Affirmative Action and Business Research Proposal

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Black Women: Diversity and Inclusion Programs - Are they really assisting?

In the last few decades, researchers, policymakers, economic development experts, and analysts of public policy are increasingly concentrating on the aspect of entrepreneurship in the African-American community, with respect to devising distinct strategies for facilitating economic success. Establishment of set-aside initiatives for minorities (or disadvantaged business initiatives) is one political strategy which serves as an instrument for enhancing small, poor businesses' chances of survival. Several of these businesses were African-American-owned and -run businesses (House-Soremekun, 2007; Chatterji, Chay & Fairlie, 2013). This paper will look into the economics-politics interrelationship, by analyzing the aforementioned disadvantaged business initiatives' effect on African-American businesswomen's economic outcomes.

Policy Background

Set-aside initiatives for minorities first developed during the 1930s, with President Roosevelt's Great-Depression-era New Deal initiatives for addressing economic issues (House-Soremekun, 2007). The 1933 Unemployment Relief Act prohibited discrimination against people on the basis of color, creed or race. Requirements were stipulated, making it compulsory for companies that received federal governmental contracts in metropolises inhabited by a large share of Black people to employ a particular percentage of Blacks.

The primary focus of the SBA (Small Business Administration), instituted in 1953, was small-sized largely-White American businesses, rather than exclusively minority businesses. This body grew continually until, in the year 1958, it permanently became a federal agency (Chatterji et al., 2013). In this era, a key area of focus was: offering loans as economic aid to small enterprises, in addition to aiding them with federal contract receipt.

President Nixon's Executive Order (EO 11458) of March 1969 offered the basis for establishing a national-level initiative to assist minority entrepreneurs (Chatterji et al., 2013). The U.S. commerce secretary was assigned the responsibility of overseeing this program, for developing local-, state- and federal- level processes and facilitating long-term growth of minority companies. Therefore, innumerable federal department heads had to present reports detailing the strategy they will adopt for attaining positive outcomes, to the commerce secretary. The result was the Minority Business Enterprise Office's establishment.

Set-aside initiatives are of two kinds. One entails allotment of a specific dollar value or share of total governmental contracts to minority contractors. The other involves allotment of a specific share of governmental contracts to suppliers and subcontractors from minority communities, by prime contractors (Rice, 1991; Myers, 1997).

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Percentage goals are different for different schemes, and even occasionally within schemes in case of different purchases (e.g., construction contracts, professional services, and services and goods procurement). MBELDEF's (1988) information on local-level set-aside initiatives suggest that percentage goals vary from 1%-50%. The percentage goal of a majority of initiatives lies between 5 and 15%. These initiatives are typically supplemented with procurement officers offering additional general support to minority business owners (Bates and Williams, 1993).

Problem Statement

Over time, minority businessmen have been granted several billion dollars' worth of contracts (Boston, 1999). With the enactment of the 1977 Public Works Employment Act and the 1978 Omnibus Small Business Act, practical goals pertaining to procuring contracts and dollars for minority companies could be established (House-Soremekun, 2007). But in spite of the big money involved, astonishingly little quantitative proof is seen with regard to their impacts, particularly on minority enterprises' formation. This has resulted in a political and legal dispute in relation to these initiatives.

Research Questions

1. Have businesspersons enrolled in, or profiting from, set-aside initiatives for minorities enjoyed more success compared to nonparticipating minority businesspersons?

1. Have businesspersons belonging to particular kinds of industry participated more in such initiatives?

1. Should better-educated businesspersons enroll more in such initiatives?

1. Should well-established and older businesspersons enroll more in such initiatives?

Research Significance

This research is especially imperative, owing to recent challenges, on local as well as national levels, against policies for affirmative action, and set-aside initiatives for minorities (by extension). This research will offer a legal and historical perspective on the present debate pertaining to minority set-aside initiatives' survival. Additionally, it will explore their empirical effects on Black businesswomen and will contribute to existing literature on the subject, thereby contributing to decision-making in regard to the future of these programs. Finally, this study forms a central aspect of my studies. I will be able to complete this course successfully through the successful completion of a number of academic activities and assessments, including this research work.

Literature Review

Chan and Myers (1996) explore construction contract and public procurement award to non-minority and minority businesspersons prior to, during, and following the execution of the set-aside initiative of New Jersey. The authors discovered.....

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