What's Happening? Today, roughly 195,000 businesses in the United States are majority Black or African American owned, representing a mere 3% of all U.S. firms according to census estimates. The disputed significance of entrepreneurship as a path toward economic stability has been a cornerstone of research in sociology, business affairs, and public policy. Beyond Black Americans, the American Dream of “working for yourself” is alive and well. 

National surveys report that one in five Black Americans believe that owning a business is essential in their definition of financial success. Black entrepreneurship is politically significant: leveraging Black Americans' participation in the economy to reach parity with other racial and ethnic groups has been a concern for multiple presidential administrations–from the Nixon and Reagan administrations, which established “Minority Business Enterprise” organizations to uplift Black entrepreneurs, to the Biden Administration, which prioritized Small-Business Administration-backed loans to Black entrepreneurs. If you're interested in this history, I recommend the book Franchise by historian Marcia Chatelain. 

Where I come in: Sociologists, historians, and public policy scholars have approached the study of Black-led entrepreneurship to understand how civic and economic participation in the United States continues to be stratified by race, class, gender. However, few have approached this topic by focusing on the way Black entrepreneurs make sense of their work in relation to the political significance of Black entrepreneurship and amidst the rising presence of digital technologies in our daily lives and work. I aim to fill this gap by providing a nuanced and innovative approach to conversations about labor in the digital age. 

So What? As inequalities in access to digital technologies, access to capital, and employment instability persist, we as scholars must understand how Americans make sense of their labor amidst the present economic conditions and rising prevalence of digital technologies.

My dissertation uses in-depth interviews to examine how Black entrepreneurs navigate online platforms in relation to their values around work. I ask interview participants questions about how they make sense of their own labor, particularly as they adhere to or resist values like self-reliance and efficiency in a society dominated by digital technologies. If they use online platforms to run their business, I ask them to walk me through 1-2 of the most important online platforms to them. 

Interview participants receive $45 for a1.5 hour interview as a thank you for their time at the conclusion of the study. 

The research is supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (DGE 2241144) and the Rackham Student Research Grant. 

A dissertation is a long-form document made up of a graduate student's main research project. I must write this document to earn a doctoral degree and defend it in front of a committee of faculty. In my case, I will be receiving a doctoral degree (or Ph.D) in Sociology from the University of Michigan. Most dissertations are made up of multiple chapters that answer broad research questions related to the graduate student's area of study. Upon the completion of the dissertation, graduate students typically convert the dissertation in to a book to be published through a formal publishing company, a series of academic papers published in a journal, or other types of presentation formats (opinion articles, lecture series, policy reports, and more). The interview data from this research project will be used to answer my research questions and compose my dissertation chapters. 

Do you have questions/concerns about the study? Email me at erykahb@umich.edu.