Enterprising Women in Transition Economies

Entrepreneurship is a key element in the development of market based economies and one of the potential drivers of change in countries that are in the process of transformation to market based systems. This book describes and critically assesses the nature and extent of female entrepreneurship in European economies that until 1990 were operating under central planning. At the core of the book are 7 country based chapters which provide an overview of the development of entrepreneurship and small firms since 1990, including a review of the institutional and policy context; an assessment of the role of women within the society during the socialist period; and any major changes afterwards. Each chapter also includes a thematic section (each one addressing a different issue) based on unique empirical data drawn from original research.

Friederike Welter is Professor for SMEs at the University of Siegen and affiliated to the Rhine-Westfalia Institute for Economic Research (RWI Essen), both in Germany. She is also affiliated to the Jönköping International Business School in Sweden. In March 2005, she was awarded the endowed TeliaSonera Professorship for Entrepreneurship at the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga, Latvia. David Smallbone is Professor of Small Business and Entrepreneurship and Associate Director of the Small Business Research Centre (SBRC) at Kingston University, UK. In 2004, he was awarded the degree of doctor honoris causa by the University of Lodz, Poland for his contribution to the study of entrepreneurship. Nina Isakova holds a scientific degree of Candidate of Sciences in Economics from the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Currently she is a Senior Researcher at the Center for Scientific and Technological Potential and Science History Studies at the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.