ABSTRACT
This chapter presents innovative types of informal ethnic entrepreneurship. Often, literature on informal ethnic entrepreneurship argues that informal ethnic entrepreneurs are less innovative and stick to proven community needs, approaches and concepts. With a closer look at Europe and especially at Germany, Yildiz and Volery argue that the boom in ethnic entrepreneurship started with deindustrialization. For a long time, neither ethnic nor immigrant entrepreneurship was on the German agenda. This might be one of the explanations for why there is no concrete data available that distinguishes these two groups of entrepreneurs by immigration and/or by ethnicity. Cross-border entrepreneurial activities arose as a consequence of the opening of European Union (EU) borders within the EU. The following business model canvas applies to the beginning and the first years of establishment of the informal ethnic business before the opening of EU borders.
