Structure and evolution of entrepreneurial behavioural patterns in East and West European environments? Concepts and considerations

This paper is concerned with the role trust plays in determining the behaviour of small businesses in different institutional and socio-cultural environments in eastern and western Europe. It is a product of the project 'Entrepreneurial strategies and trust: Structure and evolution of entrepreneurial behavioural patterns in east and west European environments', conducted by the Rhine-Westphalia Institute for Economic Research and the Research Centre for East European Studies at the University of Bremen.

The main hypothesis of the project is that trust has a decisive impact on enterprise behaviour. Low levels of trust constrain market entry, enterprise growth and competition whilst encouraging unproductive forms of entrepreneurship. High levels of trust, on the other hand, encourage open and dynamic competition structures and foster enterprise growth. Researching the impact of trust on enterprise behaviour contributes to the understanding of east European transformation processes as well as to the understanding of different economic performances in east and west European countries. Political, social and economic factors need to be considered in order to understand the socio-cultural context in which trust operates.

The project investigates the role of trust in an attempt to determine its influence on entrepreneurial behaviour. The specific objectives are to compare the effects of formal and informal institutional structures on the type and level of trust in east and west European countries, to gain greater understanding of the impact of different forms of trust on enterprise behaviour with respect to productive/unproductive/parasitic forms of entrepreneurship, to identify the role of intermediary institutions such as trade associations on trust formation, and to evaluate transfer possibilities of west European models of intermediary institutions, civil society structures and government policies for east European transformation contexts.