Ethnic Businesses in Vienna

Past studies on “Ethnic economies in Vienna” always faced theproblem, that no up-to-date data was available on this population. Data from population censuses were normally several years old and were also notsufficiently precisely classified regarding nationality. Data from appropriate special micro-censuses were in part more detailed and up-to-date, were nevertheless however flawed by considerable random sampling errors, since entrepreneurs with a migration background are only rarely numerically represented in the sample. The research project “Ethnic economies –
Existence and chances for Vienna” is a genuine novelty. For the first time ever, the Chamber of Commerce of Vienna provided data on the Viennese entrepreneurs. Since this data record contains the complete population of the individual entrepreneurs, a multiplicity of detailed analyses was possible for this study, for which the data basis had been missing up to now. Methodically a complex multi-method approach was used to realise the study. Apart from structural analyses of the data provided by the Chamber of Commerce, representative data were collected for all ethnic economics of Vienna. These quantitative findings were supplemented by qualitative case studies and linked in the context of a classification. The search for best practice models on international level completed the results.

In collaboration with Irene Kessler.