Ethnic groups, urban places, and retail enterprise: the United States, 1900

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis study proposes an entrepreneurship model that (1) uses sociological literature on ethnic stratification to develop a typology of subdominant, marginalized, subordinate, and outcast minority groups and (2) applies geographic principles to spatially define variation in entrepreneurial environments in terms of urban hierarchies, regional milieus, and hinterland centres. Examining retail enterprise, the study utilizes the interactionist approach, which holds that ethnic business differences result from an interplay of groups’ attributes (supply) and locations’ opportunity structures (demand). The study extends this approach by incorporating the mixed embeddedness concept, which stresses the importance of ethnic groups’ situation in broad social, political, and institutional contexts. Regression analyses of Census data for US cities in 1900 show why retail enterprise among outcast minorities is demand-side resistant, while retail enterprise among marginalized minorities is demand-side reactive. The model thus yields insights into how ethnic stratification and geographical positions interact to produce inequalities of ethnic entrepreneurship.