High-Tech Immigrant Entrepreneurship in the United States

This article reports the results of a national survey that estimates the rate of immigrant entrepreneurship in a representative sample of high-impact firms in high-technology industries in the United States. The authors report key descriptive statistics about the companies and their founders. About 16% of the companies in the sample, for instance, number at least one immigrant entrepreneur among their founding teams, while about 77% of the immigrant entrepreneurs are U. S. citizens. Three multivariate analyses are carried out that compare high-impact, high-tech firms that count at least one immigrant in their founding teams with those that were founded by native-born entrepreneurs. It is found that the two groups of firms are similar with respect to economic and technological performance. Immigrant-founded firms are more likely to report that they have a strategic relationship with a foreign firm. The authors conclude by briefly considering the potential implications of their findings for immigration and economic development policy.