J Int Entrep (2010) 8:218–232

DOI 10.1007/s10843-010-0059-5

Entrepreneurs in the new economy: Immigration and sex

effects in the Montreal metropolitan area

Sylvie Paré & Kelogue Therasme

Published online: 6 May 2010

# Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010

Abstract The recent literature on women’s entrepreneurship shows that they are
underrepresented in the main stream economy when compared to their male
counterparts, a phenomenon typically observed in other urban contexts. Approxi-
mately 30% of the entrepreneurs in the Montreal metropolitan area are women,
active in a variety of sectors of the general economy. Their underrepresentation is
still greater in the new economy, that is, those sectors that are knowledge-based and/
or specialized in information technologies and communications. In this article, we
examine the place of female entrepreneurs in the larger economy and in the new
economy as related to their immigrant and/or ethnic origins. We seek in this paper to
establish a comparative analysis of the situation of women entrepreneurs in immigrant-
origin groups, focusing our attention on both the presence of women in entrepreneurial
positions and the differential impact associated with membership in an immigrant-origin
group. Based on data derived from Scott's Directory of 2007, we first determined an
operational definition of the new economy and then analyzed the data from the
perspective of sex and ethnic/immigrant origin. New economy enterprises represent
approximately 12% of businesses in the Montreal metropolitan area, the majority of
which are of the knowledge-based variety, and there is a relative, statistically
significant absence of women from such enterprises. At the same time, there is a
significantly greater presence of women drawn from minority groups, that is, from
groups other than the Anglo-Canadian and French-Canadian dominant groups.

Keywords New economy . Entrepreneurs . Sex . Montreal metropolitan area .

Female entrepreneurs

Kelogue Therasme, collaborator.

*This research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the
Programme d'aide financière à la recherche et à la création program for new researchers at Université du
Québec à Montréal. Their support is gratefully acknowledged.
S. Paré (*) : K. Therasme
Département d’études urbaines et touristiques, École des sciences de la gestion,
Université du Québec à Montréal, Montréal, Canada
e-mail: pare.sylvie@uqam.ca
Entrepreneurs in the new economy: Montreal metropolitan area 219

Introduction

The subject of immigrant entrepreneurs has taken on greater importance over the past
few years and has already documented the important progress of women entrepreneurs
in the economy of the so-called developed countries. We have previously demonstrated
that over the past decade, women entrepreneurs in Montreal, particularly those from
minority groups,1 did not present the same characteristics as their male counterparts
(Paré 2002, 2006). Similar findings were obtained for five ethnic groups in Toronto
and Vancouver. This research serves as a point of comparison for the Montreal groups
since all three cities have received significant new immigrant populations (Paré et al.
2008). However, given that there are a great deal of new business opportunities in an
economy going through major transformations such as that of Montreal, we think it is
valuable to explore the place of immigrant businesswomen in the new economy.
This paper proposes to enrich our knowledge of this subject by addressing the
following question: to what extent do today's female immigrant entrepreneurs
participate in the new economy? This question is not simply one of academic interest
to researchers interested in the globalization of economic exchanges and the
redefinition of Montreal's economy in terms of new technologies and the knowledge-
based economy (Polèse and Shearmur 2005). More importantly, our research
question addresses potentially interesting public policy questions with respect to the
need and/or adequacy of measures designed to support the participation and
integration of immigrant women in the new economy.
This study of the participation of immigrant women in the new economy is
restricted for the purposes of analysis to the Montreal metropolitan area for two
principal reasons. First of all, most of Quebec's immigrants settle in the Montreal
area, which has become the center of a wide variety of ethnocultural groups, some of
which have a longer history than others, e.g., the Italian and Jewish communities as
opposed to Latin-American and Arab groups. Secondly, the economic structure of
the Montreal area has undergone profound mutations over the past decades, which
have led, among other things, to the emergence of new applications of information
technology (IT) and new areas of economic specialization (Coffey and Polèse 1999).
In the first section of our review of the literature, we shall discuss the different
theoretical approaches to the definition of the principal terms of our research: sex,
entrepreneurship, immigration, and the new economy. In the second section, we define
our understanding of the new economy. Subsequently, we shall present our
methodology, the results of our research, and a discussion of the results. Our conclusion
will present suggestions for the development of future research initiatives.

