M Ram
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 48067 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | M Ram |
| NOMBRES | M |
| APELLIDO | Ram |
| FIRMA | RAM M |
| AFILIACIONES | De Montfort University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1901-6654 |
| VERIFICADO | Sí |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 54 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 495 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 54 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 1984 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 13 |
Diasporic Connections Revisited
This reflective article revisits a classic Area article on Asian women's entrepreneurship, examining its enduring significance through the lens of personal experience and three decades of research on ethnic minority enterprise. Hardill and Raghuram challenged simplistic cultural and structural explanations of entrepreneurship by demonstrating how gender, class, ethnicity and migration history intersect to shape business strategies. Drawing on liv…
Agency through Informality
How do Bangladeshi restaurant owners exercise agency during periods of extreme uncertainty? This question matters most when resource-constrained businesses face existential threats. This longitudinal study examines Bangladeshi-owned restaurants across multiple crises, identifying three agency forms operating through informal practices: navigational (contextual adaptations), relational (social network mobilisation) and innovative (entrepreneurial …
Market-based resistance
Regulation of migrant entrepreneurship
We are struck by a curious paradox: the flourishing discourse on migrant entrepreneurship is replete with references to the regulatory environment; yet the precise ways in which regulations exert influence is rarely spelt out. This task is all the more urgent because policymakers are alighting on the fact that migrants often turn to self‐employment to make their way in destination societies. Yet, the extent to which regulations – comprising laws …
What happens to refugee-origin entrepreneurs? Combining mixed embeddedness and strategy perspectives in a longitudinal study
Whilst it is acknowledged that refugees are more likely to select into self-employment due to discrimination and labour market exclusion, we know little about how their ventures perform over time. To address this gap, we draw upon qualitative longitudinal evidence gathered in 2010 and 2018 in the UK to explore the outcomes of their ventures and what strategies they have put in place. We argue that the trajectories of refugee-owned businesses are …
Much ado about very little
This article presents a historical reprise of 40 years of policy interest in ethnic minority businesses in the UK. It contrasts the pronouncements of policymakers with the reality of ethnic minority entrepreneurship. Such an exercise is surprisingly rare given the activism of policymakers in this arena and growing scholarly interest in this field. Our historical overview is informed by a novel research method that plots references to ethnic minor…
Thwarted or Facilitated? The Entrepreneurial Aspirations and Capabilities of New Migrants in the UK
This article draws on biographical interviews with migrants to assess their aspirations and capabilities to become entrepreneurs. By augmenting mixed embeddedness emphasis on contextual factors with Sen's capabilities framework, we contribute to extant sociological debates on the interaction of structure and agency, the conceptualisation of aspirations, the non-pecuniary aspects of entrepreneurship and the role of institutions in neoliberal Brita…
Diversity, economic development and new migrant entrepreneurs
How do migrant entrepreneurs contribute to economic development? The growing attention to the contribution that migrants make tends to be skewed towards their economic role. Drawing on interviews with 49 new migrant business owners and 60 workers in the West Midlands, UK, we argue that benefits of diversity should be explored beyond the economic dividend. We engage with key theoretical developments in the fields of migrant entrepreneurship and di…
Bricolage as Survival, Growth and Transformation
This article examines the patch-working strategies of migrant entrepreneurs as a form of social agency. 'Patch-working' - the reliance on supplementary forms of income to support business activity - is often seen as a means of cushioning the financial vulnerability of small firms. However, the mechanisms and forms that patch-working takes tend to be overlooked. Evidence from 42 West Midlands' firms shows that, despite the highly constrained opera…
Injecting reality into the migrant entrepreneurship agenda
This chapter argues that the generally uncritical celebration of migrant entrepreneurship has been part and parcel of a broader neoliberal paradigm, described by one leading economist as 'the dominant economic view since the 1980s'. It also highlights how this growth in the volume of migrant firms did not run in parallel to their quality, showing historical continuities in relation to the features of these new businesses, such as their distributi…
