Ethnic Businesses in Vienna

Past studies on “Ethnic economies in Vienna” always faced the
problem, that no up-to-date data was available on this population. Data from
population censuses were normally several years old and were also not
sufficiently 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.