Carlton Brown
Management Consultant, Associate Lecturer, London School of Business & Finance, 2 Bunhill Row, London, EC1Y 8HQ, United Kingdom e-mail: carlton.brown@aspire-consultancy.com
DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.51865/EITC.2022.04.01
Abstract
There is a paucity of research on the institutionalised racial challenges facing minority entrepreneurs despite their contribution to the economy and society. Thus, the purpose of the study described here was to examine the entrepreneurship challenges faced by the Black, African, and Caribbean Diaspora (BACD) within the UK. Using the lens of critical race theory and the qualitative phenomenological interpretive approach, the data for the study was based on 27 interviews with BACD entrepreneurs to gain a greater understanding of the constraints and challenges they experience. Access to funding remains an issue, and the findings show that although BACD have a greater propensity to become entrepreneurs, they are more likely to be structurally and systemically constrained, perpetuating limited opportunities, social capital, and access to resources. Issues associated with BACD entrepreneurship, including racial discrimination, structural inequalities, institutionalised poverty, and systematic oppression, have significant implications for inclusive policies and practices as well as for recognising diversity. While generalising the findings may be constrained by its limited sample size, this paper provides new empirical insight into the challenges faced by BACD entrepreneurs in the UK and adds to a body of knowledge that can be utilised by entrepreneurs, policymakers, and the government. This is a departure from previous studies within the area of entrepreneurship. It also introduces a new self- contradictory construct now presented as the Race Paradox.
Keywords: critical race theory; black entrepreneurship; phenomenology; United Kingdom; BACD; QPIA; institutions.
JEL Classification: L26; M14; J15.
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