Opportunity recognition among migrant entrepreneurs

The embeddedness of MEs

Research has emphasized the distinctive features of MEs compared with their native counterparts (Ram and Jones, 2008) or mainstream entrepreneurs (Jones and Ram, 2010). Among those features, the role of the community of co-ethnics in providing access to specific resources (Aldrich and Waldinger, 1990; Deakins et al., 2007; Portes and Sensenbrenner, 1993; Waldinger, 2005), flexible and cheap labour (Jones and Ram, 2010; Phizacklea and Ram, 1996), and informal support and advice (Smallbone et al., 2003) is widely documented. These distinctions with the mainstream population are even more prevalent for the first generation of MEs (Deakins et al., 2005; Rusinovic, 2006).

Most importantly, MEs and EMEs (E/MEs) recognize opportunities within their community niche market (Jones et al., 2000; Rusinovic, 2008), that they access through social ties – or networks – and shared identity, thus creating opportunities in this market because of cultural proximity (Werbner, 2001). Indeed, as argued elsewhere (Sepulveda et al., 2011), the community-based niche market is based on cultural traditions and provides opportunities for MEs – who are therefore best positioned to identify those opportunities – to start up new ventures (Engelen, 2001; Werbner, 2001).

The ability of E/MEs to interact with opportunities is embedded in a set of social relations (Carter et al., 2015; Kitching et al., 2009; Wang and Altinay, 2012), as well as within the institutional context in which they operate (Engelen, 2006; Kloosterman et al., 1999; Welter and Smallbone, 2011). This debate is ongoing in the wider entrepreneurship literature on contextualized entrepreneurship (Welter, 2011; Zahra et al., 2014) or on the flourish literature using the concept of social capital to understand the issue of resource access among MEs (Birch and Whittam, 2008; Davidsson and Honig, 2003; Deakins et al., 2007; Ferri et al., 2009; Foley and O’Connor, 2013; Jack et al., 2004; Stoyanov et al., 2018). More specifically, considering the MEs’ specific characteristics compared to their native counterparts, those contextual dimensions have been central in the ME literature under the umbrella term mixed embeddedness (Jones et al., 2014; Kloosterman et al., 1999; Kloosterman, 2010).

In this view, MEs are embedded both within a set of social relations including migrant networks (Waldinger, 2005; Zhou, 2004) and within the wider social, institutional and economic contexts in which they operate (Engelen, 2006; Kloosterman et al., 1999). For instance, while the role of social structure (networks and social ties) in economic action refers back to Granovetter (1985), Smallbone and Welter (Smallbone et al., 2014; Welter and Smallbone, 2011) highlight the importance of the institutional framework on entrepreneurial activities in Central and Eastern Europe. However, as pointed out by Welter (2011), the household dimension of the contextual embeddedness of ME has not yet been researched. Yet the household has been considered while regarding family labour in ME businesses (Fong and Ooka, 2002; Phizacklea and Ram, 1996; Wang and Altinay, 2012) or while looking at rural entrepreneurship (Carter, 2011; McElwee and Bosworth, 2010). Moreover, the role of household in migration decision-making has been widely debated in the migration literature, most recently regarding Poles in the United Kingdom (D’Angelo and Ryan, 2011; Ryan and Sales, 2013; Ryan et al., 2008; White and Ryan, 2008). However, the household has not been considered as a contextual dimension for entrepreneurship activities in relation to migration objectives in the ME literature; a gap that this article proposes to address.

Mixed embeddedness and opportunity structures

By integrating social relations and the wider institutional context as part of the contextual dimensions enabling and constraining MEs’ actions, including their ability to perceive, identify or create opportunities in the host country, the mixed embeddedness perspective states that MEs respond to situational (i.e. non-generic) local conditions, provided by the local opportunity structure (Aldrich and Waldinger, 1990; Kloosterman, 2010; Kloosterman and Rath, 2001; Lassalle and McElwee, 2016). Within these local opportunity structures, MEs recognize or create opportunities in the community niche market due to cultural proximity and shared identity (Kloosterman and Rath, 2001; Storti, 2014; Waldinger, 2005; Werbner, 2001). Like other entrepreneurs, MEs operate in changing and uncertain environments (Ardichvili et al., 2003) and take actions based on judgemental decision-making (Casson, 2005), guided by their idiosyncratic perception of the local opportunity structure. This calls for applying the opportunity recognition lens – as developed in the wider entrepreneurship literature – to ME studies.

