Do young firms owned by recent immigrants outperform other young firms?

This study compares the performance of new businesses owned by recent immigrants with that of other new firms. It addresses an on-going unresolved discussion in the academic and professional literatures by drawing on a large sample of Canadian business owners whose firms began trading between 2000 and 2004 and using taxation data to track 2004 to 2008 performance. The results provide empirical evidence that young immigrant-owned exporter firms outperformed young domestically-founded firms whether or not they exported; however, immigrant-owned young enterprises that did not export underperformed other young firms. Owner-level factors such as gender, growth intentions and experience also influenced growth performance among young SMEs. The results provide evidence that suggests that immigrants have resources such as access to international networks that provide competitive advantage over non-immigrant owners that export or aspire to export. Not all immigrant business owners, however, are able to lever such advantages. The implications of the findings for research and policy are discussed.