Title: Nascent migrant entrepreneurship in Germany – is there a cultural imprinting effect?

Authors: Sascha Kraus; Arndt Werner

Addresses: University of Liechtenstein, Fürst-Franz-Josef-Strasse, FL-9490 Vaduz, Liechtenstein. ' Institute for SME Research Bonn (IfM Bonn), Maximilianstrasse 20, D-50825 Bonn, Germany

Abstract: Based on an empirical investigation of 1,806 potential entrepreneurs, this article provides indications that with growing integration, people with a migrant background are increasingly less distinguishable from their German counterparts with regards to the willingness to found a new company. A 'cultural imprinting' effect in the sense of temporally stabile founding tendencies between different cultures cannot be identified. Interestingly, our analysis also shows that a higher tendency of non-integrated migrants to start a business is mostly attributable to their background in an industrialised nation, and not from the former 'Anwerberstaaten' or developing/emerging countries.

Keywords: start-up determinants; business start-ups; start-up process; migrants; entrepreneurship; Germany; new companies; immigrants; cultural differences; culture.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESB.2012.045683

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2012 Vol.15 No.3, pp.320 - 339

Published online: 14 Aug 2014 *

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