Developing entrepreneurial opportunities through multi-layered liabilities: the experiences of female migrant entrepreneurs

Abstract

This paper aims to explore the entrepreneurial processes of opportunity development in the context of multi-layered liabilities affecting women of foreign origin and living in Western countries. Europe represents a key destination for growing migration flows and a particularly interesting context for studying the different facets of this highly relevant phenomenon. This research adopts an interpretive philosophy, and analyses the narratives of the experiences, together with a longitudinal study of their ventures, of six female entrepreneurs of different foreign origins (Syria, Morocco, Lebanon, Italy, Argentina and Cuba) in three European countries (the UK, Italy, and Spain). The findings unveil how five different liabilities may, in an intertwined manner, affect these female entrepreneurs and their ventures: namely the liabilities of gender, foreignness, origin, newness, and smallness. The findings also illustrate how female entrepreneurs of foreign origin develop entrepreneurial opportunities to cope with these multi-layered liabilities to gain legitimation.