Abstract

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, settling in metropolitan areas like Toronto and making millions establishing businesses in their new host countries. The author has chosen to study successful cosmopolitan entrepreneurs from the former Soviet Union because this group comes from a place where the free market economy did not exist before the 1980s. It is important to understand how people who grew up in a context where entrepreneurship was forbidden and there was no privatization prior to the 1980s (Gold, 1995) could develop entrepreneurial skills and how they could transfer these skills to establish successful businesses in the modern context of market capitalism in Toronto.

Key words: Entrepreneurship, capitalist, global, economy, capitalist economy