A Grounded model of how refugee family businesses build entrepreneurial ecosystems

Entrepreneurship literature recognizes the role of refugee family businesses in driving entrepreneurial ventures in the host country, yet there is not much of an understanding of how they shape entrepreneurial ecosystems. Using a grounded model, this paper illustrates how refugee family businesses use their social capital to build a refugee entrepreneurial ecosystem by engaging multiple stakeholders in the home and host countries. Drawing on in-depth interviews with twenty refugee entrepreneurs and ten members of supporting organizations in Australia, this study disentangles three building blocks of refugee entrepreneurial ecosystems: ‘bonding close relationships,’ ‘bridging the structural holes,’ and ‘spanning the network.’ The integrative model contributes to entrepreneurship literature by showing how refugee family entrepreneurs use social capital to obtain incubation services and government support to leverage their business in the host country. The study highlights the initial difficulties of refugee family businesses in the host country and explains how social capital helped them at various stages in their entrepreneurial journey. The findings suggest that individual competence, survival traits, and national origin of refugee family businesses play an important role in building entrepreneurial ecosystems.