Abstract
Abstract In recent years, migrant entrepreneurs have come to occupy a prominent place in the SME sector in many cities in developed countries, with varying degrees of success. The concept of migrant entrepreneurship suggests a homogeneous set of actors, but it remains to be seen whether differences in cultural and ethnic backgrounds, in education, in age and gender, and in motivational profiles lead to contrasting business outcomes. The present paper aims to identify and compare differences in the economic performance of individual migrant business firms on the basis of a quantitative assessment of the drivers of their efficiency profiles. In this context, we will address in particular the drivers and barriers for the heterogeneous business strategies of specific classes of migrant entrepreneurs. After the use of a multivariate statistical analysis, a modern operational approach–originating from organizational theory–that aims to make a comparative study of quantitative efficiency differences between individual decision-making units (DMUs), viz. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is employed. DEA is used here to assess relative performance differences between distinct categories of migrant entrepreneurs in the city of Amsterdam. A wealth of relevant data has been collected by systematic, personally-supervised interviews and questionnaires, and these contain a variety of efficiency-oriented indicators, on both the input and the output side. Several additional analyses ─ using multivariate cross-analysis methods ─ are also carried out to test the robustness of our findings by, inter alia, investigating the influence of specific socio-cultural ethnic groups, levels of education, first-and second-generation migrants, and age. Finally, the paper offers some lessons on entrepreneurship strategies. Jel codes R10, O15, L26.
Highlights
Recent years have shown a growing interest in innovative and entrepreneurial behaviour as an engine for economic growth
This means that business firms in an urban economic system may essentially be conceived of as decision-making units (DMUs) of a multi-product nature, whose task it is to maximize their efficiency in a competitive urban environment
Our study primarily addresses the entrepreneurial behaviour of migrants in the city of Amsterdam – with a focus on their personal characteristics, socio-cultural bonds and managerial skills – from a multicultural urban perspective, in order to perform a quantitative assessment of the critical success factors (CSFs) for migrant entrepreneurs in a cultural network context with the aim of improving business performance in a competitive urban environment
Summary
1.1 Introduction Recent years have shown a growing interest in innovative and entrepreneurial behaviour as an engine for economic growth. Despite the fact that foreign migrants do not, in general, have a demonstrable negative impact on the socio-economic conditions of native people, there is still much concern worldwide on the possible negative consequences of the international migration wave Against this background, the phenomenon of migrant entrepreneurship has gained much popularity, as this type of self-employment has given a strong impetus to urban revitalization, while avoiding the negative impacts on the labour market that are often perceived (see, e.g., Bates 1997; Baycan-Levent et al 2009; Cummings 1980, or Razin and Light 1988). The focus of the present study is, in particular, on differences in business achievement indicators among various groups of ethnic (migrant) enterprises in an urban system This focus is warranted, as migrant entrepreneurs – mainly SMEs – are predominantly found in large cities. The main proposition put forward in the present study is that migrant entrepreneurship is a very diversified phenomenon with distinct differences in business performance, depending on ethnic background, education, social networks, and the like.
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