Measuring Ethnic Community Involvement: Development and Initial Testing of an Index*
基于698名来自五个族群的创业者访谈数据，开发了一个结合个人与商业特征的族群参与度指数（IEI），该指数具有信度（0.69）和效度，能预测部分个人与商业特征，未来可用于针对性的援助、培训和政策制定。
This paper builds on the work of Chaganti and Greene, who distinguish between ethnic minority entrepreneurs/small business owners who are very involved with their ethnic community and those who are not. We extend their work by developing an Index of Ethnic Community Involvement based not only on personal but also business characteristics. We utilize a large sample size (698 interviews with entrepreneurs), drawn from five ethnic groups, and develop a valid and reliable (0.69) Index of Ethnic Involvement (IEI) with a strong emphasis on social capital theory. Our initial analysis shows the IEI predicts some personal and business characteristics. Future development will include building regression models to predict business outcomes. The IEI, when fully developed, promises to be useful for targeting assistance, education and training programs, and policy initiatives for entrepreneurs and small business owners according to the level of ethnic community involvement.