RESEARCH ARTICLE Strat. Change 25: 361–369 (2016) Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/jsc.2068 Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Strategic Change: Briefngs in Entrepreneurial Finance Strategic Change DOI: 10.1002/jsc.2068 Market Liberalization in a Small Open Economy and Its Impact on Employment Characteristics 1 Kostas Karamanis Epirus’ Technological Educational Institute, Greece Eirini Triarchi Epirus’ Technological Educational Institute, Greece Paraskevi Pappa Epirus’ Technological Educational Institute, Greece M arket liberalization affects overall employment. Te aim of this article is to investigate the consequences of market liberalization on employment in a small open economy. As a case in point, we take the Greek telecommunications sector. Our survey is based on two known facts. Firstly, the major structural changes such as deregulation and privatization of the telecommunications sector since 1990. From its early stages, the telecommu- nications sector operated in every country under the status of strict state monopoly and almost absolute protectionism (Smith, 1995; Spiller and Cardili, 1997; Sheshinski and Lopez-Calva, 1998; Nestor and Mahboobi, 1999; Shirley and Walsh, 2000; Wilson and Zhou, 2001). However, in the course of time, the rising customer demand for higher quality, new services, and lower prices led to neces- sary structural changes (OECD, 1995; Gual and Waverman, 1998; Nestor and Mahboobi, 1999; Heracleous, 2001; Koski, 2002). Te institutional liberalization of the specifc industry took place quickly at European and global level, aimed at upgrading the role of the market and establishing a competitive environment. Specifcally, the role of state as producer and supplier of telecommunication ser- vices has been clearly in doubt. Its role has mostly moved from the responsibility of ownership and management to the exercise of a general supervision of the market (Wilson and Zhou, 2001; Eliassen and From, 2007). Moreover, a new regulatory framework has been created in terms of an independent regulatory authority for the efective control of competition (Levi-Faur, 2003; Omran, 2004). At management level, the criticism against public enterprises focuses on their bureaucratic character, and their infexible and inefcient operation based 1 JEL classifcation codes: L10, L11, L22, L32, L33, L96, M51, M54. The institutional liberalization of specifc industry took place quickly at European and global level, aimed at upgrading the role of the market and establishing a competitive environment. Two opposing trends were noted in the area of employment: job losses in public enterprises and employment growth in new private enterprises operating in new subsectors. A change in ownership relations, via privatization and the entry of private undertakings in the market, causes important differentiations in size and characteristics of employment.