Enterpreneurship
Entrepreneurship
Introduction
The "growth" of Asian enterprises has been a prominent feature of the small business population. Asian entrepreneurs have been eulogised by the popular press keen to laud free enterprise heroes. More detached academic commentary has also sought to identify the key success factors for this entrepreneurial minority. Much less conspicuous has been the role that female Asian entrepreneurs and Asian women working in "family" businesses play. This study focuses on the often neglected issue of the contribution of Asian women to both entrepreneurship and the management of family businesses.
This study sheds light on a number of neglected issues within the increasingly important area of Asian entrepreneurship. First, a clearer picture will emerge of the roles, responsibilities and relationships of the relatively few Asian women who are entrepreneurs in their own right; and the many more who help sustain many Asian enterprises. Second, methodologically the study will be novel in so far as the researcher (an Asian female from a "typical" family business background) has taken care to observe the cultural proprieties often noted within this particular group. Hence, the data are arguably more authentic than previous studies undertaken by "distant" researchers. Finally, policy makers are increasingly being reminded to appreciate the needs and the diversity of ethnic minorities in business. The findings reinforce this message by highlighting the distinctive experiences of Asian women in business.
In the UK South Asians account for only 2.7 per cent of the population (South Asian Population Report for Great Britain, 1992). Thus, participation in self-employment is significantly higher for South Asian communities than that for the white population as Table I Self-employment rates in the UK demonstrates. The participation rates of women are much lower than men for all the groups. However, a larger proportion of...
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