Index and Abstracts

Volume 12, Number 3
September 2007

Native American Entrepreneurs and Strategic Choice
Jane Swinney and Rodney Runyan

The Influence of Social Ties and Self-Efficacy in Forming Entrepreneurial Intentions and Motivating Nascent Behavior
Jennifer Sequeira, Stephen Mueller and Jeffrey McGee

Ghanaian and Kenyan Entrepreneurs: A Comparative Analysis of Their Motivations, Success Characteristics and Problems
Hung Manh Chu, Cynthia Benzing and Charles McGee

America’s Largest Black-Owned Companies: A Thirty-Year Longitudinal Analysis
Matthew Sonfield

The Economic Limits of Trust: The Case of a Latin American Urban Informal Commerce Sector
Klaus Jaffe, Sary Levy Carciente and Wladimir Zanoni

Civic Capitalism: Entrepreneurs, their Ventures and Communities
Daniel Monti, Andrea Ryan, Candida Brush and Amy Gannon

Native American Entrepreneurs and Strategic Choice

Jane Swinney and Rodney Runyan

In a study of 149 entrepreneurs operating businesses in heavily Native American indigenous communities, no significant differences were found in three constructs of entrepreneurial business orientation and two constructs of small business orientation between Native American entrepreneurs and majority entrepreneurs. Community development officials can use the findings to lay the foundation for cultivating entrepreneurship among all community residents as no significant differences between indigenous and majority small business owners in their strategic choices of entrepreneurial and small business orientations was found. This information allows development officials to approach all potential entrepreneurs with a common method.

The Influence of Social Ties and Self-Efficacy in Forming Entrepreneurial Intentions and Motivating Nascent Behavior

Jennifer Sequeira, Stephen Mueller and Jeffrey McGee

Theoretical models of entrepreneurship suggest that an individual’s intention to start an enterprise is a strong predictor of eventual entrepreneurial action. Less understood are factors that influence the likelihood of entrepreneurial intentions and nascent behavior. In this study we develop and test several hypotheses about how social network ties and self-efficacy affect entrepreneurial intentions and nascent behavior. We found that a personal network of supportive strong ties coupled with high entrepreneurial self-efficacy increases the likelihood of entrepreneurial intentions and nascent behavior. A personal network of weak ties with practical business knowledge and experience also increases the likelihood of entrepreneurial nascent behavior but not entrepreneurial intentions. In contrast, a personal network of strong ties with practical business knowledge and experience has little effect on either intentions or nascent behavior and may, in fact, suppress both. The contribution of this study to nascent entrepreneurship research and implications for future research are discussed.

Ghanaian and Kenyan Entrepreneurs: A Comparative Analysis of Their Motivations, Success Characteristics and Problems

Hung Manh Chu, Cynthia Benzing and Charles McGee

Three hundred and fifty-six entrepreneurs from Kenya and Ghana were surveyed to determine their motivation for business ownership, variables contributing to their business success, and the problems they encountered. Kenyan and Ghanaian entrepreneurs indicated that increasing their income and creating jobs for themselves were leading factors motivating them to become business owners. Hard work and good customer service were cited by both Kenyan and Ghanaian business owners as critical for their success. But, compared to the Kenyan entrepreneurs, Ghanaians weighed support from family and friends and external relationship building as more important. A weak economy is the most important problem preventing entrepreneurs of both countries from achieving their goals. Ghanaian entrepreneurs were more concerned about the inability to obtain capital, while Kenyan entrepreneurs were more concerned about government regulations and problems related to business location.

America’s Largest Black-Owned Companies: A Thirty-Year Longitudinal Analysis

Matthew Sonfield

This article investigates the largest American black-owned companies over a thirty-year period, from 1974 to 2004. Trends with regard to the growth and decline of industry categories and of individual companies, and with regard to these companies’ survival rates, are analyzed. Comparable survival rates of small businesses in general, of minority businesses, and of large corporations are investigated. The important factors of corporate minority procurement programs and government minority set-aside programs are evaluated. The phenomenon of large American corporations acquiring some of the most success black-owned businesses is also studied. These various factors relating to black business success and failure lead to various implications and recommendations for current and aspiring minority business owners, as well as to consultants to and researchers of minority business.

The Economic Limits of Trust: The Case of a Latin American Urban Informal Commerce Sector

Klaus Jaffe, Sary Levy Carciente and Wladimir Zanoni

Social capital is thought to be an important source of social cohesion and a key ingredient for socioeconomic expansion in developing nations. We study its role among street vendors and their money lenders in Caracas, an illegal business based solely on trust and social bonds. We analyzed demand and supply of credit by informal street vendors and money lenders, exploring the relationship between street vendor’s assets, income generated, financial and human capital and financial strategies, and those of the money lenders. We found that street vendors’ main source of working capital were money lenders, despite charging the highest interest rate. The kind and amount of credit was not correlated to higher incomes. On the supply side we found that money lenders based their business almost exclusively on trust and manage all clients personally, which limits the growth of their business. This study suggests that the main constraint for increased productivity in the informal sector is not the cost of capital, but the transaction costs involved in accessing credit and a lack of legal enforcements, and that improvement of the lending business is difficult without institutional support.

Civic Capitalism: Entrepreneurs, their Ventures and Communities

Daniel Monti, Andrea Ryan, Candida Brush and Amy Gannon

Entrepreneurs and everyday businessmen and women have long engaged in different kinds of civic-minded activities. This study explores ways that urban entrepreneurs and managers engage in civic activities while pursuing business growth. In this preliminary analysis of owners and managers who have participated in a technical assistance program geared for entrepreneurs who are ready to take their existing venture “to the next level,” we identify a kind of entrepreneur whose business model incorporates a social mission. These aren’t “social entrepreneurs” who engage in business practices in order to push their social agenda. Nor are they mimicking businesses that follow a “corporate social responsibility” model because they were shamed into it or believe it will be good for their bottom line. These are people whose ventures must make a profit if their social mission is to be achieved. They run what we call a “civic enterprise.” Their behavior reflects a kind of “civic-minded capitalism.”