International High-Technology Entrepreneurs: Hybrid Identities and Entrepreneurial Activities

Abstract

International entrepreneurs operating in the context of globalization provide an opportunity for scholars to study and better understand the entrepreneurial process under dynamic conditions. Borrowing from Bhabha's postcolonial lens, we offer hybrid identities as a new way to conceptualize entrepreneurial selves under conditions of globalization as hitherto, the approaches to the study of international entrepreneurs have relied on static concepts of self and culture emanating from Western philosophical traditions. We believe our framework can be used to understand the novel ways international entrepreneurs understand themselves and others, conduct their businesses, and make sense of the "rules of the game" in the ever changing socio-cultural and institutional contexts in which they are situated. Qualitative analysis of interviews conducted with international entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley and Turkey illuminate this phenomena and the usefulness of the hybrid identity concept, specifically, and postcolonial theoretical framework, more broadly, to research in international business and entrepreneurship.

Keywords: international entrepreneur, hybrid identities, postcolonial, entrepreneurial ecosystem, global context