Draft:Mixed embeddedness
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Mixed embeddedness is a theoretical framework in economic sociology and migration studies. It explains immigrants' businesses by looking at two things together: the entrepreneurs and the social networks they belong to, and the markets, laws and institutions that shape the business opportunities open to them. The term was introduced by a Dutch research team, Robert Kloosterman, Joanne van der Leun and Jan Rath, in a 1999 article,[1] and was further developed through a research project carried out by the University of Amsterdam and Erasmus University Rotterdam.[2]
Framework
[edit]Mixed embeddedness was an attempt to apply findings of market stuides to earlier research that explained immigrant business mainly through ethnic networks and culture.[2] The framework looks at two aspects together. One is the entrepreneurs' social networks, often within their own ethnic group, which supply contacts, workers and start-up money. The other is the opportunity structure: the markets, together with the laws and institutions that shape them, which decide what business openings exist and who can take them up.[3]
Opportunity structures
[edit]Kloosterman identified three main ways in which business openings arise for immigrants:[2]
- Post-industrial markets, are new openings for small firms that appear as an advanced economy shifts towards services; these markets are growing and can offer good prospects, but succeeding in them requires skills and contacts outside of the entrepreneur's own ethnic group.
- Ethnic markets, which serve demand for goods linked to a region of origin; these are easier to enter but limited in how far they can grow.
- Vacancy chains, in which immigrants take over low-profit businesses that established owners are leaving; easy to enter, but with little room to grow.
Moving between these business openings is termed breaking out.[2]
Reception and criticism
[edit]Mixed embeddedness has been widely accepted and used in European research on immigrant business.[4] Some researchers have criticised it for being too focused on ethnicity, since entrepreneurs of all backgrounds rely on social networks.[4]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ↑ Kloosterman, Robert; van der Leun, Joanne; Rath, Jan (1999). "Mixed Embeddedness: (In)formal Economic Activities and Immigrant Businesses in the Netherlands". International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. 23 (2): 252–266. doi:10.1111/1468-2427.00194. ISSN 0309-1317. Retrieved 2026-08-05.
- 1 2 3 4 Kloosterman, Robert (2003). "Mixed Embeddedness and Post-Industrial Opportunity Structures: Trajectories of Migrant Entrepreneurship in Amsterdam". In Musterd, Sako; Salet, Willem (eds.). Amsterdam Human Capital. Amsterdam University Press. pp. 311–329. JSTOR j.ctt46mv3p.20.
- ↑ Kloosterman, Robert; Rath, Jan (2001). "Immigrant entrepreneurs in advanced economies: Mixed embeddedness further explored". Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. 27 (2): 189–201. doi:10.1080/13691830020041561. ISSN 1369-183X. Retrieved 2026-08-05.
- 1 2 Berwing, Stefan (2019). "Extending Mixed Embeddedness: Entrepreneurial Figurations of Entrepreneurs with Migrant Origins in Germany". Historical Social Research / Historische Sozialforschung. 44 (4 (170)). GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences: 162–185. ISSN 0172-6404. JSTOR 26804870. Retrieved 2026-06-30.