Business practices within South Asian family and nonfamily firms

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate differencessimilarities in business practices of secondgeneration South Asian entrepreneurs within familyowned firms, in comparison to their secondgeneration counterparts managing and running their own business. Designmethodologyapproach The paper draws its theoretical underpinning via a number of concepts relevant to the South Asian business experience. To understand this, investigation was conducted within a phenomenological paradigm. In total, 48 semistructured interviews were carried out with three South Asian groups. Namely, first and second generation Sikh, Hindu and Pakistani Muslim entrepreneurs from both family and nonfamily owned microsmall businesses situated within the Greater London area. In addition, nine businesses from all three ethnic groups were selected to complete the multiple comparative casestudy stage of the research. Findings Similarities and differences between secondgeneration entrepreneurs within family and nonfamily businesses NFBs are evident. For instance, a majority of the respondents from family and nonfamily businesses considered entrepreneurship as something to embrace, and not as a means of economic survival. A minority of the respondents within FBs were pushed into entrepreneurship, as such, this has had an impact on the fatherson relationship in a negative way. Secondgeneration respondents from FBs, in comparison to their counterparts within NFBs, were more likely to have decisionmaking pertaining to the business impeded by the father. Furthermore, respondents from FBs were moving back into the said business, whereas, respondents from NFBs were developing businesses more akin to their prior employment experience. Practical implications The paper offers insights into the behaviour and business practices of secondgeneration South Asian entrepreneurs from family and nonfamily, so adding a further dimension to our understanding of this particular group. Originalityvalue The paper will be of value to policy makers, practitioners and researchers alike, is it sheds light on motives, prior experience and class resources the secondgeneration bring to entrepreneurship.