Overcoming Barriers Through Virtual Embeddedness: How AI Supports Migrant Entrepreneurs

This research examines how migrant entrepreneurs organize to escape, confront, or exploit forms of discrimination and structural disadvantages in the host country context through the use of Generative Pretrained Transformer (GPT) Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology. The study highlights how GPT AI enables migrant entrepreneurs to establish virtual embeddedness, helping them navigate structural barriers such as language and cultural differences, discriminatory practices, and limited access to local networks. Drawing on a qualitative interpretivist approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 migrant entrepreneurs in the United Kingdom who actively integrate GPT AI into their business practices. Thematic analysis reveals that GPT AI acts as a critical enabler, facilitating language translation, cultural adaptation, and understanding of host-country business norms. These capabilities allow migrant entrepreneurs to confront systemic disadvantages, build relationships with local stakeholders, and exploit opportunities within the entrepreneurial ecosystem. By orchestrating identity work and bridging cultural divides, participants effectively reduced liabilities of foreignness and enhanced their embeddedness in the host country's business environment. The use of this technology significantly enhanced the participants' abilities to connect and collaborate with diverse business stakeholders, thereby reducing their liabilities of foreignness. This study makes a significant contribution to the theoretical understanding of the role of AI in migrant entrepreneurship and offers practical implications for policymakers and practitioners in developing supportive programs and strategies for migrant entrepreneurs. It underscores the potential of AI as a tool of empowerment for marginalized business communities and illuminates new avenues for organizational inclusivity and diversity.