This text provides an overview of entrepreneurship in a range of important emerging markets. A team of expert contributors provide analysis of entrepreneurship practice. Empirical insight into how entrepreneurial firms in Central and Eastern Europe internationalize is supplemented with context provided by world-renowned editors.

In the last two decades, the quest for a widely accepted definition of social enterprise has been a central issue in a great number of publications. The main objective of the ICSEM Project (on which this book is based) was to show that the social enterprise field would benefit much more from linking conceptualisation efforts to the huge diversity of social enterprises than from an additional and ambitious attempt at providing an encompassing definition. Starting from a hypothesis that could be termed "the impossibility of a unified definition", the ICSEM research strategy relied on bottom-up approaches to capture the social enterprise phenomenon in its local and national contexts. This strategy made it possible to take into account and give legitimacy to locally embedded approaches, while simultaneously allowing for the identification of major social enterprise models to delineate the field on common grounds at the international level. Social Enterprise in Central and Eastern Europe – the last volume in a series of four ICSEM-based books on social enterprise worldwide — will serve as a key reference and resource for teachers, researchers, students, experts, policy makers, journalists and others who want to acquire a broad understanding of the social enterprise and social entrepreneurship phenomena as they emerge and develop in this region.

The process of the transition to a market-oriented economy for countries from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) started some 25 years ago. A new technology base triggered the fast growth of new investments into intangible assets by global economic leaders at the beginning of the 1990s, providing the basis for a move towards a knowledge economy. During the past 25 years, entrepreneurs in CEE and the CIS have reshaped traditional industries and created new industries, combining innovative ideas with traditional competencies. Yet we still do not know very much about how and why companies led by entrepreneurs develop, how they expand globally and what the role of new knowledge and innovation is in the internationalization process. Understanding the pathways of entrepreneurial development, especially growth through internationalization, is important for the overall development of countries in transition and beyond. Entrepreneurship in Central and Eastern Europe: Development through Internationalization provides an overview of entrepreneurship in a range of important emerging markets. This book aims to fill the gap in the literature by providing up-to-date data and case-based evidence. With coverage of a range of national firms from countries including Belarus, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine, this book will be vital supplementary reading around international entrepreneurship and essential reading for those studying the business environment in this vital emerging market.

This book presents key insights about the challenges and the approaches they applied. All companies are featured in 15 teachable case studies – ready to use in entrepreneurship and strategy courses – that represent a broad level of diversity with regard to countries, industries, topics, growth phases, challenges and internationalization strategies.

This book examines entrepreneurship and small business in Russia and key countries of Eastern Europe, showing how far small businesses have developed, and discusses how far 'market reforms' and a market mentality have been taken up by ordinary people in the real everyday economy. For each of the countries examined - Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Poland

This book analyses the opportunities and barriers for youth entrepreneurship amid systemic change in Central and Eastern Europe. The authors cover different aspects of youth entrepreneurship and its contribution to the debate on youth unemployment in transition economies. The book discusses the wide-spread over-optimism regarding youth entrepreneurship, self-employment, and its impact on economic innovation and job creation, resulting from a disregard of critical contextual features and the characteristics of young entrepreneurs themselves. The authors give due acknowledgment of the importance of both factors and so fully understand the impediments to youth entrepreneurship, especially in a transition context. Furthermore, they seek to assess the opportunities and constraints of promotion policies in transition economies. Most importantly, the book provides the first empirical contribution to youth entrepreneurship in Central and Eastern Europe by offering a representative number of case studies. The book will be invaluable reading for scholars and students of transition and developing countries, particularly those with an interest in entrepreneurship.

Much of the research on transformation/transition in Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) focuses on macroeconomic issues (inflation, economic growth, employment ...). Little research has been devoted so far to microeconomic analysis. Recently the issue of new enterprises and firm founders has moved to the centre of economic and policy considerations. Readers of this book will learn about the role played by these firms in the transformation of central and eastern European countries. The book also includes contributions from Central and Eastern Europe on which little or no investigation has been performed until now (Yugoslavia, Romania, Slovakia).