What is it about?
This article looks to explore gap in knowledge and focuses on the issues and challenges faced by ethnic minority entrepreneurs starting and running small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Scottish city of Aberdeen in the United Kingdom.
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Why is it important?
Studies investigating the challenges and barriers faced by ethnic minority entrepreneurs have often concentrated on areas where there is a large supportive ethnic minority community. Less work has been conducted on the experience of those entrepreneurs operating in cities where such ethnic resources may be less widely available.
Perspectives
Although issues found by previous studies such as access to funding remain an issue, the entrepreneurs indicated problems with access to labour as United Kingdom Border Agency’s immigration rules and tightening of the Post Study Work visa have had a profound effect on these entrepreneurs. The results imply that the weakening of the ethnic resource microsphere has not opened up opportunities which are exploited by the entrepreneurs, but they have still been exposed to external forces from the regulatory macrosphere. Both entrepreneurs and policymakers need to think carefully about the retention, training and recruitment of staff. In particular, the wider ramifications of immigration rule changes need to be considered, but also whether entrepreneurs need to be more open to the potential of recruiting non-ethnic employees and if so what support is required to achieve this.
Md Zillur Rahman
University of the West of Scotland
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Challenges and issues facing ethnic minority small business owners, The International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, January 2018, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/1465750317753932.
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