The Outward Focused Development Path in the Visegrad Countries

The aim of this chapter is to describe how the macroeconomic development path taken by the Visegrad countries affects the internationalisation process of their domestic companies. The macroeconomic development paths are derived with the FOI model (focusing on the future, outside and inside potentials of the developed economies). The FOI-indices are calculated for all 34 OECD members, and then a factor and cluster analysis is conducted, with the help of which it is identified that the Visegrad countries have all chosen an outward focused development path. This development path involves the heavy reliance on outside resources, and forces the domestic firms to face tough international competition even in local markets. The outward focus of a country’s development strategy therefore should help local enterprises in becoming more competitive. Yet, this strategy usually result in a dual structure, where a good portion of the local businesses are characterised with a low level of competitiveness, and have very little chance of going international.