Abstract

This chapter attempts to shift the international business discourse on post-socialist periphery closer to an informed country-specific analysis framework. Focusing on the key empirical forces of economic and social transformation, the chapter attempts to rationalize recent experiences in the transitional periphery by studying the examples of the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Georgia within an international business context. For institutional economics, these two experiences increase the significance of gradualism in macroeconomic and institutional transformation. Concerning research directions and management tips in the field of international business research, the lesson is to anticipate the sustained dynamic evolution of macrostructures and business categories in the two specific cases, and in the transitional periphery more generally. For both academia and practice, the challenge then is ‘to act’ towards developing a multifaceted analytical methodology, maintaining an open outlook across the diversity of economic models. As a result, the exploration in this chapter suggests that immersion in country-relevant characteristics remains a required and objective paradigm in either academic or business evaluation strategy.