Immigrant women entrepreneurs in the new economy

Current research in a variety of disciplines frequently addresses the social

backgrounds and composition of business entrepreneurs. Few studies, however,

1
The concept of minority groups has been widely debated in academic circles in Quebec and Canada. In
general, groups are defined as minorities when their ethnicity refers to groups other than those of British or
French ancestry.
220 S. Paré, K. Therasme

examine the entrepreneurship of immigrants from the perspective of the joint impact
of sex and immigrant status. Our working hypothesis is that the economic
reconfiguration of the metropolitan area observed over the past few decades are
accompanied by changes in the social origins of entrepreneurs in terms of both sex
and ethnic origins. Looked at in this manner, our research interests implicitly require
us to examine both differentiation and inequality among entrepreneurs, structured as
it may be by both sex and immigrant characteristics. This approach is similar to
studies that examine differences in achievement as a function of both background
and acquired human capital characteristics for salaried workers (Armstrong 1996;
McCall 2001; McIsaac 2003; Picot et al. 2007) as well as for entrepreneurs (Butler
and Kozmetsky 2004). On the one hand, we examine the hypothesis that women
face particular problems, developing certain types of business enterprises; on the
other, we examine the empirical pertinence of two larger theories that dominate the
literature on ethnic entrepreneurs and the adaptation of immigrants to the host
society, i.e., the theory of assimilation and that of ethnic resilience (Portes and Bach
1985) together with its two principal variants, which are the theory of the ethnic
enclave and that of transnationalism (Portes et al. 2002).
The approach based on the differentiation between men and women focuses on
the fact that the two groups do not create the same type of enterprises. Some
researchers propose that this may in fact explain differences in the relative success
rate of the two groups (Carr 1996), especially when we consider the volume of sales
(Loscocco et al. (1991). However, in the current context of the development of the
new economy based on IT and knowledge, we may well be surprised by the
persistence of such differences between male and female entrepreneurs. Loscocco and
Robinson (1991) found that high-tech industries, construction, and manufacturing have
been sectors traditionally dominated by men and in which the number of employees
was significantly higher than in other sectors. In her work, Anna et al. (2000:281)
observed that “women-owned businesses are concentrated in traditional female-typed
fields with lower average business receipts than male-typed fields.” However, more
recent work has shown that female entrepreneurs are more heavily concentrated in
retail services, finance, insurance, real estate, and similar services, which are among
the sectors showing the most rapid growth (Butler and Kozmetsky 2004). It would,
therefore, appear that current tendencies seem to favor the growth of economic sectors
where women are concentrated, perhaps leading to a situation where the differentiation
in output between male-dominated and female-dominated industries will diminish over
time. This being said, the work of Anna et al. (2000) is extremely revealing.
Comparing the individual differences between women entrepreneurs working in
traditional and nontraditional sectors of the economy, she found that women working
in sectors predominantly male had greater difficulty because creation and development
of such businesses required a much higher degree of planning and they experienced
greater difficulty obtaining financing and credit.

When the geographic location and the age of the company are controlled for,
women owners in nontraditional industries had higher efficacy for planning
than those in traditional industries. It is likely that nontraditional industries
have higher entry barriers, and thus, more planning is required to start a
nontraditional business (Anna P et al. 2000:19).
Entrepreneurs in the new economy: Montreal metropolitan area 221

