlight institutional sources.”
From brain drain to brain gain: reverse migration to Bangalore and Hyderabad, India’s globalizing high tech cities (2007, background): “…educational institutions and in sophisticated laboratories not available in the sending country (Hazen and Alberts 2006), others are drawn by the promise of a better standard of living (Cheshire and Magrini 2006) while still others are motivated by entrepreneurial desires (Portes et al. 2002).”
Transnational Entrepreneurship: Determinants of Firm Type and Owner Attributions of Success (2009, methodology): “Researchers have shown that these practices are indeed unique from those of earlier immigrants, and play a role in the development of the immigrant community in the host country, as well as the immigrants’ home countries (Portes et al., 1999, 2002; Zhou).”
A Cross-Disciplinary Exploration of Entrepreneurship Research (2007, background): “In a fascinating study of “transnational” entrepreneurs, Portes et al. (2002) examine a specific form of entrepreneurship in which immigrant entrepreneurs take advantage of opportunities that cross national borders.”
Do young firms owned by recent immigrants outperform other young firms (2014, background): “Thus, firm growth for some immigrants may not be as pressing a motive as for others; their priority may be salary substitution or generating income to support family (Portes et al., 2002).”
Remittance outcomes and migration: Theoretical contests, real opportunities (2005, background): “There are some indications that linkages can transcend the generations and that transnational ties will continue to foster growth in communities of origin even as migrants integrate into their new homes (Greico, 2003; Landolt et al., 1999; Levitt, 2003; Morawska, 2003; Portes et al., 2002; TorresSal”
Immigrant remittances and the venture investment environment of developing countries (2011, background): “I see value in closer integration of my research with transnational entrepreneurship concepts (Drori et al., 2009; Portes et al., 2002).”
Transnational diaspora entrepreneurship in emerging markets: Bridging institutional divides (2010, background): “These entrepreneurs often leverage unique cultural resources or market knowledge in their new ventures (Portes et al., 2002).”
Supporting rural entrepreneurship: a review of conceptual developments from research to practice (2014, background): “While Hispanic immigrants tend to co-locate with other Hispanic immigrants, forming important local cultural networks that support business (Farmer & Moon, 2011), these businesses continue to be heavily reliant on ties to the home country, and ongoing exchanges of both labor and capital across natio”
Transnational ties and performance of immigrant entrepreneurs: the role of home-country conditions (2014, background): “Both Sequeira, Carr, and Rasheed (2009) and Patel and Terjesen (2011) use data from Comparative Immigrant Enterprise Project (Portes, Haller, and Guarnizo 2002), which includes transnational immigrants from Colombia, the Dominican Republic and El Salvador to the USA.”