This book analyzes the factors that shape business activity in Republican Turkey and examines the presence of some of these factors in other societies with highly different cultures and histories. Bugra's premise is that neither the institutional framework nor the behavioral regularities of a market economy emerge spontaneously following principles of a universally rational behavior. Rather, these reflect societal characteristics to be shaped by policy measures that ensure the smooth functioning of the market mechanism.

The author investigates the sociopolitical context of Turkish entrepreneurship by looking at the development of the private sector in the Republican period; policy process under successive Republican governments; socially defined features of the holding company, the typical big-business unit; and the nature of business associations in Turkey. Her analysis is relevant both to the study of business organization and to the study of structural change in late-industrializing countries and former socialist societies where the shortcomings of standard economic approaches are clear.