Abstract:
Empirical evidence suggests that immigrants appear to be more entrepreneurially
active than native people. While the formation of new
firms by immigrants has been widely studied, the literature about the
performance of these new ventures created by immigrants after their
inception remains scarce and anecdotal. This study sheds light on firminternal
and firm-external factors that affect the life expectancy of new
firms created by immigrants within a local economy during a period
of recession, when the creation of firms is particularly important.
The results show that immigrant entrepreneurs are more likely to quit
their businesses earlier than their native counterparts. We argue that
this may be partially explained by the liability of foreignness faced by
immigrants.
