Diversity in ethnic minority businesses from rural and urban localities

This paper builds upon previous work undertaken by the authors with EMBs in Scotland. The national scoping study on EMBs, undertaken by the authors for the Scottish executive, was carefully stratified to include EMB owners in the main city localities (Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee and Aberdeen) and the experiences of those in other urban and rural areas of Scotland. The study revealed spatial diversity in the experiences of EMBs in different locations, with differences in rural compared to urban environments. To explore these differences further, the authors have undertaken additional interviews with EMB owners in rural South Scotland. Qualitative data analysis identifies and recognises the environmental context, but the analysis recognises that different environments affect all small firms, not just EMBs. For example, issues will arise for all small firm owners from a location associated with a rural environment; there is a need to distinguish those that arise from ethnicity. In this paper, for the first time, we report the differences in the issues associated with ethnicity in rural and urban environments.