All over the world entrepreneurs drive changes. They develop new products and services, inspire others and take decisions that result in growth of their businesses. But the world around entrepreneurs is changing and so are entrepreneurs. Life-long selfemployment or permanent wage employment are of the past. And the way people perceive self-employment is changing as well. And so must our thinking. Changes in our society call for policies and programmes in support of enterprising people. Diversity, mobility and connectivity offer new opportunities for enterprising people. Markets are changing, become more accessible and there is less need to be bound physically to one place for an entrepreneur. New avenues for business are open thanks to our improved access to information, our connectivity globally through social media and our ability to travel freely and frequently from one country to another. With less focus on life-long (self) employment people now combine paid work (or unpaid – house- work) with self-employment, or opt for just parttime entrepreneurship. New, hybrid forms of enterprising emerge. This combining of work with self-employment is rather common in developing countries, but in Europe it is a phenomenon not yet reported on in statistics and for which policy makers and service providers have no answers yet. Neither exist clear definitions or classifications. This book may serve as an eye-opener: hybrid entrepreneurs are indeed around us and deserve our attention. The research unit Financial Inclusion and New Entrepreneurship of The Hague University of Applied Science challenges policy makers, academics and service providers (such as educational institutes, business advisers and financial institutions) to pay more attention to hybrid entrepreneurs, those enterprising people who intend to create new values for a fair and sustainable society. They might not yet been seen, but they exist…..
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Amsterdam is known to be a cosmopolitan and multicultural city where newly arrived migrants find opportunities to test business ideas. Behind every business idea, there are people supporting the entrepreneurs’ initiatives and providing feedback. This chapter examines the role of those people in the process of refining business ideas being implemented in the city. The literature about the role of connections in business highlights the value of networks’ diversity for creativity and innovation. I argue that both diverse and similar business connections have their specific role in the adaptation of a business idea to Amsterdam’s context. The specific role was analyzed from 509 business connections in 41 businesses. Qualitative information and ego network maps were collected to measure similarity indexes in: place of residence, nationality, and level of education of entrepreneurs. The results show that migrant businesses in the multicultural market of Amsterdam rely on diverse and similar connections acting together: similar ones as a safety net where ideas develop and diverse ones where ideas are quickly tested. Migrant entrepreneurs actively use their business connections to carve a niche, whether strengthening relations with migrant-based markets or moving toward the high-end segments of the local market.
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Om actief te kunnen deelnemen aan de samenleving, moet iemand toegang hebben tot financiële diensten. Onze samenleving wordt steeds meer divers, mobiliteit en sociale media beiden nieuwe kansen voor ondernemende mensen. Ondernemers zijn niet meer plaats gebonden en kennen geen grenzen als zij markten verkennen. Werk en ondernemen worden steeds meer in combinatie opgepakt. Oude vormen ondernemen en werken verdwijnen snel. Deze hybride vormen van ondernemen vragen om een kijk op financiële ondersteuning. Banken die daar niet op inspelen zullen zien dat mensen zelf het heft in handen nemen. Crowdfunding, P2P platforms, en informele spaar – een leen groepen komen snel op als reactie daarop. Mensen willen weer zeggenschap en controle hebben over hun geld. In het buitenland is gebleken dat microfinanciering een goed instrument is om mensen die buitengesloten zijn, weer bij de maatschappij te betrekken ( Financial Inclusion). Microfinanciering leert anders te denken over geld en ondernemend handelen. Microkredieten bewijzen dat je waarde kunt genereren door maatschappelijk verantwoord handelen en de relatie tussen mensen en organisaties weer centraal te stellen. Ondernemende mensen, die worden ondersteund door microfinanciering, blijken vaker voor nieuwe (meng)vormen van ondernemen te kiezen, waarbij het sociale of maatschappelijk belang ook een belangrijke rol speelt ( New Entrepreneurship). Nederland en andere Europese landen kunnen veel leren van de ontwikkelingen die door microfinanciering in ontwikkelingslanden zijn ingezet. Door terugkoppeling (Reversed Transfer of Knowledge South – North) kan deze kennis bijdragen aan de totstandkoming van meer klantgerichte financiële diensten voor ondernemende mensen, ongeacht hun nationaliteit of sociaal-economische status.
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