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The purpose of this chapter is to provide a comprehensive review of empirical research on performance management (PM) in former communist Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries, to evaluate the state of knowledge in this area and suggest possible directions for future research.

An examination of the literature was undertaken to review the empirical studies treating on PM in ex-communist countries from CEE. A total of 96 journal articles, PhD thesis, and conference papers were identified, categorized, and analyzed according to research questions, methodology, and theoretical framework. Contributions are classified by countries, according to progress in transition process (post-transition/transition countries) and membership in the Soviet Union (Soviet/non-Soviet countries). The review examines publications in four languages (English, French, Romanian, and Russian).

The literature review identified various stages of development of PM research and practice in the different groups of CEE countries.

In post-transition CEE countries, PM research follows the trends settled up in the developed countries (quantitative studies examining the extent of usage of different PM tools, influence of contingent factors, relationship PM-strategy, and impact on company’s performance). Also, the findings illustrate the modernization of PM practices: increasing importance of nonfinancial indicators and integrated performance management systems (PMS), although financial indicators are prevailing.

On the contrary, in transition countries PM research and practices are at an early stage, the reviewed literature highlights some specific issues related to transition context: the dynamic aspect of PM, change management, importance of informal systems, cultural aspects, and business traditions.

Because of the large number of CEE countries and the diversity of their national languages, many studies conducted in native languages have not been addressed in this literature review, which is essentially based on publications in English and French. Only for three CEE countries (Russia, Romania, and Moldova) publications in national language were considered.

This literature review may be useful for practitioners, providing insights on the extent of diffusion and usage of different PM tools and identifying difficulties and pitfalls to avoid in their implementation.

The chapter represents one of the first contributions to the knowledge about PM research and practice in former communist CEE countries. The adopted framework for reviewing and classifying the literature allows identifying the differences in PM research and practices between post-transition/transition and Soviet/non-Soviet countries.

The purposes of this paper is purely theoretical. Its goal is to establish some rules governing the short‐run employment of productive resources by the enterprise in the Soviet and post‐Soviet setting. Accordingly, the paper is divided into two parts. The first portion of the paper deals with the behavior of the enterprise as the short‐run user of productive resources within a framework of the Soviet economic model of state ownership of non‐labor economic resources and mandatory central planning. Such an enterprise is termed the Soviet enterprise. In the second part, the paper examines how the former Soviet enterprise exploits factors of production during the current transitional period of the disintegration of the Soviet economic model in modern Russia. This enterprise is called the post‐Soviet enterprise. The paper utilizes the marginalist microeconomic tools of the analysis. In this, the paper applies the traditional neoclassical approach to the nontraditional economic structure of the Soviet and post‐Soviet periods.

The purpose of this paper is to suggest that informal practices and institutions of post-Soviet countries differ from informality in other post-socialist regions and, therefore, proposes categorizing it as “post-Soviet informality” – a composite definition that extends beyond the concept of “informal economy” and encompasses, along with economic activities, social and political spheres.

The arguments of the paper are based on a comprehensive analysis of secondary sources.

This paper shows that, owing to the effects of antecedent regime’s legacies and the problems of post-communist transition, for the proper analysis of informality in post-Soviet countries it needs to be based on an own concept.

This study, in contrast to the existing literature on informality in post-communist spaces, specifically focuses on the informal sphere of post-Soviet countries, suggesting that the informal institutions and practices thriving across the vast post-Soviet space not only differ from the informal spheres elsewhere in the world, but also from informality in other post-communist regions.

The purpose of this second part of this special issue is to contribute to a better understanding of the nature of Soviet society. It is not possible to analyse such a society in all its complexities within the space of one study. There are, however, some economic relations which determine society's major features. We believe that commodity‐production relations in the Soviet Union are of this type.

Attempts to find answers to such theoretical questions as the character of Soviet‐type societies and the major tendency of their development. Argues that, as long as the analysis is conducted in convenient and extreme terms of “either capitalism or socialism or communism”: as long as the yardstick for the comparison remains capitalism of laissez‐faire; and as long as the general trend and the particular forms of the world economic development are ignored ‐no satisfactory answer to the nature and fate of such societies can be found. If, however, one looks at Soviet‐type systems as socio‐economic and political structures destined to solve the problem of the industrial revolution and modernization of backward and peasant nations under the conditions of the twentieth century, then the enigma disappears. Soviet‐type societies become what they are in reality: a variety of capitalism that, having fulfilled the “archaic” act of industrialization, is moving into its post‐industrial era.

