Scaled Latina Enterprises in the United States of America

Abstract

Female Hispanic-owned businesses in the United States of America or Latina enterprises are emerging as an important conduit of national economic vitality. Using data from the 2023 Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative nationally representative survey of 1513 Latina-owned employer enterprises, this article is the first to offer a national portrait and determinants of scaled Latina enterprises. Scaled businesses include the largest Latina enterprises by annual sales revenue of USD 500,000 or more. These Latina enterprises are identified as scaled or scaling and represent 23.5% of all Latina employer enterprises. A comprehensive set of enterprise and entrepreneur characteristics provides the foundation to estimate the odds of scaled Latina enterprises utilizing binomial logistic regression. Results indicate that scaled Latina entrepreneurs are relatively younger, of Mexican origin, highly educated, and acculturated compared to their non-scaled Latina counterparts. Scaled Latina enterprises are more likely to grow endogenously by reinvesting profits instead of utilizing debt financing, are larger in size and scope, and are less likely to rely upon co-ethnic enclaves.