Exploring the relationship between institutions and entrepreneurship in transition economies

This paper compares and contrasts behaviour of export-oriented entrepreneurial firms in response to institutional pressures in two peripheral transition economies of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. We find appreciable differences in entrepreneurial responses to institutional constraints in the comparator countries. This is argued to have important but varied outcomes on institutional change, with entrepreneurs in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, respectively, contributing to lessening and widening of the asymmetry between formal and informal institutions. This paper contributes by developing a more nuanced understanding of the role of entrepreneurs in shaping their institutional fabric and extending scholarly debate to previously under-explored transitional periphery of Central Asia.