15372: Racial Disadvantage in Entrepreneurship Networks (session 26065)

Monday, July 28, 2025

10:15 - 11:45 CEST (GMT+2)

Location: Bella Center: Hall B- B3-m3

Session Type: Paper Session
Orientation: Practice,Research,Diversity
Shareable link: https://cdmcd.co/6vpPDv

Author(s)

AL

Alexander Lewis

UTSA, United States
OH

Ouafaa Hmaddi

The City College of New York of the City University of New York, United States
RX

Ruizhu Rachael Xiong

Kansas State University, United States
AB

Antoine Busby

Stephen F. Austin State University, United States
NJ

Nick Johnson

University of North Texas, United States
IB

Ihsan Beezer

-, United States

This paper presents the findings of preregistered audit studies of three separate mentor networks (n ˜ 4,000). We find that potential mentors affiliated with the U.S. Small Business Association and with Y Combinator are 6.9% and 9.1% less likely to accept a connection request from a Black entrepreneur on LinkedIn than from an identical White entrepreneur, though we find no evidence for discrimination among mentors affiliated with the Founder Institute. Our exploratory analysis of the full network of Y Combinator alumni also reveal regional patterns of discrimination, that regional conservatism at the county level increases discrimination, but that indicators of African American disadvantage (African American poverty rate, unemployment rate, and segregation) reduce disadvantage. These findings contribute to research on race and entrepreneurship, which has principally focused on discrimination in the acquisition of financial capital. We show that discrimination also occurs in the acquisition of social capital, but that the pattern of this discrimination is uneven.

view paper (if available)