Proceedings of 23rd International Business Research Conference
18 - 20 November, 2013, Marriott Hotel, Melbourne, Australia, ISBN: 978-1-922069-36-8
Role of cultural trust in Ethnic Business Networks: A study
of Asian communities in UK
Syed Rizvi
Ethnic businesses are attracting much interest for scholarly as well as
policy oriented research. In UK, ethnic businesses form significant part of
national economic activity and employment. There is therefore, an
increasing focus in understanding the organization and performance of
ethnic business enclaves / networks in UK – from academic scholars,
regional authorities – all the way up to the central government. They have
cited a number of factors for ethnic entrepreneurships, including cultural
differences as the reasons for varying performance. None have however
studied the relationship of trust to culture – its characteristic and role – in
explaining the performance of the networks of ethnic businesses. The
population of Leicester has the biggest share of ethnic population of any
city in the UK. In total, ethnic minorities make up nearly 40% of the
population in Leicester. The city provides a good case for research on the
role of ‘trust’ in performance of ethnic (Indians, Pakistanis and
Bangladeshis) business networks. Based on grounded work (150 face to
face interviews and 766 survey questionnaire responses over a period of
10 months); the study identifies the network members and examines the
functioning of the network and the enclave. The findings of the study also
carry significant policy and managerial implications for both public and
private bodies in UK and beyond. These findings also have deep
implications for future research as well, as it establishes premise for
scholarly viable propositions in the identified areas.
Key Words: Ethnic, Culture. Family Business, Networks, Trust, Enclave,
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Dr Syed Rizvi PhD (Cantab), Assistant Professor of Management and Marketing, School of Business
Management, American University of Sharjah, P.O. Box. 26666, Sharjah, U.A.E.
Phone: 00971-6-5152456, Fax: 00971 6 5585065, Email : srizvi@aus.edu