Title: Putting assumptions into words: money and work beliefs and legitimacy of entrepreneurship in Russia

Authors: Irina Petrovskaya; Sergey Zaverskiy; Elena Kiseleva

Addresses: Institute for Complex Strategic Studies, 23/1 Bolshaya Polyanka street, Moscow 119180, Russia; Lomonosov Moscow State University Business School, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 1-52 Leninskie gory, Moscow 119234, Russia ' Institute for Complex Strategic Studies, 23/1 Bolshaya Polyanka street, Moscow 119180, Russia; Lomonosov Moscow State University Business School, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 1-52 Leninskie gory, Moscow 119234, Russia ' Institute for Complex Strategic Studies, 23/1 Bolshaya Polyanka street, Moscow 119180, Russia; Lomonosov Moscow State University Business School, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 1-52 Leninskie gory, Moscow 119234, Russia

Abstract: This study aims to discover the deep-lying assumptions about money, wealth and work that constitute the moral base of entrepreneurship, and define whether entrepreneurial activities are seen as legitimate within a specific culture. Legitimation is considered from the perspective of the country's three-dimensional institutional profile which classifies the institutions into three types: regulatory, cognitive and normative. A 16-item money, wealth and work scale was developed to measure the beliefs constituting the normative dimension in Russia. The scale was then used to explore the connections between the normative, cognitive and regulatory dimensions of the institutional environment and the overall attitude to entrepreneurship. The findings suggest that the attitude to entrepreneurship is defined primarily by the perception of ethics connected with wealth accumulation and that the negative stereotype of the entrepreneur, reinforced by the inconsistency of business legislation, inhibits legitimation of entrepreneurship in Russia.

Keywords: Russia; entrepreneurship; legitimacy; institutional profile; money; work beliefs; scale; regulatory institutions; cognitive institutions; normative institutions; wealth accumulation; ethics; business legislation.

DOI: 10.1504/EJIM.2016.074470

European Journal of International Management, 2016 Vol.10 No.2, pp.157 - 180

Received: 19 Jun 2014
Accepted: 04 Oct 2014
Published online: 31 Jan 2016 *

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