Title: Social capital and business performance: ethnic enterprises in Canada

Authors: Charles Perreault, Gabrielle A. Brenner, Teresa V. Menzies, Louis Jacques Filion, Charles Ramangalahy

Addresses: Fiscal Policy Division Economic and Fiscal Policy Branch, Finance Canada, Canada. ' HEC Montreal, The Montreal Business School, 3000, Chemin de la Cote-Ste-Catherine, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. ' Faculty of Business, Brock University, Ontario, L2S 3A1, Canada. ' HEC Montreal, 3000 Chemin Cote Ste-Catherine, Montreal, Quebec, H3T 2A7, Canada. ' University of Montreal, Pavillon.M.Caron-L.Groulx, 3200, Avenue Jean-Brillant, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Abstract: The objective of this research was to identify links between social capital and the performance of ethnic businesses. Descriptive analyses, correlation tests and discriminant analyses were conducted on social capital variables compared to an ethnic business performance index, using a sample of 573 entrepreneurs from Chinese, Italian, Indian and Jewish backgrounds. The results point to the existence of a link between business performance and social capital. Analysis was able to predict membership of higher and lower performing businesses from a selection of social capital variables. As an exploratory study, this brings unique results to the ethnic entrepreneurship literature.

Keywords: social capital; ethnic entrepreneurs; minority entrepreneurs; ethnic networks; business performance; Canada; entrepreneurship; Chinese entrepreneurs; Italian entrepreneurs; Indian entrepreneurs; Jewish entrepreneurs; globalisation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBG.2007.014429

International Journal of Business and Globalisation, 2007 Vol.1 No.2, pp.145 - 160

Published online: 08 Jul 2007 *

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