Doctoral Dissertation Research: An Investigation of Factors that Influence African Americans' Entrepreneurship in STEM Fields

少数族裔企业创业，特别是在科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）领域，为创新、创造就业、高收入潜力以及增加美国劳动力的多样性提供了多种机会，以反映当前的人口统计数据。本论文研究的目的是了解STEM项目影响STEM教育的非裔美国毕业生追求高科技创业的因素。目前，有证据表明，虽然美国非洲裔美国企业家的数量有所增长，但这种增长并未发生在与高科技公司高度相关的STEM领域。关于非裔美国人的STEM创业知识有限，因为目前的数据集只捕获了关于企业家背景或教育程度的很少信息。本研究旨在通过分析从全国各地的STEM项目联盟（多所学院/大学之间的合作）收集的行政和调查数据来填补这一空白。更好地了解教育中哪些因素影响非裔美国人追求创业，可以为指导鼓励和支持非裔美国人从事STEM的政策和项目提供经验数据，允许对现有项目进行修改或重新评估，并促进创业活动与STEM支持项目的联系。这项研究通过回顾现有的STEM支持项目，确定了哪些教育经历可以预测非裔美国人在STEM领域的创业精神。对这些项目及其组成部分（如社交网络、指导、榜样和财务支持）的审查，可以确定鼓励创业的桥梁因素，以及提供创业知识的程度。通过对本科生和研究生STEM支持项目以及企业主特征的调查数据进行定量分析，旨在揭示这些因素与STEM领域创业之间的关系。这些结果可以用来确定哪些因素更有可能培养非裔美国人的创业精神。

Minority business entrepreneurship, specifically in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) provides multiple opportunities for innovation, job creation, high earning potential, and for increasing the diversity of the U.S. workforce to reflect current population demographics. The purpose of this dissertation research is to understand the factors of STEM programs that influence STEM-educated African American graduates to pursue high tech entrepreneurship. Currently, there is evidence that while the U. S. has experienced growth in the number of African American entrepreneurs, this growth has not occurred in STEM fields, which are highly linked to high tech firms. Knowledge about African American STEM entrepreneurship is limited, as current data sets captures minimal information on the background or education of entrepreneurs. This research aims to fill that gap by analyzing administrative and survey data collected from STEM program alliances (collaborations between multiple colleges/universities) across the country. A greater understanding of which factors in education influence African Americans to pursue entrepreneurship can provide empirical data to guide policies and programs that encourage and support African Americans in STEM, allow for the modification or re-evaluation of existing programs, and promote the linking of entrepreneurial activities with STEM-support programs.This research identifies what educational experiences predict African American entrepreneurship in STEM fields by reviewing existing STEM-support programs. The review of these programs and their components such as social networking, mentoring, role models, and financial support, allows identification of bridging factors which encourage entrepreneurship, as well as to what degree knowledge about entrepreneurship is provided. The results of a quantitative analysis of survey data from undergraduate and graduate STEM-support programs as well as business owner characteristics aims to reveal the relationship between these factors and entrepreneurship in STEM fields. These results can be used to determine which factors are more likely to cultivate entrepreneurship among African Americans.