One of the most interesting results of the collapse of the former Soviet Union is the emergence of successful cosmopolitan entrepreneurs from former Soviet republics who have immigrated to countries, such as the United States and Canada, and settled in metropolitan areas like Toronto and have made millions establishing businesses in their new host countries. I have chosen to study successful cosmopolitan entrepreneurs from the former Soviet Union because this group has immigrated from a place where the free market economy and privatization did not exist prior to the 1980s, so the important intellectual issue, is how did immigrants who grew up most of their lives in a state-controlled communist system where entrepreneurship was forbidden learn to become so adept at starting businesses in a market economy when they moved to Toronto. One of the central questions that this dissertation aims to address is: How did experiences in the former Soviet communist economy and in the transitional economy affect the role that human capital, financial capital, and social capital played in establishing businesses in Toronto. This study is based on thirty two interviews that I have conducted with two cohorts of immigrants from the former Soviet Union, those who immigrated to Toronto in the late 1970s and early 1980s and those that immigrated in the late 1980s and 1990s. To address how Russian immigrants established businesses in Toronto, I used three bodies of literature, including (1) transitional economy, (2) ethnic and class dimensions of entrepreneurship, and (3) transnationalism to examine how each of the following factors: 1) social capital, 2) financial capital, 3) human capital, and 4) home country experience, specifically experience in the former Soviet communist economy and experience in the transitional economy affected the Russian entrepreneur at each stage of business development in Toronto.

One of the most interesting results of the collapse of the former Soviet Union is the emergence of successful cosmopolitan entrepreneurs from former Soviet republics who have immigrated to countries, such as the United States and Canada, and settled in metropolitan areas like Toronto and have made millions establishing businesses in their new host countries. I have chosen to study successful cosmopolitan entrepreneurs from the former Soviet Union because this group has immigrated from a place where the free market economy and privatization did not exist prior to the 1980s, so the important intellectual issue, is how did immigrants who grew up most of their lives in a state-controlled communist system where entrepreneurship was forbidden learn to become so adept at starting businesses in a market economy when they moved to Toronto. One of the central questions that this dissertation aims to address is: How did experiences in the former Soviet communist economy and in the transitional economy affect the role that human capital, financial capital, and social capital played in establishing businesses in Toronto. This study is based on thirty two interviews that I have conducted with two cohorts of immigrants from the former Soviet Union, those who immigrated to Toronto in the late 1970s and early 1980s and those that immigrated in the late 1980s and 1990s. To address how Russian immigrants established businesses in Toronto, I used three bodies of literature, including (1) transitional economy, (2) ethnic and class dimensions of entrepreneurship, and (3) transnationalism to examine how each of the following factors: 1) social capital, 2) financial capital, 3) human capital, and 4) home country experience, specifically experience in the former Soviet communist economy and experience in the transitional economy affected the Russian entrepreneur at each stage of business development in Toronto.