Environmental and Psychological Challenges Facing Entrepreneurial Development in Transitional Economies

Authors

Fred Luthans, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Alexander D. Stajkovic, University of Wisconsin-MadisonFollow
Elina Stajkovic, Southwest State University, Marshall, MNFollow

Date of this Version

2000

Citation

Published in Journal of World Business 35:1 (2000), pp 95-110.

Comments

Published by Elsevier. Used by permission

Abstract

In the former planned economies, a major result of the economic reform programs has been the resurgence of private entrepreneurship. As these countries have struggled to make the transition to a market-based economy over the past decade, the environment has played an important structural role in entrepreneurial development. However, from a psychological perspective, the environmental structural context affects human action through cognitive processes such as self-regulation. Thus, we first identify and analyze the effect of the political, economic, legal, and cultural environment on the development of entrepreneurship in transitional economies, mainly using the former Soviet Union and particularly the Republic of Kazakhstan as an example. We then examine the role that social cognitive variables such as self-efficacy may play in the relationship between this external environment and entrepreneurial development.