Kinship network influence on SME development in Albania

Economic activities are considered as embedded in the social structure by many sociologists. Not very often though, is there a measurement of the kinship network on business performance by economists themselves. It is the aim of this thesis to identify and quantify the involvement of the kinship network in providing various economic resources. Starting with a small firm’s growth model, the model in this thesis includes kinship network indicators in Albania. The contrast is drawn between the performance of small and medium enterprises with and without kin intervention. The thesis presents alternative concepts of analysis and empirical considerations.