Chinese Immigrant Entrepreneurship in the United States: Temporal and Spatial Dimensions

Focusing on transnational entrepreneurship and immigrant businesses in new destinations, this paper studies entrepreneurship of Chinese immigrants in the U.S. using data from three surveys. In the analysis of transnational connections, we focus on the temporal dimension that links pre-migration and post-migration business activities. Results from logistic models reveal that the prospect of being self-employed among Chinese immigrants is significantly enhanced if they are from households in China with business backgrounds. This finding highlights the fact that transnational entrepreneurship is embedded in the multi-stranded connections between the immigrant sending and receiving societies. In the second part of the paper, sequence analysis is used to describe and classify business trajectories in traditional and new immigrant destinations. The results establish that while it may take a longer time for immigrants to achieve business ownership in new destinations than in traditional destinations, new immigrant destinations increase the chance of business expansion from one business to multiple businesses. These findings indicate a transition in immigrant entrepreneurs' business models. Businesses in traditional destinations mainly follow a survival strategy, while those in new destinations are adopting models that are akin to mainstream business operations, which gives rise to more opportunities for socioeconomic mobility.