This work presents twelve case studies of foreign direct investment in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, and Slovenia. The studies include major firms such as Skoda and Danone, as well as smaller ventures, and cover the same sectors for each country, thereby permitting useful comparisons and assessments of: the role of country, sector, technology, and firm-specific characteristics in determining the pattern and nature of foreign direct investment; the potential implications of FDI for the competitiveness of the investing firms; the impact of infusions of capital investments, technology, and...

This volume focuses on the performance of firms as a measure of the effectiveness of corporate governance, and then attempts to draw conclusions about the relative advantages of different ownership structures. The analysis is based on studies of firms in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland.

This book tells the story of what might have been considered an unlikely source of dynamic change in Russia - formerly state-owned manufacturing enterprises and their managers. Based on interviews conducted over a six-year span with managers at 47 manufacturing, light industry, consumer durable, and food processing firms in four Russian cities, the study documents the real world challenge of turning hidebound, often dysfunctional manufacturing operations into thriving companies. With analytical rigor and theoretical creativity, this work will dispel some common misconceptions about the...

This text provides an ethnography of a Chinese middle school based on fieldwork conducted in 1988 to 1989. It provides a way of looking at classroom and societal interactions in terms of the interplay among criticism, face and shame.

This volume presents cases from a World Bank study of state-owned industrial firms in Poland, Hungary and the Czech and Slovak republics. Topics that are covered include: structure of the industry; history of the firm; and product mix and sales pattern.