Profitable entrepreneurship or marginal self-employment? The bimodality of Latina self-employment in the United States

Transitional entrepreneurship: Elevating research into marginalized entrepreneurs

“…Racial marginalization is one of the most common and obvious groups of transitional entrepreneurs. Fisher and Lewin (2021), Michaelides (2021), and Tao, Essers, and Pijpers (2021), each address racial challenges in TE through unique lenses. Fisher and Lewin (2021) compare the multiple potential paths of self-employment of Latina transitional entrepreneurs, and that when traditional salaried work is unavailable, formalizing an entrepreneurial path offers unique advancement over self-employment.…”

“…Fisher and Lewin (2021), Michaelides (2021), and Tao, Essers, and Pijpers (2021), each address racial challenges in TE through unique lenses. Fisher and Lewin (2021) compare the multiple potential paths of self-employment of Latina transitional entrepreneurs, and that when traditional salaried work is unavailable, formalizing an entrepreneurial path offers unique advancement over self-employment. Similarly, Michaelides (2021) compares the relative advancement of Black transitional entrepreneurs and White entrepreneurs through training programs and demonstrates the limitations of support programs to address challenges in TE.…”

“…We have three articles that specifically address the unique challenges of being a female entrepreneur. In addition to Fisher and Lewin (2021), also a gender study, both Essers et al (2021) and Hundera et al (2021) examine the particular challenges of being a woman entrepreneur of African descent. Essers et al, consider the unique case of women in a traditional society (Ethiopia) struggling to juggle being an entrepreneur with being a mother and wife; this role conflict shared by millions of female entrepreneurs around the world has significant firm and personal performance implications.…”

Intergenerational and ethnonational disparities in Hispanic immigrant self-employment

“…In part, we expect our second analysis that considers incorporated and unincorporated self-employment will tell a different story. Business incorporation signifies an entrepreneur’s commitment to the firm and its scale and is a marker of human capital and profitability (Fisher and Lewin, 2020; Levine and Rubinstein, 2017). Incorporated businesses have a separate legal identity, limited liability, and organizational complexity, promoting entrepreneurial activities and preventing dissolution (Robb and Watson, 2012).…”

“…Third, our empirical test of segmented assimilation theory in self-employment, following the model of Valdez (2012), applies the theoretical perspective to different groups of Hispanics in the US, and, unlike Valdez’s and a similar analysis by Chaudhary (2015), our investigation separates incorporated and unincorporated self-employment. Dividing these types of self-employment allows us to gauge a group’s economic advancement more effectively, as they entail diverse entrepreneurial activities and require different resources (Fisher and Lewin, 2020; Levine and Rubinstein, 2017; Robb and Watson, 2012). Moreover, this approach evidences a connection between cultural differences among these Hispanic subgroups and their respective economic behaviors, highlighting the role cultural dimensions play in the capitalist system.…”