Revisiting Ethnic Entrepreneurship: Convergencies,Controversies, and Conceptual Advancements1

In the past thirty years, many concepts and theories on ethnic entrepreneurship have been developed, challenged, and revised to provide a fuller account of the phenomenon. This article revisits the existing literature to address some of the conceptual and methodological issues and the controversies that have lingered around them and to highlight important advancements that have broken through conventional frameworks of this lasting subject matter. It first reexamines the meaning and analytical distinction of such relevant concepts as the middleman minority, ethnic economy, and enclave economy, arguing that ethnic social structures in which entrepreneurs are embedded must be stressed in the understanding of these concepts. It then draws attention to the convergencies and controversies in research on the causes and consequences of entrepreneurship. Finally, it highlights two interrelated conceptual advancements in the study of ethnic entrepreneurship ‐ transnational entrepreneurship and the synergy of entrepreneurship in community building.     

Ethnicity,opportunity, and upward mobility: Korean entrepreneurship in the Argentine garment industry 1965–2015

ABSTRACT

Currently, among the approximately 20,000 ethnic Koreans living in Argentina, an estimated 80% are engaged in the garment industry. Within the theoretical frameworks of immigrant entrepreneurship, this research examines why and how Korean Argentines have been continuously concentrated in the clothing industry from the beginning of Korean immigration in the 1960s to the present. Based on ethnographic research conducted in Argentina and on archival and documentary research, this study illustrates how Korean immigrant community in Argentina has settled and achieved upward mobility in the face of complex and fluctuating social and economic circumstances, combining opportunities with strategies and resources to create comparative advantages and benefits. By combining historical contextualisation with theories on immigrant entrepreneurs that had previously only been tested on short-term study periods, findings further suggest that scholars should pay closer attention to historical shifts and accounts in analysing longer-term periods of ethnic business.     

What is ethnic in an ethnic economy?

This article examines critically the relationship between ethnicity and entrepreneurship in the sociology of immigrant economies. It argues that what is ethnic in an ethnic economy has often been confusingly conceptualised and that several factors now call for re-assessing the ethnic nature of immigrants' business activities. On the basis of a review of recent research, three such factors are outlined: the porosity of ethnic boundaries to cross-group business interactions; the diversity within immigrant economies in terms of status, gender, class and generation; and the political and institutional context in which immigrant economies take place. The conclusion stresses the need for multiple explanations of how and why immigrants become entrepreneurs, which take into account not only the meso-level constituted by ethnicity and social capital, but also micro-individual factors and macro-institutional settings.     

Predicting attitudes and behavioural intentions towards social entrepreneurship: the role of servant leadership in young people / Predicción de las actitudes y las intenciones conductuales hacia el emprendimiento social: el papel del liderazgo de servicio en los jóvenes

: Social entrepreneurship (SE) refers to the development of innovative projects whose main aim is not individual profit but the transformation of society. The issue is particularly important for promoting youth development and participation. This research offers insights from two studies designed from a multi-dimensional perspective analysing attitudes and behavioural intentions towards social ventures built upon the constructs of servant leadership and lifestyles. Results of Study 1 indicated that servant leadership is a key predictor of attitudes and behavioural intentions towards social entrepreneurship, while having a violent lifestyle is negatively associated with these attitudes and intentions. Study 2 showed that servant leadership style predicted attitudes towards social entrepreneurship over and above other types of leadership (i.e., transformational, transactional and laissez-faire). These studies demonstrate the importance of considering servant leadership and relational styles as key factors in predicting attitudes and behavioural intentions regarding social and active participation of young people. Limitations of the study and applications to designing interventions aimed at improving attitudes and behavioural intentions towards social entrepreneurship are discussed.     

Ethnic entrepreneurs as carriers of ethnic identity: a case study among the Liangshan Yi (Nuosu) in China

In this article, the author examines the connection between Yi (Nuosu) entrepreneurship and ethnic identity. First the term identity is discussed, and then important factors for creating identity among Nuosu entrepreneurs are outlined. Concerning the Nuosu–Yi, until today the clan plays a predominant role. Through entrepreneurship, clan-transcending institutions and a clan-transcending ethnic identity are emerging. The author follows up by addressing identity issues in terms of the rewritten official Chinese history on the Yi. To understand the entrepreneurs' concept of identity, it is necessary to understand that their discourse on questions of status and identity very often coincide with arguments advanced by Yi scholars. Nuosu entrepreneurs, as a new economic and social elite, thereby contribute to the shaping of a new Nuosu collective consciousness. Time (history) and space (Liangshan) are crucial markers of Nuosu identity, but the author argues that economic success is an additional factor for developing a new identity as well. Notably, entrepreneurs are both carriers of ethnic symbols and agents of modernization who actively shape identity.     

