Leading motivational factors influencing immigrant individuals to become entrepreneurs in Sweden

The purpose of this study is to explore the factors motivating immigrants to migrate to Sweden and the factors influencing immigrants to become entrepreneurs in Sweden. To address this, the study include two inter-related research questions; (1) what factors influence the immigrants to migrate to Sweden? And (2) what are the leading motivational factors that influence immigrants to become entrepreneurs in Sweden? This study grounded in the push and pull theory. The push and pull theory was used to understand both the research questions, which are motivations behind immigrants’ decision to migrate to Sweden and the motivations of immigrants to become entrepreneurs in Sweden. The study has followed purely the qualitative research method in accordance with abductive approach which allowed the author to move back and forth between data and theory. Data were collected through 11 semi-structured interviews of immigrants who became entrepreneurs in Sweden. Thematic analysis was conducted to identify common patterns in the data. The findings indicate that the immigrants are motivated to migrate to Sweden as a result of expecting future prospects, educational aspirations, environment and career related opportunities and family related concerns. Further the immigrants pursue their entrepreneurial journey as a result of motivational factors such as previous influences and experiences, intrinsic motivations and personal characteristics, support system influences, financial incentives, barriers in the labour market, perceived ease of entrepreneurship and business environment related factors.