Lithuanian Entrepreneurs with a Past during the 1990s

Abstract

The study attempts to expose the prototype of the Lithuanian entrepreneur with a past by analysing Lithuanian businesspeople of the period of 1990 to 2004 and taking into account their activities prior to the start of private business. In this study, specific groups of origin of entrepreneurs are singled out: former politicians, former underground entrepreneurs, former officials, law enforcers, former company administrators, and persons who founded the first cooperatives in the Soviet era. The age, education, geographical origin, the field of their business, etc. of the first businesspeople are analysed.
The article allows us to observe certain characteristics of the collective portrait of an entrepreneur with a past. Most of the businesspeople of this type were able to take advantage of their entrepreneurial background, their corporate administration, or their social capital to develop their businesses after the 1990s, but not all of them succeeded. Due to Lithuanian legislation, lack of compliance, lack of education, or old age, businesses set up by underground businesspeople, the KGB and high-ranking Communist Party figures eventually became exceptions in the context of Lithuanian business. Until 2004, businesses run by high-ranking Komsomol figures, former law enforcement officials, and administrators were particularly successful, and cooperatives were able to take advantage of their strengths. However, only a small number of this type of people created long-lasting and sustainable businesses, while the majority remained players at the small business and sole trader level. Entrepreneurs with a past started their own companies between 1990 and 1996, the earliest entrants being the founders of cooperatives, underground entrepreneurs, and communists, and the latest being administrators and law enforcement officers. These entrepreneurs chose a wide range of activities, but enterprises in the services and commercial sectors dominated, with only businesspeople from the Communist Party and the administrators more likely to set up industrial and agricultural companies. The businesspeople had a broad age span, with birthdates ranging between 1920s and 1960s. The majority of these entrepreneurs had a university education, predominantly in engineering and the social sciences, although there were also graduates in arts and humanities among them. Only in two groups – the underground entrepreneurs and the founders of cooperatives – the proportion of businesspeople with only secondary or vocational education was relatively high. Although most entrepreneurs with a past are stigmatised in Lithuania and shy away from talking about themselves, they should not be seen in a one-dimensional way but as a kind of a heterogeneous reflection of the late Soviet era. The fact that only a small proportion of this type of entrepreneurs are successful in Lithuania today should not be overlooked.