Books
Wendy Beech, BLACK ENTERPRISE GUIDE TO STARTING YOUR OWN BUSINESS (1999).
Abstract: The author uses stories of successful black entrepreneurs to introduce chapters on legal issues, protecting a business idea, and advertising.
Robert Fairlie and Alicia Robb, Race and Entrepreneurial Success: Black-, Asian-, and White-Owned Businesses in the United States (2010).
Abstract (from Amazon Product Description): Thirteen million people in the United States—roughly one in ten workers—own a business. And yet rates of business ownership among African Americans are much lower and have been so during the last 100 years. In addition, and perhaps more importantly, businesses owned by African Americans tend to have lower sales, fewer employees and smaller payrolls, lower profits, and higher closure rates. In contrast, Asian American-owned businesses tend to be more successful. In Race and Entrepreneurial Success, minority entrepreneurship authorities Robert Fairlie and Alicia Robb examine racial disparities in business performance. Drawing on the rarely used, restricted-access Characteristics of Business Owners (CBO) data set compiled by the U.S. Census Bureau, Fairlie and Robb examine in particular why Asian-owned firms perform well in comparison to White-owned businesses and Black-owned firms typically do not. They also explore the broader question of why some entrepreneurs are successful and others are not.
Enterprise, Deprivation and Social Exclusion (Alan Southern ed., 2011).
Abstract (adapted from publisher): There is little doubt that in recent years, enterprise has been considered an essential approach in the alleviation of deprivation existing in the developed world. The assumption is that area-based initiatives provide a means by which enterprise can include all members of society in mainstream social and economic activities. The rationale behind Enterprise, Deprivation and Social Exclusion is to critically challenge the notion that enterprise can address the complexity behind deprivation and social exclusion by demonstrating UK and North American examples. The authors see how enterprise has come to be regarded as a means by which poverty can be reduced and new opportunities can be opened up to support individuals. However, the authors here seek to give a greater appreciation to the structural roots of deprivation and pose questions about whether or not enterprise might actually exacerbate structures of social and economic exclusion. What if enterprise actually maintains differences between types of community and keeps individuals entrenched in certain ways of thinking? The contributions in this edited collection will offer a distinct opportunity in respect of both theoretical and empirical advancement. The authors hale from both sides of the Atlantic and form an inter-disciplinary group to provide complementary perspectives in this field.
Melvin L. Oliver & Thomas M. Shapiro, Black Wealth/ White Wealth: A New Perspective on Racial Inequality (1995).
Abstract (from Amazon Product Description): Racial comparisons by income are misleading, argue these two sociologists, because the black middle class lags far behind its white counterpart in terms of assets that can expand choices and opportunities for generations to come. Their analysis provides telling insight into the causes and persistence of American racial inequality: government policies of suburbanization and redlining helped boost wealth for whites over blacks, while discrimination against blacks long kept them from developing assets through self-employment. The authors' study uncovers "the buried fault line of the American social system," and they note that three times as many whites as blacks grow up in households with three months of financial reserves. Because of such intergenerational transfers of wealth, the authors make a philosophical case for racial reparations but also argue for more feasible policies, such as government-supplemented accounts to make education and home-ownership more available, as well as the modification of tax policies (mortgage deductions, capital gains) that subsidize the rich. Oliver teaches at UCLA, Shapiro at Northeastern University.
Melvin L. Oliver & Thomas M. Shapiro, RACE AND ENTREPRENEURIAL SUCCESS:BLACK-, ASIAN-, AND WHITE-OWNED BUSINESSES IN THE UNITED STATES (1995).
W. Sherman Rogers, THE AFRICAN AMERICAN ENTREPRENEUR: THEN AND NOW (2010).
Product Description (from Amazon): African American entrepreneurship has been an integral part of the American economy since the 1600s. On the eve of the Civil War, the collective wealth of free blacks was approximately $50 million. In 2006, African Americans earned a whopping $744 billion, a figure that exceeds the gross domestic product of all but 15 nations of the 192 independent countries in the world. As W. Sherman Rogers so ably demonstrates, African Americans have achieved these economic gains under difficult circumstances. Slavery, segregation, and legally limited access to property, education, and other opportunities have taken a heavy toll, even to this day. Besides providing a penetrating glimpse into the world of black entrepreneurship both past and present, this book urges African Americans to gain financial independence as entrepreneurs. Business ownership, Rogers argues, will bring security, wealth that can be passed to successive generations, and educated offspring with much greater earning power.