TEXT E Federal efforts to aid
minority businesses began in the 1960’s when the Small Business Administration
(SBA) began making federally guaranteed loans and government-sponsored
management and technical assistance available to minority business enterprises.
While this program enabled many minority entrepreneurs to form new businesses,
the results were disappointing, since managerial inexperience, unfavorable
locations, and capital shortages led to high failures rates. Even 15 years after
the program was implemented, minority business, receipts were not quite two
percent of the national economy’s total receipts. Recently
federal policymakers have adopted an approach intended to accelerate development
of the minority business sector by moving away from directly aiding small
minority enterprises and toward supporting larger, growth-oriented minority
firms through intermediary companies. In this approach, large corporations
participate in the development of successful and stable minority businesses by
making use of government-sponsored venture capital. The capital is used by a
Minority Enterprise Small Business Investment Company or MESBIC. The MESBIC then
provides capital and guidance to minority businesses that have potential to
become future suppliers or customers of the sponsoring company.
MESBIC’s are the result of the belief that providing established firms
with easier access to relevant management techniques and more job-specific
experience, as well as substantial amounts of capital, gives those firms a
greater opportunity to develop sound business foundations than does simply
making general management experience and small amounts of capital available.
Further, since potential markets for the minority busineses already exist
through the sponsoring companies the minority businesses face conisderably less
risk in terms of location. Following early financial and operating problems,
sponsoring corporations began to capitalize MESBIC’s far above the legal minimum
of $ 500,00 in order to generate sufficient income and to sustain the quality of
management needed. MESBIC’s are now emerging as increasingly important financing
sources for minority enterprises. Ironically, MESBIC staffs,
which usually consist of Hispanic and Black professionals, tend to approach
investments in minority firms more pragmatically than do many MESBIC directors,
who are usually senior managers from sponsoring corporations. The latter often
still think mainly in terms of the "social responsibility approach" and thus
seem to prefer deals that are riskier and less attractive than normal investment
criteria would warrant. Such differences in viewpoint have produced uneasiness
among many minority staff members, who feel that minority entrepreneurs and
businesses should be judged by established business considerations. These staff
members believe their point of view is closer to the original philosophy of
MESBIC’s and they are concerned that, unless a more prudent course is followed,
MESBIC directors may revert to policies likely to recreate the disappointing
results of the original SBA approach. Which of the following statements about the SBA program can be inferred from the passage
A.The maximum term for loans made to recipient businesses was 15 years. B.Business loans were considered to be more useful to recipient businesses than was management and technical assistance. C.The anticipated failure rate for recipient businesses was significantly lower than the rate that actually resulted. D.The capitalization needs of recipient businesses were assessed and then provided for adequately.