Immigrant entrepreneurship in the Milan metropolitan area: results from an empirical analysis

Immigrant entrepreneurship is increasingly regarded as a potential source of sustainable development. But even while this potential is gaining popularity, the available data are still not sufficient to establishing ad-hoc policies that would support the development of this form of entrepreneurship. This drawback of the current data is mainly due to its descriptive nature and macro character, which do not allow policymakers to address key factors in the start-up of new ventures, such as motivations for becoming an entrepreneur, barriers and enabling factors, and social and economic impacts at both the urban and regional level. The objective of this paper is to advance this area of research by investigating these issues in the context of 118 entrepreneurs currently working in the metropolitan area of Milan. Our results contradict some of the key assumptions generally accepted in literature.