New Book Examines Race and Entrepreneurial Success
By Sharon McLoone |
August 19, 2008; 10:08 AM ET
An entrepreneur's education, financial resources and prior work experience are key factors in their success, according to a new book, which examines race and small businesses in the United States.
"Race and Entrepreneurial Success: Black-, Asian-, and White-Owned Businesses in the United States" analyzes Census Bureau
data to determine why Asian American-owned business do well in
comparison to white-owned business and why African American-owned firms
do poorly when compared to both.
African American-owned firms tend to sell less, have fewer
employees, earn smaller profits and go out of business more than their
peers. But African Americans comprise only 5.7 percent of the 13
million business owners in the United States.
By drilling down into the Census data, the authors found that
fundamental issues of education and financing greatly impact an
entrepreneur's chance for success. Fifty percent of African Americans
have less than $6,200 in personal wealth, which is one-eleventh of that
held by whites and Asian-Americans. Less than 20 percent of African
Americans go to college compared to 30 percent of whites and 50 percent
of Asian Americans.
African Americans also suffer in their start-up success because of a
lack of an entrepreneurial legacy. Very few gain experience from
working in a family-owned business, which the authors say is largely
due to the high rates of growing up in single-parent families.
Currently, 55 percent of African American children live with only one
of their parents.
"This book will demystify some of the reasons for the disparity in the success rates of some minority businesses," said Daryl Williams, director of Minority Entrepreneurship at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and national director of the Urban Entrepreneur Partnership.
"The ability of minority entrepreneurs to fully participate in the
economy is critical. Any work that moves us in that direction is of the
utmost importance."
The new book by Robert Fairlie and Alicia Robb was published by MIT Press and partly funded by the Kauffman Foundation.
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