Understanding Hispanic Entrepreneurial Success: An Exploratory Study

          Over the past decade, the Hispanic population in the United States has increased from about 12.5% to more than 16.5% of the population (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010). Along with the rise in population, the number of Hispanic businesses has also increased.

By 2015, the number of Hispanic businesses is estimated to have climbed to 4.07 million establishments with $661 billion in revenue, a 57 percent increase from 2007 (Geoscape, 2015).

          As important as this group is and as entrepreneurial as it might be, many studies have recognized that these and other minority businesses still lag in many economic factors. According to the latest research, minorities are more likely to start small businesses, but are not likely to be as successful as other, non-Hispanic, businesses (Canedo, Stone, Black, & Lukaszewski, 2014).

          Hispanic businesses are increasingly becoming the backbone of the economy of the U.S. Thus, understanding the factors that relate to Hispanic business success is of great interest for the health and well-being of the economy, especially on the U.S.-Mexico Border where the rate of entrepreneurial activities tends to be higher than in the U.S. interior (Mora & Dávila, 2006).

          The paper explores the success and failure factors for Hispanic businesses, and extends the literature through an analysis of a Texas Hispanic Chamber of Commerce database. Literature suggests that tailored training provided by organizations such as these will reduce failure rates. Thus, the study focused on identifying characteristics of firms that maintained or joined a chamber of commerce.

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Authors
Denisse Olivas
University of Texas at El Paso

Gary L. Frankwick
University of Texas at El Paso