Date of Award

12-2017

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Institute on Family and Community Life

Committee Member

Dr. Susan Limber, Committee Chair

Committee Member

Dr. Martie Thompson

Committee Member

Dr. Arelis Moore de Peralta

Committee Member

Dr. Jim McDonell

Abstract

The racial wealth divide persistently compromises America's full economic potential. Overwhelming research continues to demonstrate that support of Black entrepreneurship can significantly reduce the racial wealth gap, while simultaneously reducing Black unemployment. Although, there has been substantial research on minority entrepreneurship, there is less emphasis on the relationship between neighborhood factors and Black entrepreneurship. This study employed a cross-sectional correlation design to examine the relationships between socio-economic neighborhood characteristics and the density of certified Black businesses. This dissertation significantly contributes to the Black entrepreneurship literature in the American South by providing neighborhood-level analyses of key economic and social characteristics that foster Black business ownership, through a study of Atlanta's 101 Neighborhood Statistical Areas (NSAs). The study explores the role of jobs, educational attainment, financial security, housing, and safety in fostering certified Black businesses. The overall results of this study provided evidence that neighborhood characteristics significantly predicted the density of Black businesses proportionate to the Black population. In the final neighborhood regression model, five neighborhood characteristics (total jobs, median household income, auto-theft, and burglary) accounted for 45.7% of the overall variance in the density of Black businesses. The policy and practice recommendations focus on supporting community development, community wealth building and scaling investments in targeted neighborhoods.

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.