Sensemaking by minority entrepreneurs: role identities and linguistic embeddedness

Figures & data

Table 1. Characteristics of the respondents.

No	Immigrant or minority status	Gender	Age	Location	Type of business	Size of business	Time in Finland (years)	Experience of entrepreneurship in Finland	Country of education	Host country language proficiency	Target market
Russian-speaking interviewees
1	Immigrant	Male	30-44	Helsinki area	Business consulting	Microenterprise	22	8 years	Russia (school) + Finland (higher)	Functional	Mainstream
2	Immigrant	Female	30-44	Helsinki area	High tech	Microenterprise	14	3 years	Russia (school) + Finland (higher)	Functional	Mainstream
3*	Immigrant	Female	30-44	Turku	Reselling	Microenterprise	9	3 years	Russia		Mainstream
4*	Immigrant	Male	45-60	Turku	Reselling	Microenterprise	12	12 years	Russia	Limited	Mainstream
5	Immigrant	Female	30-44	Helsinki area	Retail (clothing)	Microenterprise	5	3 years	Russia	Limited	Mainstream/Ethnic
6	Immigrant	Male	30-44	Helsinki area	Dentistry	Microenterprise	2	2 years	Israel	Limited	Mainstream
7	Immigrant	Female	30-44	Helsinki area	IT services, consulting	Microenterprise	9	5 years	Russia	Average	Ethnic
8	Immigrant	Female	30-44	Turku	R&D of medical devices	Microenterprise	9	4 years	Russia + Finland (PhD)	Average	Mainstream
Swedish-speaking Finns
9	Minority	Male	45-60	Åland islands	Solar power and event industry	Microenterprise	N/R	4 years	Finland	Limited	Ethnic/Mainstream
10	Minority	Female	30-44	Åland islands	Dentistry	Microenterprise	7	4 years	Sweden	None	Ethnic/Mainstream
11	Minority	Male	45-60	Åland islands	ICT industry	Microenterprise	N/R	More than 30 years	Finland	Functional	Ethnic/Mainstream
12	Minority	Male	45-60	Åland islands	Dentistry	Microenterprise	N/R	25-30 years	Finland	Functional	Ethnic/Mainstream
13	Minority	Female	45-60	Åland islands	Journalism and writing	Microenterprise	N/R	20 years	Finland	Limited	Ethnic/Mainstream
14	Minority	Male	45-60	Åland islands	Restaurant industry	Microenterprise	N/R	4 years	Finland	Functional	Ethnic/Mainstream
15	Minority	Male	45-60	Åland islands	Creative industry	Microenterprise	30	20 years	Finland	Functional	Ethnic

Table 2. Determinants of role identities.

Determinant of role identities	Immigrant Entrepreneur	Native Minority Entrepreneur
Professional experience	Limited to good	Limited to good
Country of education	Home and/or host country	Home country
Level of education	High school to university	High school to university
Access to start-up capital	Limited	Limited to good
Knowledge of legal system	Limited	Good
Linguistic embeddedness	Poor	Good
Target market	Mainstream/international	Local/international
Identification with host country	Limited but with strong identification with the host country	Fully integrated and identified with the local community
Social capital	Limited, mostly co-ethnic	Strong, existing minority and/or majority
Country of employees	Co-ethnic or foreign	Available workforce
Perceived discrimination	Strongly related to nationality and language	None

Figure 1. Interrelation between role identities, linguistic embeddedness, and identity factors.