Management Perceptions of Market Liberalization

Previous studies, examining the impact of market liberalization in the emerging nations, at the level of the firm, included analyses of whether newly privatized state-enterprises financially perform better than they did before privatization. The impact of changes in the liberalized economic environment on companies that have been operating in the private sector has received scant attention. Recognizing that management control of smaller and medium-sized firms in emerging nations remains in the hands of the founders, or the founders' family members, this paper reports the findings of a survey from a region in India focusing on managerial perceptions of performance at the company-level and the manufacturing-level. The statistical results suggest that market liberalization is perceived as having a positive impact at the company-level. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.