This paper proposes a composite measure to evaluate a firm's survival potential. The composite measure is applied to 51 Russian firms located in Moscow, Volgograd, Rostov and Taganrog, utilizing data collected in 1995 from in-depth interviews with top-level managers of manufacturing, trade, and...

This paper examines the emergence of firm-celebrity, both an intangible-asset, and a facilitator of competitive advantage. Institutional approaches have asserted that organizations from the same organizational field and characterized by comparable structural positions face similar structural...

This paper examines the performance of 515 banks in 16 transition economies for the years 1994 – 99 based on their public financial accounts. We first examine lending behaviour and probability distribution of bank profitability to determine whether these banks exhibit behaviour and performance...

This study analyses bank lending in the larger context of bank-firm relations within the Bulgarian specificity of currency board. It focuses on the ‘intersection’ of credit supply and demand on the side of banks and firms simultaneously. We suggest both traditional and new hypotheses...

Countries differ in the way their financial activities are organized. In Anglo-Saxon countries such as the U.S. and the U.K., financial systems are dominated by stock markets whereas in Continental Europe and Japan, banks play a predominant role. Why do countries differ in the configuration of...

We analyze the principal objectives and constraints of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), using data from a survey of 437 owners and top managers (CEOs) of SMEs in Russia and Bulgaria. The CEOs display similar views and identify a small number of specific constraints as being the most...

Drawing on a unique set of surveys, this article explores the question of whether Russia’s post-communist business associations are generally antithetical to or supportive of the broad objectives of economic restructuring. Contrary to the most widely cited analysis as to the purposes of...

This paper is concerned with the analysis of firm performance, measured as total factor productivity, using a panel of over 1200 Bulgarian and 200 Estonian firms. The main empirical conclusions are (i) higher Financial and competitive pressure improves firm performance in Bulgaria; (ii)...

Inter-firm information exchange with respect to the reliability of trade partners may be unmediated in the sense that it involves direct communication between the personnel of two firms. Alternatively, this information flow may be channeled by or through an organization such as a trade...

While a variety of studies analysed the benign effects of privatisation on firm performance under post-socialist transition using financial data very little is known about how the apparent productivity gains were achieved. This paper follows a weaving mill from 1998 to 1997 on its way of...