Investigating in entrepreneurship : a 'learning dialogue' for microenterprise in the United States

Abstract

This study utilizes data from a national-level survey conducted by the Aspen Institute to examine the strategy of microenterprise assistance and microcredit provision in the United States. Four program groups are analyzed: training programs that do not offer loans, lending programs that serve primarily low income individuals, lending programs that serve primarily minorities, and lending programs that report unusually large average loan sizes. Within each of these groups, this study identifies significant subgroups that are making specific contributions to the strategy or employing it in unusual ways. The data confirm a diversification of the field that provides strong evidence against data aggregation and universal performance measures for microenterprise programs. The study concludes that there is a place for microenterprise programs in economic and community development in the US, but that the strategy may have a different role to play than originally anticipated. Policy implications and avenues for future micro- and macro-level research are discussed.