It would appear, then, that the question of the place of women entrepreneurs in
the new economy, their conditions of access to the entrepreneurial status and their
relative success remains to be clarified. This question assumes still greater pertinence
in the case of immigrant women or those who belong more generally to minority
groups.
When we examine the second aspect of our research, based on either immigrant
status and/or ethnic origin, the creation of business enterprises may be related to the
degree of the immigrant group in the larger, local economy. The type of business
created by immigrants may be more or less similar to those being created by the
local economy in general. While there is a vast literature on the topic of the
integration of immigrant and/or minority groups, the use of immigrant entrepre-
neurship as an indicator of economic integration has not been treated.
In general, research on the economic and social integration of immigrants into the
host society has been marked by two grand perspectives. On the one hand, the
theory of assimilation postulates that cultural values and immigrant origins are
factors that influence the development of the immigrant entrepreneur (Portes and
Bach 1985; Razin 1993). In the context of geographic isolation and ethnic
segregation, the budding entrepreneur develops business opportunities to serve the
ethnic enclave(s) (Portes and Bach 1985), i.e., the community of both relatively
common values and needs. For a number of researchers, the lack of structural and
cultural assimilation of immigrant entrepreneurs distinguishes the type of enterprises
they create from those created by native-born entrepreneurs (Portes et al. 2002;
Waldinger et al. 1990). In this case, the immigrant entrepreneur attempts to satisfy
the needs of his ethnic group, whereas native-born entrepreneurs attempt to satisfy
the needs of the larger society. The immigrant entrepreneur focuses on activities
where he or she can profit from comparative advantages conferred by belonging to a
specific ethnic group. At the same time, the immigrant entrepreneur may appropriate
the values and norms of the larger host society, leading to the desire to extend his
activities outside of the ethnic group, adopting a business approach similar to those
of native-born entrepreneurs. Nonetheless, although contrary to common sense,
education level, more formal business training, or the knowledge of the dominant
language did not appear to be related to the success of immigrant entrepreneurs in
penetrating the mainstream economy (Portes and Bach 1985).
On the other hand, the theory of ethnoresilience emphasizes two separate aspects
of ethnic entrepreneurship. The first sees in the local ethnic community market
opportunities that are much more accessible than the larger market open to any and
all entrepreneurs. The second emphasizes business opportunities linked to their
country of origin. Portes et al. (2002:293) refer to transnational entrepreneurs, i.e.,
those who “buy and sell abroad, travel internationally on business, invest in
enterprises, and even hire personnel in their home countries.” They continue, “The
payoff for these activities is substantial: Transnational entrepreneurs had an average
monthly income of $3,855 in 1998, a figure significantly higher than that for
workers ($1,299) and even for domestic entrepreneurs ($3,031)” (Ibid.). More recent
studies by Portes and Rumbaut (2006) reveal that the development of ethnic enclave
businesses or those based on exchanges with the country of origin do not appear to
be voluntary but are part of a logical reaction to barriers and/or discrimination that
immigrants face in the development of their business plan.
222 S. Paré, K. Therasme

This may also apply more specifically to the development of new economy
enterprises. Based upon a qualitative approach and in-depth interviews, Leung
(2001) examines how the socioeconomic context of the host country interacts with
that of the country of origin with respect to the location, operational practices,
marketing strategies, and the choice of the type of enterprise to be created. In the
case of Chinese immigrant entrepreneurs, her research clearly demonstrates the
importance of transnational ethnic networks in the development and orientation of
ethnic entrepreneurs.
Given the qualitative nature of Leung's research, it is not at all clear that her
conclusions should apply to all types of new economy enterprises. In order to extend
her hypothesis to a variety of new economic enterprises, we shall now present our
understanding of how to operationalize the concept of the new economy given the
data at our disposal.

Defining the new economy

The research literature provides three separate conceptual approaches to the

definition of the new economy. The first approach makes reference to the structural
changes and technical revolutions that have occurred since the 1970s. These changes
have significantly and permanently modified the economic structure of business
enterprises in a wide variety of sectors of business activity. In particular, natural
resources and physical capital have become significantly less important in the
structure of the productive effort itself as information technologies have increasingly
penetrated all types of business activities (Elsner 2004). In the case of the province
of Quebec (Canada), Julien and Morin (1996) have studied the entry of new
production technologies in a number of industrial sectors in large corporations, as
well as in small- and medium-sized companies (SME). According to Julien and
Morin, by 1989, 90% of manufacturing SME of Quebec had computerized some part
of their operations. He adds, however, that the adoption of information technology
with respect to both the extent and type of utilization varies from one business
enterprise to another.
A second approach to the defining of the new economy links new information
technologies to specific sectors of economic activity (Fontan et al. 2005; Polèse and
Shearmur 2002). For example, Polèse and Shearmur (2002) define the situation in
the following terms:
…as the change from an economy where most people work to produce
relatively standardized goods and services to one where the goods and services
produced are more complex (Polèse and Shearmur 2002:39).
For those who subscribe to this approach, the complexity of the new products and
services is generally limited to some branches characterized by higher degrees of
technical knowledge and/or information technology. For this reason, much research
on the new economy is limited to sectors of activity founded in the knowledge
economy and the production of information technologies, in particular in
manufacturing, scientific endeavors, and some professional services. Thus, the
economy of metropolitan areas is largely characterized by the production,
Entrepreneurs in the new economy: Montreal metropolitan area 223

distribution, and use of knowledge as related to information technologies. In fact,

