Diverging Paths of Entrepreneurship in Transition Countries: A Comparative View

Abstract

The concluding chapter considers the findings of the book at the light of academic studies and research of entrepreneurship and looks at what explains the evolution of entrepreneurship in transition countries. The chapter stresses that there are still differences between these countries, even those integrated in the European Union (EU), and the most developed countries of Western Europe and North America. Differences are of economic, political and social nature and, increasingly so, also in geostrategic sense. These differences apparently justify that the need for, the role of and the features of entrepreneurship in transition countries may be different compared to what we are used to see and consider in mature economic contexts. This is so for different reasons: the context that globalization brought about; the need to contribute to the success of transition; the peculiar origin of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs and their evolution in the process of transition first and consolidation of the new market context then; the similarities and differences among Central and Easter Europe (CEE) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries in a comparative perspective. The chapter looks at the relevant literature and properly places the contributions presented in the book.