Enterprise Governance and the Administrative Regime: History Matters

Abstract

This chapter addresses the organizational responses to external pressures in Putin’s Russia by contrasting area studies in the three strands of neo-institutionalism: sociological, historical and the new institutional economics. The focus is on the labour market, human resource management, and the factors that favour or hinder the emergence of entrepreneurship and the spin-off of new firms. The conclusion is that informal arrangements have worked as social shock absorbers. However, the downsides of the model are not negligible. Firstly, the widespread non-compliance with formal rules and contractual norms provides few incentives for individuals to invest in the improvement of their human capital. Second, this model allowed many non-viable enterprises to remain on the market thus contributing to the preservation of obsolete jobs, technologies and structures.