新作坊 Humanity Innovation and Social Practice

The Ethnic Ownership Economy

摘要：

A substantial body of sociological researchconcerning ethnic economies is reviewed and summarized.Having pointed outthat an ethnic economy consists of the ethnic-controlled economy and the ethnicownership economy, the author explores such issues as the disadvantage thatdrives some immigrant and ethnic minority workers to self-employment and thecredit-starved environment in which most ethnic ownership economiesoperate. A review of the literature criticizing interaction theory, whichteaches that immigrant and ethnic minority business depend upon the fit betweenlocal demand and what groups can supply, follows. The author then offers three challenges for future research: the first is toexamine how immigrant entrepreneurs differ from non-immigrant entrepreneurs,the second is to investigate how immigrants’ resources differ from those ofmore mainstream entrepreneurs, and the third is to study how immigrant/ethnicand non-immigrant entrepreneurs in multi-ethnic societies operate in socialnetworks with very little overlap.