Principal Topic

People start and persist in entrepreneurial endeavors, because of both the existence and perception of opportunities. This inductive pilot study examines minority and women entrepreneurs’ social cognition as reflected in their self-reported perceptions of general growth opportunities in their industry; potential opportunities for their specific businesses; barriers to growth for their businesses; and remedies for addressing barriers to growth.

Method

For this inductive, research study, we used a theoretically constructed sample of 20 minority and women entrepreneurs, and administered a Likert-scaled type structured questionnaire to develop data on entrepreneurs’ perception of opportunity. We used follow-up interviews to verify results as needed, and establish data validity as we developed hypotheses on minority perceptions and entrepreneurial success.

Results and Implications

The results suggest that minority and women entrepreneurs perceive opportunities for their industry and specific businesses as positive, but perceive remedies and provided services as neutral to negative in addressing their major growth barrier of capital. Subsequent deductive testing of the results will allow us to propose recommendations to policy makers, to develop and shape programs and policies for supporting growth-oriented, technology-based ventures. Also, empirical information on cognitive forces influencing entrepreneurial success, can be compared with and inform other related studies examining national variations and other factors including entrepreneurs’ perception of market opportunity. Preliminary data from the US “National Panel of Business Start-ups” in the Global Entrepreneurship Monitoring (GEM) project, suggest remarkably consistent results across demographic and other variables. While those initial results suggest no substantial differences in entrepreneurial activity related to gender or ethnicity, our initial data analysis appears to contradict these results. Stable estimates for subgroups and varying geographic contexts will require further work.

CONTACT: Denise-Margaret Thompson, Entrepreneurship Center, Norfolk State University, 700 Park Avenue, Norfolk VA 23504; (T)757-823-8256; (F) 757-823-8259; dmthom@nsu.edu