Summary
The topic of employment is central in both scholarly and public policy discussions of minority enterprise, yet few studies have examined the creation of jobs in businesses owned by minority women. We address this oversight by analyzing Dun and Bradstreet data on businesses owned by Asian, Hispanic, and Black women, focusing on the relationship between number of employees (the dependent variable) and sale volume and net worth (the explanatory variables). Our results show that this relationship is positive and is stronger for businesses owned by Asian and Hispanic women than for businesses owned by Black women. We suspect that the difference exists because the firms of Asian and Hispanic women are situated in ethnic enclaves that bolster the job creation capacity of these businesses. In conclusion, we recommend that researchers view minority women business owners as entrepreneurs who can generate jobs, not merely as "survivalists " who become self-employed only for the purpose of escaping gender discrimination in the workforce.
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Extract
Creating Jobs? Employment in Women-Owned Minority Businesses
INTRODUCTION
One of the strongest arguments for promoting minority enterprise is that minority-owned businesses will generate employment. Rooted in the economic development proposals of the 1960s (notably, "black capitalism"), this argument has been reinvigorated by claims that immigrant entrepreneurs often create jobs for fellow newcomers, providing them with a foothold in the labor market (Kasarda, 1995; Light & Gold, 2000). It has even been suggested that employment in businesses owned by Asians and Hispanics offers co-ethnics an escape route from discrimination and a road to upward social mobility (Wilson & Portes, 1980; Zhou & Logan, 1989). These assertions, however...See the full content of this document
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