South Asian Entrepreneurship in Britain — Push or Pull?

Abstract

Asian entrepreneurship in Britain is a combination of positive and negative forces affecting members of the community. South Asian entrepreneurship in Britain has its origins in the earlier settlers, from traders to peddlers. However, the influx of East African Asians in the late 1960s and early 1970s provided the bases for significant entrepreneurial activity. This chapter considers business activity within the British South Asian community. Beginning with a focus on the motivations for business start-up this provides an understanding of the founders’ aspirations for the business. This in turn provides a base from which the development and dynamics of family businesses can be discussed. This chapter is split into two distinct areas beginning with a brief overview of theories surrounding entrepreneurial behaviour before focusing on issues specific to ethnic, and in particular Asian, entrepreneurship. The discussion focuses on an exploration of the ‘Push and Pull’ factors which facilitate the analysis of entrepreneurial behaviour within the migrant Asian community. This classification is commonly used to explore ethnic entrepreneurship (Ram and Jones, 1998) and enables the discussion to incorporate a wider range of issues from the various schools addressing entrepreneurship. Within this chapter areas relating to entrepreneurial behaviour introduced in Chapter 3 will be discussed further in the context of Asian business activity in Britain.