IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/regstd/v32y1998i7p619-638.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Internationalization and Embeddedness in East-Central European Transition: The Contrasting Geographies of Inward Investment in the Czech and Slovak Republics

Author

Listed:
  • Petr Pavlinek
  • Adrian Smith

Abstract

PAVLINEK P. and SMITH A. (1998) Internationalization and embeddedness in East-Central European transition: the contrasting geographies of inward investment in the Czech and Slovak Republics, Reg. Studies 32, 619-638. Inward investment has been accorded a central role in the internationalization and restructuring of East-Central European economies. This paper undertakes a critical examination of the capacity of inward investment projects in the Czech and Slovak Republics to generate forms of embedded regional restructuring. The analysis points to the profound, yet uneven and contradictory regional transformations resulting from inward investment in three industrial sectors in the Czech Republic and Slovakia: automobile manufacturing; light engineering; and tobacco and food processing. The paper also develops a number of conceptual arguments around the determinants of integrated and embedded inward investment. Wedraw upon two forms of regional restructuring to analyse how and why differential forms of embeddedness develop: 'defensive restructuring' through a focus on low wage, cost advantages and largescale worker flexibility; and 'offensive restructuring' in which there is a conservation and enrichment of skills, connected to high wages, an upgrading of productivity and important levels of co-operation and partnership between economic and institutional actors. We identify two main forms of transformation from an analysis of case study firms. First, we argue that forms of path dependent embeddedness are apparent when building upon former industrial strengths and traditions by an investor occurs, rather than their marginalization. In other words, where path dependent transformations of networks occurs, inward investment tends to have a more dynamic impact upon a region and does not result in the truncated industrialization of isolated FDI plants. We also argue that such forms of embeddedness are not without their significant costs …

Suggested Citation

  • Petr Pavlinek & Adrian Smith, 1998. "Internationalization and Embeddedness in East-Central European Transition: The Contrasting Geographies of Inward Investment in the Czech and Slovak Republics," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(7), pages 619-638.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:regstd:v:32:y:1998:i:7:p:619-638
    DOI: 10.1080/00343409850119517
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00343409850119517
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00343409850119517?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Philip Mccann, 1997. "How Deeply Embedded is Silicon Glen? A Cautionary Note," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(7), pages 695-703.
    2. D. Stark, 1996. "Recombinant Property in East European Capitalism," Voprosy Ekonomiki, NP Voprosy Ekonomiki, vol. 6.
    3. Adrian Smith, 1998. "Reconstructing the Regional Economy," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 1322.
    4. Ivan Turok, 1997. "Linkages in the Scottish Electronics Industry: Further Evidence," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(7), pages 705-711.
    5. Adam Swain, 1998. "Governing the Workplace: The Workplace and Regional Development Implications of Automotive Foreign Direct Investment in Hungary," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(7), pages 653-671.
    6. Kevin Morgan, 1997. "The Learning Region: Institutions, Innovation and Regional Renewal," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(5), pages 491-503.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Marcella Nicolini & Laura Resmini, 2006. "The Impact of Mnes on Domestic Firms in CEECS: A Micro-Econometric Approach," ERSA conference papers ersa06p411, European Regional Science Association.
    2. Danskin, Paula & Dibrell, Clay & Kedia, Ben L., 2005. "The evolving role of cooperation among multinational corporations and indigenous organizations in transition economies: A migration away from confrontation," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 40(3), pages 223-234, August.
    3. Petr Pavlinek, 2002. "The Role of Foreign Direct Investment in the Privatisation and Restructuring of the Czech Motor Industry," Post-Communist Economies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(3), pages 359-379.
    4. Mockaitis, Audra I. & Vaiginiene, Erika & Giedraitis, Vincent, 2006. "The internationalization efforts of lithuanian manufacturing firms--strategy or luck?," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 111-126, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. David Uhlir, 1998. "Internationalization, and Institutional and Regional Change: Restructuring Post-communist Networks in the Region of Lan w kroun, Czech Republic," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(7), pages 673-685.
    2. Yoke-Tong Chew & Henry Wai-Chung Yeung, 2001. "The SME Advantage: Adding Local Touch to Foreign Transnational Corporations in Singapore," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(5), pages 431-448.
    3. Peter Midmore & Max Munday & Annette Roberts, 2006. "Assessing industry linkages using regional input-output tables," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(3), pages 329-343.
    4. David Clark & James Smith-Canham, 1999. "Integration, Embeddedness and Local Economic Development," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 14(3), pages 232-244, November.
    5. Steven Brand & Stephen Hill & Max Munday, 2000. "Assessing the Impacts of Foreign Manufacturing on Regional Economies: The Cases of Wales, Scotland and the West Midlands," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(4), pages 343-355.
    6. John H.L. Dewhurst & Max Munday & Annette Roberts, 2004. "Changes in Manufacturing Linkage Patterns in Scotland and Wales: Hollowing Out and Foreign Direct Investment?," ERSA conference papers ersa04p67, European Regional Science Association.
    7. Davenport, Sally, 2005. "Exploring the role of proximity in SME knowledge-acquisition," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 683-701, June.
    8. Rehák Štefan & Buček Milan & Hudec Oto, 2013. "Path dependency and path plasticity in emerging industries," ZFW – Advances in Economic Geography, De Gruyter, vol. 57(1-2), pages 52-66, October.
    9. D. G. Pickernell, 1999. "Inward Investment, Diffusion of Knowledge and New Working Practices," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 14(2), pages 144-160, August.
    10. Kean Birch & Andrew Cumbers, 2010. "Knowledge, Space, and Economic Governance: The Implications of Knowledge-Based Commodity Chains for Less-Favoured Regions," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 42(11), pages 2581-2601, November.
    11. Alexander Cordes & Ulrich Schasse, 2015. "The firm's evaluation of local research institutes and universities - an empirical analysis for Germany," ERSA conference papers ersa15p933, European Regional Science Association.
    12. Andrés Rodríguez-Pose & Riccardo Crescenzi, 2008. "Mountains in a flat world: why proximity still matters for the location of economic activity," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 1(3), pages 371-388.
    13. Luis Alfonso Dau & Aya S. Chacar & Marjorie A. Lyles & Jiatao Li, 2022. "Informal institutions and international business: Toward an integrative research agenda," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 53(6), pages 985-1010, August.
    14. Andrés Rodríguez-Pose & Fabrice Comptour, 2010. "Do clusters generate greater innovation and growth? An analysis of European regions," Working Papers 2010-15, Instituto Madrileño de Estudios Avanzados (IMDEA) Ciencias Sociales.
    15. Andrés Rodríguez-Pose & Michael Storper, 2006. "Better Rules or Stronger Communities? On the Social Foundations of Institutional Change and Its Economic Effects," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 82(1), pages 1-25, January.
    16. Emil Evenhuis, 2017. "Institutional change in cities and regions: a path dependency approach," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 10(3), pages 509-526.
    17. Bat Batjargal, 2000. "Entrepreneurial Versatility, Resources and Firm Performance in Russia: A Panel Study," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 351, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
    18. Pursey Heugens & Stelios Zyglidopoulos, 2008. "From social ties to embedded competencies: the case of business groups," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 12(4), pages 325-341, November.
    19. Lawrence King & Patrick Hamm, 2005. "Privatization and State Capacity in Postcommunist Society," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series wp806, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
    20. Doloreux, David & Parto, Saeed, 2005. "Regional innovation systems: Current discourse and unresolved issues," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 133-153.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:regstd:v:32:y:1998:i:7:p:619-638. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/CRES20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.