Customer Reviews

Ethnic Entrepreneurs: Immigrant Business in Industrial Societies (SAGE Series on Race and Ethnic Relations)

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This book is a reprinted edition of a book originally published in 1990 and no longer in print in its original edition.

It examines the phenomenon of minority business development in industrial societies. Everywhere immigrants settle in advanced Western societies, ethnic minority businesses flourish - whether they be Turkish tailors in Amsterdam, Moroccan grocers in Paris or Chinese restaurateurs in New York.

Contributions by seventeen of the leading business researchers in the world challenge the conventional `wisdom' which claims that immigrants do well in business because their culture makes them entrepreneurial. Rather, the authors show how the development of a particular ethnic minority business is always the product of unique, historical circumstances. These include opportunities for newcomers, ethnic group characteristics, and strategies used to exploit entrepreneurial options.

The authors also show that not all groups are equally interested in the business ownership option for advancement or equally successful at it. They explain why immigrants from diverse ethnic groups differentially attempt to go into business and why their fates differ. Using data on the success of various ethnic groups in business in the United States, the United Kingdom and France, the authors suggest policy options which might help the economic advancement of ethnic minority communities through business ownership.

The volume is a blend of quantitative, historical and case study data supporting a well-argued thesis, drawing on the literature of a variety of disciplines and approaches. It is recomended for scholars studying race relations or involved in small business research, cross-cultural reseach and other related subjects.

Aldrich's review gives a good summary, but doesn't, to my mind, emphasize the unique contribution of this book which is looking at societal influences on immigrant entrepreneurship. There are oodles of studies of ethnic markets/ enclaves within societies, but this is one of the few that looks across societies. In particular, their result on the importance of red tape as a deterrent to ethnic entrepreneurship is striking and unique in the literature.