Degree of alertness, accidental discovery and serendipity

Debates on opportunity identification and recognition in entrepreneurship relate back to Kirzner’s (1978) seminal work and his definition of the entrepreneurs as an opportunity spotter. Later contributions by Shane and Venkataraman (2000) on the individual–opportunity nexus, or by Sarason et al. (2006) on structuration theory, have contributed to define the relation of the entrepreneur with opportunities. Going beyond opportunity-driven and necessity in entrepreneurship, as argued by Williams (2008), entrepreneurial decisions are responses to the perception of opportunities in a specific context, attention is given to the entrepreneurs’ actions within the opportunities recognition process (Ardichvili et al., 2003). Moreover, according to Ardichvili et al. (2003), Busenitz (1996) and Kirzner (1978), the entrepreneur’s individual degree of alertness impacts on their ability to recognize opportunities in a given business environment (see also Tang and Khan, 2007). However, this alertness is influenced by his or her history (Welter, 2011) and by context-influenced idiosyncratic interpretations of the interplay between opportunities and the venturing process (Garud et al., 2014; Sarason et al., 2006), as well as by strategic capabilities (McElwee and Bosworth, 2010; Westhead et al., 2009). As discussed above, alertness is also influenced by the entrepreneur’s social ties (Davidsson and Honig, 2003; Granovetter, 1985), therefore emphasizing the embedded nature of opportunity recognition.

Ardichvili et al. (2003) present opportunity recognition as the accidental discovery of opportunities. They contrast it with systematic analysis and search for opportunities, whereas Tang and Khan (2007) propose to integrate them. However, since entrepreneurs are embedded in both structures of networks and institutions (as discussed above), the ability of the entrepreneur to identify opportunities within the opportunity structure is (at least) partly accidental and influenced by experience and entrepreneurial learning (Holcomb et al., 2009; Wang and Chugh, 2014).

Nevertheless, experiential learning is unplanned since the entrepreneur faces unintended changes in uncertain contexts, as pointed out by the literature on heuristics and decision-making in entrepreneurship (Dew, 2009; Tversky and Kahneman, 1974). Following Schwartz et al. (2011), there are information gaps in the market, and the entrepreneur relies on bounded rationality (Simon, 1991) to take judgemental decisions (Casson, 2005; Holcomb et al., 2009; Tversky and Kahneman, 1974) based on his or her alertness or his or her level of opportunity confidence (Ardichvili et al., 2003; Davidsson, 2015). Thus, the entrepreneur assesses and addresses those gaps using his or her individual risk aversion level based on his or her idiosyncratic perceptions of the environment. This highlights the importance of happenstance behaviours – as developed by Krumboltz (2009) in career management – among entrepreneurs. Applied to entrepreneurship by Dew (2009) under the notion of serendipity, it refers to the combination of contingencies, knowledge and search – bounded by time and rationality – impacting on the entrepreneur’s ability to identify and recognize opportunities (this ability is referred to as sagacity). Thus, discussion on heuristics and serendipity in entrepreneurship emphasizes the entrepreneur’s ability to adapt to a fast-changing environment and thus to recognize opportunities in a specific opportunity structure. As pointed out by Dew (2009) and Holcomb et al. (2009), the process of opportunity recognition is possible only when the entrepreneur has accumulated knowledge about the environment, hence developing his or her alertness to opportunities in this specific environment.

Whether opportunities pre-exist or are co-created by the entrepreneur and the context is still under debate (Alvarez et al., 2013; Davidsson, 2015; Garud et al., 2014); contextual dimensions influence entrepreneurial perceptions of opportunities and, hence, impact on their judgemental decision-making processes. In addition, the ability to identify, recognize and create those opportunities is a subjective and idiosyncratic process of interpretation of the contexts by the individual (Sarason et al., 2006), even though the perceptions (of opportunities and risks) are somehow shaped by the environment – for instance entrepreneurial mindsets (McElwee and Smith, 2012). Entrepreneurship is indeed a complex phenomenon (Anderson et al., 2012) at the intersection of constructs of the individual, opportunities, modes of organizing and the environment (Busenitz et al., 2003) or at the interplay of structures and the entrepreneur (Mole and Mole, 2010).

