Korean American-Q1 - Article Example

Korean Americans and Entrepreneurship Introduction Korean Americans are considered as one of the most important communities to have extensive ownership of small businesses in US. Being a community with different cultural and social background, Korean Americans pose an interesting question regarding what cultural and other barriers they face while operating their businesses and what makes them so special to own their own businesses rather than work for others.Korean Americans Park (2012) initiates the debate on this regarding the color blind racism and how actors within the society collaborate with each other to create a racist and biased free market.

(Park, 2010). From within the perspective of the Korean American entrepreneurship, Park outlines how various scholarships on the subject has actually highlighted the influence of culture on the self-employment tendencies of Korean Americans. Park (2012) also highlights as to how Koreans American actually avoid low paid jobs and tend to focus more on having their own small business. This has more to do with the family and cultural influence on the American-Koreans that they become actively involved in the small business ownership.

(Nopper, 2009) The success of Korean Americans is also due to the innovative use of different business techniques to deliver more value to the customers. Kang suggests that uptown nails salon services offer quality services duly supported by not only emotional body services but also supplement the same through the high tech IT and other services. Further, the overall involvement of Korean American women especially in uptown nails salon services is relatively superior and thus offers an edge to Korean American entrepreneurs. (King) Despite their entrepreneurial capabilities, Korean-Americans often witnessed biasness from their customers as well as the neighboring stores.

The case of liquor stores is in point wherein store owners not only faced difficult customers but they are considered as outsiders by the neighboring stores and other businesses working in the proximity. As such a clear class conflict still exists making Korean Americans victim of bias and even hatred sometimes. What is also critical to understand that despite such hostile environment, liquor stores owned by Korean Americans actually performed better owing to better communication strategies adapted.

Civilized communication often proved as an important strategic tool for the store owners to actually negotiate with hostile customers as well as others. This is despite the fact that Korean Americans have not been able to assimilate into the mainstream American society. As Zhou argues that major cause of this lack of assimilation is mostly low skilled labor however, Korean Americans have relatively better education and skills. Despite having high level of skills and presence in high-tech industry, it is relatively clear that Korean-American entrepreneurs do not easily integrate and assimilate into the mainstream American society.

The second generation or the newcomers however, are empirically, more likely to integrate into the American society and enrich the overall American culture. (Zhou, Lee, Agius, Tafoya-Estrada, & Xiong, 2008) Zhou also links it with the presence of neighborhood and their impact on the adolescent immigrants. Better neighborhoods can actually contribute towards the cultivation of the better talent and skills. (Zhou, How Neighborhoods Matter for Immigrant Adolescents, 2002) Kim suggests that unlike common assumption that immigrant work is rigid, qualitative data in the Koreatown and other neighborhoods clearly indicates that workers move in and out of the formal as well as informal jobs.

This mobility of the workforce creates a blended or mixed labor market which allows people to adapt to new roles and responsibilities without any new challenges. (Kim, 2012)Conclusion Korean Americans dominate small businesses in certain areas of US because of the social and cultural challenges they face. It is not only the community which makes them to decide against working for others but also the way they offer their services and approach overall work and work related ethics.ReferencesKim, A. J. (2012).

Labor Market Migrations - Immigrant Intersections in the Informal. aapi nexus, 10(1), 75-99.King, M. (n.d.). Korean Immigrant Womens Work in the nail salon industry: Gender, Race and Class in the Service Sector. 150-179.Nopper, T. K. (2009). The Globalization of Korean Banking and Korean Immigrant Entrepreneurship in the United States. Race, Gender & Class, 16(3/4), 248-270.Park, K. (2010). Sources and Resources of Korean Immigrant Entrepreneurship. Critical Sociology, 36(6), 891-896.Zhou, M. (2002). How Neighborhoods Matter for Immigrant Adolescents.

CPRC brief, 14(8).Zhou, M., Lee, J., Agius, J., Tafoya-Estrada, R., & Xiong, Y. (2008). Success Attained, Deterred, and Denied: Divergent Pathways to Social Mobility in Los Angeless. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 620, 37-61.