Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation,
Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies

Abstract: This paper is based on seven in-depth case studies of small businesses in Kista, Stockholm’s most northern district. This district provides an interesting example with its high technology setting, mixed with considerable numbers of immigrants living in the area. All the firms are led by people who have immigrant background, and therefore they all have ethnic minority backgrounds, either in terms of country of origin or as belonging to a definable ethnic group. The guiding question is if one can find differences between high tech and service-based immigrant businesses in terms of how they use ethnic resources in their resource acquisition efforts. In the case studies we explore (i) how ethnic resources contribute to the acquisition of crucial resources for these firms, and (ii) the utilization of ethnic resources indicates the influence and importance of ethnic minority background for immigrant businesses in different industries. The results show differences in what sources these firms use for acquiring resources. The service-based firms utilise ethnic resources to a greater extent than the high tech firms. These differences influence the importance of the business owners’ ethnic minority backgrounds.

Keywords: Immigrant and ethnic entrepreneurship; high tech/science-and technology-based firms; service-based firms; resource acquisition; ethnic resources.

JEL-codes: L10; L20; L70; L80

30 pages, March 28, 2006

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