some authors use the expressions “new economy” and “knowledge-based economy”
interchangeably (Van Reenen 2001). Nonetheless, despite its popular use in the
research literature, this approach eliminates business enterprises directly derived
from the information revolution and ignores the important progress made in more
traditional enterprises by the integration of information technologies in a wide
variety of branches of business activity.
A third approach to a definition of the new economy places the emphasis on the
implantation of newer management practices. In other words, new technologies are
not only introduced into the production process but also in a variety of aspects in the
business operations. For example, Julien (1997) shows that computers fulfill a
variety of business functions within the enterprise. During the 1990s, businesses
differed significantly in their work environment from the way they were both
organized and accomplished their activities in earlier periods. Consequently, the
changes introduced by the employment of information technologies required the adoption
of new management models and strategies (Walters 2004; Walters et al. 2002). While the
use of IT rendered more rapid and less costly production and distribution processes, they
also changed the nature of competition between businesses (Madrick 1999). As a result,
in whatever sector of business activity, we find those enterprises that still use older
technologies, manufacturing methods, and quality control and those that have
introduced production and control methods based on information technologies. The
latter frequently are also characterized by quality control programs, research and
development units, interactive web sites where the manufacturer can directly exchange
information with subcontractors and clients, etc.
Kathuria and Maheshkumar (2006) have documented the importance of the
Internet and its impact on management practices. According to analysis of Amabille
and Gadille (2006), the Internet is the incubator of the new economy, based on its
networking capabilities. Internet technology creates comparative advantages for
businesses, most notably in terms of the differentiation of products and services, the
widening of market opportunities, and productivity gains. However, in order to be able
to maximize gains produced by Internet technologies, enterprises must transform their
organizational structure and develop the capacity to use appropriate technological tools,
both hardware and software, and use them in an extensive manner. In this sense, Internet
technologies play an important role in the revitalization of older business enterprises.
Given the multiple approaches possible to the definition of the new economy and
considering our research objectives, we have chosen to operationalize this concept
rather broadly as “the range of economic activity related to new information
technologies and communications, activities which integrate the latest technological
developments and those activities which depend upon the use of high degrees of
knowledge” (Paré 2006). This definition refers therefore to the innovative capacity
of enterprises to create, use, or transform knowledge-based information technologies
in a variety of areas of economic activity: production technology, organization and
management, marketing, etc. (Julien 2005; Viginier 2002).
Having broadly defined the types of enterprise we consider to belong to the new
economy, we shall adopt the new typology of business enterprises proposed by
Kirby and Cox (2006). They are classified as “creative enterprises,” “revitalized
enterprises,” or “derived enterprises” (Fig. 1).
224 S. Paré, K. Therasme

Typology of Enterprises in the new economy

Creative -
innovativee Source of new ideas, new products
nterprises or new services.

New
economy
knowledge

From the distribution,

Traditional enterprises Revitalised Derived commercialization or
adapt and integrate enterprises enterprises use of derived products
new technologies from creative enterprises

Fig. 1 Typology of enterprises in the new economy

Creative enterprises are those which generate new ideas, products, or services. They
participate in the production of knowledge, the conception of information technologies,
and new models or forms of management. According to Kirby and Cox, this category
can be further subdivided: on the one hand, there are those enterprises that are active in
the area of the manufacturing of information technologies or in the conception of
services linked to such technologies; on the other, those that are specialized in the
production of knowledge or in rendering specialized services based upon such
knowledge. Revitalized enterprises are those more traditional enterprises that have
kept up with the evolution of the knowledge-based economy by implanting
information technologies and adopting newer, more appropriate management models
and strategies. Derived enterprises are those created by the need for the distribution,
marketing, or use of products and services developed by the creative enterprises.
Unfortunately, most work on differences between male and female entrepreneurs
in the new economy do not take into account the type of enterprise being created,
that is, creative or derived. However, as we have seen, the new economy cannot
simply be reduced to a few sectors of business activity; it is more particularly a
culture of business methods and procedures grounded more and more intensively in
information technologies in a context of the globalization of economic activities.

