Ethnic entrepreneurship

Abstract

Entrepreneur remains the unit of analysis in traditional entrepreneurship. In the present times, numerous evidences have shown that individuals from different ethnic backgrounds tend to react in contrasting ways to the opportunities for entrepreneurship. Thus, it is impossible to explain entrepreneurship simply with the help of using individual level accounts. Moreover, in some cultures, community based enterprise is considered as the backbone of the economy, which is also known as subsistence self-employment or the collective entrepreneurship. In addition to this, there are a number of examples of ethnic entrepreneurship including the Aboriginals of Australia, Native Americans of the USA, the immigrated ethnic groups such as Algerians in France and Pakistanis in the United Kingdom, or the Sami people of Finland. Therefore, this report's aim is to focus the main discussion on entrepreneurship as a function of ethnicity, as well as, on exploring numerous contexts in which cultural diversity is a descriptive variable for the nature of the economy. Moreover, certain sociological and anthropological perspectives are also welcomed in the study, by focusing on the practical example of BAME social enterprise where ethnic entrepreneurs are working for the betterment of numerous minority groups of the UK such as Blacks, Asians, and other ethnic minorities.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First of all, I would like to express my gratitude for my research coordinator, for his understanding, propositions, patience, and remarks. It would also give me great pleasure to show my gratitude to my peers, colleagues, and family whose immense and constant support has been a source of continuous guidance and inspiration. I would also like to be grateful to the Department, managers of the university, instructors and students who have supported me throughout this research.

Introduction

As observed by Bhachu and Light (2008), the study of entrepreneurship is not only linked with its success conditions and survival strategies, but also with the birth and death of organizations and the linkage patterns of those organizations with their regional and local environment. Within the context of enterprise business, ethnic minority entrepreneurship was previously under researched. However, in the recent times, there have been a greater number of studies that are aimed at comparing different levels of entrepreneurship of the ethnic groups such as Chinese, Koreans, Blacks, and Indians in the USA or the Aboriginals of Australia, Native Americans of the USA, the immigrated ethnic groups such as Algerians in France and Pakistanis in the United Kingdom, or the Sami people of Finland. Thus, ethnic economy mainly refers to ethnic employers and self-employed and their co-ethnic employees. This phenomenon occurs when an ethnic minority is created in its own private sector of the economy. According to Nwanko (2004), ethnic entrepreneurs are the ones who belong to an ethnic minority and in order to do businesses, these people have to rely on the support from their ethnic communities, whereas, this support can be in both the formal, as well as, informal use of ethnic resources in their businesses (Fadahunsi, 2000, pp. 357).

In addition to this, Rosenstein and Light (2008) have defined the ...