Transition economies such as the countries in Southeast Europe face an expeditious
institutional transition from a centrally planned to a market economy. The state withdraws from
its monitoring function which results in institutional voids that affect the economy in
general and small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in specific. With a qualitative case
study approach Tine Schrammel develops a scheme to detect institutional voids as one source of
competitive disadvantages of SMEs in transition economies. In a second step she demonstrates
that specific cluster services bridge institutional voids and improve the competitive position
of SMEs in environments of institutional voids. The findings add to the understanding of
institutional voids and to the role of clusters in transition economies.
