Legitimacy, Attitudes and Intended Patronage: Understanding Challenges Facing Black Entrepreneurs

Traditional research on the reasons for the depressed rate of black entrepreneurship has focused on differences between black [note: The term "blacks" is used to represent the broader groups of blacks in the United States, which include African-Americans and also black people from African countries, the Caribbean and other countries.] and white entrepreneurs. In this paper, we move beyond the individual entrepreneur and study consumers' perceptual differences of black and white entrepreneurs. Using a multi-disciplinary theoretical framework to study 846 participants, we found empirical evidence that there are significant relationships between perceptions of legitimacy and consumer attitudes toward entrepreneurs and intended patronage. In addition, there appears to be differences in the way consumers perceive black and white entrepreneurs, which suggest significant challenges facing black entrepreneurs. Implications and future research directions are discussed.