Doctoral Dissertation Research: Immigrant Entrepreneurs and Business Networks

University Of California-San Diego, La Jolla CA

Investigators

Abstract

SES-1021894 David Fitzgerald Leah Muse-Orlinoff University of California-San Diego How do immigrant entrepreneurs build and maintain their business networks, particularly outside of their ethnic and migrant communities? To what extent do these network formation processes--and the resulting network structures-- differ according to the legal status of the entrepreneur? This project studies how actors embed economic relationships in social structures. The methodologies and theories of social network analysis are applied to immigrant entrepreneurship. Specifically, a combination of ethnographic and quantitative network data will be used to study the process of network formation and the business networks of immigrant entrepreneurs from the Mexican state of Yucatán who live and work in San Francisco, California. According to Yucatecan local government assessments approximately 10,000 migrants from that community migrated to the San Francisco Bay Area between 1995 and 2008 and significant numbers of Yucatecans from other communities reside in or around San Francisco. Yucatecan-owned businesses exist in these neighborhoods and the demand for Yucatecan foods and goods while new has created nascent businesses entrepreneurs. This study will examine six-business networks of Youctecan restaurant owners over a one year period. The major hypothesis is that new immigrant entrepreneurs tend to actively embed themselves into the economic and social fabric of their receiving society. Broader Impact. This study offers a new empirical perspective on the incorporation of immigrant communities into the economic life of receiving societies and the role of government policies in microeconomic activity. Project findings will help us to understand how identifies immigrant business enterprises create social and economic ties across groups from ethnic backgrounds and national origins.