Will I stay or will I go? An examination of the Australian entrepreneurship ecosystem and the ethnic entrepreneur

The importance of ethnic entrepreneurship has emerged as an economic, societal and political panacea to the growing number of refugees on the move across the globe. The recent crisis sparked by war in Syria resulted in Australia committing to accept 12,000 refugees. Employing the 2014 World Economic Forum framework, this paper seeks to explore the Australian entrepreneurship ecosystem from the perspective of the ethnic/refugee entrepreneur, to determine whether it is fit for purpose in its present form. At its core, the Australian entrepreneurship ecosystem is comparatively strong in terms of human capital, accessible markets and finance. However, it is relatively weak on the other aspects of the framework, including support systems, regulatory frameworks and infrastructure, education and training, universities as catalysts, and cultural support. Even within the three 'core' characteristics of the ecosystem, the Australian ecosystem falls short when examined through the lens of refugee entrepreneurs. Reference is made to the development of a city/region ecosystem (Compass 2015) and recommendations are made to apply the same principles to developing ethnic entrepreneurship clusters that would assist refugees. Additionally, recommendations under the 2014 World Economic Forum framework are made that will assist key stakeholders to understand and develop an entrepreneurial ecosystem that is fit for purpose.