POLISH IMMIGRANTS INLEICESTER:Forms of Capital UnderpinningEntrepreneurial Activity

In this paper we report a study of 10 Polish immigrant entrepreneurs operating inLeicester, UK. Like Ram, Theodorakopoulos and Jones (2008) we take a forms-ofcapitalapproach but use Bourdieu’s (1983) social, cultural and economic capitals asthe lens through which to explore their pathways to entrepreneurship. This allows usto look beyond studies that generally focus on social capital embodied in family andethnic networks. By incorporating a mixed embeddedness approach (Kloostermans,Van Leun and Rath, 1999), we identify three groups – traditional, opportunity andopportunist entrepreneurs - based on when they immigrated and the implications ofthe differing origins and amounts of capital they can access and convert intoentrepreneurial activity.[...]