The growth of minority enterprise in recent years has attracted much interest. However, the concern with ethnic minority business formation has led to a neglect of issues beyond the initial business entry decision, most importantly, survival in the context of racism and intense competition. This paper explores the issue of business survival by examining the market and managerial settings of 50 Asian employers in the typical inner-city area of Wolverhampton, England.
Despite operating in the `open' market, many employers still faced severe racial constraints which thwarted the development of their businesses. In managing these constraints, the family was an important though not uncomplicated resource. It could also act as a brake upon management and `rational' modes of operation. Furthermore, the `family' label masked the differential nature of gender relations within Asian firms and obscured the critical de facto managerial roles played by women at work. Business survival in such cases therefore is a complex social process that needs to be set against a context of racism and gender relations.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Aldrich, H., Jones, T. & McEvoy, D. (1984) `Ethnic advantage and minority business development', in R. Ward and R. Jenkins (eds.) Ethnic Communities in Business, London: Cambridge.
2.
Bhachu, P. (1988) `Apni Marzi Kardhi. Home and Work: Sikh Women in Britain', in S. Westward and P. Bhachu (eds.) Enterprising Women, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
3.
Boissevain, J.et al. (1990) `European trends in ethnic business', in R. Waldingeret al. (eds.) Ethnic Entrepreneurs, London: Sage.
4.
Bryman, A. (1988) `Introduction: "inside accounts and social research in organisations",'in A. Bryman (ed.) Doing Research in Organisations, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
5.
Bulmer, M. (1988) `Some reflections upon research in organisations', in A. Bryman (ed.) Doing Research in Organisations, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
6.
Department of Employment. (1988) Employment Gazette, March, 164-177.
7.
Hayden, C. (1992) `A case study of the clothing industry in the West Midlands', in D. Gillingwater and P. Totterdil (eds.) Prospects for Industrial Policy in the 1990's: The Case of the British Clothing Industry, Aldershot: Gower.
8.
Hobbs, D. (1988) Doing the Business: Entrepreneurship, the Working Class and Detectives in the East End of London, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
9.
Hoel, B. (1984) `Contemporary clothing sweatshops. Asian female labour and collective organisation', in J. West (ed.) Work, Women and the Labour Market, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
10.
Jenkins, R. (1984) `Ethnic minorities in Britain: a research agenda', in R. Ward and R. Jenkins (eds.) Ethnic Communities in Business, London: Cambridge.
11.
Jones, T. & McEvoy, D. (1991) `Ethnic resources and opportunity structure: Asian enterprise in Britain and Canada', paper to the round table on "Entrepreneurs Between Two Worlds", Paris, 6 December.
12.
Jones, T.et al. (1989) `Ethnic communities and business needs', report for the Commission for Racial Equality.
13.
Ladbury, S. (1984) `Choice, chance or no alternative', in R. Ward and R. Jenkins (eds.) Ethnic Communities in Business, London: Cambridge.
14.
Leign, R. & North, R. (1983) `The clothing sector in the West Midlands', report for West Midlands County Council.
15.
MacMillan, K.et al. (1989) `Consultation with small business', research paper no. 66, Department of Employment.
16.
Mitter, S. (1986) `Industrial restructuring and manufacturing homework', Capital and Class, 27, 37-80.
17.
Morokvasic, M.et al. (1990) `Business on the ragged edge', in R. Waldingeret al. (eds.) Ethnic Entrepreneurs, London: Sage.
18.
Nowikowski, S. (1984) `Snakes and ladders', in R. Ward and R. Jenkins (eds.) Ethnic Communities in Business, Cambridge: London.
19.
Oakley, A. (1981) `Interviewing women: a contradiction in terms', in H. Roberts (ed.) Doing Feminist Research, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
20.
Patel, S. (1988) `Insurance and ethnic community business', New Community, 15, 79-89.
21.
Phizacklea, A. (1984) `A sociology of migration or "race relations"? A view from Britain', Current Sociology, 32, 3, 206-218.
22.
Phizacklea, A. (1990) Unpacking the Fashion Industry, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
23.
Ram, M. (forthcoming) Managing to Survive - Working Lives in Small Firms, Oxford: Blackwell.
24.
Smith, P. (1991) `Targeted interventions from the training and enterprise councils', paper to the Fourteenth National Small Firms Conference, Blackpool, November.
25.
Stanworth, J. & Gray, C. (1992) `Entrepreneurship and education', International Small Business Journal, 10, 2.
26.
Totterdill, P. & Zeitlin, J. (1989) `Markets, technology and local intervention', in P. Hirst and J. Zeitlin (eds.) Reversing Industrial Decline: Industrial Structure and Industrial Policy in Britain and her Competitors, Berg: St Martins Press.
27.
Waldinger, R.et al. (1990) `Opportunities, group characteristics and strategies', in R. Waldingeret al. (eds.) Ethnic Entrepreneurs, London: Sage.
28.
Ward, R. (1987) `Resistance, accommodation and advantage; strategic development in ethnic business, in G. Lee and R. Loveridge The Manufacture of Disadvantage, Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
29.
Ward, R. (1991) `Economic development and ethnic business', in J. Curran and R. Blackburn (eds.) Paths of Enterprise, London: Routledge.
30.
Ward, R. & Jenkins, R. (1984) (eds.) Ethnic Communities in Business, London: Cambridge.
31.
Werbner, `P. (1984) `Business on trust', in R. Ward and R. Jenkins (eds.) Ethnic Communities in Business, London: Cambridge.
32.
Westwood, S. & Bhachu, D. (1988) (eds.) `Introduction', in Enterprising Women, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