From the informal economy to the meaning of informality
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess ways in which informality can be understood and reviews an emerging area of management scholarship. The origins and nature of informality are discussed with the aid of two different theoretical tools: “workplace sociology” (WS) and “mixed embeddedness” (ME). Design/methodology/approach The analysis is grounded in empirical material reflecting different aspects of informality mainly within the ethnic …
New migrant businesses and their workers
Studies of businesses established by migrants to the UK traditionally stressed coethnicrelationships as economic resources. More recent work identifies a newethnic economy characterized by migrants' common experiences, withethnicity playing less of a role. The present study complements this newerperspective through investigation of the experiences of forty-nine businessowners and sixty of their workers in the West Midlands. Economicrelationships …
Getting your hands dirty
How can critical social scientists pursue critically engaged research? This question is addressed by examining how an action research intervention, informed by critical realism, was used to assist a business support agency (SUPPAG) to provide support to new migrant business owners. The article responds to calls for more engaged approaches to research, and more engagement with new migrants in different forms of employment. Key critical realist ide…
New Migrant Enterprise
How far does new migrant enterprise represent a departure from traditional ethnic minority entrepreneurship in the UK? This paper draws on a qualitative survey of 165 new migrants in the UK to address this question. New migrants to the UK are emblematic of ‘super-diversity’, which some believe heralds a significant departure from previous forms of migration. The extent to which this process has a substantive impact on the kinds of businesses that…
The Ethnic Entrepreneurial Transition
The Indian community in the UK is exemplifying an ‘ethnic entrepreneurial transition’. Impressive educational credentials, an increasing presence in the professions and diversification into new and emerging sectors are gradually changing the profile of Indian entrepreneurship. This paper reports on the growing convergence of Indian self-employment with white-owned businesses, a trend first noted in 2003. We examine the factors behind this growing…
Raising the 'table stakes'? Ethnic minority businesses and supply chain relationships
This article examines the experiences of small ethnic minority-owned businesses (EMBs) engaged in supply chain relationships with large purchasing organizations (LPOs). Working with the complementary frameworks of Edwards et al. (2006) and Kloosterman et al. (1999), we assess the effects on the internal dynamics of EMB firms of a move into the LPO supply chain. Drawing on case study evidence from three sectors - business services, information and…
Transnationalism as a Force for Ethnic Minority Enterprise? The Case of Somalis in Leicester
The extant literature on the phenomenon of transnational entrepreneurship has documented that in an era characterized by 'superdiversity', ethnic minorities use their diasporic networks to access an array of valuable resources in order to facilitate entrepreneurial activity. The article examines the connection between the notions of 'superdiversity', transnationalism and entrepreneurship by illuminating the dynamics of 'transnational' Somali busi…
Introduction to special issue
This special issue aims to develop new perspectives on the much-debated issue of risk. As the articles discuss in detail, and as thus need no comment here, the works of Beck and Giddens in particular established the broad idea of the ‘risk society’. The idea is that modern economies expose workers to increased insecurity and uncertainty. Following on from this broad concept, some researchers have used nationally representative samples to assess t…
Forms of capital, mixed embeddedness and Somali enterprise
What form is small business activity taking among new migrants in the UK? This question is addressed by examining the case of Somalis in the English city of Leicester.We apply a novel synthesis of the Nee and Sanders' (2001) 'forms of capital' model with the 'mixed embeddedness' approach (Rath, 2000) to enterprises established by newly arrived immigrant communities, combining agency and structure perspectives. Data are drawn from business-owners …
Policy Transfer in Practice
This article draws on the policy transfer literature to examine a UK‐based initiative to promote supplier diversity and provides insights into three areas neglected in current research, namely: the dynamics of non‐governmental policy transfer; the factors that mediate policy transfer in different jurisdictions; and the integration of research and practice in small business related policy transfer. To this end, an innovative action research approa…
Re-embedding the ethnic business agenda
