ABSTRACT

For decades, researchers have observed that ethnicity, one’s affiliation with a national or cultural tradition, plays a part in the acceleration of entrepreneurship. Some have gone so far as to theorize that certain ethnic groups, particularly among first-and second-generation immigrants, are more likely to create new ventures than others, even the population at large. These ventures are not just small businesses that cater to the needs of the same ethnic minorities; they are international enterprises founded on their ethnic ties. But if ethnicity helps emerging entrepreneurs by helping them to

advance their businesses through the networks they’ve created, does it lead these ventures down the road to growth and prosperity? Or at some point, do these ethnic networks limit and constrain them? The research, with its narrow emphasis on how and why members of

various ethnic groups create new businesses, doesn’t say. It neglects other aspects of ethnic entrepreneurship. Thus, with my study, I began to redress this imbalance by going beyond an examination of the startup phase and looking at the effects of the network dynamics of ethnic entrepreneurship from inception to relative maturity. I heeded the words of authors Linda Dyer and Christopher Ross (2000), and worked to develop “a better understanding of the social networks within which entrepreneurs continue to develop their operations.” More specifically, I explored the link between ethnic networks and

entrepreneurship through an in-depth case study of entrepreneur Iso Cara and his international network of high-end fashion and leather goods producers, distributors, and retailers in Russia and Eastern Europe. The network is composed mainly of Balkan immigrants who left their respective countries and settled abroad. Their selective migration and settlement resulted in the emergence of trading networks, or trading diasporas, which “pursue different strategies than the majority,” as Gopalkrishnan Iyer and Jon Shapiro wrote in 1999.