Suchergebnisse

The abandonment of the White Australia Policy after World War II and the implementation of a points system in Australia's immigration program have led to a dramatic increase in the number of highly educated Asian migrants in the country. A study of 144 entrepreneurs of small business in the Indian and Chinese communities in Brisbane and Sydney found that, faced with institutionalized blockages, few of these highly educated migrants could practice what they were originally trained for. The majority of them, with their class resources, determination and optimism, became reluctant entrepreneurs.

ABSTRACTThe paper reports on a study of 28 ethnic Chinese businesses in Brisbane, Adelaide, and Perth, carried out in 2000 and 2001. It focuses on their strategies of vertical, horizontal, and unrelated diversification often combining different activities, products, and markets at the same time. It demonstrates how these practices are socially embedded in their preference for using personal networks.Non‐related diversification, in particular, promotes and is facilitated by using "weak ties" that serve as bridges, leading into new networks (Granovetter, 1973). This can create links to Chinese of different national and dialect origins and to those of other ethnicities. It is suggested that open networks and diversification mutually interact to support each other and may have evolved in tandem from earlier, more closed and niche bound business cultures and practices.