The Business Systems of the World's Leading 61 Economies: Institutional Comparison, Clusters, and Implications for Varieties of Capitalism and Business Systems Research

What are the world’s main types of business systems, and what are their characteristics?  To help find answers to these questions, we analyzed the institutional structures of 61 of the 63 largest economies in the world, accounting for 93.5 percent of 2013 world GDP (PPP).  Our analysis suggests the presence of ten main types of business systems among these economies: Collaborative, Coordinated Market, Liberal Market, Southern and Central European, Advanced Emerging (2 types), Advanced City, Arab Oil-Based, Emerging, and Anachronistic Socialist Economies.  Our findings suggest empirical support for the validity of the CME vs. LME dichotomy for part of the OECD; identify some of the business systems proposed recently as sub-types of larger clusters; indicate that institutional diversity seems to increase with development level, which may add to our understanding of institutional convergence; and cast doubt about the notions of state-led and family-led capitalism as types of business systems.