 The impact of ethnic-religious identification on buyer-seller behaviour: a study of two enclavesCurt H. Stiles, Carlos L. Rodriguez and Craig S. Galbraith International Journal of Business and Globalisation, 2007, vol. 1, issue 1, 20-33 Abstract: This study examines the behaviour of buyers and sellers in two ethnic enclaves, Catholic Hispanics and Muslim Arabs, within a US metropolitan area. Based upon a sample of 42 small ethnic businesses, a rudimentary activity matrix is constructed for each enclave to reveal the purchases of materials, services, and labour and the sales of finished and semi-finished goods and services. Results suggest that ethnic firms are dependent on co-ethnic business in their enclave, tend to rely more upon the ethnic enclave for labour inputs than for other resources, and that start-up firms rely more on intra-enclave economic exchange than do more mature ethnic firms. The perceived advantage of intra-enclave buying and selling is argued to lie in a sense of ethnic identification that comes primarily from a religion, either Catholic or Muslim, common to each enclave. The dependence on religious organisations for services by new ventures is seen to lessen as the venture matures. Keywords: ethnic enclaves; religion; entrepreneurship; Catholic Hispanics; Muslim Arabs; USA; Untied States; buyer-seller behaviour; ethnic firms; intra-enclave business; ethnic identification; start-ups; globalisation; new ventures. (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ids:ijbglo:v:1:y:2007:i:1:p:20-33 Access Statistics for this article More articles in International Journal of Business and Globalisation from Inderscience Enterprises Ltd |
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