However, taking a closer look at the opportunity recognition decision-making processes of entrepreneurs (emphasizing entrepreneurial action) and at the interplay between opportunities and contexts is a perspicuous focus of this article for further theorization in the field of ME. As a new and clearly bounded phenomenon, the population of Polish MEs in Glasgow provides an interesting case to exemplify the discussion on the importance of social and household context in entrepreneurial decision-making.

Background

In 2004, Polish nationals and citizens from other accession economies were legally entitled to enter the United Kingdom in search of employment. This led to an influx of Polish migrant workers, exceeding the numbers forecasted by UK government officials, with 400,000 workers registered between 2004 and 2007, and probably close to a million migrants (Drinkwater et al., 2009; Home Office, 2009; Institute for Public Policy Research, 2010; Krausova and Vargas-Silva, 2013). Questions of settlement and integration in the host society are crucial issues in migration; researching migrants who started a business in the United Kingdom thus provides an interesting insight on households’ decision to settle and stay in the United Kingdom. Importantly, participants in this research are economic migrants who have secured a job in the United Kingdom prior to emigration using employment agencies based in Poland (part of the migration industry). This ad hoc institutionalized channel acts as an emigration gatekeeper to the United Kingdom’s labour market, primarily for low-skilled and low-paid occupations, usually as factory or construction workers, butchers or cleaners (Drinkwater et al., 2009; Garapich, 2008; White and Ryan, 2008), occupations in which participants of this study were engaged in before they started up their own business. Because this research is interested in the influence of contextual dimensions (including social embeddedness and household) on entrepreneurial decision-making processes, it is worth noting that a large share of participants have partners and families (19 of 21), being either married with children (14) or engaged in a relationship (5), which is higher than for other post-2004 Polish migrants in the United Kingdom (38% married, Drinkwater et al., 2009).

Data collection and sample

Qualitative research was chosen to collect novel empirical evidence on Polish MEs’ experiences (Klag and Langley, 2013). By conducting in-depth interviews with entrepreneurs triangulated with other sources of information (see below), a qualitative research provides deeper explanations of the contextualized actions of entrepreneurs, as a way to capture the richness of their real-world experience (Eisenhardt and Graebner, 2007; Weick, 2007). In-depth interviews focused on the perceptions of the individual (Cope, 2005; Dodd and Anderson, 2007) in the different contexts in which they recognize opportunities and take decisions, such as the opportunity structure, the community and the household. Qualitative data for this article were collected during a fieldwork consisting of 21 in-depth interviews with Polish entrepreneurs in Glasgow identified (see next) and selected according to the following criteria: the respondent should have arrived in the United Kingdom after 2004 and started his or her own business (solely owned by Polish citizen(s)). All sectors, genders, ages or marital statuses were considered (see Table 1), although the researcher limited the interviews with entrepreneurs in the (specific) construction sector to two interviews to include a wider variety of businesses. In the end, the respondents identified run small entrepreneurial ventures (one to five employees) in diverse sectors, from hairdressing, car repair, delicatessen to IT services. Identification of participants was achieved through various sampling techniques, such as personal networks within the Polish community, purposive sampling or Polish community Internet portals and newspapers. Finally, a few interview contacts were identified using a snowballing technique until the data reached saturation (Eisenhardt, 1989). These in-depth interviews with Polish entrepreneurs were complemented with five interviews with key informants (support institutions, including Business Gateway, community gatekeepers of the migration industry), observations and informal conversations with the entrepreneurs and their spouse when possible (eight) for triangulation purposes. Although not directly presented in the findings as illustrative quotes, these complementary interviews helped the researcher to understand the contextual dimensions in which MEs are embedded. The 60- to 120-min in-depth interviews with entrepreneurs were all conducted in Polish language by the researcher to capture cultural nuances, as argued by Welch and Piekkari (2006), and were all reported using a full handnote technique (Crozier and Friedberg, 1977).

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Table 1.

Polish migrant entrepreneurs in Glasgow: sample.

