Planning for an inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem: COVID-19 and business resileince in underserved communities

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has had an unprecedented impact on small businesses in the United States. However, small business resilience scholarship has seldom investigated the experiences of minority-owned businesses. In this study I used an evolutionary resilience perspective to examine the experiences of Latina-owned businesses (LaOBs) in inland Southern California in coping with the pandemic. I conducted in-depth interviews and focus group discussions, both before and following the start of COVID-19, with a broad array of stakeholders from multiple sectors of the community. By triangulating their different perspectives, I found that the short-term crisis attributed to COVID-19 stems from long-term underinvestment in entrepreneurship and business development in underserved communities. Socioeconomic vulnerability at both the individual and community levels affects LaOBs’ resilience, a resilience conditioned by pre-pandemic networking and the institutional structures existing in underserved communities. This study is limited because it focused on only one study area, and it did not have access to large-scale quantitative data for comparative studies across ethnic groups and places. Building preparedness and resilience among racial and ethnic minority-owned businesses requires continuous investment in technology, education, and social network building in underserved communities, as well as the fostering of an inclusive entrepreneurship ecosystem. Planners should acknowledge and embrace a growing, critical mass of LaOBs as an opportunity to support economic and community development. Economic development policies, workforce development, and social policies targeting poverty alleviation and immigrant integration should be considered together. Engaging with the needs and aspirations of LaOBs and their communities will help generate more meaningful policies for underserved communities like these. The findings call for a forward-looking attitude toward developing a more transformational agenda that opens opportunities for underrepresented voices and challenges the problematic power structures existing in today’s society.