‘Staying-In’ or ‘Breaking-Out’? How Immigrant Entrepreneurs (do not) Enter Mainstream Markets

Abstract

Abstract This article examines how immigrant entrepreneurs ‘break-out’ of their reliance on co-ethnic markets by becoming attractive to customers beyond their own ethnic community. So far, break-out has been considered mainly an economically driven and consciously implemented strategy. By drawing upon interviews with small business owners in the Turkish food retailing sector in Vienna, as well as crowd-sourced reviews about immigrant businesses on online platforms, I want to complement this view in two aspects: First, there is considerable evidence that the entrepreneurs’ market orientation is shaped by their social embeddedness which is expressed by referring to the contradictory contexts of different expectations – not only those of their own community but also those of the majority community. Second, by using the example of the entrepreneur’s urban neighbourhood, it is suggested that break-out is not solely the result of a deliberately adopted strategy, but rather the outcome of factors far beyond the ...