My work examines how migrant entrepreneurs use social capital and digitalization to create bonding and bridging ties that enable them to break‑ice, break‑in, and break‑through as they move from entering the host‑country labor market, to serving ethnic‑enclave customers, and to serving mainstream markets. Focusing on migrant entrepreneurs in Sweden as the research context, this research positions migrant entrepreneurship as a critical pathway for fostering economic and social integration. Drawing on inductive and longitudinal case studies, the research conceptualizes social capitals as a dynamic process. Bonding social capital, particularly within families and close ethnic networks, supports early stages of breaking‑ice and breaking‑in by providing emotional support, knowledge, legitimacy, and initial access to resources. This is further developed through the concept of family resourcefulness across borders, which highlights how migrant families mobilize, assemble, and reciprocate financial, cultural, and symbolic resources transnationally. As entrepreneurs seek to break‑through and reach mainstream customers, bridging social capital becomes central. Digitalization plays a pivotal role by enabling migrants to strategically perform ethnicity online. Through digital ethnicity affordances, entrepreneurs blur boundaries between online and offline spaces and between home and host countries, transforming ethnicity from a liability into an asset.
Quang Evansluong is an Associate Professor (Docent) in Entrepreneurship at USBE and a Visiting Associate Professor at the FPT School of Business, FPT University in Hanoi, Vietnam. He holds a PhD in Entrepreneurship from the Jönköping International Business School, Jönköping University. His research interests lie in the area of migrant entrepreneurship, family entrepreneurship, social integration, diversity, sustainable entrepreneurship, and digital entrepreneurship. He has published in the journal of Technological Forecasting and Social Change, International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour and Research and Entrepreneurship and Regional Development.
