A comparative study of the reasons for and means of setting-up a small business: the case of Turkish Cypriot restaurateurs and lawyers in North Cyprus and Britain.

Abstract

This study aims to generate insights into the business start-up activities of Turkish Cypriot business owners in the restaurant and the legal sectors in North Cyprus and Britain, by drawing cross cultural comparisons between the two sectors, and the two countries. The research objectives are to examine the business start-up reasons for Turkish Cypriot restaurateurs and lawyers; to identify and investigate, the 'forms of capital' (Bourdieu, 1986) that they acquire and deploy; and to compare and contrast the business start-up activities of Turkish Cypriots cross-nationally, North Cyprus and Britain, and cross-sectorally, restaurant and legal sectors. Methodologically, the research draws on extensive fieldwork with 66 participants drawn from two different sectors in both countries. Applying a critical realist methodology, experiences of participants are examined by analysing rich interview material and documentary evidence. Business start-up activity of Turkish Cypriots is a multi-faceted phenomenon, which is examined in this thesis by looking into the interplay of agentic and structural influences. The agentic influences, such as individual reasons for financial betterment, serving to their community groups, desire for independence, are intertwined with structural factors. The most important structural factors appear to be the importance of family and changing socio-economic conditions. There are cross-country and cross-sectoral variations in the degree to which these factors influence business set-up experiences. The thesis makes empirical contributions to this field of study. There have been extensive studies which have touched on ethnicity, sectoral differences, cross-national variations and individual forms of capital. However, there has not been a study which looked at the complex intersection of these key structural influences on business set-up activity. This study fills this gap and contributes to our understanding of mainstream and minority ethnic business start-up experiences between business start-up experiences in one ethnic community across two sectors and two countries. Empirically, the research findings reveal that both agentic and structural influences shape 'business start-up activity of Turkish Cypriots in restaurant and legal sectors, in North Cyprus and Britain.