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CHAPTER TWO RESEARCH METHODS AND DATA SOURCES

2.1 The scoping study utilises a combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods defined over two main stages. The first stage has involved analysis of secondary data, quantitative analysis of baseline data and a programme of qualitative face-to-face interviews with MEB owners. The second stage involved informed consultation with community leaders and key informants as stakeholders in minority ethnic enterprises in Scotland. This research design is illustrated in Figure 2.1.

Figure 2.1: Research design

Secondary data

2.2 The main source of secondary data on the importance of minority ethnic groups is the 2001 Census. Data from the 2001 Census is available from the General Register Office for Scotland ( GROS, 2004) and can be obtained at different levels of disaggregation from their website ( www.scrol.gov.uk) and from the publication of a series of CD- ROMs with Census data tables ( GROS, 2004). The research team requested data from GROS on self-employment by gender and ethnicity for council areas for Scotland and data on National Statistics Standard Economic Classification or NS- SEC. The number of small employers and own account workers is used as a proxy for the number of enterprises, and this data has also been compiled by the research team at council level areas from the 2001 Census data. However, the breakdown by ethnicity is not as disaggregated to the same extent by ethnicity as is self-employment, so a combination of both self-employment data and data on the number of small employers has been collected. The use of self-employment and small employers is, as indicated, a proxy for the numbers of minority ethnic enterprises in Scotland. Obviously, this is a limitation of the study, but the numbers of self-employed have been used as indicators of the level of enterprise activity where data is not otherwise available, for example, with the number of female-owned enterprises ( SBS, 2004).

2.3 Self-employment and the number of small employers for Scotland are shown in Tables 2.1 and 2.2. The distribution of minority ethnic enterprise, as represented by self-employment data, has been used as a guide for the distribution of interviews by ethnicity and by area.

Table 2.1: Distribution of minority ethnic self-employment in Scotland

*Total does not add to 100 due to rounding
Source: http://www.scrol.gov.uk/scrol/analyser
see also CD Rom Series. Census Analysis - General Register Office for Scotland, Edinburgh

Table 2.2: Distribution of minority ethnic small employers and own-account workers in Scotland

* Total does not add to 100 due to rounding
Source: http://www.scrol.gov.uk/scrol/analyser
see also CD Rom Series. Census Analysis - General Register Office for Scotland, Edinburghsee also CD Rom Series. Census Analysis - General Register Office for Scotland, Edinburgh

Notes on data

• All self-employment is included in summary tables, this includes part time and full time self-employment where the definition of part time is for those working up to 30 hours per week.
• Economically active definitions include all those active in the workforce aged 16 to 74.
• Therefore self-employed includes those up to 74. This may tend to under-estimate the proportion of minority ethnic enterprises in Scotland, although not the overall numbers, due to the younger age structure of minority ethnic groups. This is due to the demographic nature of the minority ethnic population, which has a younger age profile (for an analysis of minority ethnic demographic profiles see ONS, 2003).
• NS- SEC is National Statistics - Socio-Economic Classifications. This provides an economic position, based upon an occupation. Class 4 are small employers and own-account workers. These are defined as employers in small organisations and will include sub-contractors.

Baseline data

2.4 The baseline dataset is held on 81 MEBs, located in Scotland. This is part of a larger dataset held of 855 MEBs in the UK for six minority ethnic groups. The dataset was constructed from a two-stage set of telephone interviews conducted with MEB owners during 2000 and 2001. Therefore the dataset is contemporaneous with the 2001 Census.

2.5 The dataset contains profile data on the enterprise ( e.g.; sector, employment size, age, turnover, profitability) and the entrepreneurs ( e.g.; age, gender, generational status, education level, motivation for start-up) as well as access to finance and business support both at start-up and during the 12 months prior to the interviews. The database was specially constructed to include both traditional and emergent sectors of MEB activities. Data for a white control group is also held, matched against the MEB dataset in terms of sectoral mix and size. Thus, this data consists of a matched stratified sample.

2.6 A total of 81 of the 855 MEBs surveyed in 2001 as part of the British Bankers' Association ( BBA) study are located in Glasgow and Edinburgh, split between the minority ethnic groups ( i.e.; 30 Pakistani, 25 Chinese, 20 Indian, 4 Bangladeshi and 2 African), together with 33 of the 219 in the white control group.

