Entrepreneurship in the Balkans

Entrepreneurship in the Balkans . Veland Ramadani • Robert C. Schneider Editors Entrepreneurship in the Balkans Diversity, Support and Prospects Editors Veland Ramadani Robert C. Schneider Faculty of Business and Economics The College at Brockport South-East European University State University of New York Tetovo Brockport, New York Macedonia USA ISBN 978-3-642-36576-8 ISBN 978-3-642-36577-5 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-36577-5 Springer Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London Library of Congress Control Number: 2013938788 © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013 This work is subject to copyright. 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Forewords On my eldest uncle’s documents, his country of birth was boldly indicated as EmpireOttoman – French for Ottoman Empire. When I was a child, my mother would tell me about the Ottoman Empire and its policies and how it was home to various ethnic groups who thrived with entrepreneurship. Also since a very young age I was exposed to entrepreneurs who had migrated from the Hellenic monarchy or the military junta to become entrepreneurs abroad; in Canada, the Census found immigrants from Greece more involved in self-employment than people from any other country.1 I thought their work ethic was exemplary. I first visited the Balkans and developed a warm affinity with their peoples during the 1970s; at the time, Marshal Josip Broz Tito was president of Yugoslavia, a federation with a rich history, and he ruled it while encouraging fraternity over ethno-cultural and linguistic differences; I called this the Yugopluralist Model2 and admired it greatly. People across the Balkans cultivated an admirable social capital, and I recognized entrepreneurial acts even where central planning was the norm. In former times, the Ottoman Empire was a vast superpower. In 1832, Greece became a kingdom independent from the Ottomans, and as I was growing up I remember Greece became a republic. In 1989, the Berlin Wall came down changing the face of Eastern Europe, including Bulgaria and Romania. The Yugoslav federation broke up into constituent republics. In 1995, I returned to Romania to be Professor at the Academy of Economic Sciences and I delivered a lecture to the Economic Committee of the Senate; so much was different than it had been during my first visit to this country. I returned to Greece as a Professor for the University of Pittsburgh Semester-at-Sea Program, and I watched as Greece entered the eurozone; in October 2012, Anders Borg (the Swedish Finance Minister) suggested that Greece could leave the euro-zone. Indeed, much had changed in the Balkans. What struck me, however, is what had not changed. I observed that people across the Balkans have continued to cultivate the social capital, an important facilitator to 1 Bring in more entrepreneurs. Policy Opt 12(9):18–19, November 1991. 2 See: When economies change paths. World Scientific, Singapore, London and Hong Kong, 2002. vii viii Forewords entrepreneurship. I returned to the Balkans to research the state of entrepreneurship, in the parallel economy as well as in the firm-type economy and in the bazaar. Those who follow my research have seen the passion that I have for entrepreneurship across the Balkans: in Albania,3 Bosnia and Herzegovina,4 Bulgaria,5 Croatia,6 Greece,7 Kosovo,8 Macedonia,9 Moldova,10 Romania,11 Serbia,12 Slovenia,13 and Turkey.14 I have also written business case studies about entrepreneurship in the Balkans.15 Entrepreneurship in the Balkans is special and distinctive. I am grateful to Veland Ramadani and Robert C. Schneider for putting together this fine book Entrepreneurship in the Balkans: Diversity, Support and Prospects. Thank you! Leó-Paul Dana Montpellier, France GSCM Montpellier Business School Recipient of Emerald Literati Network 2012 Award for Excellence: Leading Editor 3 Albania in the twilight zone: the Perseritje model and its impact on small business. J Small Bus Manag 34(1):64–70, January 1996. 4 Business and entrepreneurship in Bosnia-Herzegovina. J Bus Entrep 11(2):105–118, October, 1999. 5 Bulgaria at the crossroads of entrepreneurship. J Euromarketing 8 (4):27–50, December, 1999. 6 Recent research about entrepreneurship and small business in Croatia. Int J Entrep Small Bus 2 (3):209–210, 2005. 7 See, for example: Preserving culture through small business: government support for artisans and craftsmen in Greece. J Small Bus Manag 37(1):90–92, January 1999; The social cost of tourism: a case study of Ios. Cornell Quart 40(4):60–63, August 1999; and Entrepreneurship & SMEs in the eurozone: toward a theory of symbiotic enterprises, Imperial College Press, London, 2006. 8 See: When economies change hands: a survey of entrepreneurship in the emerging markets of Europe from the Balkans to the Baltic States. Routledge, New York and Oxford, 2010. 9 Waiting for direction in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. J Small Bus Manag 36 (2):62–67, April 1998. 10 Stalemate in Moldova. Entrep Innov Change 6(3):269–277, September 1997. 11 See: When economies change hands: a survey of entrepreneurship in the emerging markets of Europe from the Balkans to the Baltic States. Routledge, New York and Oxford, 2010. 12 See: When economies change hands: a survey of entrepreneurship in the emerging markets of Europe from the Balkans to the Baltic States. Routledge, New York and Oxford, 2010. 13 See: When economies change hands: a survey of entrepreneurship in the emerging markets of Europe from the Balkans to the Baltic States. Routledge, New York and Oxford, 2010. 14 Economies of the eastern mediterranean region. World Scientific, Singapore, London and Hong Kong, 2000. 15 See, for example: Afri-Cola GmbH Macedonia – distribution infrastructure. Manag Decis 34 (8):41–47, 1996; and Atlas, Ltd., in the Balkans. Brit Food J 102(5–6):420–428, May 2000. I am delighted to have been invited to write the foreword of Entrepreneurship in the Balkans: Diversity, Support and Prospects. As underlined by its title, this book emphasizes a key dimension of the field of entrepreneurship: entrepreneurship is a context-based phenomenon, and this is precisely what Entrepreneurship in the Balkans: Diversity, Support and Prospects is about. Coeditors Veland Ramadani and Robert C. Schneider must be commended for the work they have done in assembling the 16 chapters that make up this work, which cover a broad range of issues from the Balkan region. Before discussing the contents of the book, I would like to address current trends and perspectives in entrepreneurship research. Since the publication of Shane and Venkataraman’s (2000) article “The promise of entrepreneurship as a field of research” in the Academy of Management Review, entrepreneurship scholars have moved toward a process-based definition of entrepreneurship. This evolution has been key in establishing entrepreneurship as a distinct field of research with its own questions and theories (Shane 2010). The individual/ opportunity nexus has become central to the development of entrepreneurship research, the vast proportion of which relies on Shane and Venkataraman’s definition of the field: “How, by whom and with what effects the opportunities to create new products and services are identified, evaluated and exploited.” However, while this view of entrepreneurship contributes to narrowing the field, recent research has opened new perspectives by highlighting the importance of other factors. There is, for example, an ongoing theoretical conversation about the discovery versus the creation of entrepreneurial opportunities. A more nuanced view of entrepreneurship is developing, highlighting the roles played by cognition, intuition, emotion, learning, and expertise in entrepreneurial

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