There has been a flurry of interest from academics and policy-makers alike in the growing phenomenon of ethnic minority entrepreneurship. Despite theoretical advances, there is a lingering tendency to isolate ethnic minority enterprise from the context in which it operates. This article argues for a re-embedding of ethnic minority owned firms in a broader, and longer established, tradition of small business ownership. A more 'integrated' analysis…
Staying Underground
Why does a universal labor law, the National Minimum Wage (NMW) in the United Kingdom, have little effect on firms operating in the informal economy? In explaining this particular empirical puzzle, the authors go beyond dominant accounts of the informal economy-the neo-liberal and the marginalization theses-to develop analysis based on the negotiation of consent within the labor process. Evidence from employers and employees in 17 firms is presen…
The Structuringof Working Relationships in Small Firms
Small firms operating in competitive conditions are often assumed to follow the dictates of the market. Existing institutionalist research shows that they are in fact embedded in networks and thus shaped by social institutions. It does not, however, show how different types of firm are embedded in different ways. A formal framework is thus developed, setting out the external context and internal resources that shape small firms’ behaviour. The fr…
Shades of grey in the informal economy
Purpose This paper seeks to examine the influence of the national minimum wage (NMW) in the UK to small business owners operating in the informal economy. Design/methodology/approach Using the clothing and restaurant sectors as a context, the responses of ethnic minority employers operating in the informal economy are examined in the light of market and regulatory change (notably, the NMW). Case studies are undertaken with 17 business owners and …
Ethnic Managerialism and Its Discontents
Encouraging ethnic minorities to engage in a ‘culture of enterprise’ is a feature of New Labour's small-firm policy agenda. One manifestation of this is the increased activity on the part of ‘ethnic brokers’ involved in enterprise support. These developments appear to be detached from discussions in sociological circles alluding to the relational and contingent nature of ethnicity, and the concomitant inadequacy of racial categories that flourish…
Forms of capital, mixed embeddedness and Somali enterprise
What form is small business activity taking among new migrants in the UK? This question is addressed by examining the case of Somalis in the English city of Leicester.We apply a novel synthesis of the Nee and Sanders' (2001) 'forms of capital' model with the 'mixed embeddedness' approach (Rath, 2000) to enterprises established by newly arrived immigrant communities, combining agency and structure perspectives. Data are drawn from business-owners …
The Dynamics of Informality
This paper addresses two related issues: the effect of the `regulatory shock' of the National Minimum Wage on small firms and the consequent effects on the commonly observed practice of `informality'. It draws on a survey of such firms but primarily uses case study evidence from five firms to examine the processes at work. Detailed case studies of such firms remain rare, and they tend to analyse a largely unchanging world. We show how patterns of…
Being Your Own Boss
Exploring the notion that business activities are embedded in social relations this small scale study of 10 ethnic minority businesses in Lyon, France matched with 10 minority businesses in Birmingham, UK questions the degree of `choice' or `preference' being exercised by these entrepreneurs in their dealings with family and co-ethnics. Using qualitative methods the study concludes that many of these choices are shaped by a hostile environment wh…
Coping with Racism
The growth of minority enterprise in recent years has attracted much interest. However, the concern with ethnic minority business formation has led to a neglect of issues beyond the initial business entry decision, most importantly, survival in the context of racism and intense competition. This paper explores the issue of business survival by examining the market and managerial settings of 50 Asian employers in the typical inner-city area of Wol…
Re-embedding the ethnic business agenda
There has been a flurry of interest from academics and policy-makers alike in the growing phenomenon of ethnic minority entrepreneurship. Despite theoretical advances, there is a lingering tendency to isolate ethnic minority enterprise from the context in which it operates. This article argues for a re-embedding of ethnic minority owned firms in a broader, and longer established, tradition of small business ownership. A more 'integrated' analysis…
New migrant businesses and their workers
Studies of businesses established by migrants to the UK traditionally stressed coethnicrelationships as economic resources. More recent work identifies a newethnic economy characterized by migrants' common experiences, withethnicity playing less of a role. The present study complements this newerperspective through investigation of the experiences of forty-nine businessowners and sixty of their workers in the West Midlands. Economicrelationships …
