Immigrant entrepreneurs and advisory services: new insights

The HI-GEE project, funded by the Foundation for Economic Education (Liikesivistysrahasto), examines the role of highly educated immigrants in business growth and internationalization, either as employees of firms or as growth-oriented entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurial opportunities depend not only on individuals’ skills and motivation but also on how effectively support services recognize diverse needs and respond to them.

Jan Sihvonen‘s master’s thesis, “Business Advisory Services in Supporting Clients with Immigrant Backgrounds,” explores the capabilities of business advisors to support immigrant entrepreneurs during the business start-up phase. The thesis was conducted in the entrepreneurship subject at the University of Turku under the supervision of Professor Ulla Hytti, who also serves as the Director of the HI-GEE project.

Supporting immigrant entrepreneurs requires more than translation

For many immigrants, entrepreneurship provides an important pathway to employment, economic security, and social participation. At the same time, immigrant entrepreneurship is becoming an increasingly significant part of Finland’s business landscape. Sihvonen’s recent thesis highlights that a substantial proportion of business advisory clients already have immigrant backgrounds, and in some regions they account for nearly half of all clients.

From the perspective of business advisors, the study examines what kinds of competencies are needed to support immigrant-background clients during the business establishment phase. Based on seven expert interviews conducted within Finnish Enterprise Agencies, the research identifies both strengths and areas for improvement in Finland’s business advisory system.

Immigrants Are Not a Homogeneous Client Group

One of the study’s key findings is that entrepreneurs with immigrant backgrounds should not be treated as a single client category. Business advisors encountered a highly diverse clientele, including international students, highly educated professionals, entrepreneurs entering service industries, and individuals who arrived in Finland on humanitarian grounds.

These groups differ considerably in terms of their competencies, resources, goals, and support needs. This finding also challenges the development of business support services. If client groups vary significantly, services should become more flexible and better tailored to their specific circumstances and needs.

Language is more than a question of communication

The importance of language skills emerged as a major theme in the study. This issue extends beyond the language in which advisory services are delivered. Starting a business involves numerous concepts, regulations, contracts, and administrative procedures whose understanding requires more than vocabulary alone.

Business advisors often find themselves explaining the rules of the Finnish business environment, administrative practices, and business culture. For many clients, entrepreneurial issues are closely intertwined with residence permit regulations, banking services, taxation, and other societal structures. This makes advisory work time-consuming but also particularly important.

Simply translating materials is therefore not enough. Effective practices are needed to ensure that entrepreneurs truly understand what establishing and operating a business in Finland entails.

This leads to an important conclusion: entrepreneurship services cannot be developed in isolation from integration and employment services. From the client’s perspective, these elements often form a single interconnected process, even though responsibility for them is divided among different public organizations.

The current service model is under pressure

The interviews also revealed a structural challenge. Clients with immigrant backgrounds may require more meetings and longer-term support than current service models typically assume. In some cases, advisory processes may extend to dozens of meetings.

This raises an important question: are current business advisory resources designed to reflect actual client needs? If the objective is to support entrepreneurship on an equal basis, the service system must take into account the differing starting points of its clients.

Developing business advisory services to support growth and internationalization

From the perspective of the HI-GEE project, the thesis highlights an important point: immigrant entrepreneurship is not only associated with challenges but also with significant opportunities.

Multilingual capabilities, international networks, cultural competence, and strong entrepreneurial motivation are valuable assets. The identification and utilization of these resources should be supported more systematically than is currently the case.

Business advisory services can play a key role in identifying the potential of growth-oriented immigrant entrepreneurs, understanding their needs, and fostering the development of their entrepreneurial capabilities. In doing so, their expertise, networks, and international perspectives can more effectively contribute to business growth, internationalization, and job creation.

As the number of entrepreneurs with immigrant backgrounds continues to grow, this task becomes increasingly important for the renewal of Finnish business life, the growth of firms, and the strengthening of regional vitality.

Recommendations for improving support

Sihvonen’s thesis also provides concrete recommendations for enhancing support for immigrant entrepreneurs. Key development priorities include strengthening multilingualism in services, materials, and communications, as well as improving the identification of different client groups so that support can be targeted more appropriately.

In addition, more group-based services should be introduced so that essential information can be delivered efficiently to larger numbers of entrepreneurs.

Equally important is strengthening collaboration among educational institutions, integration and employment services, and other organizations that support entrepreneurship. The role of peer networks and mentoring should also be emphasized, as entrepreneurs often learn most effectively from the experiences of fellow entrepreneurs.

Read Jan Sihvonen’s thesis (in Finnish):
https://www.utupub.fi/server/api/core/bitstreams/7684595d-31b1-4114-804f-1bf0566b5b6b/content

This blog post was written on the basis of Jan Sihvonen’s thesis and with the author’s consent by Professor of Entrepreneurship Ulla Hytti, who supervised the thesis and serves as Director of the HI-GEE project.