The emergence and growth of new company in transition economy: semiotic analysis of entrepreneurial narratives

Abstract

The article aims to fill research gap and to contribute to better understanding of how the entrepreneurship has become one of the vital components of many Central and Eastern European economies, and of Lithuanian economy in particular. The paper focuses on the emergence and growth of new company during turbulent transition time of 1990s. According to Aidis and Mickiewitcz, the dynamic growth of the new private sector was driving force of transition from former plan to market economies. On the other hand, the nature of entrepreneurship in transition and post-transition countries is distinctive compared with mature market economies, in which external environment is more stable and where private business has old and rich traditions. Most of the studies tend to concentrate on the specific features, such as privatization, «nomenclature» business, institutional inefficiencies, socialist inheritances and others. However, almost neglected phenomenon is the emergence and growth of new ventures established and managed by young ambitious entrepreneurs. This field of research lacks of retrospective view and reflections on what have happened with entrepreneurship in the first decade of transition (1990 — 1999).Also it lacks new methods and approaches of investigation. Therefore, in this article we employ semiotic analysis in order to provide better understanding of how entrepreneurs reflect on and explain past events and experiences.