Anna Rebmann

Growth aspirations and social capital : Young firms in a post-conflict environment

This article explores the growth aspirations of owners and managers of young firms in a post-conflict economy by focusing on social capital. It treats social capital as a multidimensional, multilevel phenomenon, studying the effects of discussion network characteristics, trust in institutions, generalised trust in people and local ethnic pluralism. We argue that in a post-conflict country, ethnic pluralism is indicative of local norms of tolerance towards experimentation and risk taking which support growth aspirations. It also distinguishes between the aspirations of hired managers and owners-managers. The empirical counterpart and hypotheses testing rely on survey evidence drawn from young businesses in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

To Pay or Not to Pay: Entrepreneurs' Attitudes Towards Tax Evasion

About the authors Acknowledgments We are grateful to anonymous referees and participants of the Babson College BCERC and the Academy of Management (Entrepreneurship Division) conferences for helpful comments. We also acknowledge financial support by the European Commission: AIGIS project, Grant Agreement no. 225134 as well as SELUSI project FP7-SSH-2007-1, Grant Agreement no. 217622. Stan Mickiewicz provided valuable assistance. Prof. Tomasz M. Mickiewicz is Associate Researcher at the Centre for Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Regional Development at Ventspils University College (Latvia), and Professor of Economics at Aston Business School, Aston University (U.K.). Tomasz holds a habilitation degree in economics from Marie Curie University, and a Ph.D. and an MA from the Catholic University of Lublin. His research is focused on the role of institutions, institutional change, and reforms as factors affecting entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial entry, performance of companies, and socio-economic outcomes. E-mail: t.mickiewicz@aston.ac.uk