2.7 Whilst the 2001 survey sample was national in scope, it was not designed with the intention of enabling separate analysis by region or devolved administration. Hence, the Scottish element in the sample is not representative of MEBs in Scotland. In practice, it is mainly comprised of Pakistani, Indian and Chinese-owned businesses, with very few Bangladeshi, African and Caribbean-owned firms. It is not designed to be necessarily representative of the proportionate importance of MEBs by minority ethnic group in Scotland, although this is examined in Chapter 3, in the secondary data analysis. This must be taken into account when interpreting the results of the analysis presented in this report particularly since, in the national study, Africans and Caribbeans appeared to be disadvantaged compared with both their white and other minority ethnic counterparts.

2.8 A further point to note in making comparisons between England and Scotland is, of course, that there are different public support infrastructures in the two nations. In addition, the survey was conducted before the establishment of the current Business Gateway support infrastructure, which was not established under its present name until 2003.

2.9 Despite these limitations, the 2001 BBA survey database has been used to inform the current project in two main respects:

• To provide insight into the characteristics and experiences of MEBs in Scotland (particularly those that are Pakistani, Indian or Chinese-owned), paying particular attention to any distinctive features, compared with those of their counterparts in the UK.
• By using the results from the national study as a whole may have implications for MEB groups in Scotland, which are under-represented in the Scottish sample, particularly Africans and Caribbeans.

Face to face interviews

2.10 The research team have completed 41 face-to-face interviews. There were some delays in completing the programme, but this is a common feature of research with MEB owners who are reluctant to co-operate or engage with researchers, even if careful explanation of the study's importance to their community has been undertaken beforehand. The research team are grateful for initial contact lists supplied by Glasgow City Council, Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce and Fife Council Development Services. The research team has been able to supplement this list through their own contacts. From these separate sources, a 'target' database was constructed guided by two criteria. First, by the broad distribution of MEBs geographically. This is shown in Chapter 5 (see Table 5.3). Second, by a requirement to include both emergent as well as traditional sectors. This was important to ensure that the results from the interviews were not dominated by issues reported from MEB owners located in traditional sectors. Thus, for example, one list of contacts was used sparingly as it was dominated by traditional retail and catering sectors. The initial target database resulted in only a 25 per cent agreement rate to requests for interview from an introductory letter explaining the purpose and importance of the study. Therefore, the need arose for the research team to increase the interview sample from its own contacts.

2.11 The interview sample, which the research team constructed, should be regarded as a purposeful but crafted sample. It includes representation from five minority ethnic groups, an attempt has been made at geographic distribution and it includes a small number from the rural Highlands and Islands. It is representative of both emergent and traditional sectors of MEB owners. A summary of the main features of the interview sample is shown in Chapter 5 (see Table 5.1). It should be noted that because of the purposeful nature of the sample it has not been possible to locate many of the interviews, as initially desired, in the Central Belt. To obtain the sample it has been necessary to undertake more of the interviews in Glasgow and Edinburgh, although the research team has included representation from Central Belt locations.

2.12 The research instrument used for this phase of the study was a semi-structured interview guide. The research team has taken account of comments from the Research Advisory Group ( RAG) in the interview questions and in conducting the interviews. The nature of the research meant that the interviews had to be conducted in a sensitive and flexible manner. The diversity of MEB owners is a known feature from previous research and was highlighted as a characteristic in the Ram et al (2002) UK study. Thus the interviews were conducted with appropriate flexibility to accommodate the diversity. All the researchers employed on the project have previous experience of conducting qualitative research with MEB owners. In some cases, interviews have been conducted in the respondents' first language and subsequently translated. The research team was also able to call on an experienced researcher with the minority ethnic communities who also had multi-lingual skills and had familiarity with different cultures. The research team was able, therefore, to gain the trust of respondents and gain their respect, an important issue in determining the validity of the qualitative research.

2.13 For this phase of the study the research team have not included any interviews with white business owners. The purpose of this phase was to obtain greater depth of information on issues facing MEB owners, in line with purposeful interview samples.

Dealing with ethnicity and cultural perceptions

2.14 The research team have used the respondents' own perception of their ethnicity using the 2001 Census questionnaire form definitions ¹ with the respondent. The researchers have avoided imposing any pre-conceived or stylised views of respondents. The researchers admit that some of the questions may have had an institutional bias (that is reflecting existing academic literature and research on business issues), but the flexibility and grounded approach of the researchers allowed the respondent freedom to provide their perspective on issues such as social, financial and human capital. The semi-structured interview questionnaire used as an interview guide by the researchers is provided in Annex 5.

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