Type of business	Gender
S. Computer shop	M
M. Garage	M
L. Travel agency	F
B. Delicatessen	M
U. Bookshop	M
M. Hairdresser	F
P. Body shop	M
A. Construction	M
K. Hairdresser	M
M & I. Restaurant	F
L. Legal adviser	F
H. Legal adviser	M
P. Construction	M
I. Hairdresser	F
A. Boxing school	M
K. IT	M
R. Garage	M
A. Hairdresser	F
M. Driving school	M
M. Delicatessen	F
P. IT	M

After coding, the narratives were analysed in relation to the entrepreneurs’ contexts (Gartner, 2010). In addition to starting themes, such as start-up or the role of the community, other themes emerged from the data following the inductive process of this research, for instance, the role of the household in the entrepreneurial decision-making, the positive perception of the conditions in the Scottish opportunity structure or the incremental nature of the entrepreneurial process. Interestingly, 16 respondents explicitly compared their experiences with those of entrepreneurs in Poland, having either been entrepreneurs in Poland themselves or informed by relatives, therefore insisting on the favourable conditions found in the Scottish opportunity structure. Subsequently, quotes exemplifying specific aspects of each theme were selected to illustrate the argument (Klag and Langley, 2013).

This article is not claiming for empirical generalizability (Eisenhardt and Graebner, 2007) and presents some limitations due the qualitative nature of the fieldwork, including idiosyncratic perceptions of the participants or other interview biases (e.g. the moment when the interviews were conducted). Similarly, the specific focus on Polish MEs in the specific context of Glasgow requires further research in different spatial and social contexts. Nevertheless, formulating emergent theory related to perception and decision-making entrepreneurial processes is stemming from deep and broad empirical data (Welch et al., 2011).

Starting-up as an undocumented process

The findings highlight the undocumented and incremental nature of decision-making processes among Polish MEs in Glasgow both at the start-up phase and in later stages of development of their businesses. Polish MEs lack career plans when they arrive in the United Kingdom and only a few intended to start up their own businesses. As it emerged from the analysis, starting-up is an incremental answer to job dissatisfaction in the United Kingdom (rather than unemployment) and aligns with household settlement strategies. In spite of holding a higher degree, Poles face barriers to entering the British labour market and finding a commensurate and well-paid occupation. These barriers remain because of the lack of language skills, poor knowledge of the local labour market and employers’ reluctance to understand or recognize Polish qualifications as reported by all respondents, and evidenced by other studies on Polish migrations in the United Kingdom (Drinkwater et al., 2009; White and Ryan, 2008). Consequently, Poles are engaged in physically demanding jobs, such as factory or construction work and cleaning.

Considering their migration aspirations, Polish migrants leave their current employment when they become more familiar with the host country and when their spouses and children finally join them in Glasgow. At this point, the decision to create a business is an exit strategy from low-status employment, thereby fulfilling the desire to improve their standard of living and social status. Entrepreneurship is thus envisaged as a way to regain dignity, pride and motivation to succeed.

There in Poland, I was like the queen and here a cleaner. (M. Delicatessen, manager of a large office in Poland)

The start-up process is perceived by the participants as easy and straightforward, and elements of flair feature clearly in various interviews. The choice of sector, business, location, offer of products and services, targeted market, advertising and further business development are unplanned and based on their perception of the opportunity structure (a set of contextual dimensions in which the ME is embedded and operates, as presented above).

We only had to go online and register the company. 15 minutes altogether.

Yes, roughly £5000, nothing more. That’s all we needed to rent the local, buy the desks and laptops as well as the printers. (K. IT)

Recognizing opportunities

Polish MEs recognize or create opportunities within the Polish community niche market in Glasgow and hence have a more favourable perception of the local opportunity structure. Yet again, Polish entrepreneurs rarely rely on benchmarking, and the opportunity spotted does not seem obvious or viable at first glance without prior knowledge of the Polish community.

I could see that Scottish hairdresser cannot cut hair properly; they do not know how to do a nice haircut. They really lack skills. (A. Hairdresser)

This is facilitated as they serve (almost exclusively) a Polish clientele. Indeed, for a large majority of the businesses studied, the Polish community is the primary, or even the only, market targeted by a new business venture, despite attempts to reach a broader client base. ⁴ Although local clients are potentially available, the businesses studied strongly relied on the Polish community as customers.

Almost all our clients are Poles. I think it is because of the language barriers. Sometimes I have to ask three or four times to understand a question with the locals […] We are trying to reach more and more locals with the advertising, the flyers. (M. Garage)

We had some issues at the beginning with advertisement. At the beginning we were looking for Polish clients. There are now more and more Scottish people, men and women. But in general, I would say that most of our clients are Poles. (M. Hairdresser)

It is easier for entrepreneurs to trade within their community of co-ethnics because they have a better understanding of its needs than their British competitors have. Besides sharing a language, Polish entrepreneurs are culturally aware of what fellow Polish migrants are looking for, especially since Polish entrepreneurs are post-2004 migrants themselves. Polish entrepreneurs know the main products to sell to Polish migrants (e.g. popular Polish sausage brands and Polish books for children). On the supply side, Polish entrepreneurs are connected to Polish networks in Scotland or Poland. In both cases, they know where and what to order from central purchasing agents or directly from suppliers in Poland. Finally, Polish MEs are embedded in the Polish community’s social networks and thus make use of social media for advertising purposes. Thence, Polish MEs recognize opportunities within their community market due to their embeddedness in (newly) established networks and to their understanding of fellow migrants’ needs.

