20.500.12556/RUL-186086 A framework for immigrant entrepreneur trajectories integrating rural-urban contexts and necessity-opportunity entrepreneurship Purpose - This study aims to advance the understanding of immigrant entrepreneurial trajectories by examining how rural–urban spatial contexts interact with necessity–opportunity motivations to shape opportunities, resource access, and integration processes. Design/methodology/approach - We adopt a mixed methods design that integrates a systematic literature review with a qualitative study. In the first study, we conduct a literature review on immigrant entrepreneurship to identify key themes, methodological patterns, and empirical gaps. In the second study, we complement this with in-depth interviews with 20 immigrant entrepreneurs in both rural and urban spatial contexts, supported by two focus groups and secondary data. This sequential, theory-building design allows the literature review to inform the qualitative inquiry and the empirical findings to refine and extend the conceptual framework. Findings - The literature review reveals the main thematic groups in immigrant entrepreneurship, while the qualitative study highlights how motivations, challenges, and adaptive strategies vary across rural and urban contexts. Together, the findings show that geographic context is associated with distinct opportunity structures, resource constraints, and integration pathways. The study proposes a framework for investigating immigrant entrepreneurs' trajectories across rural–urban settings and along the necessity–opportunity spectrum, clarifying how these dimensions interact in shaping entrepreneurial behaviour. Practical implications - The empirical findings offer fundamental practical contributions for organisations that support immigrant entrepreneurship, demanding stratified and context-sensitive interventions. Originality/value - Immigrant entrepreneurship is a growing field of research; however, there remains a limited integrated understanding of how rural and urban spatial contexts intersect with necessity–opportunity motivations to shape immigrant trajectories. This study contributes to the literature by developing a contextualised framework that bridges spatial embeddedness and motivational theories, offering a typology and propositions to help scholars further theorise immigrant entrepreneurial pathways and to provide more targeted policy support for immigrant entrepreneurs across diverse territorial and motivational settings. immigrations entrepreneurship management immigrant entrepreneurship mixed-methods approach necessity–opportunity entrepreneurship rural–urban context imigracije podjetništvo management dobro počutje true false true Angleški jezik Slovenski jezik Članek v reviji 2026-08-26 16:00:45 2026-08-26 16:06:47 2026-08-28 03:44:50 0000-00-00 00:00:00 2026 0 0 Str. 340-367 iss. 11 Vol. 32 2026 0000-00-00 Zaloznikova Objavljeno NiDoloceno 0000-00-00 0000-00-00 0000-00-00 658 1355-2554 10.1108/IJEBR-11-2025-1604 286072067 ijebr-11-2025-1604en.pdf ijebr-11-2025-1604en.pdf 1 802BCA7D6CEBF879EEDE3846C4F9C1CB 81d686f25afcb0db684277222afc265d757411a49bb64713e58efa3164d28489 deb5b6a3-a156-11f1-9b0d-0050569b8976 https://repozitorij.uni-lj.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=245160 https://www.emerald.com/ijebr/article/32/11/340/1388579/A-framework-for-immigrant-entrepreneur 0 e9788197-a156-11f1-9b0d-0050569b8976 https://repozitorij.uni-lj.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=245161 Ekonomska fakulteta 0 0 0