African American and White copreneurs: Comparing education, marriage, business success, and longevity.

摘要

A husband and wife-owned business is not a new concept. However, the research concerning this partnership has been increasing slowly. The term copreneur that defines this special business partnership was introduced in 1988. As a subset of family businesses, copreneurial businesses have gotten the attention of researchers concerning their effects in the business world. The limited research on the copreneurial topic has mainly involved White or Caucasian copreneurs. Very few African American or Black copreneurs were included in previous research. This lack of African American copreneurs in empirical research has left a gap in the literature. This research study compared African American and White copreneurs on four variables: perceived business success, educational level, length of marriage, and business longevity. The perceived business success variable was created in a prior research study and was developed solely for copreneurial couples. The t test for independent samples was utilized to compare African American copreneurs to White copreneurs. The results indicated that at the .05 level no statistically significant differences were found between African American and White copreneurs for the four variables. These findings suggest that African American copreneurs perceived business success no differently from their White counterparts. In addition, education, marriage, and business longevity of the copreneurs are not different for African Americans and Whites. This comparison study showing no difference in perceived business success for Black and White copreneurs might indicate a need for further study of African American copreneurs and entrepreneurs. Further research concerning African American businesses might provide the areas of support that are needed for business success.