Immigrant Entrepreneurship in Sweden - A Study on Obstacles and Strategies of Arab-Immigrant Entrepreneurs
Year: 2017
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Entrepreneurs in different countries and industries face many obstacles during their journey. It comes down to the entrepreneur to build strategies on how to overcome those obstacles. In this research, we focus on providing an in-depth analysis on the obstacles that Arab-immigrant entrepreneurs face in Sweden and how they overcome them. Immigrant entrepreneurship has had its fair share of research. Nonetheless, we see a research gap on the topic of strategies to overcome obstacles implemented by Arab-immigrant entrepreneurs in Sweden. We conducted this research by applying a qualitative analysis approach through interviews with businesses owned by Arab-immigrant entrepreneurs in Sweden. The interviews conducted were semi-structured in that we had the topics we wanted to discuss, but led the conversation in the form of a dialogue. Research has shown that there are common obstacles that immigrant entrepreneurs face; the details of which will be discussed in this paper. The results are from our own research on the local Arab-immigrant entrepreneur community in Sweden and came down to five major obstacles; the Swedish culture, Swedish regulations, language, illegal activities, and financing. The strategies concluded were: integration efforts, customer relations, and personal networks. The results of this research can be used by Arab-immigrant entrepreneurs who are about to launch their startup, researchers with an interest in exploring this field and contributing more findings to it, and policymakers who are looking for ways to have a better integration process for immigrant entrepreneurs in the Swedish community.
Authors: Abdulla Barakji, Mazen Kalssli
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funder: Lunds Universitet
OpenAlex ID: W2625110243