ABSTRACT
The type of business that an immigrant entrepreneur starts, how it is operated, and its success is shaped by the opportunity structure of the community, region, and country the immigrant is in as well as by the immigrant's group characteristics. Despite the importance of cultural factors, traditional theories of entrepreneurship pay scant attention to these factors in the rise of entrepreneurship and subsequent business strategies. Cultural ties and specific cultural factors, of which identity is one, define the immigrant entrepreneur's view of business conduct and strategies rather differently from those emphasized by the "mainstream" entrepreneur. Data about the incidence, profile, and propensity of immigrants to engage in business start-up are limited. Industry Canada has reported that new immigrants account for 3" of Canadian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). For many immigrants, business start-up is born out of "necessity entrepreneurship", due to unfavourable employment markets in the host countries.
