examines the unique challenges facing minorities pursuing entrepreneurial alternatives in very specific social, political, historical, and economic contexts, and these contexts differ from nation to nation. This monograph examines the different contexts in which Black and Asian owners have run their firms since the late 19th century. In sociological terms, the kinds of firms they owned and the way these owners operated their firms were heavily shaped by the differing contexts in which they were embedded. Key factors shaping MBEs in America differ substantially from the relevant contextual factors operative in England or France or Germany.