Immigrant Entrepreneurship In Sweden: Challenges And Opportunities Related To Business Development

Background: At a time of continued volatility and uncertainty, there is a growing need to tackle the numerous political-social challenges and embrace the opportunities presented by demographic shifts caused by mass immigration. The migration crisis, which peaked in the European Union during 2015 and 2016, with over a million immigrants, has sparked renewed discussions among scholars, politicians, and the public about the costs and benefits of immigration. Recently, more immigrants have turned to entrepreneurship to overcome exclusion from employment and create upward social mobility and social integration. However, certain groups of immigrants, particularly refugee and female refugees, are not adequately represented and under-researched. Additionally, there is insufficient research on their business development, which remains largely unstudied. The existing literature tends to focus on specific aspects of entrepreneurial business development, disregarding the potential influence of individual and contextual factors when combined. This results in a limited understanding of the phenomenon, which leaves the field with no coherent framework or adequate knowledge outcomes. Moreover, the lack of theoretical research on specific groups of immigrant entrepreneurs is partly due to the limited empirical research and fragmented theories. Purpose: This thesis aims to contribute to the development of theory and to enrich the empirical studies regarding this diverse and heterogeneous phenomenon. Specifically, the main purpose of this thesis is to provide a comprehensive understanding of immigrant entrepreneurship, with a special focus on refugee and female entrepreneurs’ perceptions in rural and digital contexts. Ultimately, this thesis develops a conceptual framework that can be applied in future research. This conceptual framework highlights the diversity, multidimensionality, and dynamic of the immigrant entrepreneurship phenomenon. Methodology: To fulfill the overall purpose of this thesis, a mixed methods approach integrating qualitative and quantitative research methods is employed to study the immigrant entrepreneurship phenomenon using in-depth interviews and a comparative case study through surveys. This thesis examines how specific groups of immigrant entrepreneurs perceive challenges and opportunities during their business development in specific contexts at three levels. At the micro-individual level, this thesis presents case studies of female refugee entre