The role of household in entrepreneurial decision-making

A crucial finding of this research is that entrepreneurial decision-making (including start-up) is a household decision and aligns with household migration strategies. This calls for further attention to be given to the household context in entrepreneurship.

First, the fieldwork highlights the household-led nature of entrepreneurial behaviour for the 19 Polish entrepreneurs engaged in a relationship; both partners are actively taking part in the decision-making process, independent of who starts up. Furthermore, entrepreneurial decisions (start-up or later business developments) are also discussed and negotiated by the couple. Second, entrepreneurial decisions are household-oriented. In other words, entrepreneurial actions are driven by household objectives: the standard of living and desire for stability. Indeed, Polish entrepreneurs in Glasgow start up for lifestyle reasons, including aspirations for improved and flexible work conditions, wish for independence, status and, importantly, prospects for the household’s future. Thus, starting-up is an ad hoc response to changing settlement strategies (negotiated within the household).

At the beginning, I thought that I will come for one year, make money and go back to Poland. Then, my wife and my daughter came. It has been five years that I say I will go back in five years time. (A. Construction)

My business [when I was in Poland] was struggling on the coast. I thought I could go to the UK. There was an opportunity here to make some money and bring it back home. My wife first agreed, but after 3 months and another 3 months, she decided to come with our daughter. (P. Construction)

The socialization process in the United Kingdom also contributes to explaining the changes in migratory plans among participants. In their migration experience, Polish MEs establish networks and new friendships. In other words, they become embedded in social networks (even if only within the post-2004 Polish migrant community in Glasgow). In addition to developing emotional commitments, they commit financially, for example, taking loans and repaying mortgages. Consequently, their perception of the household situation (children, household stability, couple’s relationship, mortgages or other settlement elements) is crucial in understanding their entrepreneurial decision-making process. Children are enrolled in local schools, which most participants perceive as being better than Polish schools, and become bilingual and bicultural. Household strategies strongly affect the migrants’ decision to stay, as confirmed by other studies on Polish migrants in the United Kingdom (e.g. Ryan and Sales, 2013) and hence to start up a new venture.

We are not going back to Poland. We have a house and our children are now better in English than in Polish, they can write better in English. Here we bought a house and here we will stay. From the beginning I was sure that we will stay, yes. (M. Delicatessen, female entrepreneur)

From the beginning I knew that we came here to stay. I knew because of the children, I knew that we had to place them in a Scottish school. (I. Restaurant, female entrepreneur)

The decision to start up, as well as the one to eventually settle, is strongly motivated by the household context. Importantly, despite risks of relationship breakdown during the initial stages of the migration process, and despite a lack of clear career plan generating further uncertainty, migration is perceived as an opportunity to improve the household’s stability. ⁵

Our husbands were the first to arrive here and then we came, we found a school for the children, a Scottish school. It was haphazard that it was in Scotland. (M & I. Restaurant)

I started from zero. My wife and my son arrived three months later, when I had a flat, a car. When I had a base. And then I came back to Poland to bring them over here. (D. Bookshop)

Uncertainty, sagacity and perceptions

Despite lack of prior knowledge or experience in the sector in which they start up, and lack of English proficiency, Polish MEs recognize opportunities within the local opportunity structure based on their perception and flair. As for sagacity, the concept of flair emphasizes the importance of accidental decisions based on serendipity (Dew, 2009). However, sagacity presupposes the existence of prior knowledge, which is lacking in Polish entrepreneurs’ opportunity recognition process. Therefore, we propose that MEs’ flair stands for the MEs’ (understood as household units) ability to spot opportunities (in the community niche market) in a new opportunity structure (the host country), enhanced by gradual knowledge accumulation (Holcomb et al., 2009). Their decision-making is based on undocumented processes of research, intuition (Sadler-Smith, 2004) and practical heuristics (see Dew, 2009).

