Contact: Dr. Tariq Modood
Tel. 0171 468 0468
Fax. 0171 388 0914
December 1994 - November 1995
Over the past 20 years Asian-owned firms have established a firm foothold in the British economy. In some parts of the country, Asian businesses are expanding more rapidly than those owned by any other group. There are sharp differences in business success between Asian and other ethnic minorities and also between different groups within the Asian community. In recent years a consistent pattern has emerged in which the position of Indians (including East African Asians) is not only much better than that of other Asians, but is sometimes better than that of the white majority.
This project starts out from the idea that differences in entrepreneurial success must depend on a combination of objective factors (the availability of start-up capital, expertise, geographical location and so on) and cultural norms relevant to such issues as borrowing money and paying interest, commerce and entrepreneurship and the extent to which women are permitted to interact with others outside the family.
The research will use material from a national survey of 5,500 members of ethnic minorities carried out by the Policy Studies Institute in 1993 and 1994. A carefully selected sample of about 150 Asian entrepreneurs will be re- interviewed in detail on the factors surrounding their decision to enter self-employment, their personal circumstances, their cultural values and their attitudes to entrepreneurship.
The project will be of considerable interest to those concerned with extending employment opportunities among the Asian community and to those involved more generally in the rapidly-expanding small business sector. It will also have wider implications for the understanding of how cultural norms interact with business opportunities in an area which has been identified as offering some of the most promising opportunities for economic expansion.
TARIQ MODOOD is a Senior Fellow at the Policy Studies Institute. He is the principal researcher on the Fourth National Survey of Ethnic Minorities and is author of Not Easy Being British: Colour, Culture and Citizenship, (Runnymede Trust, 1992).
HILARY METCALF is a Senior Fellow at the Policy Studies Institute.
SATNAM VIRDEE is a Research Fellow at the Policy Studies Institute and is co-author of Changing Ethnic Identities, (Policy Studies Institute, 1994).
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