Who Needs Security? Entrepreneurial Minorities,Security Values,and Firm Performance

Abstract

In this study, the authors seek to enhance their understanding of why minority and majority entrepreneurs succeed at different rates, by going beyond surface-level demographic variables and investigating deep-level differences between these groups. The present research suggests that minorities exhibit differences in security values. This helps explain previous evidence that minority-owned small businesses perform worse than their majority-owned counterparts. Results suggest that security values fully mediate the relationship between ethnicity and firm performance. In addition, the authors’ analysis suggests that access to capital helps explain the influence of security values on firm performance. An explanatory model is proposed.

Keywords

minority status personal values security small business firm performance

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