Female entrepreneurs and information technology

A variety of previous research, e.g., that of Cadieux et al. (2002), suggests that the
number of female entrepreneurs has been increasing and may represent more than
30% of the total number of entrepreneurs.2 The Canadian Development Bank found
that “women control an increasing number of small businesses in non traditional
sectors, including biotechnology, robotics and manufacturing”.3 However, according
2
This paper was presented at McGill University in 2004.
3
Canadian Development Bank. Communiqué, Montreal, 26 April 2006, our translation from the French
language.
Entrepreneurs in the new economy: Montreal metropolitan area 225

to Paré (2004), the situation may not be quite the same in Montreal where the
participation of female entrepreneurs is particularly low, a feature which is explained
in part by the intersection of various markers of personal identity. Aside from the
fact that women entrepreneurs are generally absent in larger enterprises, the
intersection of certain personal characteristics is related to the numbers of
entrepreneurial women. For example, significant differences emerge when consid-
ering members of majority (English and French Canadians in Montreal) or minority
groups; the same holds true when examining differences between immigrants and
the native born. Levent et al. (2003) observe that the difficulties experienced by
entrepreneurs belonging to minority groups may be related to lower educational
levels, their lack of pertinent skills, and their exclusion from the informal business
networks of the majority groups.
In addition, Verheul and Thurik (2001) were able to demonstrate that even when
men and women have similar educational attainments, differences in the field of
study remain since more men had specialized in more technical fields. Women were
more likely to complete their education in health, commerce, administration, or
economics, suggesting that they are less likely to have developed high-technology
enterprises and are less aware of and/or drawn to the implantation of information
technologies (Fuller-Love et al. 2006).
Among the research being carried out on the new economy, few are focused on
the presence of women in creative, derivative, or revitalized enterprises, still fewer
when the women are of minority or immigrant origin and even fewer when the
women belong to “racialized” minorities. It is with respect to this challenge that our
research examines the place of female entrepreneurs in the new economy in terms of
their place of birth, the type of enterprise they direct, and the penetration of Internet
technologies in their organizations.

Methodology

Data are derived from Scott's repertoire of Canadian businesses, a database similar to
the Harris index in the USA. It references the presence of women managers and the
position they occupy in each enterprise. In addition, the Scott’s furnishes data for the
type of business (North American Industrial Classification System), the products and
services that it offers, the presence of research and development personnel, the
presence of an Internet site, the utilization of email technologies as a means of
communication, the place of business, the size of the plant, the number of
employees, its year of incorporation, and its volume of sales.
It is worth noting that the Scott's suffers some incompleteness, due to the fact that
newly created enterprises may not be registered until the succeeding year and that
entrepreneurs belonging to some minority groups may simply not know that they
should be registered in this database. Nonetheless, the Scott's remains an important
tool for examining the characteristics of both entrepreneurs and enterprises. Previous
research based on Scott's 20034 (Paré 2006) found a wide geographic distribution of

4
For a more complete discussion of the limitations of Scott's data, see Paré (2006). Since data are updated
by self-reporting, the list of business enterprises is not exhaustive.
226 S. Paré, K. Therasme

creative enterprises in the knowledge economy or that of information technologies;

at the same time, most of these enterprises tended to locate in the central city area of
the Montreal metropolitan area.
From the Scott's Registry of 2007, we identified a total of 22,872 enterprises
located in the Montreal area. Based on their North American Industrial Classification
System codes, we then identified a subset of 2,789 enterprises (12%) that may be
characterized as belonging to 71 different sectors of information technology or by
knowledge-based activities. We then divided the information technology sector into
two components, the first based on manufacturing activities and the second on
services (Table 1).
Scott's Registry provides a good deal of information regarding the ownership and/
or direction of each enterprise, including the family name, sex of the owners, the
presence of co-owners, and other management personnel. It would appear that the
“ranking person” best represents the locus of decision-making power in a given
enterprise and thus the most appropriate indicator for purposes of analysis.
Moreover, when the owner of the enterprise is listed in Scott's, that person is
always listed as the “ranking person.” Finally, there is much less missing information
for this variable. For these reasons, the “ranking person” is the variable we have
retained for analysis. Table 2 confirms the notion that this person is rightly
considered as the one exercising authority within the organization since slightly
more than 85% hold a presidential, owner, or managing partner ranking, i.e., a
position that may be considered entrepreneurial.
Aside from the indicator of ranking person in the enterprise, we briefly examined
the presence of women in management positions. While only 16.7% of the ranking
persons in Montreal metropolitan area businesses were women, 34.2% of business
enterprises reported the presence of at least one woman holding a management
position.
The identification of immigrant entrepreneurs is somewhat more complex since
the only clue we have available from Scott's is the family name of persons identified
as the ranking person.5 Generally speaking, Quebec society remains largely marked
by the cleavage between two dominant ethnic groups: French and English
Canadians. Since most immigration is of rather recent origin, family names that
are neither French nor English/Scottish/Irish in origin likely define recent
immigrants, their children, or grandchildren (Paré 2002, 2006). While the use of
this method does not lead to complete certainty in the identification of persons of
immigrant origin, it has been successfully employed for Quebec by Candau and Guir
(1979) and Marquis (1995). Using genealogical dictionaries when necessary, we
have succeeded in dividing the entire set of enterprises in three groups: English
origin, French origin, and others. Table 3 shows that nearly one third of all ranking
persons in Montreal area enterprises are drawn from groups other than the two
dominant groups.
What is perhaps equally interesting, the group of immigrant origin is significantly
more important in terms of entrepreneurial activity than is their place in the population as

