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Eastern and Southeastern Europe was and is often a difficult terrain for firms. Political, social and economic discontinuity repeatedly cut short business plans. Social environments of low trust, weak rule of law, and state intervention make running a business a delicate balancing act. At the same time, firms play, historically and today, an important role not only in creating wealth, but also in organizing social relations and affecting political change. Some firms even withstood war and revolution, showing surprising resilience. Firms are also an important link between global forces and local conditions. They are a crucial space of social organization, facilitating distinctive group identities (of managers and workers, for example). The 7th Annual IOS Conference will discuss the specificity of firms and their behavior in Eastern and Southeastern Europe. We will address both historical trajectories since the 19th century and current processes. As a region where empires dissolved a century ago, where two world wars led to incredible human and material losses, where communists thought to replace markets with plans, and where market economies rapidly evolved after the end of communist rule, the region poses distinct questions as for the functioning of firms. Our goal is to find out whether there is a distinctive model of the “Eastern and Southeastern European” firm, determined by the specific political and social make-up of the region. The region also provides interesting case studies for exploring government strategies towards entrepreneurship and ownership. A peculiar focus of the conference will, therefore, be on the relationship between private and state-owned firms. The conference intends to facilitate an interdisciplinary dialogue. We invite scholars from a range of disciplines who study firms – from their external connections, and economic performance to their inner governance and social life, on an aggregate level or by case-studies, in past or in present.