The Effects of Cross-Border E-Commerce Platforms on Transnational Digital Entrepreneurship: Case Studies in the Chinese Immigrant Community

Abstract

This research examines the important concept of transnational digital entrepreneurship (TDE). The paper integrates the host and home country entrepreneurial ecosystems with the digital ecosystem to the framework of the transnational digital entrepreneurial ecosystem. The authors argue that crossborder e-commerce platforms provide critical foundations in the digital entrepreneurial ecosystem. Entrepreneurs who count on this ecosystem are defined as transnational digital entrepreneurs. Interview data were dissected for the purpose of case studies to make understanding from 12 Chinese immigrant entrepreneurs living in Australia and New Zealand. The results of the data analysis reveal that crossborder entrepreneurs are in actual fact relying on the significant framework of the transnational digital ecosystem. Cross-border e-commerce platforms not only play a bridging role between home and host country ecosystems but provide entrepreneurial capital as digital ecosystem promised.