Shades of grey in the informal economy
Purpose This paper seeks to examine the influence of the national minimum wage (NMW) in the UK to small business owners operating in the informal economy. Design/methodology/approach Using the clothing and restaurant sectors as a context, the responses of ethnic minority employers operating in the informal economy are examined in the light of market and regulatory change (notably, the NMW). Case studies are undertaken with 17 business owners and …
Ethnic minority business in comparative perspective
British research on ethnic minority entrepreneurship has often endeavoured to account for the prominence or otherwise of ethnic minority groups in business. This trend towards explicating the diversity of ethnic minorities in business has intensified with recent attention to apparently significant variations within the South Asian community itself. But how 'different' is ethnic minority business activity from the wider small firm population? This…
Staying Underground
Why does a universal labor law, the National Minimum Wage (NMW) in the United Kingdom, have little effect on firms operating in the informal economy? In explaining this particular empirical puzzle, the authors go beyond dominant accounts of the informal economy-the neo-liberal and the marginalization theses-to develop analysis based on the negotiation of consent within the labor process. Evidence from employers and employees in 17 firms is presen…
Apprentice Entrepreneurs'? Ethnic Minority Workers in the Independent Restaurant Sector
Ethnic minority business activity has often been presented as a vehicle for `upward mobility' for owners and workers alike. Much attention has focused upon the owners themselves. The co-ethnic labour that such employers usually rely upon has often been treated as unproblematic. This paper aims to illuminate the experiences of workers in ethnic minority owned restaurants. In particular, the widely held view that working in a co-ethnic firm serves …
Banking on 'break-out
Reflecting recent changes in the pattern of ethnic minority business activity in Britain, this paper examines the experiences of firms attempting to break out from the cramped range of generally marginal activities historically occupied by South Asian, African-Caribbean and other immigrant-origin entrepreneurs. Based on in-depth case histories supplemented by a large-scale quantitative survey, the present paper addresses the financial experiences…
Relative Merits
Small firms are saturated with the ideology of the family. For some, the notion of the 'family firm' conjures up an image of harmony at the workplace; moreover, it is seen to serve as an important source of flexibility. Others, however, view it as little more than a cover-up of exploitative practices which are believed to be dominant in small firms. Using an ethnographic approach, this article explores in detail how the notion of the family is ac…
Ethnic Minority Enterprise in its Urban Context
The embeddedness of ethnic minority business activity is widely accepted, as researchers increasingly eschew ethno-culturalist explanations of the phenomenon. However, despite the importance of urban processes, studies of ethnic minority enterprise are often 'spaceless'. This article uses Rekers and van Kempen's urban spatial framework to assess the experiences of South Asian owners in Birmingham's restaurant industry. One taken-for-granted but e…
Bricolage as Survival, Growth and Transformation
This article examines the patch-working strategies of migrant entrepreneurs as a form of social agency. 'Patch-working' - the reliance on supplementary forms of income to support business activity - is often seen as a means of cushioning the financial vulnerability of small firms. However, the mechanisms and forms that patch-working takes tend to be overlooked. Evidence from 42 West Midlands' firms shows that, despite the highly constrained opera…
Praising Caesar Not Burying Him
ike the central character, frozen in time, in the first ‘Austin Powers’ film, Barrett and Rainnie (2002) see little development in the field of small firm industrial relations since their earlier work (Rainnie, 1989). Hence we are asked to believe that extant research has yet to tackle the ‘small is beautiful’ stereotype, has accorded insufficient attention to structural forces, and has neglected employee responses to the structurally-generated u…
Transnationalism as a Force for Ethnic Minority Enterprise? The Case of Somalis in Leicester
The extant literature on the phenomenon of transnational entrepreneurship has documented that in an era characterized by 'superdiversity', ethnic minorities use their diasporic networks to access an array of valuable resources in order to facilitate entrepreneurial activity. The article examines the connection between the notions of 'superdiversity', transnationalism and entrepreneurship by illuminating the dynamics of 'transnational' Somali busi…
The Ethnic Entrepreneurial Transition
