Abstract
This study examines how South Asian ethnic minority migrant business (EMMB) owners in the United Kingdom mobilise, accumulate, and convert different forms of capital to build and sustain their enterprises. Focusing specifically on Bangladeshi and Indian small-business owner communities, the research highlights how Bangladeshi and Indian EMMB owners navigate the entrepreneurial landscape to access and build cultural and social capital, and how they turn these into financial success. While there has been increasing academic interest in migrant entrepreneurship in the last few decades, much of the existing literature treats South Asian entrepreneurship as a uniform category, often overlooking internal heterogeneity and differences in access to capital.
The study draws on Pierre Bourdieu’s conceptualisation of economic, social, and cultural capital to analyse how these resources are differentially distributed and strategically deployed. Cultural capital—embodied in education, heritage, and tacit entrepreneurial knowledge—interacts with social capital embedded in kinship ties, community networks, and reciprocal support systems. When effectively mobilised, these forms of intangible capital contribute to the acquisition and consolidation of economic capital. Central to the analysis is Bourdieu’s argument that capital forms can be converted into one another, and that the strategies through which entrepreneurs enact these conversions reflect their positions within wider social and economic power structures.
A qualitative methodological design underpins the study, comprising semi-structured interviews, observational work, and secondary data. This approach enables a close examination of both individual experiences and the institutional and structural conditions that frame entrepreneurial activity. The findings reveal notable differences between the two communities studied: Indian-origin business owners often draw on higher levels of pre-migration cultural or economic capital, whereas Bangladeshi-origin entrepreneurs tend to rely more on dense community-based social networks to mitigate financial and institutional barriers. These differing resource portfolios lead to distinctive strategic orientations, influencing business formation, survival, and growth trajectories.
Overall, the study contributes to a more nuanced understanding of South Asian migrant entrepreneurship by foregrounding the interplay between diverse forms of capital and the strategic actions through which entrepreneurs navigate structural constraints. It challenges homogenising narratives and highlights the importance of attending to intra-ethnic variation when analysing migrant enterprise in the UK context.