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Abstract

One decade after its introduction, the superdiversity concept (Vertovec, 2007) has widely found echoes in migration research, but also in business studies, particularly in ethnic minority entrepreneurship (EME). Apart from discussing EME as a rather generic superdiversity phenomenon, however, the debate on entrepreneurial superdiversity lacks in proper conceptualization. Dimensions missing are: 1) ethnic but also religious and linguistic diversity of entrepreneurship, 2) entrepreneurial diversity regarding business-types and 3) the incorporation of the city as the analytical unit. On the empirical basis of an extensive intra-urban analysis of ethnic businesses in Glasgow, using ethnographically assessed site surveys combined with statistical data, this paper contributes to the operationalization and conceptualization of entrepreneurial superdiversity. In doing so, it proposes the Entrepreneurial Superdiversity Index (ESI), which is a viable method for approximating entrepreneurial superdiversity in cities. The ESI allows intra- and inter-urban comparative analyses of entrepreneurial superdiversity, and also delivers grounds for developing a general index for urban superdiversity research.