Entrepreneurial activity of immigrants in Spain

• Autores: Nahikari Irastorza Arandia
• Directores de la Tesis: Iñaki Peña Legazkue (dir. tes.)
• Lectura: En la Universidad de Deusto ( España ) en 2009
• Idioma: inglés
• Tribunal Calificador de la Tesis: Rosa María Batista Canino (presid.), Aurkene Alzua Sorzabal (secret.), Ricardo María Hernández Mogollón (voc.), Jonathan Levie (voc.), Martín Larraza Kintana (voc.)
• Materias:
  • Demografía
    • Demografía histórica
      • Migraciones
  • Ciencias económicas
    • Organización y dirección de empresas
• Enlaces
  • Tesis en acceso abierto en: hdl.handle.net
• Resumen

  • This dissertation analyzes the entrepreneurial activity of immigrants in Spain and the Basque Country. Based on data collected by the General Entrepreneurship Monitor and the Basque Statistics Institute, I draw on human capital, social cognition and spatial economic theories, and the immigrant entrepreneurship literature to analyze the different stages of the entrepreneurial process, starting from the intention to create a firm until start-up (pre-start-up stage) and through to the assessment of the performance of the business (post-start-up stage). More specifically, I focus on the entrepreneurial propensity of immigrants of various origins as well as the success level achieved by their initiatives. In order to assess the immigrants' success as entrepreneurs, I compare the survival rates of foreign- and native-owned firms and the earnings of salaried and self-employed immigrants. I found that immigrants are more likely to start a business than natives, but less likely to succeed in terms of venture survival. Moreover, self-employed immigrants earn a higher income than salaried ones.

    Based on the findings of my empirical work, this dissertation makes a modest contribution to the debate surrounding the economic and social benefits immigrants could derive from self-employment. In addition, I discuss the appropriateness of labelling the entrepreneurial activity of immigrants and ethnic minorities as ethnic and immigrant entrepreneurship. I identify some barriers faced by immigrants both during the start-up process and the subsequent running of the business, and I suggest policy initiatives to help immigrants overcome these difficulties. In the last section of the dissertation, the methodological and data-related limitations of the study are presented and future research avenues are suggested.