I would like to thank my Professors at Hannam University to help me find the

 
 
 
 
 
 

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77 
 
Chapter 6: Conclusion 
The aim of the following chapter is to conclude this research and discuss the 
most relevant findings and conclusions of this study. Furthermore, through 
the conclusions of the study, the recommendations for future study will be 
provided for the field of immigrant entrepreneurship. Lastly, the limitations 
of this research will be evaluated and presented.
6.1 Summary of the Study 
The aim of this study was to investigate the factors that influence the 
survival of immigrant entrepreneurs in their host country. For this purpose, 
the research presented the profiles of 5 immigrant entrepreneurs who are 
running their restaurants for minimum of 3 years. This research investigated 
the cases of entrepreneurs against the model proposed by (Chrysostome & 
Arcand, 2009) that has five survival factors: namely ethno-cultural factors, 
financial factors, managerial factors, psycho-behavioral factors and 
institutional factors. 
The purpose of the study was to find answers for the following questions: 
1.
 
What are the factors that constitute the survival of immigrant 
entrepreneurs in Korea? 
2.
 
What factors have more impact over the growth of businesses than 
others and what steps can be taken to make favorable situation for 
necessity immigrant entrepreneurs? 
3.
 
To unveil the underlying reasons or hindrances that have a direct 
impact over necessity based immigrant entrepreneurs in Korea, other 
than those stated in the theoretical model proposed for this study? 

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78 
The study was successful to explore the main topic of this research through 
previous literature and then later investigated the research area through 
semi-structured interviews under in reference to the confirmation, non, 
confirmation and partial confirmation of the propositions presented in 
Chapter 3.
Some conclusions can be presented under the light of findings in Chapter 4. 
First, the study has proven that immigrant entrepreneurs in Korea don
’
t rely 
on their ethnic community for the survival of their businesses. Some of the 
immigrant entrepreneurs rely on their ethnic community to get labors 
considering the benefits of smooth communication and helping their 
community but in general they have customers from various ethnicities. The 
study concluded that due to globalization the ethnic cuisines are no longer 
just of an interest of a specific ethnic group rather they have wider 
recognition among other societies and cultures as well.
Secondly, most of the immigrant entrepreneurs were satisfied of their 
life which makes it obvious that due to complicated migratory experiences 
they have grown patience. This also shows that they might won
’
t need a lot 
of emotional support. Furthermore, the findings of this study show that 
immigrant entrepreneurs often face destructive competition from their 
communities instead of emotional support.
Thus, the other factors that were brought under consideration were 
the lack of rotating credit associations that can help those entrepreneurs to 
overcome the obstacles of taking initiatives due to lack of funds. The 
findings also concluded that immigrant entrepreneurs often struggle to settle 
down in Korea not because of inadequate educational background but lack of 
proficiency in Korean language. The findings also conclude that institutional 
support from government is something that is overlooked by policy makers 

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79 
and it is affecting immigrant entrepreneurs. It is also forcing them to live at a 
cost of unpredicted future despite investing all their life fortune in Korea.
This study concludes that ethno-cultural factors, financial factors, 
managerial factors, psycho-behavioral factors and institutional factors 
presented in the theoretical model are not fully fit to the challenges faced by 
immigrant entrepreneurs due to their extraordinary circumstances in Korea 
which are different than Canada. The study has brought attention to the 
factors that can add more depth and understanding of the survival immigrant 
entrepreneurs in Korea. The study suggests the need exploration of new 
horizons of necessity immigrant entrepreneurship that can contribute to the 
progress of Korea and making it a desirable destination for necessity 
immigrant entrepreneurs. 
6.2 Limitations of the Study 
As this study is exploratory in nature it is important to highlight its limitation 
in deriving new theory and the applicability of this theory in other contexts. 
In this study, a small number of interviews were conducted that precludes 
the generalization. Moreover, the focus on immigrant entrepreneurs from 
food industry also lacks insight to the businesses managed by immigrant 
entrepreneurs in other industries.
The case study approach such as the one used in this research lacks the 
statistical generalizability that can be implied from a smaller group to bigger 
populations. This study focuses on the specific aspects and needs of 
immigrant restaurant owners in food industry sector which means it lacks the 
in depth understanding of the survival of immigrant entrepreneurs in general. 
However, the richness of the data collected in this study can create the 
analytical generalizations such as grounded theory and steeped in 
assumptions. Many analytical generalizations have already been made in the 