5
It should be noted that in Quebec, women are required to use their legal as opposed to their husband's
family name. This facilitates the identification of their national origins in Quebec when compared to
countries or regions where women generally take the name of their husbands.
Entrepreneurs in the new economy: Montreal metropolitan area 227

Table 1 Type of new economy enterprises, 2006

Type of enterprises Number Percentage

Manufacturing IT 282 10.1

Services IT 999 35.8
Knowledge-based 1,508 54.1
Total 2,789 100.0

Source: Scott's Registry, 2007

a whole. While not completely corresponding to our definition of an immigrant-origin

group, the proportion of the population having a mother tongue other than French or
English was only 21.8%; those having French for mother tongue, a percentage, which is
much more closely tied to the concept of French origin in Quebec, represented 65.7% of
the total population. Thus, in terms of entrepreneurial activity, persons of French origin
appear to be underrepresented and those of other origins overrepresented, another
indicator of the contribution of immigrant entrepreneurs to overall business activity.

The relationship between sex and type of enterprise

In addition to the classification system describing enterprises of the new economy,

we also distinguish between traditional enterprises that have made some progress in
adopting and integrating Internet technologies and those that have not. Those that are
characterized by the presence of a website, email addresses, and/or the presence of
an IT specialist have been classified as “Traditional with IT”; those that apparently
have made no effort to access the wider transnational market using web technologies
are classified as “Traditional without IT.” Table 4 presents the distribution of
businesses according to the type of IT presence and the sex of the ranking person.
This table shows that women are significantly (p<0.05) more likely to be
underrepresented in the new economy but more likely to direct traditional enterprises
employing IT than are their male counterparts. This finding coincides nicely with

Table 2 Position occupied by the ranking person, Montreal industries, 2006

Position Number Percentage

President/copresident 10,979 49.6

Owner/co-owner 4,348 19.6
Managing partner 3,545 16.0
Partner 692 3.1
Vice president 418 1.9
Chairman/president 386 1.7
Other titles 1,789 8.1
Total 22,157 100.0

Source: Scott's Registry, 2007

228 S. Paré, K. Therasme

Table 3 Origin of family name, ranking person, Montreal industries, 2006

Origin of family name Number Percentage

French 12,452 56.2

English 2,461 11.1
Other 7,238 32.7
Total 22,151 100.0

Source: Scott's Registry, 2007

data derived from our previous research that indicates that female entrepreneurs face
greater obstacles than men in obtaining start-up capital (Paré 2006).
This underrepresentation is part of a larger pattern where women in some groups
are more likely than others to succeed in entering the entrepreneurial market. Table 5
shows that for the Montreal economy as a whole, women of French origin are
present in significantly greater proportions than are women from the two other
groups (p<0.001). It would appear, therefore, that women of English and other
(immigrant-origin backgrounds) have particular difficulty in turning entrepreneurial
aspirations into reality. In addition, although persons of French origin are somewhat
more unlikely to have achieved entrepreneurial status, women in this group are more
likely than others to have done so.
However, once women create new economy enterprises, the data show that there are
no significant differences between the type of businesses they direct and those headed by
men (Table 6). It would, therefore, appear that the entrepreneurial interests of women,
their areas of expertise, and their understanding of entrepreneurial opportunities in the
new economy are similar to those of their male counterparts.

The relationship between immigrant origins and type of business enterprise

Table 7 presents the distribution of businesses for women in majority, i.e., French
and English, groups and those in immigrant-origin groups (others).
The differences observed are not statistically significant, suggesting that neither
majority or minority status nor English, French, or other origin has an impact on the
type of businesses headed by women.

