Immigrant entrepreneurship with a focus on human and social capital as determinants of success: evidence from South Africa

Abstract

Purpose As a consequence of global changes, the landscape of immigration is changing. This brings opportunities for researching more nuanced aspects related to immigrant entrepreneurship in new contexts. The purpose of this paper is to establish the extent to which Africa-to-African immigrants leverage their social capital and human capital towards improving the success of their entrepreneurial ventures. Design/methodology/approach First-generation immigrant entrepreneurs within the Johannesburg area in South Africa were surveyed (n = 230). Instrument validity and reliability was first established, and then the hypotheses were tested using multiple regression analyses. Findings Hypotheses are supported insofar African immigrant entrepreneurs in South Africa rely on their structural and resource-related dimensions of social capital to achieve entrepreneurial success. Furthermore, human capital in terms of both work experience and entrepreneurial experience was found to be a significant predictor of entrepreneurial success. Research limitations/implications There is value in developing policies that promote African immigrant entrepreneurs with higher levels of human and social capital. These African immigrants have the potential to increase the national skills base and knowledge required for successful entrepreneurship development in South Africa. Originality/value While both human capital and social capital have been associated significantly with the generic entrepreneurship literature, this paper provides an empirical contribution by focusing on the relevance of these constructs in the context of immigrant entrepreneurship from an African emerging market perspective.

Social Capital development amongst college and university students in online and classroom education

“…We are currently in the post-industrial, knowledge-based economy, and the factors of production have changed to intellectual capital, social capital and creative capital [17]. Social capital, as developed into networking, relationship formation and information accessibility, is an important success factor in career, business and personal development [10,11,18]. In the context of business, social capital forms the basis of business networks that is crucial for business development and personal growth [18,19].…”

“…Social capital, as developed into networking, relationship formation and information accessibility, is an important success factor in career, business and personal development [10,11,18]. In the context of business, social capital forms the basis of business networks that is crucial for business development and personal growth [18,19]. Among the benefits of business networks are shared knowledge, opportunities, connections, increased confidence and raised profile [9,20].…”

“…The literature on social capital is wide as social capital is a sociological construct that can be applied in various contexts such as business [21,22], healthcare [23,24] environmental conservation [1], corporate social responsibility [25], poverty-alleviation [26,27,28], nation-building [29], crowdfunding [30] and others. In the context of students, social capital provides current benefits as it supports academic success as students leverage upon it for peer learning and guidance [31,7,8], and also future benefits as it plays an important role in career and business success [10,11,18]. Social capital among students is further categorized into family capital, peer capital and faculty capital [32,33].…”

Farming experience, personal characteristics, and entrepreneurial decisions of urban residents: Empirical evidence from China

“…Studies have found that personality quality with resilience as the core significantly improves entrepreneurial performance (Hmieleski and Carr, 2009). At the same time, entrepreneurship is a difficult process, which requires entrepreneurs to have comprehensive abilities (Cubero et al, 2022); among them, the excellent traits that entrepreneurs possess are crucial in the entrepreneurial process (Aldrich and Cliff, 2003), which helps to provide entrepreneurs with high motivation in the face of adversity and enhances the success rate of entrepreneurship (Urban et al, 2022).…”

Entrepreneurial innovations and trends: A global review: Examining emerging trends, challenges, and opportunities in the field of entrepreneurship, with a focus on how technology and globalization are shaping new business ventures

“…Urban, Murimbika, and Mhangami's (2022) research explores how immigrant entrepreneurs in South Africa, influenced by global changes, utilize their social capital in developing nations to both positively and negatively affect their resource mobilization efforts and exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities. The study reveals that structural and resource-related dimensions of social capital are crucial for achieving entrepreneurial success, indicating that more resources but lower costs facilitate entrepreneurial opportunity exploitation.…”