The Indian community in the UK is exemplifying an ‘ethnic entrepreneurial transition’. Impressive educational credentials, an increasing presence in the professions and diversification into new and emerging sectors are gradually changing the profile of Indian entrepreneurship. This paper reports on the growing convergence of Indian self-employment with white-owned businesses, a trend first noted in 2003. We examine the factors behind this growing…
Control and Autonomy in Small Firms
This paper explores the dynamics of workplace relations in small firms. Case study evidence from three clothing firms in the West Midlands is used to demonstrate that workplace relations in small firms are not necessarily harmonious nor autocratic. Rather, they are complex, informal and often contradictory. Even in this most competitive of industries, it is not simply a question of management autocracy. There is always a negotiation of order whic…
South Asian businesses in retreat? The case of the UK
The quantitative prominence of South Asians in self-employment has assumed an almost taken-for-granted status within the field of ethnic minority entrepreneurship. Whilst the issue of Asian business 'success' has provoked controversy, the numerical significance of South Asian self-employment is accepted with little comment. This paper presents evidence that questions this unspoken agreement. Although the experiences of South Asian groups in busin…
Getting your hands dirty
How can critical social scientists pursue critically engaged research? This question is addressed by examining how an action research intervention, informed by critical realism, was used to assist a business support agency (SUPPAG) to provide support to new migrant business owners. The article responds to calls for more engaged approaches to research, and more engagement with new migrants in different forms of employment. Key critical realist ide…
Raising the 'table stakes'? Ethnic minority businesses and supply chain relationships
This article examines the experiences of small ethnic minority-owned businesses (EMBs) engaged in supply chain relationships with large purchasing organizations (LPOs). Working with the complementary frameworks of Edwards et al. (2006) and Kloosterman et al. (1999), we assess the effects on the internal dynamics of EMB firms of a move into the LPO supply chain. Drawing on case study evidence from three sectors - business services, information and…
Making the link
The ‘family’ is frequently mentioned in assessments of the apparent distinctiveness of ethnic minority enterprise. Family involvement can account for the ‘success’ of some ethnic groups, and low rates of small business activity in others. Implicitly, such debates are recognition of the importance of the nature of the household and small business. However, few studies in Britain make explicit the link between household dynamics and ethnic minority…
Family Dynamics in a Small Consultancy Firm
Family-run enterprises are noted contributors to the small business population, particularly in terms of job creation and wealth generation. Moreover, it is well established that the presence of the family can be an important influence upon social relations in small firms. This paper examines whether family dynamics impinge upon the management of small consultancy firms, a sector that is closely associated with a discourse of' knowledge', `expert…
Policy Review Section
In this Policy Review Section, Steve Martin and Graham Pearce of the Public Sector Management Division, Aston Business School, examine the manner in which Bilmingham City Council broadened its economic development perspective over the past decade to include a series of major European initiatives. They argue that the development of this explicit international dimension is likely to become ever more prevalent during the 1990s as local authorities a…
Regulation of migrant entrepreneurship
We are struck by a curious paradox: the flourishing discourse on migrant entrepreneurship is replete with references to the regulatory environment; yet the precise ways in which regulations exert influence is rarely spelt out. This task is all the more urgent because policymakers are alighting on the fact that migrants often turn to self‐employment to make their way in destination societies. Yet, the extent to which regulations – comprising laws …
Observation of Diatoms in Greenland Ice
Diatom frustules have been found in small concentrations in a section of ice core from Crete on the Greenland ice cap. ... The statistics are poor and do not allow us to determine the diatom concentration accurately. Based on our measurements, we estimate the average diatom density (n/g) for the 0.6-m section to be 0.1/g. Also because of poor statistics, we have not been able to test whether the diatom number density exhibits seasonal variations,…
Control and Autonomy in Small Firms
This paper explores the dynamics of workplace relations in small firms. Case study evidence from three clothing firms in the West Midlands is used to demonstrate that workplace relations in small firms are not necessarily harmonious nor autocratic. Rather, they are complex, informal and often contradictory. Even in this most competitive of industries, it is not simply a question of management autocracy. There is always a negotiation of order whic…
