The Home Country's Role in Shaping Chinese Immigrant Entrepreneurship
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The Home Country’s Role in Shaping Chinese Immigrant Entrepreneurship Zhiheng ZHANG A thesis submitted to Auckland University of Technology in fulfilment of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Social Sciences 2010 Department of Social Sciences Primary Supervisor: Professor Charles Crothers Second Supervisor: Dr Oksana Opara ATTESTATION OF AUTHORSHIP .................................................................................... i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ..................................................................................................... ii ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................... iii PART 1: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................. 1 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................... 2 1.1 Background of the study ............................................................................................... 2 1.1.1 The openings and new trends in the international immigration studies ....................... 2 1.1.2 A new and growing international phenomenon .......................................................... 10 1.2 The purpose of this thesis ........................................................................................... 11 1.3 Overview of research methodology ............................................................................ 11 1.4 Structure of thesis ....................................................................................................... 13 1.5 Contribution of this research ...................................................................................... 13 PART 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ..................................................................................... 19 CHAPTER 2: IMMIGRANT ENTREPRENEURSHIP STUDY AND THEORIES ......... 20 2.1 Immigration entrepreneurship .................................................................................... 20 2.1.1 Introduction to immigration entrepreneurship ............................................................ 20 2.1.2 Impact external of environmental changes on immigration entrepreneurship ........... 25 2.1.3 Chinese immigrant entrepreneurship .......................................................................... 29 2.2 Theories of immigrant entrepreneurship .................................................................... 31 2.2.1 The disadvantage theory ............................................................................................. 31 2.2.2 The cultural theory ...................................................................................................... 31 2.2.3 The ethnic enclave model ........................................................................................... 32 2.2.4 The middleman minority model ................................................................................. 33 2.2.5 The ecological succession concept ............................................................................. 34 2.2.6 The opportunity structure theory ................................................................................ 35 2.2.7 The interactive theory, the Aldrich and Waldinger (1990) model .............................. 35 2.2.8 The economic model ................................................................................................... 40 2.2.9 The mixed embeddedness approach ........................................................................... 40 2.2.10 The Ethnoburb model ............................................................................................. 41 CHAPTER 3: GROUP CHARACTERISTICS .................................................................. 42 3.1 Human Capital ............................................................................................................... 42 3.1.1 Human capital influences immigrant entrepreneurship ....................................... 42 3.1.2 Development of Chinese immigrants‟ human capital ......................................... 45 a) Chinese immigrants in business investor category ................................................. 46 b) Highly skilled Chinese immigrant category ........................................................... 46 c) Chinese immigrants in the long term business visas (LTBV) category ................. 47 d) Chinese international students ................................................................................ 47 3.2 Ethnic Resources ............................................................................................................ 48 3.2.1 Family, friends, community and ethnic networks are traditional forms ............. 49 3.2.2 Ethnic resources in the country of origin are increasingly emphasised .............. 53 3.3 Cultural values and aspiration levels ............................................................................. 62 3.3.1 Cultural aspirational origins of former generations of Chinese entrepreneurs .... 62 a) Maintaining Chinese traditions ............................................................................... 63 b) Lacking interaction with mainstream society ......................................................... 63 c) Selecting occupations that require small amounts of capital investment ............... 64 d) Avoiding involvement in local politics .................................................................. 64 3.3.2 Aspirations associated with individual, factors relating to host country and country of origin and personal financial situation ............................................. 65 3.4 Summary of main points .............................................................................................. 68 CHAPTER 4: OPPORTUNITY STRUCTURE AND STRATEGY ................................. 70 4.1 Opportunity structure ................................................................................................... 70 4.1.1 Niches in the non-ethnic market .......................................................................... 71 4.1.2 The co-ethnic market ........................................................................................... 76 a) The co-ethnic population size, residential concentration and the world cities 78 b) The Chinese population development in New Zealand ................................... 80 4.1.3 Accessing the markets ........................................................................................ 82 a) Interethnic competition in Auckland and Hamilton ........................................... 82 b) State and industry policies ................................................................................. 83 4.1.4 Changes in the external environment influence the opportunity structure ......... 85 4.2 Strategy ......................................................................................................................... 87 4.2.1 Strategies within the Aldrich and Waldinger (1990) model ................................ 87 4.2.2 Barriers and the possible strategies used to overcome barriers ........................... 90 4.2.3 Competition strategies and the markets in Auckland and Hamilton ................... 91 4.3 Summary of main points ................................................................................................ 93 PART 3: METHODOLOGY AND PARTICIPANTS ........................................................ 95 CHAPTER 5: METHODOLGY AND PARTICIPANTS .................................................. 96 5.1 Methodology ............................................................................................................. 96 5.1.1 Research objective .................................................................................................... 96 5.1.2 Research questions .................................................................................................... 96 5.1.3 Overview research methods in the social sciences ................................................... 97 5.1.4 Research methods and rationales: qualitative methodology and interviews .......... 100 5.1.5 Sampling design and rationale ................................................................................ 104 5.1.6 Language used in the interviews ............................................................................. 106 5.1.7 The interview topics ................................................................................................ 106 5.1.8 Interview procedures ............................................................................................... 107 5.1.9 The analysis methodology ...................................................................................... 109 5.1.10 Ethical issues ........................................................................................................... 112 5.1.11 Participants and response rates ............................................................................... 113 5.2 Participants‟ demographic and business information .................................................. 114 5.2.1 Age .......................................................................................................................... 114 5.2.2 Gender ..................................................................................................................... 115 5.2.3 Qualification ..........................................................................................................