Italian Migration and Entrepreneurship’s Origins in the United States of America: A Business History Analysis from the Post Second World War Period to the Present Day

Abstract

The opening of international markets following World War II highlighted the differences between territories at regional and national level in terms of the attractiveness of economic activities, investment and human resources. In this context, an important aspect concerned the entrepreneurial process: businesses and entrepreneurs have played a leading role in the activation of the paths of economic growth on the product value, employment and international competitiveness. From this perspective, the study of entrepreneurial dynamics - who the entrepreneurs are, their formation, the path followed for the creation of the enterprise, socio-economic and institutional context in which they acted - becomes crucial to understand the influence of economic and social conditions in the countries of origin as well as the employment and market opportunities, infrastructures and attractiveness of the destination countries. From this point of view, the entrepreneurial path is linked to the migration process and requires a study to highlight the relationship between these two phenomena and their impacts on the development and territorial competitiveness. Starting from the analysis of the literature and researches available at national and international level, in this paper we present the first results of a quantitative and qualitative research at the Archives of the American Chamber of Commerce in Italy, as well as in other American economic institutions. The study aims to highlight the scale of the phenomenon in the Italian-Americans economic relations after World War II, the characteristics of firms with immigrant entrepreneurs, as well as the relationship between immigrant entrepreneurship and entrepreneur training. Even though the two authors share the article’s setting, please note that introduction and paragraph 1 are by Vittoria Ferrandino and paragraphs 2, 3 and 4 are by Valentina Sgro. Both of the authors wrote the conclusions.