Diversity in entrepreneurship: ethnic and female roles in urban economic life
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to investigate the phenomenon of ethnic female entrepreneurship in urban economic life. The focus of the research is on the attitudes and behaviour of Turkish female entrepreneurs in Amsterdam. The main question we pose is: Are ethnic female entrepreneurs special ethnic entrepreneurs or special female entrepreneurs? This paper provides an answer to this question on the basis of field surveys. The results of the case study research on Turkish female entrepreneurs in Amsterdam show that the “ethnic female profile” is a “special female profile” and that Turkish female entrepreneurs are “special female entrepreneurs”, particularly in terms of their personal and business characteristics, and their driving forces and motivations. They appear to combine their ethnic opportunities with their personal characteristics (and other opportunities) in the urban market, and to perform successfully. This is also due to the fact that they have become service providers for not only their own ethnic groups, but also for other groups in the city.
Keywords
Citation
Baycan Levent, T., Masurel, E. and Nijkamp, P. (2003), "Diversity in entrepreneurship: ethnic and female roles in urban economic life", International Journal of Social Economics, Vol. 30 No. 11, pp. 1131-1161. https://doi.org/10.1108/03068290310497495
Publisher
:MCB UP Ltd
Copyright © 2003, MCB UP Limited