Wheeling uphill? Reflections of practical and methodological difficulties encountered in researching the experiences of disabled volunteers

This paper focuses on methodological and practical issues surrounding research into disabled volunteers. It focuses on three key methodological and practical issues which were encountered by the author in preparing for and conducting fieldwork: difficulties in conceptualising disability for the purpose of the study; problems of access; and problems of reflexivity. Attention is also given to how the researcher responded to the problems and difficulties as they emerged throughout the research. The paper concludes by commenting that the overall commitment, social entrepreneurship and social advocacy of wheelchair users who volunteer is in stark contrast to the negative images of vulnerability and dependency often associated with disability.     

Racial/Ethnic Minority Community College Students' Critical Consciousness and Social Cognitive Career Outcomes

A need exists to better understand how racial/ethnic minority students' critical consciousness development in response to marginalization may be involved in their educational and career development. We therefore examined the link between critical consciousness development and career decision self-efficacy and career outcome expectations among racial/ethnic minority community college students. Following social cognitive career theory's conceptual pillars, we developed a testable model integrating critical consciousness and social cognitive variables. This model was tested with 135 racially and ethnically diverse community college students. Data analysis included path analyses and tests of model fit using structural equation modeling. Results suggested that (a) higher critical agency is linked to higher career decision self-efficacy and outcome expectations and (b) critical action and reflection have a bidirectional link and predict higher critical agency. Implications for research and practice aiming to close educational and career gaps among racial/ethnic minorities are discussed.     

The situational logic of entrepreneurship: a realist approach to national policy

National policy initiatives to encourage entrepreneurial behaviour are often developed with limited knowledge of the contextual constraints and causal factors. In this paper, we adopt a social realist approach, generally associated with critical realism, as a framework for analysing levels of entrepreneurial behaviour. The trigger for our study is the apparent anomaly of low levels of German entrepreneurship. We apply the morphogenetic framework of the sociologist Margaret Archer to Germany and then compare this to the United States. We conclude that particular so-called situational logics at the intersection of structure and culture constitute mechanisms which provide strategic direction for the decisions of potential entrepreneurs. We argue that a social realist stance based upon Archer’s sociology provides a practical grounding for research and policy development.     

The influence of ethnic identity on drug use among ethnic minority adolescents

Ethnic identity is a significant factor related to self-concept and psychological development and similar to other aspects of identity, is of particular importance during the adolescent years when there is increased vulnerability to drug involvement. However, much of the research relative to adolescent drug use has focused on the annual and current prevalence rates among particular ethnic groups with little attention to ethnic or group identity issues. However, it is important to study and compare ethnic and group identity and its correlates to drug use. This article presents face-to-face interview questionnaire measures of ethnic identity as measured by affirmation and belongingness, ethnic identity achievement, ethnic behavior, and other group orientation [1], and drug use as measured by misuse, abuse, and chemical dependency diagnoses [2]. The questionnaires were administered to 127 (60 Ethnic, 67 White) adolescents from ethnically diverse schools in a large urban school district in the Pacific Northwest. The relationship of ethnic identity to drug use was examined. This study indicates that the questionnaire measures can be used to examine similarities and differences in ethnic identity and drug use among adolescents from different ethnic groups. A key finding of this study was that white adolescents scored lower in ethnic identity than did members of the four ethnic minority groups and the mixed racial group. However, the most significant key finding was that in the ethnic minority sample high levels of cultural identity were associated with heavy drug use. The results of this study suggest that social influences may play a larger role in the development of heavy drug use irrespective of the nature and origins of these social influences.     

