Research Seminar with Christoph Barmeyer & Sina Grosskopf

Creativity of immigrant entrepreneurs: Cases of multicultural individuals

A catered lunch will be available from 12:00 PM for in-person attendees.

Description:

Due to global migration, migrants are increasingly becoming entrepreneurs outside their home countries and thus playing a crucial role in many economies. Academic literature on migrant businesses describes these organizations as a “source of diversity.” In addition to their own cultural system of meaning and action, migrants acquire another: that of the host society. As multicultural individuals, they are then carriers of cultural diversity, which is characterized by a particular cognitive complexity. The cultural repertoire that emerges, such as multilingualism, diversity of perspective, creativity, problem-solving ability, enables them to develop special ideas and to incorporate them as innovations in their entrepreneurial activities. Migrant entrepreneurs are thus able to create novelties and distinguish themselves from monocultural entrepreneurs.

In this presentation, Drs. Christoph Barmeyer and Sina Grosskopf deliberately take a constructive perspective, using empirical research to show how migrant entrepreneurs’ unique cultural experience informs their business ventures (e.g., in products and services, but also processes and practices from home; in novel combinations of their “old” and “new” contexts).

Sina and Christoph are looking forward to interesting discussions in English, French, or German!

Biographies:

Professor Christoph Barmeyer is head of the Chair of Intercultural Communication and co-director of the Master of International Cultural and Business Studies, University of Passau, Germany. His areas of research and teaching include constructive intercultural management and the co-creation of new working cultures, intercultural competences development, biculturality, intercultural transfer of management practices, and intercultural entrepreneurship. He has published several books, and his articles have appeared in leading journals (e.g., International Business Review, Management International, and International Journal of Cross Cultural Management). Christoph also co-leads PATEC (Passau the Entrepreneurial Campus).

Dr. Sina Grosskopf is Chair of Intercultural Communication at the University of Passau, Germany. Her research focuses on cross-cultural management, multicultural individuals, migrant entrepreneurship, routine dynamics, and paradigm research. She has published several articles on these subjects in such journals as International Journal of Cross Cultural Management, Journal of Global Mobility, and European Journal of Cross Cultural Management and Competence.