Former Soviet Union middle class: how entrepreneurs are shaping a new stratum and pattern of socio-economic behavior
Otar E. Salikzhanov R. Akhmetova A. Issakhanova A. Mukhambetova K.
December 2024Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH
Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship
2024#13Issue 1
The purpose of this study is to create a representative socio-economic profile of entrepreneurs operating in the former Soviet Union (FSU) states as a pillar of the new middle-class stratum. This study explored middle-class entrepreneurship from multiple perspectives, encompassing statistical analysis of microdata about households and firms. The aim was to gauge entrepreneurship within a national framework and examine its associations with social and economic factors. The study adopted the Doing Business tool as a novel paradigm to establish a quantitative correlation between the economic system in the post-Soviet space and the investigated variables. The analysis revealed that prospective entrepreneurs are members of the younger generation between the ages of 25 and 34; a critical factor in the development of entrepreneurship is highly educated human capital; and typical representatives of entrepreneurship intending to operate in the FSU states establish their own business as a means of subsistence, not as a means of advancement in the social stratum. In general, an entrepreneur of the middle class in the new economies of the post-Soviet space does not demonstrate a high level of entrepreneurial activity and, as a pillar of the middle-class stratum, is in the formation stage.
Business environment , Competitiveness , Economic development , Society , Transitional economy
Text of the article Перейти на текст статьи
Department of Sociology, L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University, Astana, Kazakhstan
Department of General Education Disciplines, Astana IT University, Astana, Kazakhstan
Department of Sociology
Department of General Education Disciplines
10 лет помогаем публиковать статьи Международный издатель
Книга Публикация научной статьи Волощук 2026 Book Publication of a scientific article 2026