Table 4 Type of enterprise by sex, Montreal, 2006

Type of enterprise Male headed Female headed Total

New economy 13.4% 7.5% 12.4%

Traditional with IT 61.3% 69.0% 62.6%
Traditional without IT 25.3% 23.5% 25.0%
Total 100.0% 100.00% 100.0%
(n) 18,443 3,692 21,135

Source: Scott's Registry, 2007

Entrepreneurs in the new economy: Montreal metropolitan area 229

Table 5 Presence of female entrepreneurs by immigrant-origin group, Montreal, 2006

Sex French English Other Total

Male 81.7% 86.8% 84.9% 83.3%

Female 18.3% 13.2% 15.1% 16.7%
Total 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%
n 12,445 2,455 7,235 22,135

Source: Scott's, 2007

To verify whether immigrant status may have an impact on the different types of
new economy enterprises created by women, we examine the data presented in
Table 8.
Table 8 shows that women in the French majority group are more likely than
those in the other two groups to have created knowledge-based businesses, while
those in the remaining two groups are more heavily concentrated in IT service
enterprises (p=0.047). The differences between the two latter groups are not
significant (p=0.565).

Conclusion

Based upon a very large, publicly available data set, we distinguished between three
different types of new economy businesses and two types of enterprises in more
traditional sectors, those having a visible IT presence and those that did not. Given
that our goal in this paper was to establish a comparative analysis of the situation of
women entrepreneurs in immigrant-origin groups, we focused our attention on both
the presence of women in entrepreneurial positions and the differential impact that
belonging to an immigrant-origin group may have. We have observed, based upon
Scott's Directory for the Montreal metropolitan area, that:
& New economy enterprises represent approximately 12% of businesses in the
Montreal metropolitan area, the majority of which are of the knowledge-based
variety;

Table 6 Type of new economy enterprise by sex, Montreal, 2006

Type of enterprise Male headed Female headed Total

IT manufacturing 10.4% 9.0% 10.3%

IT service 35.5% 36.0% 35.6%
Knowledge based 54.1% 55.0% 54.2%
Total 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%
n 2,474 278 2,752

Source: Scott's Registry, 2007

230 S. Paré, K. Therasme

Table 7 Type of enterprise headed by women, by immigrant-origin status, Montreal, 2006

Type of enterprise French English Other Total

New economy 7.0% 9.3% 8.0% 7.5%

Traditional with IT 69.6% 68.8% 67.7% 69.0%
Traditional without IT 23.4% 21.9% 24.3% 23.5%
Total 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%
n 2,278 324 1,090 3,692

Source: Scott`s 2007

& There is a relative, statistically significant absence of women from the enterprises
of the new economy;
& Women in the French-origin group are more likely than women in other groups
to attain entrepreneurial status;
& There are no significant differences between the three origin groups of women in
terms of the types of enterprises they lead; however, within the new economy,
French-origin women are more likely to head knowledge-based enterprises.
We also observed that despite the relative advantages of French-origin women
when compared to their counterparts, it would appear that the French-origin group as
a whole is underrepresented in the business structure of the Montreal metropolitan
area; on the other hand, the immigrant-origin group would appear to be
overrepresented.
These two factors lead to a certain number of research questions. Since we can
assume that any group that accounts for two thirds of the population should enjoy
relatively easy access to start-up capital, how should we understand the relative
absence of French-origin entrepreneurs in the Scott's Directory? In addition, since by
definition, immigrant-origin groups do not necessarily enjoy easy access to such
capital, how should we understand their relative success in creating business
enterprises?
At the same time, in terms of public policy, it would seem pertinent to pursue our
in-depth analysis of the interviews we obtained as part of this research, particularly
since so many immigrant women in the sample spoke of their difficulties in
obtaining start-up capital, of having to change their project in the absence of capital,
etc. Our continued research will focus on the factors that contribute to the relative
success of entrepreneurs in this group.

Table 8 Type of new economy enterprises created by women, by immigrant-origin status, Montreal, 2006

IT manufacturing 8.1% 6.5% 11.5% 9.0%

IT service 29.4% 45.2% 44.8% 36.0%

Knowledge based 62.5% 48.4% 43.7% 55.0%
Total 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%
n 160 31 87 278
Entrepreneurs in the new economy: Montreal metropolitan area 231

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