Something new, something used, something borrowed Innovation of migrant entrepreneurs in the service sector

Innovation contribute to the socio-economic development of a society, and the role of migrant entrepreneurs is slowly getting attention. This study focuses on migratory experiences translated into business ideas with the exploration of business elements that are new, those adapted from other contexts and those shaped by the interaction with people around the entrepreneur. The theoretical inspirations come from the model of diffusion of innovations and the approach of mixed-embeddedness. The relationships product & entrepreneurs, context & entrepreneurs, and connections & entrepreneurs are analysed with 70 interviews in Brescia, Italy and 41 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands as two parallel, but cross-fertilized, cases.
Product & entrepreneurs look at incremental innovation in five features: relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability and observability. Migrant businesses adapted goods and services using past education, work, migration and cultural practices. Digital technology becomes marketing innovation, and cultural traits become product and production innovation. Context & entrepreneurs provides information about innovation programs in Brescia with a lack of incentives for foreigners. The geographical dispersion of immigrants and potential local customers generates an intermittent ethnic demand and the survival of businesses at small scale. Connections & entrepreneurs show that similar and diverse networks are needed: the former to develop and test ideas, and the latter to implement and expand them. Migratory experiences contribute to the adaptation of innovative ideas with the influence of similar networks; nonetheless a limited implementation of innovative ideas where the quality of the connections, rather than quantity, matters.