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Unfinished Business, Understandings, and Insights into Caribbean Enterprises

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Understanding the Caribbean Enterprise

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Abstract

Chapter 6 provides a review of the context of the book, and identifies a number of intersections between research on micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and family-owned businesses (FOBs), and research in other fields. Although it is recognised that all the issues and gaps in these fields cannot be addressed here, we probe three of the issues raised by stakeholders, during the research process: the role of FOBs in promoting and facilitating entrepreneurship, the role of religion in business, and the role of FOBs and MSMEs in promoting competitiveness. The chapter also summarises the main findings from the preceding chapters.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See Lashley (2012b) for a discussion of SME and entrepreneurship development policies.

  2. 2.

    See http://bransoncentre.co/caribbean/ for details.

  3. 3.

    This was part of a US$70 million initiative announced by US President Barack Obama during an official visit to Jamaica (8–9 April 2015); see details at http://jis.gov.jm/president-obama-announces-us70-million-youth-training-employment-programme/ and http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/lead-stories/20150410/caribbean-youth-happy-us70m-obama-initiative.

  4. 4.

    In the ranking, entrepreneurship is defined as the percentage of an adult population who own (or co-own) a new business and has paid salaries or wages for at least 3 months.

  5. 5.

    Recall that this data covers a number of areas, including business and entrepreneurship, and the data collection methods include questionnaire, focus groups, and discussion with owners of family businesses.

  6. 6.

    Further discussions revealed that these businesses are not restricted to FOBs.

  7. 7.

    Religion is taken to mean organised religion as captured in the practice of Christianity, Islam, Hindu, and so on.

  8. 8.

    The emphasis was on Christianity.

  9. 9.

    We interpret this to mean the Roman Catholic church.

  10. 10.

    The “Golden Rule” is interpreted as having the following four levels (Brammer et al. 2007): (i) Treat others as persons of rational dignity like yourself; (ii) show brotherly or sisterly love to others, as you want them to do to you; (iii) treat others according to moral insight, as you would have others treat you; and (vi) do unto others as God wants you to do to them.

  11. 11.

    Spirituality here is being linked to religion.

  12. 12.

    Most of the FOBs embracing Hinduism and Islam were based in Trinidad and Tobago.

  13. 13.

    In discussions with a number of policy-makers, the view has been expressed that FOBs do not represent a viable economic foundation in being major contributors to the competitiveness of countries (especially emerging economies) because of their lack of continuity and presumed low productivity.

  14. 14.

    The Tobin’s q ratio is a measure of firm assets in relation to a firm’s market value. If q (representing equilibrium) is greater than one (q > 1), additional investment in the firm would make sense because the profits generated would exceed the cost of firm’s assets. If q is less than one (q < 1), the firm would be better off selling its assets instead of trying to put them to use. Read more: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/Tobin-s-q-theory.html#ixzz3whORUQSH

  15. 15.

    Two of the leading scholars on competitiveness.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mona School of Business and Management, University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, Kingston, Jamaica

    Lawrence A. Nicholson

  2. Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies, University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Wanstead, Barbados

    Jonathan G. Lashley

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  1. Lawrence A. Nicholson
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  2. Jonathan G. Lashley
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Nicholson, L.A., Lashley, J.G. (2016). Unfinished Business, Understandings, and Insights into Caribbean Enterprises. In: Understanding the Caribbean Enterprise. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-94879-6_6

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