The new entrepreneurs of Europe and Asia : patterns of business development in Russia, Eastern Europe, and China

While attention has been focused on high-level struggles over control of giant enterprises in China and the former Soviet bloc, a remarkable but underreported revolution has been occurring at the grass-roots level. This volume examines the profiles of entrepreneurs and the patterns of business development in the post-socialist countries Bringing together the perspectives of all the social science disciplines, from anthropology through economics and political science to sociology, the contributors identify the criteria for survival and success of independent businesses in different environments. Their findings shed light not only on the "transition from socialism" at the micro-level, but also on the conditioning effects of different economic, historical, legal, and social conditions on the conduct of independent economic initiatives. Twelve contributions from international academics discuss entrepreneurship in communist and post-communist societies. The first part of the volume is devoted to the attributes of entrepreneurs in Russia, Eastern Europe, and China with particular attention paid to their backgrounds, demographic features, and the firms over which they preside. Contributions in the second half examine larger patterns of entrepreneurialism in transitional societies. The papers were originally presented at a conference held at the University of California at Berkeley in May of 2000. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR This study examines entrepreneur profiles and the patterns of business development. The contributors then use the social science disciplines to find the criteria for the survival and success of independant businesses, shedding light on the "transition from socialism"