Innovative Research is Digging Deeper into the Gaps in Support for Black Entrepreneurs

Dr. Felix Zogning, Sherbrooke University professor

What isn’t working for Black entrepreneurs? That’s the question Dr. Felix Zogning and his team are on a mission to understand through a unique research project currently underway. The Sherbrooke University professor says about 17% of cultural communities in Canada show entrepreneurial intentions or engagement, compared to 14% for the Canadian average. However, there is a gap somewhere in between. 
“When we look at entrepreneurial success—the number of businesses from these communities that succeed, that survive for a long time, that make it past the third or fifth year, and become sustainable—we see that many of these businesses, unfortunately, fail along the way. Many of these entrepreneurs don’t make it,” Dr. Zogning says. “So, when we see that these communities have the highest rate of entrepreneurial activity or intent at the beginning but the lowest rate of entrepreneurial success in the end, it’s clear that there is a problem somewhere in the middle.”
This reality is the genesis of this study, what Dr. Zogning and his team observed on the ground. There are many support programs available but, a closer look at the quality of support, and they found there might be room for improvement. Research previously conducted found entrepreneurs from many cultural communities are not even aware of the resources and programs available.
“Even when they are aware of these programs, many believe they cannot access the grants, support, or assistance because of technical complexities—how to prepare the application, how to navigate the process,” Dr. Zogning says, adding language barriers create another layer of obstacles. “As a result, only about 10% of these entrepreneurs benefit from the available support, subsidies, and services. This observation led us to understand that the problem isn’t the availability of support programs or services—those exist. The issue lies in the nature, quality, and orientation of these programs. This is why we launched this project: to understand exactly what isn’t working.” 
In one example, they've already found entrepreneurs who receive training gain an advantage, but for most of them, training alone doesn’t provide enough elements to succeed in business. In most cases, 80% of them, based on the results they've seen so far, rely heavily on relationship networks, organizational networks, and association networks as a primary foundation before trying to integrate into other networks.
The project is among a select group of community engagement projects supported by the Black Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub (BEKH), as part of an effort to better understand the needs and challenges of Black entrepreneurs across the ecosystem. The quantitative portion, which is focused on creating a portrait, is currently being finalized. The interim results of the second portion, the qualitative part encompassing the focus groups and discussions, will be presented in February 2025 at the BEKH Capstone Conference. Dr. Zogning says the third portion of the study is experimental.
“We work with entrepreneurs using adapted methods to see how these adapted support methods make a difference compared to traditional methods. We document everything, and in 2026, we’ll be able to present that.” 
Recent data has been helping to paint a clearer picture of the state of Black entrepreneurship across the country: from the number of Black women entrepreneurs to the number of new immigrants launching ventures to their ability to access funding. The data has provided much-needed insight for Canada's Black communities, but it's clear there's still more work to be done. While there are already studies on entrepreneurship within Black communities, they typically only provide an overview—highlighting challenges, motivations, successes, and failures. 
“These are precisely the studies we rely on to go further, saying that since this overview shows significant potential but also a high failure rate, it means we need to dig deeper into what’s happening,” Dr. Zogning says. What's new and innovative about this particular project is that it is going a step further: examining all the methods of support, evaluating them, and determining which are most effective—or which combination of methods can yield better results in supporting these communities. He's also eager to learn more about how Black entrepreneurs are doing, especially in a post-pandemic climate. 
“How do they manage their business on a daily basis? What specific challenges do they face day-to-day, and how do they experience this—how do they transcend and overcome them?,” he says.
Dr. Zogning is grateful for the support of the BEKH, whose leadership in this kind of community engagement is critical to providing the kind of structure that coordinates everything: identifying these studies, providing the means to advance the results, and achieving coordinated result presentations, with significant impacts and benefits for the ecosystem. 
“Having a knowledge portal like the BEKH, which essentially brings together all the energy and research networks working on this topic, is invaluable.”