Policy Review Section
In this Policy Review Section, Steve Martin and Graham Pearce of the Public Sector Management Division, Aston Business School, examine the manner in which Bilmingham City Council broadened its economic development perspective over the past decade to include a series of major European initiatives. They argue that the development of this explicit international dimension is likely to become ever more prevalent during the 1990s as local authorities a…
Coping with Racism
The growth of minority enterprise in recent years has attracted much interest. However, the concern with ethnic minority business formation has led to a neglect of issues beyond the initial business entry decision, most importantly, survival in the context of racism and intense competition. This paper explores the issue of business survival by examining the market and managerial settings of 50 Asian employers in the typical inner-city area of Wol…
Abrupt increase in Greenland snow accumulation at the end of the Younger Dryas event
Workplace relations in ethnic minority firms — Asians in the West Midlands clothing industry
This article explores the cocnrete ways in which minority enterprise is managed. Focusing on the Asian and small‐firm‐dominated West Midlands clothing sector, the manner in which employers accommodate the complex pressures of an environment characterised by intense competition, racism and uncertainty are examined. Despite the burgeoning accounts of ethnic enterprise, relatively little is known of how minority entrepreneurs manage at the level of …
Relative Merits
Small firms are saturated with the ideology of the family. For some, the notion of the 'family firm' conjures up an image of harmony at the workplace; moreover, it is seen to serve as an important source of flexibility. Others, however, view it as little more than a cover-up of exploitative practices which are believed to be dominant in small firms. Using an ethnographic approach, this article explores in detail how the notion of the family is ac…
Policy Review Section
In this issue of the Policy Review Section, Alan Williams, Gareth Shaw and Martin Huber of the Department of Geography, University of Exeter, examine the extent to which local authorities in the UK are utilizing the promotion of the arts in their local economic development strategies. They consider in particular whether there are any systematic regional or urban rural variations in the application of such policies. In the second article, Stephen …
The Politics of Research
Local consultation', 'community involvement', and 'partnership' are terms that are assuming increasing prominence in the discourse on urban regeneration. The actual substance of such labels is unclear, but with the increasing diffusion of City Challenge and similar initiatives it is likely that 'people-related' themes will be a particular concern for policy-makers in these contexts. Drawing on my experience as a consultant on a project that aimed…
African-Caribbeans in business
Despite concerns over trajectory of the ‘enterprise’ economy, there can be little doubt that ethnic minorities have played a significant role in reviving the small firm scene. With higher than average rates of self‐employment, the apparent capacity for entrepreneurship of many ethnic groups, particularly Asians, has attracted much interest. However, African‐Caribbeans are comparatively under‐represented in the small business community; they do no…
Being Your Own Boss
Exploring the notion that business activities are embedded in social relations this small scale study of 10 ethnic minority businesses in Lyon, France matched with 10 minority businesses in Birmingham, UK questions the degree of `choice' or `preference' being exercised by these entrepreneurs in their dealings with family and co-ethnics. Using qualitative methods the study concludes that many of these choices are shaped by a hostile environment wh…
Complexity and Diversity
Enterprise support and ethnic minority firms
Encouraging ethnic minority communities into business has been an implicit feature of the small firm policy agenda since the 1980s. However, comparatively little is known of the views of those directly involved in providing enterprise development support. This subject is addressed here through a study on the experiences of those engaged in the ‘front‐line’ provision of such support to ethnic enterprise. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 22 k…
Managing professional service firms in a multi-ethnic context
Whether ethnic minority enterprise is a distinctive phenomenon markedly different from the general small firm population continues to be a major point of interest. However, there are two curious omissions within existing debates. First, the management of social relations within the workplace is rarely an explicit focus for research. Second, the increasingly significant small professional or business service sector remains neglected despite its gr…
Hustling, Hassling and Making it Happen
