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Drawing on qualitative, semi-structured interviews with Taiwanese entrepreneurs who operate mostly small- to medium-scale businesses in the computer sales sector in Hamburg (Germany), this paper brings out the diversity of `ethnic entrepreneurship', a notion which is conventionally used almost exclusively for labour-intensive light industries and service-sector activities run by family members or co-ethnics of migrant communities. In order to understand the complex operation strategies of these entrepreneurs, I use the concept of `mixed embeddedness', which emphasises the crucial interplay of the social cultural aspects on the one hand, and that of the local and broader economies on the other. This paper will highlight the importance of developments in production and marketing of the computer hardware industry, the economic conditions in Asia, and the socio-economic environment in Germany in shaping operation tactics, including location rationale, choice of business type and marketing strategies of these enterprises. In addition, the roles of local and transnational ethnic networks in facilitating both business and personal life of these overseas Chinese entrepreneurs in Germany will also be discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the structure and strategies of Polish migrant entrepreneurship in Berlin in the 1990s, drawing on statistical data, in-depth interviews and a comparison to Turkish entrepreneurship in Berlin. Existing research on the entrepreneurial activity of migrants and ethnic minorities tends to focus on processes observed solely within specific places in the country of immigration. I argue that further insights into the dynamics of 'ethnic entrepreneurship' are enabled by introducing the concept of transnational social space to the 'mixed embeddedness' perspective on ethnic business. This approach may explain the early orientation towards an open and transnational market among Polish entrepreneurs in comparison to the more local orientation of the 'ethnic community' in the first period of Turkish entrepreneurship. Four main entrepreneurial strategies of migrants from Poland can be observed: first, utilising a high degree of personal mobility and the differences in purchasing power between Germany and Poland in cross-border trade; second, the recruitment of 'transnational workers'; third, referring to the 'Polish community' as a market; and fourth, opening branches in Poland of businesses initiated and based in Germany. These strategies point to the relevance of transnational social networks and mobility in the context of national and transnational market conditions and politico-institutional frameworks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]