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80 
results portion of this Master Thesis. These generalizations can be applied to 
the individual cases of survival immigrant entrepreneurs in Korea. Thus, the 
findings can also be implemented for other countries in the world that have 
similar drastic growth in immigrant entrepreneurship with obstacles similar 
to those faced by necessity immigrant entrepreneurs in Korea. 
From theoretical perspective, as per the theory and in depth 
knowledge of this study the theoretical model used in this study needs to be 
revisited again to add substantial changes in the light of research findings. 
This study was also limited in its resources regarding the number of 
restaurants evaluated and thus cannot represent the truth of all immigrant 
restaurant owners in general. It is understandable that a bigger sample would 
have provided more data and better results. Also, limited time was a 
hindrance to reach out to more immigrant entrepreneurs to collect more data. 
The cases selected were from various big cities around Korea to add 
diversity to the data but it could have been better if more cases were 
selected from each city instead of one. Lastly, every ethnicity has different 
perspectives over a same issue (for example ethnic labor), which adds 
complexity to the data so doing research concentrated research on specific 
ethnic group can add to the validity of the results. Despite the limitations, it 
is believed that this research has unveiled a less known area of 
entrepreneurship in Korea which can lead towards the substantial 
contribution for future researches. 
 
6.3 Recommendations for Future Research 
This study can lead towards the different research tracks that can be taken 
into consideration for future studies. This research has unfolded some 
important questions that can be addressed by researchers who are interested 
to explore necessity immigrant entrepreneurship in the context of Korea. 

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81 
First of all, the theoretical model used in this study can be reconstructed in 
the light of the findings in this research and it can also be used to investigate 
cases on a wider scale from various industries. Moreover, a model of 
success factors can be constructed as well to study opportunity based 
immigrant entrepreneurs. With the increase number of immigrant 
entrepreneurs in Korea, it will be great idea to explore the factors that 
motivated them to start their own businesses in Korea.
This research has explored the areas of immigrant entrepreneurship 
which are still new to study in the context of Korea. The future researches 
can also consider conducting longitudinal studies over 3~5 years to compare 
their performance with every passing year and variables contributing to that 
change. This study was not able to dig deep into the personality traits of 
entrepreneurs and thus a more focused study on the immigrant 
entrepreneur
’
s personality could give insights into how different aspects 
affect the ways in which they take various business decisions.
Similarly, (Pajala, 2018) stated that entering into Korean market is 
one of the challenging steps because it is one of the most homogenous 
societies of the world. Additionally, Korean language was considered one of 
the significant factors by the participants in this research so the role of 
language proficiency and its impact of immigrant businesses can be examined 
in future researches.
This study has also outlined a quick view into the immigrant 
entrepreneurship in Korea, but more depth can be achieved by digging into 
this subject considering various survival factors before conclusions can be 
made. It will be interesting for future researches to find more about the 
questions raised in the findings of this study. 

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82 
6.4 Contribution to the Research Area 
This research has contributed in the field of immigrant entrepreneurship by 
exploring a less studied area of necessity immigrant entrepreneurship in the 
context of Korea. The study has taken a model which was previously applied 
on Canadian necessity immigrant entrepreneurs. The use of the same model 
in the context of Korea has brought up the conclusions and questions which 
are not addressed in the literature before. 
This study has opened up new pathways of research by applying the same 
model which was previously used to study the multicultural and multilingual. 
Using that same model for monolingual and monoculture society like Korea 
has enabled to explore the practicality of the theoretical model in different 
circumstances. 
Additionally, this research has tapped the areas which were not discussed 
before in the existing literature. The application of the theoretical model in 
this research has enabled to further bring the model along a path towards the 
possibility of eventually making a generalization. 

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83 
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