Entrepreneurial Strategies During Institutional Transitions

Abstract

Since institutions are typically conceptualized as “the rules of the game in a society” (North 1990: 3; Scott 1995), “institutional transitions” are defined as “fundamental and comprehensive changes introduced to the formal and informal rules of the game” (Peng 2003: 275). One of the most dramatic sets of institutional transitions in the last two decades has been the political, economic, and social changes sweeping across Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), the newly independent states (NIS) of the former Soviet Union, and the East Asian countries of China and Vietnam. In fact, these institutional transitions are so profound that these countries, formerly known as the Eastern bloc, have now been collectively labeled “transition economies.”