1. The 1986 study is summarized in a report to the U.S. Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) by Faith H. Ando,Capital Issues and the Minority-Owned Business (JACA Contract No. 50-SABE-5-07015). The 1987 study is summarized in a report to the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) by Faith H. Ando, titledAn Analysis of Successful Business Formation by Minorities and Nonminorities (JACA Project No. RED-848-G-85-21).
2. UCLA’s Center for Afro-American Studies plans to issue an occasional paper with the bank credit results under the title “An Analysis of Access to Bank Credit.” The paper is one in a series Timothy Bates has edited on minority entrepreneurship. We thank Timothy Bates for permission to quote from that paper.
3. U.S.Bureau of the Census,1982 Characteristics of Business Owners, CBOP82-1 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1987).
4. More optimistic views of minority entrepreneurship can be found in recent accounts in the popular press (such as theWall Street Journal) and in some of Timothy Bates’s work for MBDA. Both of these sources stress the importance of a black’s choice of an industry in which to locate his or her firm. In Bates’s terminology, a black-owned firm performs well if it is located in an “emerging” (high growth) industry whereas it performs poorly if located in a “traditional” (low-growth) industry. In my 1986 study for MBDA, I tested for the effects of this dichotomous choice on a firm’s performance by using the data base described in this article. I found the choice of a Bates-type industry dichotomy to be statistically insignificant as an explanation of performance, other things being equal, and concluded that entrepreneurial drive and other factors swamp an industry dichotomy in my data base.
5. According to the same popular press cited in note 5, the age of a business owner or the owner’s firm may also be grounds for optimism insofar as the new generation of black entrepreneurs has emerged from a black middle class that has accumulated substantial human and financial capital.