Immigrant and Minority Entrepreneurship

Bulter, Kozmetsky, and their contributors examine how immigrants and American minorities develop enterprises and create different degrees of economic stability. Top scholars in the field of immigrant and minority entrepreneurship discuss data that concentrates on new venture development and the ways immigrants incubate their enterprises. Groups analyzed include Chinese, Vietnamese, African-Americans, and Women.

This book is about the ways Americans develop business enterprise for community and individual economic stability. The emphasis is on immigrant and minority entrepreneurship, and it provides rich historical research as well as recent analyses of these issues. We learn that an analysis of the 1910 data reveal that black Americans were more liekly than white Americans to be employers, and almost as likely as whites to be self-employed. We also learn that the immigrant experience includes unauthorized aliens, poverty, and the rise of vibrant business communities. While all immigrant groups contain those who are self-employed, when they do, the rate exceeds twice the figure for the domestic population and three times that of native-born minorities. Within the context of America becoming more entrepreneurial during the last decades of the 20th century, the number of women-owned enterprises increased more than 57 percent between, for example, 1982 and 1987.

Top scholars in the field of immigrant and minority entrepreneurship discuss data that concentrates on new venture development and how immigrants incubate their enterprises. Groups included are Chinese, Vietnamese, African-Americans, and Women.

JOHN SIBLEY BUTLER is Professor of Sociology and Management at the University of Texas, Austin. He is Director of the Herb Kelleher Entrepreneurship Center and Interium Director of the IC2 Institute.

GEORGE KOZMETSKY is Professor of Business, a founder of the IC2 Institute, and a widely respected CEO.