Aims and objectives This Special Edition of East-West Journal of Economics and Business is guided

by the interest in the question to what extent foreign direct investors transfer technology or knowledge to the economies in Central East Europe (CEE). The main objectives of this Special Edition are: first, to contribute in terms of theory development by integrating organisational and knowledge-based views on knowledge transfer in MNE’s; and second, to bring fresh empirical evidence on the determinants of intra-MNE knowledge flows and the potentials of technological spillovers to domestic firms. Knowledge transfer and empirical evidence from CEE According to the technology gap hypothesis, foreign direct investment plays a particularly important role for relatively more backward regions (Findlay 1978). Campos and Kinoshita (2002) argue that CEE transition economies were far away from the international technological frontier, hence, could potentially benefit from technology transfer to a particularly large extent. Yet, in distinction to many developing countries, they started out with a long history of industrialisation and a relatively well educated work force. Moreover, thes