Mapping the aliran of the academic discipline of entrepreneurship: A ...

4.3.10 Ethnic / immigrant sub-aliran
4.3.10.00 On the ot her hand, when compa red to the gender sub-aliran, the ethnic /
immigrant sub-aliran is a comparatively large and active sub-aliran. Maidique’s comment
on the ease of study of small businesses together with the ‘apparency’ and ease of
identification of ethnic business could be reasons why this domain has attracted much
study.
4.3.10.01 I have pos itioned the two sub-aliran of ethnicity / race and immigrancy
together into one sub-aliran. The main reason is that, even though they could be
considered separate sub-aliran with immigrancy being more related to displacement and
race / ethnicity being more related to genetic or cultural issues, the aliran has seemingly
bought them together. This is probably a reasonable assumption as most immigrants
studied in the sub-aliran have some ethnic association. However, where such an
assumption could fail is if the ethnic entrepreneurs being studied are second or third
generation immigrants, in which case the issues of displacement are probably not
connected to their ethnicity.
4.3.10.02 As can be seen from Graphic 4v, which lists the articles and texts in this sub-
aliran, the ethnic / immigrant sub-aliran emerged as part of a sociological discourse or part
of the sociological discipline, starting with Light’s [1972] (63) text ‘Ethnic enterprise’. I
contend that it became part of the discipline of entrepreneurship with Light and Bonacich’s
[1988] (44) text on ‘Immigrant entrepr eneurs’ that foc used on the Korean ethnic migrants
in Los Angeles. It could be argued that Light’s [1972] article would qualify for inclusion
as one of the original texts in the discipline. However, as pointed out by Desman [1999] in
his delightfully entitled article ‘Enterprising persons: The sociopathology of entrepreneurs
and professional criminals’, the ‘enterprising person’ may not necessarily fit the profile of
a ‘classic’ entrepreneur. Collins and Moore’s [1964] (30) text, ‘The enterprising man’,
probably fits into the same typography of not quite being entrepreneurship, but being part
of the discourse. Again, the horizontal scale in Graphic 4r helps to delineate the
‘enterprising person’ from the entrepreneur and the entrepreneurial firm. This placement of
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