Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development in New Settlement Communities: Insights for Latino Entrepreneurship Policy in Times of Change

Abstract

This chapter explores the individual and ecosystem factors that determine entrepreneurial activity among Latinos in three new settlement communities in the United States. New settlement communities and their potential for enterprise development and building entrepreneurial ecosystems are only recently garnering scholarly attention from an entrepreneurship and policy-oriented perspective. With approximately one-third of the US population to be composed of Latinos by 2060, an important body of literature is emerging to explain the increasing rates of Latino entrepreneurship and its contribution to entrepreneurial ecosystems. The authors combine the sustainable livelihoods and acculturation frameworks to explore the ecosystem factors that determine entrepreneurial activity among Latinos in the United States. Using primary data gathered from 460 household questionnaires in three differing communities, the authors’ findings indicate that, compared to nonentrepreneurs, Latino entrepreneurs start their businesses driven by their own initiative, are mostly bicultural (highest level of acculturation), and reside in diversified economies, with 72% of them falling in the 26–45 age range, followed by 18% in the 46–55 age range. Latino entrepreneurs have also lived in their communities for longer than five years, with 55% of them in the US citizen/resident category, almost as much as in the “Other” category (45%). The authors’ findings have important policy and practical implications for the ecosystem conditions that support or hinder entrepreneurial activity in times of change. Understanding and including the ecosystem conditions of these communities in the national entrepreneurship policy agenda is warranted to advance policy in times of change.