Entrepreneurship in Emerging Domestic Markets : Barriers and Innovation

An often-overlooked aspect of entrepreneurship in American is its role in emerging domestic markets (EDM). These markets – low-to-moderate income communities, ethnic- and women-owned businesses, urban areas – are frequently ignored by mainstream markets. Yet with current demographic trends, they are an increasingly large component of the US population. Entrepreneurship can serve as a means to foster business development in these emerging communities and as a critically important way to improve the standard of living in low- and moderate-income (LMI) sectors.

Increasingly, policy makers, advocates and investors understand national economic growth demands business formation among all segments of the market, and that the best attack on poverty is job and wealth creation. A robust entrepreneurial climate helps address the challenges and harness the opportunities.

“Entrepreneurship in Emerging Domestic Markets: Barriers and Innovation” is a compendium of papers written by the leading researchers and practitioners from the fields of finance, public policy, entrepreneurship, and economics. With this volume, the editors aim to provide scholars, students, investors, policymakers, and the business community a resource that explores the issues surrounding entrepreneurship in EDM communities.

Alethea Abuyuan is a Research Analyst for Energy and the Environment under the Capital Studies Group. Her primary assignments at MI involve the SAVE Initiative (Strategic Action Volunteer Effort), which aims to apply innovative environmental finance tools and techniques in the fields of climate change and alternative energy. She is also involved in economic development finance for emerging domestic markets (i.e. low-/ middle-income and minority communities), entrepreneurial finance, and mission-related investing/strategic philanthropy. Dr. Abuyuan is a recent graduate of the School of Policy, Planning, and Development at the University of Southern California (USC), where her doctoral research focused on environmental policy, international development, and the non-profit sector. She also holds a Bachelor's degree in Sociology from the University of the Philippines and a Master's degree in Environmental Policy and Management from Yale University.

James Barth, Ph.D., Senior Fellow, Milken Institute, and Lowder Eminent Scholar in Finance at Auburn University. Barth’s research has focused on financial institutions and capital markets, both domestic and global, with special emphasis on regulatory issues. Most recently, he served as leader of an international team advising the People’s Bank of China on banking reform, co-authored Rethinking Bank Regulation: Till Angels Govern, Cambridge University Press, 2006, and is the overseas associate editor of China’s The Banker.

Glenn Yago is Director of Capital Studies at the Milken Institute. He specializes in financial innovations, financial institutions and capital markets, and has extensively analyzed public policy relating to job creation and capital formation.Before coming to the Institute, Yago was Director of the Center for Capital Studies in New York, which he founded in 1992 to develop insight into the process of capital access and ownership change. He was a faculty member of the City Universityof New York Graduate Center Ph.D. Program in Economics, and a Senior Research Associate at the Center for the Study of Business Government at Baruch College―City University of New York.

Betsy Zeidman is Director of the Center for Emerging Domestic Markets (CEDM) at the Milken Institute. CEDM aims to increase the flow of capital to America’s emerging entrepreneurs and communities through its research and information network, educational center and financial innovations laboratory. She manages the Center’s activity in such areas as strategic philanthropy, mission-related investing, corporate governance and environmental finance. In this position, Zeidman works with foundations, governments, institutional and individual investors, entrepreneurs and policy makers. She authors articles and research reports, and speaks frequently at conferences and to the media.