Title: The effect of culture on opportunity recognition: a qualitative study of immigrant and native-born entrepreneurs

Authors: Kaveh Moghaddam; Pooya Tabesh; Thomas Weber; Sara Azarpanah

Addresses: School of Business, University of Houston – Victoria, 3007 N Ben Wilson St, Victoria, TX 77479, USA ' Cameron School of Business, University of St. Thomas – Houston, 3800 Montrose Blvd, Houston, TX 77006, USA ' Romain College of Business, University of Southern Indiana, 8600 University Blvd, Evansville, IN 47712, USA ' Lone Star College – Tomball, 30555 Tomball Pkwy, Tomball, TX 77375, USA

Abstract: Several studies have highlighted the effect of culture on decisions and behaviours of entrepreneurs. Building on this research stream, this paper suggests that comparing immigrant entrepreneurs and native-born entrepreneurs provides a fruitful setting to examine the effect of culture on entrepreneurship in general and opportunity recognition in particular. Through qualitative analysis of matched pairs of seven immigrant and seven native-born entrepreneurs, this exploratory study reveals that immigrant entrepreneurs exhibit a higher tendency towards recognising entrepreneurial opportunities through the opportunity discovery process rather than the opportunity creation process.

Keywords: immigrant entrepreneurs; qualitative research; culture; opportunity recognition.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESB.2017.084093

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2017 Vol.31 No.2, pp.309 - 324

Received: 01 Dec 2015
Accepted: 03 Feb 2016
Published online: 10 May 2017 *

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