Date
5-22-2024
Department
School of Behavioral Sciences
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD)
Chair
Stacey Gaines
Keywords
Black business, barriers, public procurement, racism, critical race theory, corporate responsibility to race theory, disparity, capital
Disciplines
Psychology
Recommended Citation
Harris, Khamillia, "Exploring Black Business Owners' Experience in Public Procurement Contracts" (2024). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 5596.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/5596
Abstract
Black businesses are on the rise in the United States, and most are formed with the goal of achieving greater economic stability and positive impact on their communities. However, Black business owners often lack sufficient opportunities and access to essential resources (i.e., capital), which negatively affects their business stability efforts (Bento & Hwang, 2022). Black business owners can access procurement contracts as a unique way to access capital to grow and sustain their businesses (Chepkoit, 2018; Shelton & Minniti, 2018), yet they received 1.67% of public funds compared to 15.64% awarded to other non-minority small businesses (Choi et al., 2022; U.S. Small Business Administration, 2020). In this hermeneutic qualitative phenomenological study, the lived experience of Black business owners in pursuing public procurement contracts, and the potential impact of racism on this process, were explored. Eleven Black business owners (n=6 female, n= 5 male) recruited from the Phoenix, AZ area participated in one-on-one interviews. Data were analyzed using a six-step thematic analysis process outline by Nowell et al., (2017). The majority of the participants (n=7) lacked an understanding of the public procurement program, suggesting a lack of knowledge and/or awareness of the program. Additionally, most of the participants (n=6) reported encountering negative psychological experiences (i.e., frustration, challenges) in accessing public procurement. Of these six participants, three participants reported feeling that race was a negative factor in their in their experience. Directions for future research, as well as policy and theoretical implications, are discussed.
