Kennedy (2022:14): “in Russia informal institutions, comprised of cultural norms, values and codes of conduct, undermine the formal institutional rules and laws introduced to support business development.”
Kennedy (2022:18-19): Identifies three primary difficulties facings private sector. First, state-owned enterprises have privileged access to finance, which complicates market entry and distorts competition. Second, there are environmental obstacles, such as uneven and unnecessarily complex tax requirements. Third, the state consistently undermines entrepreneurs, for example through pressure from government officials, and it does not practice what it preaches.
Kennedy (2022:24): “the vulnerability of entrepreneurs is not the result of a ‘strong’ state as such. On the contrary, the vulnerability of entrepreneurs comes from the weakness of formal institutions, which creates a situation whereby state officials, acting on their own initiative but with the authority of the state, can manipulate and take advantage of businesses.”
Kennedy (2022:40): talks of “the arbitrary and malign potential of the state”
Kennedy (2022:54): “entrepreneurship should not be judged according to conventional business measures alone, such as profitability, company size or longevity, but in terms of their ability to respond to an unpredictable state and secure their independence.”
Kennedy (2022:87): “the basis of Oleg’s entrepreneurial success is replicating the political economic system to which he is politically and morally opposed and which makes entrepreneurship challenging.”