This article conceptualizes immigrant family businesses (IFBs) established by families migrating from the Global North to the Global South, an underexplored phenomenon in both immigrant entrepreneurship and family business research. The study addresses the question: How do North-to-South (NtS) IFBs mobilize distinct resources to build competitive advantage, and how do they differ from local and South-to-North (StN) IFBs? Drawing from the resource-based view (RBV) and the lens of global embeddedness, the article aims to theorize the unique resource configurations and contextual contingencies shaping the strategic behavior of NtS IFBs.
The framework is grounded in the RBV perspective, integrating six categories of strategic resources: human, social, patient, survivability and cross-border capital. The model is analytically illustrated with two real-life NtS IFBs in Latin America and logically formalized with testable propositions. These cases are used to exemplify how resource access and mobilization reflect the entrepreneurial journeys. The theoretical analysis incorporates global embeddedness to capture how supra-national positionalities shape the entrepreneurial process in NtS IFBs.
NtS IFBs diverge from necessity-driven StN IFBs by exhibiting long-term orientation, strategic use of symbolic and cross-border capital, and less reliance on ethnic networks. They display unique advantages in mobilizing international human and social capital, but can face challenges in survivability capital and local legitimacy. Cross-border capital emerges as a key differentiator, shaped by the family’s origin-country reputation and mobility privileges. These configurations create distinct forms of “familiness” with implications for both firm performance and societal integration.
The framework is conceptual and illustrated with exploratory case material; thus, generalizability is limited. Future research should empirically validate the propositions across different NtS contexts and refine the cross-border capital construct. The article advances family business theory by extending the RBV to transnational family dynamics and invites new dialogue on “familiness” in asymmetric global contexts.
The model offers guidance for practitioners and policymakers seeking to support entrepreneurial families migrating from the Global North to South. It informs family firms on how to leverage underutilized transnational resources and prepare for legitimacy challenges. Policymakers can use the findings to design migration incentives that attract long-term and resource-rich IFBs with local impact potential.
NtS IFBs contribute to inclusive growth in emerging economies by introducing cosmopolitan governance practices, ethical labor norms and sustainable business models. However, they may also face resistance due to historical inequalities, perceived privilege or lack of embeddedness. Finally, it illustrates the relevance of socially conscious integration strategies for international/migrant family business and reflexive governance.
This study pioneers the theorization of North-to-South IFBs by articulating an extended RBV-based model within a global embeddedness framework. The inclusion of cross-border capital as a resource category offers an alternative conceptual tool to analyze power asymmetries in migrant entrepreneurship. The work contributes to family business theory by contextualizing “familiness” within global migration flows and introducing analytical precision to IFBs' heterogeneity.
