This talk compares two nationally diverse family firms that operated in the Russian market during the nineteenth century. Sifneos argues that geography ultimately affected the outcome of this situation. She discusses the way in which these factors affected the type of enterprises produced, the performance of each firm, the competences of the family members running the business, and the interaction between the families and their businesses. She suggests that the family culture proved to be strong economically and socially, offering a competitive advantage when confronting crisis, uncertainty and moral hazard.

Evrydiki Sifneos is Visiting Research Fellow at Princeton University, Program for Hellenic Studies during Fall 2011. She is a Senior Research Associate at the Institute for Neohellenic Research, National Hellenic Research Foundation. She  earned her doctorate from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris. Evrydiki Sifneos is the author of Greek merchants in the Azov Sea: The power and the Limits of a Family Enterprise.

Prof. Elena Frangakis-Syrett (History, Queens College and Graduate Center, CUNY) will provide comments.