A special issue of The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science presents work that is vitally important to our nation's future.
The series of papers contained in this volume are the result of a conference funded by the Kauffman Foundation and are a key piece of the effort to encourage young scholars. The Research Conference on Entrepreneurship among Minorities and Women was held in 2004 and 2005 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Kenan-Flagler Business School. The conferences brought together junior and senior faculty members from universities throughout the country to discuss research on minority and women's entrepreneurship. Large sessions as well as smaller breakout groups and one-on-one meetings allowed for vigorous discussion and learning throughout the conferences.
The wide range of social science disciplines represented at the conferences offered varied perspectives on both content and methodology. Topics discussed range from access to capital and barriers to business development, to entrepreneurial behavior models, microenterprise, and data for the study of entrepreneurship. A research grant competition for additional work in the field of minority and women's entrepreneurship followed each conference. In 2006, the scholars were convened once again to discuss research by both senior faculty and the grant recipients from the previous two years. This volume publishes these papers, sharing the knowledge that came out of these conferences and hopefully inspiring further work in this important domain.
The Annals captures the state of knowledge about a particular field or subject. In so doing, it provides a foundation on which future research has been built and a vehicle for enlightening public discourse and informing public policy and private action.
