'Znakomstva I Svyazi' (Acquaintances and connections) - Blat, the Soviet Union, and mundane entrepreneurship

Authors: Alf Rehn¹; Saara Taalas²

Source: Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, Volume 16, Number 3, May 2004 , pp. 235-250(16)

Publisher: Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group

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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.

Keywords: mundane entrepreneurship; everyday exchange; blat; Soviet Union

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0898562042000197108

Affiliations: 1: Department of Industrial Economics and Management Royal Institute of Technology Lindstedsvägen 30 S-10044 Stockholm Sweden, Email: alf@indek.kth.se 2: Professor of Media Business Media Group Turku School of Economics and Business Administration Rehtorinpellonkatu 3 SF-20500 Turku Finland

Publication date: 2004-05-01

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