Abstract
The theory of entrepreneurship was developed on the grounds and realities of developed market economies. Thus, the attention of entrepreneurship scholars was also mainly concentrated on developed markets. The call for a book focusing on entrepreneurship in emerging and transition economies was made some years ago (Westhead, 2008). The edited volume by Arnis Sauka and Alexander Chepurenko provides a thoughtful insight into entrepreneurship in transition economies of former Soviet Union (FSU) countries and the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) that were under communist command only about 30 years ago. A transition economy is defined as an economy which is converting from centrally planned economy to a market economy (Feige, 1994). The transformations that occurred in the transition economy countries were amazing for such a short time. Entrepreneurs are perceived as important drivers of reforms in transition economies (McMillan and Woodruff, 2002; Parsyak and Zhuravlyova, 2001). Although countries of FSU and CEE are different in many aspects, they all have the common past of the command economy. In my opinion, the selection of the context and focusing on entrepreneurship in FSU and CEE is reasonable. Including a wider array of transition economies from the whole world would make comparison of trends and learning of best practices more difficult due to different cultural backgrounds of diverse transition economies. I personally grew up in one of the transition economies and it was interesting for me to follow the contemporary debate in the book.
The book consists of an introduction written by the editors and 22 chapters. Forty authors from 20 countries contributed to the book. Part 1 provides an overview of the main trends and paths of entrepreneurship development in transition economies. In addition, Part 1 draws attention on the impact of institutions on entrepreneurship in transition economies. Furthermore, the contributors analyse and compare the cross-country data (Part 2). In my opinion, entrepreneurship research would benefit if the volume had a chapter comparing data from an international project comprising all transition countries of FSU and CEE countries using the common survey instruments. Unfortunately, there are no such data available yet. The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) could be a possible project of this type. However, not all transition countries have joined the GEM project yet. Next two parts provide analysis of entrepreneurship in individual countries of the CEE Region and several Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries. Notably, the chapters contain up-to-date information reflecting the recent trends in the highly dynamic environments. The majority of the contributions in Parts 3 and 4 used the empirical data from the recent GEM survey. Part 5 of the volume highlights specific topics related to entrepreneurship in FSU countries (i.e. issues related to family support, female entrepreneurship and information and communications technology (ICT) entrepreneurship). In the final part, ‘Conclusions and Policy Suggestions’, Dallago makes a good summary related to the evidence from the chapters in the volume. The final overview chapter focuses on several themes in the book (related to policies towards entrepreneurship, institutional reforms, business climate and mental models). The Table (pp. 431–433) is rather informative summarizing information from previous chapters and comparing the state of entrepreneurship development in the transition countries.
The edited book is an excellent collection of both qualitative and quantitative studies. Such a combination gives an opportunity to get insight on entrepreneurship in transition economies. The book inspires further research on entrepreneurship in transition economies. In some transition countries, the entrepreneurship research is still in its infancy. I hope several important issues will be addressed in future studies. First, the entrepreneurship research will benefit from a cross-country analysis comparing entrepreneurial performance in all transition economies using the common questionnaire. Future research should use advanced bivariate and multivariate statistical approaches to explore dependent and independent variables related to the areas discussed in the present volume. Entrepreneurship in transition economies is more dynamic and unpredictable than entrepreneurship in established market economies. Longitudinal research projects will allow observing development of entrepreneurs’ skills and competencies in different contexts of transition economies as well as the impact of institutional factors on entrepreneurial activities. The research agenda for future studies is immense. Some specific issues were highlighted in recent edited books (i.e. shadow economy (Sauka et al., 2016), female entrepreneurship (Ramadani et al., 2015)). Other emergent themes on entrepreneurship in transition economies deserve special attention and further research, that is, family firms, entrepreneurship among young people and others.
The book edited by Arnis Sauka and Alexander Chepurenko is an essential read for entrepreneurship scholars in transition economies and academics in Western countries willing to study such an interesting phenomenon as entrepreneurship in transition countries of Central Europe and countries of FSU. The book covers key aspects of entrepreneurship in the transition context and would be interesting for policy-makers and practitioners concerned with the development of entrepreneurship in transition countries. I would highly recommend this book to libraries at universities both in transition economy countries and in Western countries.