The investigation of work in small consultancy firms poses particular challenges for researchers. These include the omnipotence of the founding entrepreneur, estrangement from the academic community, a lack of time, an ambiguous knowledge base and the ostensibly unitarist nature of work relations in such settings. Drawing on the experience of an intensive fieldwork study of employment relations in three small consultancy firms, this paper examine…
Ethnic minority business in comparative perspective
British research on ethnic minority entrepreneurship has often endeavoured to account for the prominence or otherwise of ethnic minority groups in business. This trend towards explicating the diversity of ethnic minorities in business has intensified with recent attention to apparently significant variations within the South Asian community itself. But how 'different' is ethnic minority business activity from the wider small firm population? This…
Family Dynamics in a Small Consultancy Firm
Family-run enterprises are noted contributors to the small business population, particularly in terms of job creation and wealth generation. Moreover, it is well established that the presence of the family can be an important influence upon social relations in small firms. This paper examines whether family dynamics impinge upon the management of small consultancy firms, a sector that is closely associated with a discourse of' knowledge', `expert…
Making the link
The ‘family’ is frequently mentioned in assessments of the apparent distinctiveness of ethnic minority enterprise. Family involvement can account for the ‘success’ of some ethnic groups, and low rates of small business activity in others. Implicitly, such debates are recognition of the importance of the nature of the household and small business. However, few studies in Britain make explicit the link between household dynamics and ethnic minority…
The Dynamics of Informality
This paper addresses two related issues: the effect of the `regulatory shock' of the National Minimum Wage on small firms and the consequent effects on the commonly observed practice of `informality'. It draws on a survey of such firms but primarily uses case study evidence from five firms to examine the processes at work. Detailed case studies of such firms remain rare, and they tend to analyse a largely unchanging world. We show how patterns of…
Apprentice Entrepreneurs'? Ethnic Minority Workers in the Independent Restaurant Sector
Ethnic minority business activity has often been presented as a vehicle for `upward mobility' for owners and workers alike. Much attention has focused upon the owners themselves. The co-ethnic labour that such employers usually rely upon has often been treated as unproblematic. This paper aims to illuminate the experiences of workers in ethnic minority owned restaurants. In particular, the widely held view that working in a co-ethnic firm serves …
Public Policy, the Performance of Firms, and the 'Missing Middle
The social and economic institutions of a country provide a framework shaping the performance of individual firms. The introduction of the National Minimum Wage (NMW) in the UK provides a key illustration of the weakness of institutions and the ways in which they might be strengthened. Evidence from 81 small firms in three sectors reveals limited responses to the NMW. It points to the potential role of local business networks in filling the gap b…
Ethnic Minority Enterprise in its Urban Context
The embeddedness of ethnic minority business activity is widely accepted, as researchers increasingly eschew ethno-culturalist explanations of the phenomenon. However, despite the importance of urban processes, studies of ethnic minority enterprise are often 'spaceless'. This article uses Rekers and van Kempen's urban spatial framework to assess the experiences of South Asian owners in Birmingham's restaurant industry. One taken-for-granted but e…
Reassessing Portfolio Entrepreneurship
Supplier diversity initiatives and the diversification of ethnic minority businesses in the UK
This paper examines the role that supplier diversity initiatives can play in opening up market opportunities for ethnic minority businesses (EMBs). EMBs have long been encouraged to diversify from inauspicious ‘low value’ niches; for some, the prospect of contracts with public and private sector organisations could serve as a means of facilitating this process. The advent of the Race Relations Amendment Act provides a legislative stimulus for div…
Banking on 'break-out
Reflecting recent changes in the pattern of ethnic minority business activity in Britain, this paper examines the experiences of firms attempting to break out from the cramped range of generally marginal activities historically occupied by South Asian, African-Caribbean and other immigrant-origin entrepreneurs. Based on in-depth case histories supplemented by a large-scale quantitative survey, the present paper addresses the financial experiences…
Political science (40 obras) · Economics (36 obras) · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy (35 obras) · Sociology (35 obras) · Business (32 obras) · Entrepreneurship Studies and Influences (27 obras) · Ethnic group (23 obras) · Law (19 obras) · Public relations (17 obras) · Entrepreneurship (16 obras)