Title: A study of immigrant entrepreneurship in Upper Bavaria

Authors: Nikolinka Fertala

Addresses: University of Tuebingen, Mohlstrasse 36, D-72074 Tuebingen, Germany

Abstract: The objective of the present paper is to answer the question: To what extent does investment in human and social capital enhance the immigrants| entrepreneurial performance in Upper Bavaria? The analysis is based on representative data set from the Chamber of Industrial and Commercial Matters in Munich, Germany. It consists of 114,550 companies that were either founded or liquidated in Upper Bavaria. The data on enterprise establishments are available for the period 1990–1994, and on liquidations for 1990–1997. We develop a parametric hazard rate model to predict the survival chances of newly founded businesses between natives of, and immigrants to, Germany. The main finding suggests that the endowed level of human capital of a business founder is not the unique determinant of performance. Rather, investment in industry-specific and entrepreneurship-specific human and social capital contributes significantly to the explanation of the cross-sectional variance of the performance of entrepreneurs.

Keywords: immigrant entrepreneurship; human capital; social capital; survival rate; Germany; entrepreneurial performance; immigrants.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESB.2007.011844

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2007 Vol.4 No.2, pp.179 - 206

Published online: 26 Dec 2006 *

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