Externally-imposed Institutional Barriers on Transnational Entrepreneurs: Lessons for the Iranian-Canadian Case

Scholars of transnational entrepreneurship have largely focused on the issue of institutional barriers within the country of origin (COO) context, asserting that transnational entrepreneurs (TEs) can overcome these barriers in a way that constitutes a competitive advantage. What has not been analyzed in the literature is the way in which institutional barriers that are imposed from outside of TE networks can affect TE behaviour and success. In this study, I will introduce the concept of externally imposed institutional barriers, using the example of Iranian TEs as a case study in which to understand this concept. By looking at three cases of Iranian TEs functioning within the context of Iran’s exclusion from the global financial system, this study will draw conclusions on the state of Iranian-Canadian TE activity and its implications for scholars, practitioners, and policymakers.

Externally-imposed Institutional Barriers on Transnational Entrepreneurs: Lessons for the Iranian-Canadian Case

Scholars of transnational entrepreneurship have largely focused on the issue of institutional barriers within the country of origin (COO) context, asserting that transnational entrepreneurs (TEs) can overcome these barriers in a way that constitutes a competitive advantage. What has not been analyzed in the literature is the way in which institutional barriers that are imposed from outside of TE networks can affect TE behaviour and success. In this study, I will introduce the concept of externally imposed institutional barriers, using the example of Iranian TEs as a case study in which to understand this concept. By looking at three cases of Iranian TEs functioning within the context of Iran’s exclusion from the global financial system, this study will draw conclusions on the state of Iranian-Canadian TE activity and its implications for scholars, practitioners, and policymakers.

Transnational (Im)mobilities and Informality in Europe

People around the globe rely on informal practices to resist, survive, care and relate to each other beyond the control and coercive presence of institutions and states. In the EU, regimes of mobility at multiple scales affect various people on the move who are pushed into informality in order to acquire social mobility while having to combat border regimes, racialization, inequalities, and state bureaucracies. This text explores how mobilities and informality are entangled with one another when it comes to responding to the social, political, and economic inequalities that are produced by border and mobility regimes. Within this frame, the ethnographic articles in this special issue go beyond national borders to connect the production of mobility and informality at multiple interconnected scales, from refugees adapting to settlement bureaucracies locally to transit migrants coping with the selective external borders of the EU, or from transnational entrepreneurs’ ability to move between formal and informal norms to the multiple ways in which transnational mobility informally confronts economic, social and political constraints. In sum, this volume brings together articles on informality and mobility that take account of the elusive practices that deal with the inequalities of mobility and immobility.

The Evolution of University Business Incubators: Transnational Hubs for Entrepreneurship

University business incubators (UBIs) are uniquely positioned to foster transnational entrepreneurship and the evolution of business and technical communication practices on a worldwide basis. UBIs facilitate the launch of start-ups by professors, students, researchers, and local entrepreneurs. This study uses assemblage theory to profile four UBIs. Its findings concern their process of exporting incubation models and training transnational entrepreneurs, the roles of alumni and students, and the genres and conventions of entrepreneurship.