International audience Business history has only been interested in socialist enterprises for a few years. The issue intends to contribute to the opening up of this new field of research. The various contributions reveal the diversity of experiences and models, the circulations and adaptations to local contexts, as well as the initial hesitations when setting up alternative systems to capitalism. The classic questions of business history are examined in the light of the organisation of planned economies: relations with the State and the Party, the organisation of labour, the social role of the enterprise, the measurement of performance or the share of the informal sector. Several authors reveal how enterprises have adapted to the transition to market economies and the integration into globalised capitalism. The case studies take the reader to Europe (USSR, Czechoslovakia, Poland, GDR, Hungary), Asia (China, Vietnam, North Korea) and America (Cuba).