‘Znakomstva I Svyazi’ (Acquaintances and connections) – Blat,the Soviet Union,and mundane entrepreneurship |
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Authors: | Alf Rehn Saara Taalas |
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Institution: | 1. Department of Industrial Economics and Management , Royal Institute of Technology , Lindstedsv?gen 30, S-10044 Stockholm, Sweden E-mail: alf@indek.kth.se;2. Professor of Media Business , Media Group, Turku School of Economics and Business Administration , Rehtorinpellonkatu 3, SF-20500 Turku, Finland |
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Abstract: | The discussion regarding entrepreneurship and society has often presupposed that this society by necessity will be one that embraces the market economy as a guiding principle. This paper questions this assumption by discussing a command economy, namely the Soviet Union, as a fundamentally entrepreneurial society. By introducing the case of the blat, ‘Russia’s economy of favours’, the paper illustrates how mundane individual economies can be a part of entrepreneurship, and how flexible opportunity networks can support the rigidity of a command economy. Continuing from this, the exclusion of such irregular economies is discussed from an ideological rather than an analytic standpoint. The paper further presents some inferences that can be drawn from the case of the blat and which problematizes common assumptions in entrepreneurship studies. |
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Keywords: | mundane entrepreneurship everyday exchange blat Soviet Union |
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