This paper is an attempt to develop a less normative conception of organisational learning which allows for more practice-oriented research on the topic. Our research, conducted in East-German companies in the context of societal transformation, can be understood as a process of building a...

Small-scale business co-operation across borders is considered as major driving force of economic integration between Western and Central Eastern Europe. In this context, it is argued that business co-operation and networks support the creation of competitive advantage. This paper sheds new...

This paper investigates the employment growth of small and medium-sized firms that survived the transformation process of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). We find that firms founded in the later period of the GDR’s existence have especially low growth prospects, even 10 years after German...

A central argument of new institutionalism is that organizational success depends not only on efficient coordination and control of productive activities, but on conforming to institutionalized expectations. There is a dearth of empirical studies which analyze the effects of the adoption of...

Surveys among entrepreneurs and managing directors of companies with 50 to 1,000 employees are used to describe features of managerial elites in East Germany. The paper looks at four dimensions: (1) the reproduction of economic elites during the transformation period and its current...