Indigenous Entrepreneurship: An Analysis of the 2007 Survey of Business Owners

Using data from the 2007 Survey of Business Owners collected by the U.S. Census, I analyze businesses owned by Native American/Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islanders. I find that businesses owned by Native people have a negative effect on the dependent variables and success measures of annual business Receipts and annual Payroll. Attempts to uncover possible explanations are challenged by small sample sizes caused by non-response to additional survey questions by Native survey participants. I also demonstrate varying positive and negative effects on annual business Receipts and annual Payroll for Native-owned businesses, influenced by the different industry categories as defined by the NAICS classification of the business