Title: Business success among visible and non-visible ethnic entrepreneurs: a look at the effects of unemployment, co-ethnic involvement and human capital

Authors: Dafna Kariv, Teresa V. Menzies, Gabrielle A. Brenner

Addresses: The College of Management, The School of Business Administration, Rishon Lezion, 9 Yitzhak Rabin Boulevard, Rishon Lezion 75190, Israel. ' Faculty of Business, Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, L2S 3A1, Canada. ' HEC Montreal, The Montreal Business School, 3000 Chemin de la Cote Sainte-Catherine, Montreal, Quebec, H3T 2A7, Canada

Abstract: This study examines the relationship between the success of businesses owned by ethnic minority immigrants in Canada and measures of their prior employment status in their homelands, their co-ethnic involvement in Canada and their educational level. Our findings show that while they were mainly unemployed prior to immigration, no significant differences in educational levels were found between groups of visible and non-visible, ethnic minority immigrants. Opposite interaction effects emerged, however, on the success of businesses owned by the visible and the non-visible ethnic groups: being more co-ethnically involved and possessing higher levels of education positively affected the success of businesses owned by non-visible ethnic groups but negatively affected the success of the visible ethnic groups. Building on concepts from Waldinger et al.|s interactive model and |refugee|/|entrepreneurial| effects (Thurik et al., 2008), we propose an alternative view of the differences by which non-visible minority ethnic groups represent the |entrepreneurial| effect.

Keywords: ethnic minorities; entrepreneurs; visible minorities; immigrants; immigration; success; unemployment; co-ethnic involvement; human capital; Canada; employment status; homelands; educational levels; education; interaction effects; non-visible minorities; entrepreneurial effect; refugees; global business; economics; ethnicity; cultural diversity; entrepreneurship.

DOI: 10.1504/GBER.2010.032321

Global Business and Economics Review, 2010 Vol.12 No.1/2, pp.115 - 150

Published online: 31 Mar 2010 *

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