JultikaUniversity of Oulu repository

In our current and continuously globalising world, opportunities do not have borders any more. This fact encourages the rise of international immigrant entrepreneurs who are not afraid of leaving their home country in order to exploit opportunities in foreign territories. Indeed, these opportunities do not come with ready-made instructions. Therefore, it challenges entrepreneurs to evolve in an unpredictable environment and to leverage contingencies to make their business prosper. An intensive use of their social capital, network, self-efficacy, empathy and a creative use of their resources figure in among the key success factors of a venture, especially in the early stage of its life. Based on previous literature reviews regarding entrepreneurship, international entrepreneurship, immigrant entrepreneurship and a longitudinal case study from 2008–2015 which uses an auto-ethnographic approach to analyze the data, we have been able to determine key characteristics of the international immigrant entrepreneur’s behavior and illustrate how effectual principles dictate their actions. This paper aims to contribute to the discussions concerning immigrant entrepreneurship, give some insights regarding the entrepreneurial journey and encourage more persons to embrace this path, especially students.