Survival Rates of Asian and White Retai Lers

David McEvoy is senior lecturer in Geography at Liverpool Polytechnic and Howard Aldrich is Professor of Sociology at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Substantial numbers of immigrants to Britain originating in the Indian sub-continent have entered small-scale retailing. Two possible explanations for this exist. The popular, optimistic view holds that Asian shopkeepers are prospering and that this economic success derives from a willingness to work long and hard for initially meagre rewards, assisted by a supportive network of kinsfolk. The pessimistic view, propounded by the authors and their colleagues, notes the declining national significance of small-scale retailing, sees Asian involvement as a reaction to structural disadvantage in the British labour market, and regards much Asian business as a waste of capital, talent and energy. This paper evaluates the two views in the light of survival figures for Asian-owned and white-owned stores. If Asians are distinctively prosperous, then their survival rate might be expected to exceed that of whites. If, however, Asians are reacting to economic disadvantage, their survival rate ought not to be markedly better than that of whites, and might possibly be worse. Information was derived from interviews with matched samples of Asian and white retailers in Bradford, Leicester and London in 1978, 1980, 1982 and 1984. Aggregate figures suggest higher rates of Asian success. More detailed analysis shows that contrasting figures apply to different cities and to different time intervals. Whatever the relative success rate, however, it is clear that typical survival rates (about 50% after six years) are low.