Social networks for cross-border business activities: a comparison between transnational and domestic Moroccan migrant entrepreneurs

Figures & data

Table 1. Sample characteristics.

Support	Whole sample	Transnational e.	Domestic e.
Amsterdam	30	15	15
Milan	40	20	20
Men	54	26	28
Age (median)	43	39	44
Higher Education (high school or more)	51	27	24
Mainstream business	43	17	26
Ethnic business	27	18	9
Number of employees (median)	2	1	2
Year of start-up (median)	2008	2009	2007
Total (N)	70	35	35

Table 2. Support network characteristics: composition and structure.

Network characteristics	Median	Mean	Z	p
Network size
Domestic entrepreneurs	8	6	−2.244	0.03
Transnational entrepreneurs	9	1.34
Network Density
Domestic entrepreneurs	0.5	0.5	3.657	0.00
Transnational entrepreneurs	0.2	0.3
Share (%) of work-related contacts
Domestic entrepreneurs	46	43	−1.289	0.20
Transnational entrepreneurs	60	53
Share (%) of relatives
Domestic entrepreneurs	20	33	−2.427	0.92
Transnational entrepreneurs	22	27
Share (%) of strong ties
Domestic entrepreneurs	41	51	−1.109	0.27
Transnational entrepreneurs	67	59
Share (%) of contacts met before the business start-up
Domestic entrepreneurs	59	60	−0.380	0.70
Transnational entrepreneurs	60	63
Share (%) of contacts living abroad
Domestic entrepreneurs	0	3	−5.726	0.00
Transnational entrepreneurs	39	42
Share (%) of contacts living outside the interviewee’s city of residence
Domestic entrepreneurs	86	82	4.889	0.00
Transnational entrepreneurs	33	38

Note. The table displays the median value of network characteristics among transnational and domestic entrepreneurs. The table displays the result of the Wilcoxon rank-sum tests, which is a nonparametric bivariate test employed here to analyse whether the characteristics of the support networks of transnational and domestic entrepreneurs were statistically significant. Z and p are the test statistic and p-value, respectively, from Wilcoxon rank-sum tests. Bold p-value indicates test significance at 5% level.

Table 3.  

Support network characteristics: share of alters in the different groups of contacts (based on country of origin and country of residence).
Group	Support network
	Transnational e.	Domestic e.
Natives	32.4	43.3
Moroccan migrants	20.9	42.4
Moroccan Origins	16.4	1
Other immigrants	4.9	11.8
Diasporas	5.2	0
Internationals	20.2	1.5
Total (%)	100	100
Total (N)	287	203
Chi-square test(df)	X^2(5) = 101.911, p = 0.000

Note. The table displays the distribution for each group of contacts of transnational and domestic entrepreneurs. The Chi-square test is used to determine whether there is a statistically significant difference between expected and observed frequencies in one or more categories (in this case, transnational or domestic entrepreneurs) of a contingency table.

Table 4. Multilevel logistic regression. DV: whether the contact provides support (1) or does not (0).

Transnational entrepreneurs’ sample	β		SE	OR
Ego level
City (0 – Milan; 1 – Amsterdam)	0.09		0.42	1.09
Business (0 – ethnic; 1- mainstream)	−0.25		0.47	0.78
Sex (0 – Female; 1- Male)	0.17		0.47	1.19
Education (0 – low; 1- high)	0.36		0.52	1.43
Business Network Size	0.11	***	0.04	1.12
Business Network Density	−0.6	p = 0.09	0.35	0.55
Alter level
Sex (0 – Female; 1- Male)	1.08	****	0.23	2.95
Living immigration city	−0.46	***	0.18	0.63
Strong tie	0.59	***	0.22	1.8
Moroccan contact	−1.01	****	0.2	0.36
Contact known before business start-up	0.54	**	0.23	1.72
Constant	−4.81	***	1.55	0.01
N observations	900
N entrepreneurs	30
SD (u)	0.86
Log likelihood	−477.45793
AIC	981.2296
BIC	1043.661
Wald (df)	63.39(11)	***
Domestic entrepreneurs’ sample	Β		SE	OR
Ego level
City (0 – Milan; 1- Amsterdam)	−0.68	*	0.36	0.51
Business (0 – ethnic; 1- mainstream)	−0.92	***	0.38	0.4
Sex (0 – Female; 1- Male)	−0.81		0.46	0.44
Education (0 – low; 1- high)	−0.89	***	0.35	0.41
Business Network Size	0.04		0.03	1.04
Business Network Density	−0.53	**	0.22	0.59
Alter level
Sex (0 – Female; 1- Male)	0.61	***	0.23	1.83
Living immigration city	0.66	***	0.23	1.94
Strong tie	−0.18		0.2	0.83
Moroccan contact	−0.25		0.21	0.78
Contact known before business start-up	−0.41	*	0.21	0.67
Constant	0.98		1.18	2.67
N observations	930
N entrepreneurs	31
SD (u)	0.66
Log likelihood	−411.28831
AIC	848.5766
BIC	911.434
Wald (df)	55.59(11)	***

*p < 0.06; **p < 0.03; ***p < 0.01; ****p < 0.001.