New Self-Employment
The progressive change in the economy and society has a decisive influence on the scope and profile of self-employment. Therefore, the determinants of starting and running a business have changed radically in recent years. New fields and new forms of self-employment emerge, new actors come to the fore, new opportunities emerge and new challenges arise. The growing heterogeneity and diversity are characteristic of the “new self-employment”.
Against this background, the research team deals with those areas of self-employment in which a particularly strong dynamic can be observed:
- New fields and new forms of self-employment: self-employment, new form of gainful employment, self-employment in the creative industries, knowledge-intensive services
- Gender: founding and self-employment of women, dual careers, reconciling work and family life, labor market integration
- Diversity: migrant and ethnic economics, social and economic integration
Essential for empirical and applied research are analyses on the influence of framework conditions (e.g., social environment, institutions, regional structures) and individual resources (such as education and knowledge) on the scope and quality of self-employment.
On the one hand, the practical relevance of the research work is to be seen in our focus on the economic and social contribution of self-employment, which on the other hand succeeds only if the sustainability of the start-ups is also secured (e.g., through qualification and consulting).