On Thursday 9th June we had the pleasure to listen to Johannes Kleinhempel, from University of Manchester, giving a research seminar on "Cultural roots of entrepreneurship: Evidence from second-generation immigrants".

Johannes is a Presidential Fellow (Assistant Professor) in Comparative and International Business at The University of Manchester. Before moving to Manchester, he was a PhD candidate at the University of Groningen and visiting PhD student at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His main research interest is comparative international entrepreneurship research. Johannes’ first paper – on regional social capital and the entrepreneurial process – has recently been published at Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice.

In this study, they examine the self-employment choices of second-generation immigrants who were born, educated, and currently live in one country, but were raised by parents stemming from another country. We argue that entrepreneurship is influenced by durable, portable, and intergenerationally transmitted cultural imprints such that second-generation immigrants are more likely to become entrepreneurs if their parents originate from countries characterized by a strong entrepreneurial culture.