The Role of Host Country and Home Country on the Performance of Immigrant Entrepreneurs

Immigrant entrepreneurship has received significant attention in the academic literature, with a focus on the success factors related to host countries. However, little research has examined the role of home country embeddedness in determining the performance of immigrant entrepreneurs. This paper examines how transnational social and institutional contexts in both the home country and host country affect the success of immigrant entrepreneurs. In addition, we investigate the role that fear of failure plays in this relationship. We test our theoretical model based on surveys from 267 immigrant entrepreneurs in four different countries. The results largely support our hypotheses and further indicate that home country embeddedness is an “invisible obstacle” for immigrant entrepreneurs. Our study contributes to a better understanding of the complex elements in home and host country contexts and their influence on immigrant entrepreneurship. Our findings also have important policy implications for both home countries and host countries.