Professor Choi,
We simply followed the common use of the term Asian-owned businesses
by the U.S. Census Bureau in its publications using the data. The
most recent publications by the Census Bureau also use this
terminology. But, I should note that throughout the book we use the
terms black-owned businesses, Latino-owned businesses and Asian-owned
businesses. There are indeed a few places where we use the term
African-American, but this is much less common. In our chapter on
Asian American businesses we also use the term Asian-American is a
few places. But, overall in the book we used the SMOBE/CBO/SBO
conventions of not including the -American terms.
Our goal in the book was to provide an objective, comprehensive
analysis of the determinants of entrepreneurial success and the
causes of racial differences in business performance. We tried our
best to use as consistent of terms as possible for each racial/ethnic
group. We apologize if this did not come across well in the MIT
Press promotional blurb.
Rob
At 10:10 AM 7/29/2008, David Y Choi wrote:
>Dr. Fairlie:
>
>Please use the term "Asian American" when you refer to Asians in the
>U.S. You used "African American" consistently but used "Asian" in
>several places in your annoucement. Your co-author's presentation at
>Babson only used "Asian" in the entire powerpoint document.
>
>According to American Heritage Dictionary: A U.S. citizen or
>resident of Asian descent.
>
>According to Wikepedia
><http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_American>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_American
>"Today, Asian American is the accepted term for most formal
>purposes, such as government and academic research.."
>
>Amazing.
>
>
>
>
>On 7/28/08, Rob Fairlie <<mailto:
rfairlie@ucsc.edu>
rfairlie@ucsc.edu> wrote:
>Alicia Robb and I have just finished a new book on race and
>entrepreneurship that may be of interest to the Entrepreneurship
>Group. Here's the writeup from MIT Press:
>
>Thirteen million people in the United Statesroughly one in
>ten workersown a business. And yet rates of business ownership
>among African Americans are much lower and have been so throughout
>the twentieth century. In addition, and perhaps more importantly,
>businesses owned by African Americans tend to have lower sales,
>fewer employees and smaller payrolls, lower profits, and higher
>closure rates. In contrast, Asian American-owned businesses tend to
>be more successful. In Race and Entrepreneurial Success, minority
>entrepreneurship authorities Robert Fairlie and Alicia Robb examine
>racial disparities in business performance. Drawing on the rarely
>used, restricted-access Characteristics of Business Owners (CBO)
>dataset compiled by the U.S. Census Bureau, Fairlie and Robb examine
>in particular why Asian-owned firms perform well in comparison to
>white-owned businesses and black-owned firms typically do not. They
>also explore the broader question of why some entrepreneurs are
>successful and others are not.
>
>After providing new comprehensive estimates of recent trends in
>minority business ownership and performance, the authors examine the
>importance of human capital, financial capital, and family business
>background in successful business ownership. They find that a high
>level of startup capital is the most important factor contributing
>to the success of Asian-owned businesses, and that the lack of
>startup money for black businesses (attributable to the fact nearly
>half of all black families have less than $6,000 in total wealth)
>contributes to their relative lack of success. In addition, higher
>education levels among Asian business owners explain of their
>success relative to both white- and African American-owned
>businesses. Finally, Fairlie and Robb find that black entrepreneurs
>have fewer opportunities than white entrepreneurs acquire valuable
>pre-business work experience through working in family businesses.
>
>Robert W. Fairlie is Professor of Economics and Alicia M. Robb is
>Research Associate at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
>
>Order from <http://mitpress.mit.edu/>mitpress.mit.edu,
><http://amazon.com/>amazon.com, barnes&<http://noble.com/>noble.com
>$35 978-0-262-06281-7
>
>This book does what few other books do. It looks at the data on race
>and entrepreneurship and uses the facts, not ideology, to provide
>the correct answers. If you are an entrepreneur, policy maker,
>researcher or concerned citizen who cares about racial differences
>in entrepreneurial success then you need to read this book.
>Scott Shane, author of Illusions
>of Entrepreneurship: The Costly
>Myths that Entrepreneurs, Investors,
>and Policy Makers Live By
>
>The relationship between race and entrepreneurial success is
>a critical social issue. Fairlie and Robb provide a comprehensive
>discussion of the existing empirical literature in addition to
>presenting important new results. This volume is required reading
>for anyone who wants to understand racial differences in the
>propensity to start and grow new businesses.
>Harvey Rosen,
>Princeton University
>
>The relationship between race and ethnicity on the one hand and
>entrepreneurial activity and success on the other has attracted much
>discussion. But much of our understanding has been based on anecdote
>and preconception, rather than facts. Fairlie and Robbs book is a
>much-needed contribution, with careful research that dramatically
>enhances our understanding of this vital topic.
>Josh Lerner, Harvard Business School
>
>
>
>
>Robert Fairlie
>Professor of Economics and
>Director of M.S. Program in Applied Economics and Finance
>Department of Economics
>Engineering 2 Building
>University of California
>Santa Cruz, CA 95064
>office: 831-459-3332
>fax: 831-459-5077
>
><http://people.ucsc.edu/~rfairlie/>http://people.ucsc.edu/~rfairlie/
>**************************************
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>
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>Bunch <mailto:
jbunch@benedictine.edu>
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>
>Ventures HO!
>
>
>
>
>--
>Dr. David Y. Choi
>310 338 2344 (o)
>818 632 5853 (c) ************************************** This message
>is from ENTREP which is sponsored by the Entrepreneurship Division
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>If you have questions or need help, please contact Dr. John Bunch
>
jbunch@benedictine.edu. Ventures HO!
Robert Fairlie
Professor of Economics and
Director of M.S. Program in Applied Economics and Finance
Department of Economics
Engineering 2 Building
University of California
Santa Cruz, CA 95064
office: 831-459-3332
fax: 831-459-5077
http://people.ucsc.edu/~rfairlie/
**************************************
This message is from ENTREP which is sponsored by the Entrepreneurship Division of the Academy of Management.
Please do not post messages with attached files. Commercial messages or spammed messages are not allowed on the list. The use of auto-responder "out-of-office" messages may also lead to your removal from the list.
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If you have questions or need help, please contact Dr. John Bunch
jbunch@benedictine.edu.
Ventures HO!