Immigrant Entrepreneurs: Relative Deprivation, Affective Responses, and Exchange Strategies

摘要

In societies where the demographic, social, and economic clout of minority populations are rising, immigrant entrepreneurs (IEs) constitute key market niches and play a vital role in the economic sphere. Despite their success, IEs remain at a position of disadvantage relative to their nonethnic counterparts due to a host of additional structural challenges such as limited knowledge about available support, lack of capital and relevant professional experience, and concerns of acculturation. Given their considerable contributions to the demographic diversity and economic prosperity of developed countries, it is essential to gain a deeper understanding of the factors that shape IEs preference and exchange strategy toward ethnic partners vis-a-vis nonethnic partners. Towards this end, the present paper seeks to answer two questions: What social structural factors influence IEs' partner preferences and exchange strategies? What affective mechanisms facilitate this influence? Specifically, we look at the interactions between two social structural factors that help shape the exchange strategies of IEs: (a) the permeability of inter-group boundaries (boundary permeability) for short; and (b) the legitimacy of the intergroup status hierarchy (hierarchy legitimacy).