Understanding U.K. ethnic minority entrepreneurship from an enterprise culture perspective

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Lam, W., Harris, P., & Yang, S. (2019). Understanding UK ethnic minority entrepreneurship from an enterprise cultre perspective. Journal of Public Affairs, 19(2), e1922., which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1922. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions.Objectives: This paper is aimed at examining the enterprise culture within different ethnic groups (i.e., the enterprise subcultures) in the United Kingdom. The research aims to investigate the interplay between individuals and their institutional context (especially social and cultural context) and how the different institutional contexts then shape the different enterprise cultures, leading to differentiated ethnic business characteristics and consequently different levels of entrepreneurial activity in different ethnic communities. Prior work: Unequivocal evidence shows that certain ethnic groups display higher levels of entrepreneurial activity than their White counterparts. Despite the large amount of work that has been dedicated to ethnic minority entrepreneurship, there is a lack of coherent conceptual and analytical framework that addresses the links between different factors contributing to ethnic minority entrepreneurship. This paper takes forward the available empirical evidence and theoretical constructs into a conceptual and methodological framework to aid understanding of ethnic minority entrepreneurship. Approach: A process‐oriented research framework to investigate the enterprise culture within different ethnic groups (i.e., the enterprise subcultures) is proposed rather than one oriented primarily towards the differentiation of characteristics. Results: A large‐scale national survey in the United Kingdom is adopted. The findings of the quantitative fieldwork will form the central part of this paper. . Implications: Understanding how and why certain ethnic groups are more entrepreneurial may assist the different parties in different ways. First, learning from the more entrepreneurial subcultures may contribute to the development and implementation of more effective public policies and efficient service delivery programmes. Second, advancing understanding of ethnic communities helps to support more informed decisions by policymakers and local support agencies through improved anticipation and greater understanding of responses. Third, it helps entrepreneurs and potential entrepreneurs to have a better understanding of the nature of their perceived barriers and constraints by demonstrating potential solutions successfully employed by other subcultures. Value: The conceptual and methodological development of this study has the potential to build the link between relevant parties and pave the way forward for ethnic entrepreneurship research