eThesis - School of Business electronic theses

The purpose of the study was to investigate how institutions in Finland support opportunity enactment by individual Russian immigrant entrepreneurs who are willing to migrate to Finland to start-up a high-growth venture. It addresses the theoretical gap concerning the interaction between an entrepreneurial migrant and the host institutions as part of an entrepreneurship ecosystem. This has been achieved by looking into the experiences of entrepreneurial migrants and entrepreneurship ecosystem actors.

A holistic multiple case study with multiple informants has been conducted. A total of 11 interviews serve as the data sources. The transcribed interviews have been coded to yield a thorough data analysis. Each case has been analyzed independently after which the findings were compared and contrasted across the cases.

First, the key entrepreneurship ecosystem players relevant for Russian immigrant entrepreneurs have been identified and presented in a descriptive diagram. Second, the perceived institutional voids have been identified and improvement suggestions have been proposed to aid social integration and business success of Russian entrepreneurs. The findings of the study assist Finnish ecosystem actors to better understand what type of policies and practices can best support the emergence of opportunity-based entrepreneurs from Russia and the sustainable development of their firms. Moreover, they serve as an overview for potential migrants of how Finnish ecosystem actors can shape access to network resources and opportunity structure for immigrant entrepreneurs.