Inc.: Can Entrepreneurship Crack the Glass Ceiling for Asians?

By April Joyner

Two recent studies by the Asian Society and Ascend indicate that entrepreneurship is the sole bright spot in a somewhat depressed outcome for Asian Americans in business over the past ten years. While 23 percent of Bay Area residents are Asian, they comprise just 5 percent of board members in the top 100 Bay Area firms and 13 percent of CEOs in the top 100 Bay Area firms. Six of those CEOs, however, were also founders of their companies.

That entrepreneurs are well represented among top Asian American executives comes as no surprise to anyone familiar with companies such as Yahoo! and Sun Microsystems. But those successes, say Buck Gee and Wesley Hom, co-authors of the study, obscure many persistent obstacles. "When you look at Asians, by and large you see success stories," Gee says. "But the Asian population in Silicon Valley is 30 percent. There could be a lot more in those ranks."

Previous studies have supported the notion that many minority and immigrant entrepreneurs start their companies because they perceive a lack of opportunity elsewhere. Building their own businesses may be a more effective means of attaining executive positions than attempting to ascend the ranks through technical positions (more)