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This study compares two groups that fall on opposite ends of many scales: mainstream, white business owners in mid-size cities and suburban areas and aspiring Black entrepreneurs from inner city neighborhoods in New York City. One group consists of established, well-off, mostly male, business owners with an average of thirteen years experience owning their own businesses. The other is poor, over 40% unemployed, with little or no business experience. We wanted to know just how large the gap was between these two groups on their motivations and goals for starting or operating a business. Could differences in motivations be part of the reason that Blacks lag so badly in entrepreneurial activity? What we found surprised us: with few exceptions, aspiring Black entrepreneurs have the same motivations and goals as established, white, business owners. Of course, this sample may not be representative of Blacks in general. We surveyed aspiring Black entrepreneurs who were motivated enough to participate in a program designed to put them in business. Even if this group is only a vanguard, leading the way for others, it augers well for the future of Black entrepreneurship and private and public policies that can foster it. As with other racial and ethnic groups, Blacks may use entrepreneurship as their entrance into the economic mainstream., INTRODUCTION By the time Thelma Lewis (not her real name) showed up at the Baruch College Small Business Lab, she had been in business for six months. Her gift shop [...]

To complement the previous attempts to define the elusive concept of entrepreneurship, this study examines the impact of firm origin on small business owners/entrepreneurs and the characteristics of their firms. A review of previous typologies is presented along with a categorization of the groups of business owners/entrepreneurs from those typologies into three basic groupings: 1) Creators, motivated by the vision of creating a new product or service; 2) Inheritors, whose path to business ownership was paved by a family member; and 3) Operators, who are motivated by the financial aspects of business operation. Distinctions among these groups are explored on a sample of 231 business owners. The existence of certain aspects of the three groups is established by differences in goals, attitudes, knowledge, and demographic characteristics. Policy implications and future research agenda are also discussed., INTRODUCTION Since the earliest writings about entrepreneurship, there has been little agreement on a definition. In certain respects, there is considerable overlap between entrepreneurship and small business, if not, indeed [...]

Preparation of integration-competent nucleoprotein complexes (INCs), integration assays and the measurement of reaction products indicate the presence of an autointegration barrier in the INC of Moloney murine leukemia virus. The autointegration barrier is damaged by incubation of INCs at high ionic strength through the reversible dissociation of a host factor. Addition of trans-acting factors from host cells to INC restores the autointegration barrier.