Entrepreneurial Ecosystems’ Impact on Immigrant Entrepreneurship : In Context of Kronoberg Region 

The literature argues that the immigrants act in segregated communities and they, in most of the cases, establish low-risk and low return businesses within their ethnic communities. The importance of connecting immigrant entrepreneurs and the entrepreneurial ecosystems is a challenge to be overcome taking into consideration that the immigrants usually are not involved in it as a consequence of a lack of information about how it can facilitate immigrant entrepreneurship. The aim of this research is to explore how the entrepreneurial ecosystem can facilitate the immigrant entrepreneurship by confronting the stories of the entrepreneurial ecosystem to the stories of the immigrant entrepreneurs in Sweden, in context of Kronoberg region. Qualitative analysis approach is applied and in-depth interviews are performed on seven organizations that are part of the entrepreneurial ecosystem and four immigrant entrepreneurs. Collected empirical data is then transformed into narratives for each interviewed person. The analysis and the answer to the question are done based on the structure of Isenberg’s Domains of the Entrepreneurship Ecosystem. The research showed that the entrepreneurial ecosystem can facilitate the immigrant entrepreneurship by providing micro-loans, alternative ways of financing, equal access to opportunities, embracing the experimentation and drive, consultancy in different areas as legal regulation, accounting and business plan preparation, free of charge working space, seminars and workshops, help with understanding and translation of the language, contacts with early customers and business partners and by providing access to new markets. However, empirical data showed that even though these resources exist, there is a missing link between the available resources and immigrant entrepreneurs. What is more, improvement is needed with regards to the challenge of the language barrier and trust issues. Finally, the results of this thesis contribute in raising the awareness for the need of a more strategic approach to immigrant entrepreneurs as a vulnerable sub-group in the society and the entrepreneurial ecosystem. What is more, the immigrant entrepreneurs can use it as a valuable source of information for the different benefits are provided by the entrepreneurial ecosystem.