Are immigrant entrepreneurs successful

An analysis of the business survival of businesses with public incubation in Andalusia. Are immigrant entrepreneurs successful? An analysis of the business survival of businesses with public incubation in Andalusia Share on Twitter Share on Facebook Share on LinkedIn Compartment in Google Plus By Víctor Manuel Bellido Jiménez, Domingo Martín Martín and Isidoro Romero Luna. Dept. Applied Economics I. University of Seville. The creation of a business provides a livelihood and can improve the socioeconomic situation of immigrants, especially in the case of those who show a disadvantageous insertion in the labor market. In this regard, the survival of companies created by immigrants can be considered an elementary indicator of the success of their business initiatives.

In a recent work published in the journal

Journal of Regional Research – (Bellido-Jiménez, Martín-Martín and Romero we analyze the survival of the companies incubated by the Andalucía Emprende Foundation (AE). AE has been the fundamental instrument of the Junta de Andalucía for the promotion of entrepreneurship and the development of SMEs in the last two decades. AE’s action is part of the effort deployed by the regional government to promote business spirit and entrepreneurial activity in Andalusia (Romero and Fernández-Serrano, 2014). Our analysis is built from a study of the annual survival of 1,974 businesses incubated by the public support services of this foundation in the period  including initiatives promoted by self-employed (individual entrepreneurs) of Spanish nationality and foreigners.

From the methodological perspective

The analysis uses econometric models on duration data. The average business in our database was located in a medium-sized inland city, had one employee at the time of its creation and had an initial investment of about 28,500 euros, operating in the service sector. The most common profile of its promoter was that of a male of Spanish nationality, over 40 years old and with high school or vocational training. However, the most frequent profile differs when national and foreign self-employed are analyzed separately. Thus, the companies created with the support of AE by foreign self-employed workers were predominantly located in regional urban centers and medium-sized coastal cities, which represent poles of attraction for the immigrant population in Andalusia. The average business promoted by self-employed immigrants had a lower initial investment, which amounted to only a little more than a third of that observed in the case of national promoters.