Owner and Organizational Characteristics of Black-and White-Owned Businesses: Self Employed Blacks Had Less Training, Fewer Resources, Less Profits, but Had Similar Survival Rates |
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| Authors: | Ellen R Auster |
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| Institution: | Ellen R. Auster, Ph.D., is associate professor in the management of organizations department, Graduate Business School, 717 Uris Hall, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027.] An earlier draft was presented at the meeting of the American Sociological Association in Detroit, MI, August 1983. I thank Howard Aidrich, Robert Drazin, Lance Sandelands, Robert Stern and two anonymous referees for helpful comments and suggestions. |
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| Abstract: | Abstract . Owner and organizational characteristics of 94 Black-owned businesses and 385 White-owned businesses in Chicago, Boston, and Washington, D.C, are examined. Black business owners had fewer years of education and less business experience than their White counterparts. Black businesses were also smaller, more labor intensive, located in poorer neighborhoods, less likely to have insurance, visited by fewer customers per day, more likely to rent their shop space, and to be less profitable than White businesses. However, despite these organizational and individual characteristics, the survival rates of Black and White businesses were not significantly different. Logit analyses suggested that variables such as race, education, size of business, and the average income of those living in the neighborhood, in this sample, did have significant effects on business profitability but did not explain business survival. |
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