Victoria Hyonchu Kwon Entrepreneurship and Religion

Annotation

Focusing on settlement patterns among Houston's Korean immigrants, this study examines in ethnographic detail the mutually beneficial relationship between the Korean business community and church groups. It explore historical background and social and demographic characteristics of the group to provide a broader context in explaining their entrepreneurial and religious behaviors. The study shows that economic and social changes during and after the oil boom in Houston had a direct effect on the emergence of the Korean business community. Churches with a highly developed structural linkage through cell group ministry also facilitate business contacts among parishioners. Embracing a majority of Korean community members as parishioners, the churches perform social functions that are indispensable to the Korean immigrants.