Ethnic Entrepreneurship and Placemaking in Toronto's Ethnic Retail Neighbourhoods

Abstract

Research about ethnic businesses primarily focuses on the urban context; yet, contemporary immigrants in North America have increasingly been settling and establishing new businesses in suburbs. This paper explores emerging suburban ethnic retail clusters in the Greater Toronto Area by comparing them to established urban business enclaves. Drawing on extensive field research, surveys, and interviews in more than 100 suburban Chinese and South Asian retail clusters, this paper explores entrepreneurial experiences in suburban retail spaces, the role of ethnic entrepreneurs in suburban placemaking, and the opportunities and constraints affecting entrepreneurs' interaction with other key players. It demonstrates the need to build on the mixed embeddedness model when exploring ethnic entrepreneurship in a suburban context, as well as the need to consider how the institutional framework plays a role in shaping ethnic retail places and the spatial and physical outcomes of ethnic entrepreneurship.