Socializing the Ethnic Market : A Frame Analysis

This studyexamines the growing evidencepointing toward growth in self-employment in Mexican-American communities, dueto a number of social and cultural factors. The authors focus on the ethnicstrategies employed by this segment of ethnic entrepreneurs, a combination ofmicro and macro level processes, offering a framework for reading theincreasing success of Mexican-American entrepreneurial ventures. The data used in this study consist of 25 open-ended interviews, conductedfrom January 1994 to September 1998, with successful Mexican-descent businessentrepreneurs from Chicago and surrounding suburbs. The market for ethnic goodsis analyzed both in economic and social terms, as co-ethnic customers arethought to make purchasing decisions both on lines of quality and cost, andsocial concerns. Physical keys, cultural keys, and structural keys are elements defining thesocialization of economic encounters, and the ethnic frame provides a valuableresource. For the Mexican-descent entrepreneurs in the study, the preferredstrategy for attracting and maintaining customers revolved around attempts atsocializing the encounters between customers and entrepreneurs. The authorsalso find that the most powerful frame involved the use of ethnic ties andsolidarities--i.e., an ethnic frame. Mexican- American entrepreneurship is found to havegrown substantiallyover the last several decades. The strengths and weaknesses of the research arenoted, as well as the empirical and theoretical challenges of the proposedframe. (CBS)