Citation: Jackson, F.; D’Innocenzo, L.; Gefen, D. Embracing Survivalist Entrepreneurship: How African American Men Leverage Business Ownership out of Economic Necessity. Businesses 2024, 4, 177–195. https:// doi.org/10.3390/businesses4020012 Academic Editor: Lester Johnson Received: 19 April 2024 Revised: 23 May 2024 Accepted: 29 May 2024 Published: 31 May 2024 Copyright: © 2024 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). Article Embracing Survivalist Entrepreneurship: How African American Men Leverage Business Ownership out of Economic Necessity Frederick Jackson 1, *, Lauren D’Innocenzo 2 and David Gefen 1 1 Department of Decision Sciences & MIS, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA; gefend@drexel.edu 2 Department of Management, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA; led73@drexel.edu * Correspondence: fcj25@drexel.edu Abstract: There has been extensive research and examination dedicated to the advantages and disadvantages of entrepreneurship, both in general and specifically for African Americans. Sig- nificant research has been devoted to understanding the economic outcomes of African American men, and there is an area of opportunity to study how African American men, specifically, can leverage entrepreneurship to increase the probability of successful economic outcomes for themselves and their families. Entrepreneurial research has the potential to be leveraged to combat waning labor force participation rates and heightened unemployment rates among African American men. Leveraging the theories of Trust, Goal-Orientation, Logotherapy, and Social Identity Theory, a study was conducted among United States-based business owners. The sample size was forty-one African American male business owners. The results demonstrate how these African American men have leveraged entrepreneurship to build social capital and wealth, while improving their standard of living, as well as highlight the hurdles and barriers they have endured during the process of business ownership. The majority of African American owned business are owned by African American men, and this study provides insights into the phenomenology of African American male entrepreneurs. Keywords: survival entrepreneurship; business ownership; African American 1. Introduction In 2021, the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) released a report that estimated the annual cost of joblessness among African American men at USD50 billion [1]. Scholars and economists have sought to understand the reasons for the high levels of joblessness and have uncovered a number of potential sources. For instance, African Amer- ican men experience higher levels of unemployment [2], lower levels of collegiate degree attainment [3], and lower levels of entrepreneurship compared to other demographics in the United States [4]. Other potential reasons point to historic discrimination, leading to economic dispari- ties. For example, in lending and banking, there is a twenty-nine-percentage point gap in home ownership between African Americans (45.3%) and White Americans (74.6%) [5]. The differential in homeownership is relevant, specifically in the context of entrepreneurship, as research suggests that from four percent [6] to over seven percent [7] of small businesses are initially funded, primarily, by a home equity line of credit. Furthermore, African American men are incarcerated at a disproportionately higher rate, which is associated with lower probabilities of being employable, with some research estimating up to sixty percent of formerly incarcerated people being unemployed a year after release [8]. Given these staggering statistics and the employment challenges faced by African American men, some of these men have taken matters into their own hands and sought opportunities in entrepreneurship. For many, becoming an entrepreneur is the culmination of a career of building, developing, and honing a skill, or a set of skills, and determining Businesses 2024, 4, 177–195. https://doi.org/10.3390/businesses4020012 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/businesses