science

Minority business enterprise

Minority business enterprise is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Minority business enterprise rather than just read about it. In short: Minority business enterprise (MBE) is an American designation for businesses which are at least 51% owned, operated and controlled on a daily basis by one or more (in combination) American citizens of the following ethnic minority and/or gender (e.g. woman-owned) and/or military veteran classifications: African American Asian American or Pacific Islander (includes West Asian Americans (Iran, etc.) and East Asian Ame…

Key takeaways

Minority business enterprise belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Minority business enterprise to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Minority business enterprise from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Minority business enterprise (MBE) is an American designation for businesses which are at least 51% owned, operated and controlled on a daily basis by one or more (in combination) American citizens of the following ethnic minority and/or gender (e.g. woman-owned) and/or military veteran classifications:

African American Asian American or Pacific Islander (includes West Asian Americans (Iran, etc.) and East Asian Americans (Japan, Korea, etc.)) Hispanic American - A U.S. citizen of true-born Hispanic heritage, from any of the Spanish-speaking areas of the following regions: Mexico, Central America, South America and the Caribbean Basin only. Brazilians (Afro-Brazilian, indigenous/Indian only) shall be listed under Hispanic designation for review and certification purposes. Native American, including Aleuts According to the Minority Business Development Agency, minorities own more than 8 million firms, and account for nearly $1.4 trillion in revenues. MBEs can self-identify, but are typically certified by a city, state or federal agency. Over $300 million were paid to many who self-identify as Cherokee.

Public contract bidding Certain states within the United States, as a part of their bidding process, incentivize MBEs and women-owned business enterprises to bid on publicly awarded construction or service contracts. They may also declare that a percentage of the work performed on a contract be awarded to a MBE or women-owned business enterprise.

New York In New York, the goal for the award of public contracts is to increase from 20% in 2014 to 30% by 2019. In 2018, the state was also considering establishing goals for the workforce of contractors awarded public contracts, but insisted these goals were not quotas. If contractors could not make a "good faith" effort to reach the goals, contractors might not be eligible for future public contracts for a length determined by the state. In 2021, New York City expanded the certification to LGBT-owned businesses to qualify as minority-owned businesses to qualify for contracts.

Controversy In 2014, when New York increased its Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprise (MWBE) goals for public contracts from 20% to 30%, the Association of General Contractors (AGC) sued the state for failing to release documents via New York's Freedom of Information Law (FOIL). The AGC was concerned that the state had not conducted a proper contract analysis before declaring the increase of the MWBE goal to 30%. The AGC stated that the 30% goal does not reflect the availability of MWBEs statewide. The AGC also questioned a later study - performed by Mason Tillman Associates Ltd. of Oakland, California - that was paid for by the state in consideration of its employment goals for state contracts. There have been cases where contractors have been charged with crimes for impersonating MBEs. In New York, the owner of Eastern Building & Restoration was sentenced to 3.5 to 12 years in prison for fraudulently receiving over $800,000 from public construction contracts for impersonating as an MBE from the years 2012 - 2014.

See also Black-owned business Woman owned business Disadvantaged business enterprise LGBT-owned business

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Minority business enterprise

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Minority business enterprise claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Minority business enterprise before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Minority business enterprise ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Minority business enterprise

In research: Minority business enterprise appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Minority business enterprise in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Minority business enterprise is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Business models, Business terms, Corporate social responsibility, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Minority business enterprise outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Minority business enterprise in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Minority business enterprise means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Minority business enterprise out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Minority business enterprise in simple terms?

Why does Minority business enterprise matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Minority business enterprise?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Minority business enterprise.