Ethnic Business Owners Research Articles

Beyond Aesthetics: Assessing the Value of Strip Mall Retail in Toronto

Many city planners are increasingly focusing on urban design guidelines to shape future growth. However, the social implications of this type of planning rarely appear in city plans. Toronto's new planning policies are shown to establish a polarized view of the city, focusing on aesthetic concerns rather than the use and users of spaces. Interviews with small business owners and local planners were used to establish the benefits of, and threats to, strip malls. The findings reveal that strip malls provide affordable retail space for small businesses not available elsewhere and the spaces are seen as highly desirable by many ethnic business owners. This paper highlights some of the problems associated with design-centric planning.

Measuring the financial capability of minority ethnic business owners in Scotland

This paper aims at prompting a discussion on the need to measure the financial capability of non-traditional minority ethnic business owners in Scotland in order to enhance the provision of business support. This would be achieved through a targeted 'needs based' approach that offers a better understanding of the viability of their enterprises and the most efficient use of available funds to meet their objectives. A literature review will identify current research on financial capability focusing on definitions and measurement, methodologies, questionnaires, and findings. The review will also help to develop a framework for a model of business owner financial capability that will be tested in current research being conducted on Latin American business owners in Scotland. Discussion and research should provide a starting point in the research of mechanisms to efficiently deliver financial support to minority ethnic businesses, and the paper aims to encourage contributions and participation to build an understanding of financial capability in the context of minority ethnic businesses. This discussion has profound implications to the provision of business support and economic growth in Scotland: it entails structuring knowledge based dialogues between consultants and the beneficiaries of sponsored backing to promote mutually beneficial outcomes to financial decisions.

Facilitating and maintaining research access into ethnic minority firms

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to address the cultural challenges of gaining and maintaining qualitative research access into ethnic small firms. In particular, it evaluates the influence of cultural affinity – between researchers and business owners – on gaining and maintaining access into ethnic minority owned firms.Design/methodology/approach – This paper reflects on the experiences of facilitating and maintaining research access into a sample of 258 small Turkish and Chinese ethnic minority businesses in London.Findings – This paper study illustrates that researchers need to demonstrate cultural awareness to ethnic business owners and understand the socio‐cultural environment in which their firms operate in order to be able to gain and maintain research access.Research limitations/implications – Data collection is limited to Turkish and Chinese ethnic minority owned businesses in London, and other ethnic entrepreneurs are excluded. Therefore, care should be taken in making generalisations from...

Six Problems in the Sociology of the Ethnic Economy

This article discusses six problems in the area of the sociology of the ethnic economy. The problems are: (1) a skewed view of the import and robustness of ethnic businesses, (2) an inaccurate view of harmony and exclusive dependence on co-ethnics among ethnic business owners, (3) a contradiction between the stranger hypothesis and the protected market hypothesis, (4) difficulties with the special endowments hypothesis, (5) uncertainties in propositions that attempt to explain business concentration among ethnics, and (6) use of the term middleman minority in a generic sense. The works of five leading U.S. scholars are examined in terms of what they contribute to the solution of these problems.