Levels of Resources for Ethnic Entrepreneurs

Abstract

The individual entrepreneur is considered from aresource-based perspective that focuses on the categories of human and socialresources.Following a review of the definition and historical study ofethnic entrepreneurship, the authors offer a number of propositions based ontheir original model of ethnic resources.One such proposition is thatentrepreneurs who possess social capital in the form of involvement in theethnic community will have lower levels of education, industry experience, andother forms of human capital. Between 1999 and 2002, the authors tested their model by administering astructured questionnaire that generated 197 ethnic and 327 mainstream businessowners’ responses.Analysis of the survey results reveals that ethnicentrepreneurs do indeed possess more social than human capital and that theseresources in social capital may compensate for the deficiencies in personalresources or human capital.While a solid definition of ethnicentrepreneurship eludes the authors, they conclude that their model of ethnicresources enhances our understanding of the variation of business activitiesand outcomes for members of various ethnic groups, as well entrepreneurs in themajority population. (SAA)

Keywords: Resource based economics, Established firms, Market resources, Social capital, Human capital, Minorities, Ethnic entrepreneurs