Industrial concentration of ethnic minority- and women-owned businesses: evidence from the survey of business owners in the United States

Abstract

Using a confidential national survey of ethnic minority- and women-owned businesses in the United States and multivariate regression analyses, this study examines how businesses are concentrated in different industrial sectors across ethnicity and gender, and how the segmentation by the divide of ethnicity and gender is associated with business performance. The findings indicate that male- and female- owned businesses have distinctive industrial concentration patterns. In particular, compared to white women, businesses owned by women from ethnic minority groups are highly concentrated in a limited number of industrial sectors. Concentration in specific industrial sectors does not necessarily mean poor performance when measured by sales, size of employment or payrolls. However, for women-owned businesses, those sectors obviously pay less and have marginal profits, especially if considering the size of the firms.