The major objective of Aganbegyan′s book is to enhance arguments made by Gorbachev in the latter′s Perestroika. New Thinking for Our Country and the World. Like his leader, Aganbegyan asserts that the ultimate purpose of perestroika is people′s welfare and that the policy of the acceleration of the Soviet economic development is the principal means to achieve the goal. This article challenges Aganbegyan′s claim. It argues that: (1) given the inefficient and wasteful character of the Soviet system, the projected increase in the standard of living of the Soviet population could be accomplished now, and not in the future; (2) the acceleration of the economic growth and restructuring of Soviet society contradict one another and, thus, make the attainment of the proclaimed goal impossible even in the future, and (3) the forthcoming reform of retail prices more than anything else reveals the true, anti‐consumerist nature of the policies of the Soviet leadership.

The Republic of Moldova is a small country between Romania and Ukraine, which for more than 20 years since its independence, is still experiencing a painful process of economic and institutional reforms. The chapter provides, against a review of literature and national regulations, an analysis and possible perspectives of accounting harmonization processes in relation to historical and cultural preconditions.

Based on content analysis of national regulations and economic conditions in the Republic of Moldova, with the support of a literature review.

Our findings demonstrate that some features related to mentality, which have been formed as a result of long term political and cultural closeness and negation of individualistic and independent thinking values, are determining many contemporaneous changes in all spheres, including accounting.

There are very few publications about accounting processes in the Republic of Moldova. It is important to analyze the case of the Republic of Moldova in the context of accounting transformation in post-Soviet countries, as almost all of them have similar historical and cultural implications. The research results may be useful for further studies about accounting evolution in post-communist states and also in the Republic of Moldova itself.

Surveys the various challenges involved in establishing a joint venture in the Soviet Union. Discusses the Soviet joint venture law 1987 which allows a foreign company to take an equity position in a Soviet enterprise. Looks at profit repatriation, asset valuation and operational and political issues. Suggests that joint ventures are constrained by Soviet labour law which contains restrictions to protect both Soviet labour and Soviet enterprises.

Economic difficulties facing the countries of the former Soviet Union and Mongolia as a result of recent political changes are constraining funding for education. However, there is a growing provision of facilities afforded by the electronic library in these countries. Evidence afforded by three European Union funded projects at Yaroslavl’ State Pedagogical University (Russia), Tashkent State University (Uzbekistan) and the Mongolian State Pedagogical University, shows that the Internet is already firmly established in such countries and that users are poised to maximise the benefits. These are not all dependent on western information sources. World Wide Web sites, for example, are rapidly developing in the former Soviet Union bringing an unparalleled window on Russian resources. Difficulties in the introduction of the electronic library in these countries include reliability and performance of systems, sceptical attitudes of many academics, and cost. The latter is the most serious long‐term factor as externally funded projects come to an end and institutions struggle to meet even their salary bills. Economic development especially in Mongolia and Uzbekistan may overcome this problem before very long, endorsing the global nature of the electronic library.

This paper aims to investigate the social, economic, and cultural factors that impact satisfaction with life (SWL) in 63 countries. The intent is to determine empirically the extent to which self‐reported SWL truly reflects well‐being.

A cross‐sectional data set of 63 countries in the 1990s is used to develop a model that explains SWL using social, economic, and cultural variables. The regression errors indicate that some countries are inexplicably happy or unhappy. If behavioral variables in these countries, such as suicide and fertility rates, are better explained by the model's fitted values than actual SWL, then cross country comparisons of subjective SWL surveys are invalid.

Social and economic factors explain about 66 percent of the variation in self‐reported happiness across countries. Respondents in former socialist‐bloc countries report surprisingly low levels of SWL given their circumstances while Latin Americans report higher‐than‐expected levels of happiness. These two geographic anomalies are attributed to cultural factors and dummy variables for each region are highly significant. People living in these two geographic regions are shown to behave in accordance with their reported levels of happiness, more so than their predicted levels, with regard to suicide and fertility rates. Even mean blood pressure in these countries is better predicted with reported levels of satisfaction than predicted levels. All this supports the notion that surveys of SWL are good measures of well‐being.

The results are obtained using cross‐country macro‐level data. The degree of aggregation, sample size, and presence of multicollinearity may hinder the identification of appropriate predictors of well‐being. On the other hand, these results corroborate those from larger, pooled, and individual‐level data sets.

The findings support the view that aggregated surveys of life satisfaction contain important information concerning the well‐being of citizens in a given country. Survey data can compete with other macroeconomic and sociological data to monitor progress and explain behavior at the national level.