The effect of social and cultural background on conducting entrepreneurial activities: Comparative study of overseas returnees and local entrepreneurs in Korean arts and culture industry

Few empirical studies exist which investigate the effect of cultural identity on entrepreneurship via comparison between overseas returnees and local entrepreneurs. Hence, this study aims to explore the similarities and differences between the two groups with different social and cultural backgrounds in conducting their entrepreneurial activities. This study adopts a qualitative inductive approach and offers both theoretical and policy implications. The key findings provide a comprehensive understanding of the two groups’ developing their arts and culture start-ups with different backgrounds. Hence our contributions are twofold: we address existing theoretical gaps by underlying the thought process of a new variant of entrepreneurs succeeding in a challenging environment with different social and cultural backgrounds; and we identify the ongoing change of people with different social and cultural backgrounds during the journey of entrepreneurship.