Korean Immigrant Entrepreneurs : Networks and Ethnic Resources (Garland Studies in Entrepreneurship) (Library Binding)

by Jin-Kyung Yoo (Author) "Immigrants in the United States take distinctive paths towards economic assimilation because they have different experiences in the labor market from those of both the..." (more)
Key Phrases: social network establishment, credit rotating association, reactive cultural theory, United States, New York, Los Angeles (more...)

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Product Description
This book examines the advantages and disadvantages of Korean immigrant entrepreneurs in the mainstream labor market. Immigrants to the U.S. have historically pursued entrepreneurship as a means of achieving economic affluence. Among immigrants since the 1965 Immigration Amendment Act, Koreans have one of the highest rates of entrepreneurship.
This study investigates various structural elements, including enclave and non-enclave economies, to uncover interconnections with personal advantages such as capacities for resource mobilization through networks and human capital utilized to establish businesses. The results show that networks are the most prominent resources that Korean immigrants use for business establishment. However, networks are divided into two elements: family and social. The examination of both types of networks shows how they operate differently and generate different intrinsic to business establishment.
Although previous studies have recognized the economic advantages of immigrants with higher educational backgrounds, this study further demonstrates how higher human capital is utilized through network establishment to benefit business establishment. Also, counter to traditional belief, it is found that ethnic resources are not especially crucial resources for starting a business, but are useful after businesses are established.

Product Details

• Library Binding: 220 pages
• Publisher: Routledge (December 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0815332033
• ISBN-13: 978-0815332039
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #3,492,788 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars In the Middle, May 18, 2000

By	Libre - See all my reviews

Jin-Kyung Yoo has done a resourceful job in documenting why a rather new immigrant group chooses entrepreneurship in the competition-oriented economic system currently dominating the United States. This study concentrates on the growth of the Korean community in Atlanta, but refers to other large cities where Koreans have congregated longer. Contrary to free market ideology and its promotion of the image of the self-reliant, hardworking individual entrepreneur, this book shows, using several statistical tables, how establishing and expanding Korean businesses is due rather to ethnic and network resources that support entrepreneurial activity. Korean businesses are divided into enclave and non-enclave sectors, the former serving primarily Korean-Americans and the latter located primarily in inner city African-American neighborhoods. Korean immigrants launch these activities relying heavily on Korean network resources, both family and social. Included amongst these resources are startup capital, business information, price discounts, interest-free loans, cheap Korean labor, unpaid family labor, cultural identity, rotating credit associations (RCAs) to supply finance, and a policy of selling businesses only to other Koreans. Numerous statistics show that networks are the most prominent source of resources for immigrant entrepreneurial pursuits. The book also discusses the main theories developed to explain why so many immigrants become entrepreneurs. Marxist dependency theory, which states that the demand for cheap labor attracts poor peasants to rich industrialized countries, is in this case wrong. More than half of Korean immigrants have college education, meaning other factors cause them to become Americans. Orthodox cultural theory in turn argues that certain cultures have a built-in cultural predisposition for entrepreneur values and ambitions. This theory posits both class and ethnic resources. The former includes the values, skills and money of the business class that are passed along through the generations. The latter includes business resources distributed amongst all socio-economic levels of a particular ethnic group, giving that group a reputation of having commercial mentality. Reactive cultural theory explains immigrant entrepreneurial activity as a matter of exclusion rather than exclusiveness. Ie, immigrants are disadvantaged by factors like discrimination and the lack of linguistic or transferrable work skills, and instead of working poorly paid jobs take to more profitable business activities. Similarly, structural advantage theory argues that poor mainstream opportunities force immigrants to occupy a gap in the economy. They become "middleman minorities" between the producing corporate sector and low-income consumer neighborhoods. Network theories show how ethnic networking encourages and increases immigration and generates business resources for immigrants. Relying on networks, some immigrants, including a majority of Koreans after the 1980s, come simply to make money. None of these theories concerns only Korean immigrants, but any ethnic group extensively involved in business. J-K Yoo's accomplishment is to show how all these factors, not just one, are involved in making the Korean community as notably entrepreneurial as it is. Unlike previous researchers, she also differentiates family and social networks, the former providing startup capital and the latter providing valuable business information. Business expansion, as opposed to startup, she shows to be financed by heavy reliance on Korean/Asian RCAs. Korean enclave businesses provide a necessary function for the Korean-American community, and add richness to the American cultural context. Entrepreneurial activity in the non-enclave economy, however, is in disharmony with the African-American community, as money that could be used for development is soaked up and taken out, a loss not made up for by employing blacks. The mainstream economy and immigration policy are in turn in disharmony with Koreans, to some extent forcing them to work in harsher settings where hostility is higher and profits lower. It is almost as if Koreans are being made pawns in a game between corporations and low-income African-Americans. As a middleman minority, non-enclave Korean entrepreneurs sell products manufactured by corporations if not other ethnic groups. Being faceless, corporations are harder to attack. Koreans have a face, however, and bear the brunt of anger when inner cities explode. Were it not in part for Korean immigrant entrepreneurs, black Americans could own the businesses in their own communities, allowing these communities to grow faster and more independently of both corporations and government. Were it not for corporations and government, black communities could go even farther. Though the profit motive is a factor, bad immigration and post-immigration policy and economic practice have allowed this situation to develop. It is a mess that is ultimately of neither Korean nor African-American doing, but equally one that demands resolution. A good book that summarizes key theoretical issues and takes discriminating steps forward in the subject of ethnic economics. It needs a little editing, but is a good primer and includes an extensive bibliography. What is also needed, as the author states, is comparison with the economic activities of other ethnic groups. The Korean-American community is quite small and rather new compared to some other ethnic groups who may act along network lines, and operates almost entirely on the small business level in the marginal, not mainstream, economy.