Potentials for East - West integration: the case of foreign direct investment

Reshaping the relationships between Western Europe and the former communist bloc is one of the most intriguing challenges for the coming years. Will Central and Eastern Europe become passive players in the European and world economy, or will companies located there become integrated as fully fledged partners? Foreign direct investment (FDI) is heavily concentrated in a few countries in Central and Eastern Europe. It is argued that the type of FDI is more important than the amount of FDI. There is a need for a critical assessment of the strategies of the investors and the impacts on local entrepreneurship. In this vein, the authors describe various interesting future research paths and make policy recommendations.