<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p> Migrants are often the carriers of new skills and original abilities. This study focuses on the importance of ‘new urban entrepreneurship’ - in particular, ethnic or migrant business firms - as a major driver of creative and urban dynamics and economic vitality in urban agglomerations. The paper offers a general account of both backgrounds and socio-economic implications of migrant entrepreneurship in large agglomerations and highlights the socio-economic heterogeneity in motivation and performance among different groups of migrant entrepreneurs. This demographic- cultural diversity prompts intriguing questions about differences in business performance among distinct groups of migrant entrepreneurs, even in the same ethnic group. In the paper, a recently developed and amended version of data envelopment analysis (DEA), viz. super-efficiency, is presented and applied to a group of Moroccan entrepreneurs in four large cities in the Netherlands. The main research aim is (i) to identify the best-performing firms (so-called ‘entrepreneurial heroes’) from a broad management and business perspective, while (ii) the background of our findings are more thoroughly analysed. The paper ends with some general concluding remarks on urban business strategies.</p></abstract>

Migrants are often the carriers of new skills and original abilities. This study focuses on the importance of ‘new urban entrepreneurship’ - in particular, ethnic or migrant business firms - as a major driver of creative and urban dynamics and economic vitality in urban agglomerations. The paper offers a general account of both backgrounds and socio-economic implications of migrant entrepreneurship in large agglomerations and highlights the socio-economic heterogeneity in motivation and performance among different groups of migrant entrepreneurs. This demographic- cultural diversity prompts intriguing questions about differences in business performance among distinct groups of migrant entrepreneurs, even in the same ethnic group. In the paper, a recently developed and amended version of data envelopment analysis (DEA), viz. super-efficiency, is presented and applied to a group of Moroccan entrepreneurs in four large cities in the Netherlands. The main research aim is (i) to identify the best-performing firms (so-called ‘entrepreneurial heroes’) from a broad management and business perspective, while (ii) the background of our findings are more thoroughly analysed. The paper ends with some general concluding remarks on urban business strategies.

New Urban Economic Agents: A Comparative Analysis of High-Performance New Entrepreneurs

KTH Royal Institute of Technology School of Architecture and the Built Environment (ABE), Division of Urban and Regional Studies, Drottning Kristinas väg, 30 10044 Stockholm, Sweden

Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland

Quaestiones Geographicae

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Migrants are often the carriers of new skills and original abilities. This study focuses on the importance of ‘new urban entrepreneurship’ - in particular,...

New Urban Economic Agents: A Comparative Analysis of High-Performance New Entrepreneurs

Published Online: Dec 22, 2016

Page range: 5 - 22

Received: Jun 12, 2015

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/quageo-2016-0031

Keywords
economic vitality, urban development, entrepreneurship, migrant entrepreneurs, diversity, global diaspora economy, economic spillovers

© Faculty of Geographical and Geological Sciences, Adam Mickiewicz University

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

New Urban Economic Agents: A Comparative Analysis of High-Performance New Entrepreneurs

Published Online: Dec 22, 2016

Page range: 5 - 22

Received: Jun 12, 2015

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/quageo-2016-0031

Keywordseconomic vitality, urban development, entrepreneurship, migrant entrepreneurs, diversity, global diaspora economy, economic spillovers

© Faculty of Geographical and Geological Sciences, Adam Mickiewicz University

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Keywords
economic vitality, urban development, entrepreneurship, migrant entrepreneurs, diversity, global diaspora economy, economic spillovers