Much ado about very little: The dubious connection between ethnic minority business policy and ethnic minority entrepreneurship

This article presents a historical reprise of 40 years of policy interest in ethnic minority businesses in the UK. It contrasts the pronouncements of policymakers with the reality of ethnic minority entrepreneurship. Such an exercise is surprisingly rare given the activism of policymakers in this arena and growing scholarly interest in this field. Our historical overview is informed by a novel research method that plots references to ethnic minority entrepreneurship in the British Houses of Parliament. Though the UK has been the site of some interesting policy experiments on ethnic minority entrepreneurship, their impact has been slight when set against the context of broader political-economic change.     

Social Entrepreneurship Through an Organizational Ecology Lens: Examining the Emergence and Evolution of the Voucher School Population in Milwaukee

The creation and introduction of new ideas and new organizations to address social challenges are central features in current social entrepreneurship research, and over the past two decades scholars have proposed a variety of approaches to understand and analyze these and other dimensions of social entrepreneurship. This article looks at social entrepreneurship from an ecological perspective and proposes that organizational ecology has much to offer this emerging filed. Specifically, the article draws from a unique dataset on voucher schools in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to analyze the emergence as well as dynamics of this nonprofit population.     

Promoting Ethnic Entrepreneurship in European Cities: Sometimes Ambitious,Mostly Absent,Rarely Addressing Structural Features

An increasing number of immigrants have become entrepreneurial and many governments expect or hope that the ongoing rise of ethnic entrepreneurship will contribute significantly to the integration of immigrants, to their upward mobility, and to the economic development of the city of residence. In this article we explore the rules, regulations and policy interventions that shape self‐employment trajectories in general and those of immigrant ethnic minorities in particular. The article is based on a general inventory of measures to promote ethnic entrepreneurship in 32 European countries, and a somewhat deeper inventory of policies and interventions in 28 European cities. We came across all kinds of measures and interventions and identified certain patterns, but the most striking finding was that such explicit measures and interventions were actually thin on the ground. We conclude this article with a discussion of the structural determinants of this outcome.     

Intergenerational and program-induced effects of welfare dependency: Evidence from the national longitudinal survey of youth

This study uses data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to examine intergenerational and program-induced effects of welfare dependency. Three research questions are asked: (a) How do parental Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) receipt and other family background characteristics affect subsequent dependency on AFDC? (b) How do attitudes about welfare and state AFDC benefit levels affect AFDC dependency? and (c) How do the patterns and factors associated with AFDC dependency vary across racial and ethnic lines? The results suggest that women who grew up in households that received welfare during the woman's adolescence are approximately twice as likely to be dependent on AFDC in young adulthood as women whose families did not received welfare. Further, state AFDC benefit levels are associated with higher risks of AFDC dependency, but the association is significant only for Anglo women. These analyses provide little support for the hypothesis that attitudes toward welfare and low-wage work increase the likelihood of welfare dependency.     

Israeli immigrants in the United States: The question of community

Despite their possession of many social advantages such as high levels of education, familiarity with Western, urban culture, Caucasian appearance, relative economic security and ties to an established, co-ethnic community, much literature on Israeli immigrants in the U.S. depicts them as plagued by social and psychological alienation to the extent that they are incapable of creating viable ethnic communities. This paper uses field work and photography collected within the Israeli immigrant population of Los Angeles to critically examine the assertion that Israeli immigrants in the U.S. are much less organized than would be predicted by recent theories on immigrant adaptation and community formation. Based on this research, we argue that while Israelis are ambivalent about their presence in the U.S., they have created a variety of communal activities involving entrepreneurship, religion, culture, politics and leisure.     

Beyond taxonomy

Much of the considerable confusion about the definition of social entrepreneurship in academic literature stems from a lack of empirical research on the subject. This article advances social entrepreneurship research beyond conceptualization discussions by developing and validating an instrument that quantifies the incidence of nonprofit entrepreneurial behavior. Information from 145 Kansas City Metropolitan Area nonprofit organizations was collected to validate the underlying constructs represented in the instrument. Behavior differences were depicted between entrepreneurial and nonentrepreneurial nonprofits. Using principal component factor analysis, the research illustrates social entrepreneurship as a unique nonprofit behavior that occurs at the intersection of innovation, proactiveness, and risk taking.     

