The purpose of this paper is to investigate the productivity gap between Canadian and U.S. Firms and its underlying factors since 1985.

This paper presents a decision support tool used in testing and trial laboratories. It gives an optimum quality control in these types of laboratories.

We explore the evolution of automotive clusters in Slovakia from the emergence to growth stages of their life cycles and investigate how the clusters spill over national borders. We also analyze how clusters and their transnationality affect firm competitiveness. Our findings suggest that...

The aim of this paper is to identify the factors that determine the survival of new firms in Greek manufacturing in the 1982-1992 period.

We see the contribution of our paper as discussing an integral perspective of individual and collective development. Considering learning and development we suggest a conceptual orientation on activity theory (Chaiklin/Hedegaard/Jensen 1999; Engestroem 1987, 2001, 2005). Therefore, we see the...

Is organizational culture a catalyst of competence development? This paper argues it is. The reason for this is that organizational culture fosters the process of learning and competence building and works as a glue between people and the organization they belong to. We employ a most recently...

Challenges of Upgrading: The Dynamics of East Central Europe’s Integration into the European Automotive Production Networks

How can we understand similarities and differences between work practices in multinational companies’ (MNCs) subsidiaries in different host country conditions? The paper addresses this question by studying selected soft work practices, namely work systems and fringe benefits, in a Dutch MNC...

Der Beitrag analysiert die Gruende fuer die Schwaechung der Gewerkschaften in Mittel- und Osteuropa auf betrieblicher Ebene. Am Beispiel der Stahlindustrie in Polen, Rumaenien und der Slowakei zeigt er, dass die Gewerkschaften Legitimitaet und Unterstuetzung bei den Belegschaften aufgrund ihrer...

In dem Beitrag wird die regionalen Handlungsbedingungen der Gewerkschaften in Ostdeutschland fast zwanzig Jahre nach dem Beginn des Transformationsprozesses am Beispiel der Metall- und Elektroindustrie untersucht. Es werden aktuelle, gewerkschaftlich relevante Entwicklungstendenzen in der...