Moreover, flair for MEs refers to the outcome of decision-making processes involving household migration strategies (in which job dissatisfaction, lifestyle choices, and household settlement and stability objectives are included). Indeed, although the literature on serendipity in entrepreneurship considers contingencies and the entrepreneur’s ability to adapt to a fast-changing environment, in which they seek satisfactory outcome (Schwartz et al., 2011), Dew (2009) and Krumboltz (2009) do not take into account the dimensions of household, migration and community in the opportunity recognition process. Those are central to studies on MEs and call for a specific concept in ME studies, to capture the specific characteristics of MEs, such as the confrontation of entrepreneurs by a new opportunity structure, in which they may not have access to all relevant information and cultural codes, their embeddedness in specific community networks (Kloosterman, 2010; Kloosterman et al., 1999) and the importance of the migration experience.

Haphazard entrepreneurship

Polish entrepreneurs in Glasgow exemplify the ad hoc approach to entrepreneurship due to their lack of planning or preconceived entrepreneurial strategies. This article thus proposes to conceptualize this insight emerging from the findings under the term haphazard entrepreneurship. The concept is useful as it applies theoretical developments of opportunity recognition within the field of ME research to provide a deeper understanding of the entrepreneurship phenomenon among MEs. Haphazard entrepreneurship encompasses the features of serendipity and accidental opportunity identification and recognition (Ardichvili et al., 2003; Dew, 2009; Krumboltz, 2009; Tang and Khan, 2007) and combines them with the importance of community (Waldinger, 2005), knowledge accumulation (Holcomb et al., 2009) (in the host country) and household migration strategies. While MEs accumulate experience in the host country, their perceptions of opportunities and risk evolve, and the opportunity recognition process is repeated at various business development stages. As this article reveals the importance of the community, perception of a (favourable) opportunity structure and of the household context on Polish MEs’ incremental decision-making, this calls for conceptual development on spontaneous or haphazard entrepreneurial behaviour.

A key feature of the proposed concept of haphazard entrepreneurship is the consideration of distinctive contextual factors influencing MEs’ decision-making, the household context and the embeddedness within the migrant community, in which MEs access specific resources and recognize opportunities not visible to other entrepreneurs (Aldrich and Waldinger, 1990; Rusinovic, 2008). The haphazard entrepreneur pursues incremental entrepreneurial strategies, and their entrepreneurial decisions are mostly spontaneous and influenced by household considerations, such as dissatisfaction with employment, commitments in the host country and by their (positive) perception of the opportunity structure in Glasgow.

This article does not attempt to identify one holistic entrepreneurial characteristic. On the contrary, it recognizes the complex nature of (migrant) entrepreneurship, including the mixed embeddedness of MEs within their community and their environment as well as their perception of change and uncertainty. Applying the opportunity recognition lens to ME research enables scholars and practitioners to capture the incremental nature of entrepreneurial decision-making among MEs and highlights the role of household migration strategies in opportunity recognition.

Entrepreneurship is an ad hoc response to job dissatisfaction as well as to incremental household settlement strategies; this is a valuable contribution for policymakers to take into account when considering possible directions while supporting settlement and facilitating migrants’ social inclusion into the local society. Indeed, encouraging and supporting lifestyle entrepreneurship in Scotland for migrants (not only from Polish backgrounds) stimulates job creation and helps retain migrants in satisfactory occupations (Deakins et al., 2005). Given the link between household settlement and entrepreneurial decisions, it is crucial to support MEs not only for starting up but also to ensure the sustainability of their businesses. A welcoming receiving society benefits from migrants’ integration within their labour market as well as in entrepreneurship (Deakins et al., 2005). To ensure that MEs are not too constrained within their limited community market, further support could be provided to MEs on gaining access to wider networks outside of their community (Cheong et al., 2007), and policymakers should ensure that MEs are supported in their attempt to grow outside their community niche market.

To date, the range of these conclusions is limited by the set of data collected from a single population of entrepreneurs in a given context and would benefit from being expanded to MEs from other communities in various locations. Longitudinal studies conducted among a specific population of entrepreneurs would be useful in this respect. The individual’s life stages may influence his or her ability to recognize ad hoc opportunities in the same manner as it does for Polish entrepreneurs settling in Glasgow, such as having children, paying for a mortgage, being unemployed or career dissatisfaction, as explanation for the incremental and changing entrepreneurial strategies among MEs.