Gender mainstreaming and evaluation in the EU: comparative perspectives from feminist institutionalism

This article presents a focused comparative analysis of the institutionalization of two governance practices in the European Commission that levy distinct challenges to the gender status quo: gender mainstreaming (which overtly challenges gender bias) and evaluation (which does not have explicit feminist aspirations). With reference to five dimensions, we identify evaluation as relatively strongly institutionalized, and gender mainstreaming as relatively weakly institutionalized. We draw on the explanatory power of feminist institutionalism to unpack these findings, arguing that a feminist institutional perspective can shed light on this variation, as it provides greater insight into the formal and informal institutions that constrain, enable and shape the implementation of evaluation and gender mainstreaming. We assert that the notion of path dependency, the logic of appropriateness, and the concept of layering serve as useful tools to understand the gendered nature of the European Commission. This research provides insights into the institutional factors that impact the implementation of gender equality strategies (such as gender mainstreaming). In turn, this contributes to the development of more effective strategies to promote institutional change toward greater equality.     

Social Entrepreneurship: Action Grounded in Needs, Opportunities and/or Perceived Necessities?

The interest in social and/or societal entrepreneurship has increased rapidly during the past decade. Yet, the field is still young and fragmented and its heritage includes tensions and shortcomings. The theories grounded in entrepreneurship research tend to address the entrepreneurial ventures’ ability to recognise, explore and/or exploit opportunities. Other research argues instead that social entrepreneurial ventures respond to needs in society. However, none of these lines of research extensively problematise the issues of opportunities and needs. Furthermore, the discussion in this paper is related to a third concept, perceived necessities, as a suggestion to nuance our understanding of social entrepreneurship. The analysis in this paper is based on four social entrepreneurship cases.     

Pushing the Boundaries: Responses to Ethnic Conformity Pressure in Two Turkish Communities in Belgium

Previous research has demonstrated that ethnic communities try to maintain ethnic boundaries through group pressure to conform to premigration cultural patterns, which mainly happens indirectly through social control. So far however, little attention has been given to how group members respond to this indirect ethnic conformity pressure, as well as to the factors that shape these responses. Drawing on in-depth interviews with second- and third-generation Turkish Belgians, we examine and explain different responses to ethnic conformity pressure and link these to ethno-cultural change and boundary change. We distinguish three negotiation strategies, namely conformity, creativity and disregard, and find that the choice for a particular strategy is first and foremost shaped by the agent’s gender, their embeddedness in the Turkish community, and the availability of an alternative support network, both of which are shaped by exclusion in the larger society. In addition, also the severity of the norm violation, the social structure of the community and parental expectations play a role. Findings are interpreted in terms of ethnic boundary dynamics, and implications for ethno-cultural change are discussed.     

Immigrant incorporation in the garment industry of Los Angeles

This study expands immigrant social network theory and examined employment patterns in the garment industry in Los Angeles, California, among Latino workers employed by Asian immigrant entrepreneurs. The study determined that a large percentage of immigrant employees found their jobs through the immigrant economy. Entrepreneurship increased the supply of local jobs and expanded the economy at destination at no expense to natives. Immigrant entrepreneurs bought firms from nonimmigrant owners or started new ones with an immigrant labor supply. Massey's index is flawed due to its exclusion of the role of entrepreneurs. Migration networks facilitate entrepreneurship, but some ethnic groups have fewer entrepreneurs, such as Mexicans and Central Americans. A 1993 Los Angeles survey identified 3642 garment factories in its county. Mean employment was 27.1 persons. The garment industry was the 4th largest industry in the area in 1996, with 98,700 employees. It represented 6% of all wage and salary employees in the City and 5.5% of the immigrant labor force in the County in 1990. 93% of garment workers in 1990 were immigrants. It is estimated that 51% of garment factory owners were Asians; most employees were Latinos. Census figures on sewing machine operators indicated 47.3% of owners were Whites and 42.45 were Asians. 53.3% of employees were other ethnic groups, 14.5% were Asians, and 32.2% were Whites. It is estimated that 47.2% of total employment was due to the immigration economy. 71.5% of the total employment in the garment industry was in the immigrant sector.     

高职家政服务专业创业能力培养模式的质量评价体系研究

建立和完善家政服务专业创业能力培养模式质量评价体系,保证这一模式的可操作性、科学性、实践性和有效性,是促进家政专业创业教育又好又快发展的基础。借鉴国内各高校创业能力培养水平评估的相关研究,分析影响创业能力培养质量的因素,构建了创业能力培养质量评价体系。