LUSO-AMERICAN COMMUNITIES IN NEWARK: ENTREPRENEURIAL INITIATIVE AND SELF-EMPLOYMENT

Abstract

Entrepreneurship as a field of study possesses already a vast and diverse literature, ranging from the various ways in which entrepreneurial ventures -especially startups- develop and their contribution to today's globalized economy, all the way to the most common traits and management styles associated with the figure of the individual entrepreneur. Within the entrepreneurship field itself, however, the subfield of immigrant entrepreneurship has surprisingly little research conducted on this topic. This is not to say that immigrant entrepreneurship as an area of knowledge does not have its own household names. Names like Fairlie & Lofstrom, William Kerr, and Desiderio, M.V. (OECD) & Mestres-Domènech, J. (OECD) are pervasive in the immigrant entrepreneurship domain, attesting to its status as a firmly established -albeit somewhat underdeveloped- field of study. As one particularizes further on the issue, diving into the subject matter relating to the specific characteristics of immigrant entrepreneurship within the context of Portuguese communities overseas, the available research grows even scanter. Therefore, the purpose of this dissertation is to contribute to the enrichment of the available body of literature on immigrant entrepreneurship and self-employment initiatives in Portuguese communities overseas, focusing on the specific case of Luso-American communities in Newark, New Jersey, in the United States. This is achieved by means of an exploratory case study based on a sample of eight semi-structured interviews the subjects of which were all either self-starting entrepreneurs or self-employed individuals born in Portugal and who emigrated to the U.S., mostly in the late 1960s and in the 1970s and 80s. The conclusions drawn from this study not only help make even more evident the importance of immigrant entrepreneurship but also help understand the ways in which Portuguese immigrant entrepreneurship stands out as an ethnically specific type of entrepreneurship, besides paving the way for much-needed further research.