Our research effort, in collaboration with Stanford University, includes a series of studies examining the characteristics of successful Latino entrepreneurs, key dimensions of the Latino entrepreneurial process, and characteristics of the ecosystem unique to Latino entrepreneurs. Stanford University professors conducted the primary research and we are building ties with other university researchers to support additional studies.
Our First Annual Survey of Latino Business Owners was conducted by Dr. Doug Rivers, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and a professor of political science at Stanford University. Professor Doug Rivers is one of the world’s leading experts on survey research. He is also a successful Silicon Valley entrepreneur and has taught at Harvard University, Caltech, UCLA, and, most recently, Stanford University.
This report is based on three complementary data sources that help researchers, policymakers, and businesses understand the current generation of LOBs. The first is a meta database of 1,432,746 Latino businesses compiled from seven commercial databases. The second is a group of 1,861 Latino business owners who participated in our surveys. The third is modeled data that uses government surveys to calibrate and weight our panel data to estimate more representative results. Although we continue to improve and expand these data sources, they already provide breadth, depth, and improved accuracy for understanding this new economic force.
The survey panel is perhaps our most important resource for creating new knowledge around LOBs and the entrepreneurs who lead them. This panel, believed to be the largest statistically significant panel on LOBs ever created, provided the data for the majority of our analyses. The panel consists of Latino entrepreneurs who have been contacted by us, completed an initial interview, and agreed to participate in future research. Respondents were asked about many topics including their business’s industry, customer base, company size, age, ownership structure, sources of capital, and challenges.
We are ready to work with policymakers, researchers, and the private sector to help set the agenda for understanding Latino businesses through surveys and other interactions with the panel members.