Negotiating global, regional, and national forces: Foreign investment in Slovenia

East European Politics and Societies

Volumn 18, Issue 3, 2004, Pages 455-480

  Bandelj, Nina ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

European Union; Foreign investment; Globalization; Nationalism; Regionalization

Indexed keywords

EID: 4043102662     PISSN: 08883254     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/0888325404266934     Document Type: Review

References (69)

1. Foreign direct investment (FDD is the investment made by an investor company from one country (the investor country) with the objective of obtaining a lasting interest and an active role in a company In another country (the host country), The lasting interest implies the existence of a long-term relationship between the investor and the host and a significant degree of influence by an investor on the management of a company in a host country. FDI can take the form of foreign acquisition, in which the investor obtains an equity share in an existing company in a host country, Greenfield investment, on the other hand, involves the Investor's establishment of a new company, wholly foreign-owned or in partnership with investors from a host country.
2. United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), World Investment Report (Washington DC: UNCTAD, 2001).
3. Glenn Firebaugh, "Growth Effects of Foreign and Domestic Investment," American Journal of Sociology 98 (1992): 105-30; Jeffrey Sachs, Poland's Jump to the Market Economy (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993).
4. Glenn Firebaugh, "Growth Effects of Foreign and Domestic Investment," American Journal of Sociology 98 (1992): 105-30; Jeffrey Sachs, Poland's Jump to the Market Economy (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993).
5. Volker Bornschier and Christopher Chase-Dunn, Transnational Corporations and Underdevelopment (New York: Praeger, 1985); Immanuel Wallerstein, The Modern World-System (New York: Academic Press, 1974).
6. Volker Bornschier and Christopher Chase-Dunn, Transnational Corporations and Underdevelopment (New York: Praeger, 1985); Immanuel Wallerstein, The Modern World-System (New York: Academic Press, 1974).
7. Claudio Albertani, "Paint It Black: Black Blocks, Tute Blanche and Zapatistas in the Anti-Globalization Movement," New Political Science, 24:4(2002): 579-95; Marcos Ancelovici, "Organizing against Globalization: The Case of ATTAC in France," Politics and Society, 30:3(2002): 427-63.
8. Claudio Albertani, "Paint It Black: Black Blocks, Tute Blanche and Zapatistas in the Anti-Globalization Movement," New Political Science, 24:4(2002): 579-95; Marcos Ancelovici, "Organizing against Globalization: The Case of ATTAC in France," Politics and Society, 30:3(2002): 427-63.
9. Louise Fawcett and Andrew Hurrell, Regionalism in World Politics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995).
10. UNCTAD, World Investment Report; International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Economic Outlook (Washington, DC: IMF, 1997).
11. UNCTAD, World Investment Report; International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Economic Outlook (Washington, DC: IMF, 1997).
12. Klaus Meyer, Direct Investment in Economies in Transition (Boston: Edward Elgar, 1998).
13. Friedrich Schneider and Bruno S. Frey, "Economic and Political Determinants of Foreign Direct Investment," World Development 13:2(1985): 161-75) Edward Crenshaw, "Foreign Investment as a Dependant Variable: Determinants of Foreign Investment and Capital Penetration in Developing Nations, 1967-1978," Social Forces 69:4(1991): 1169-82; Paul J. Welfens, "The Growth of the Private Sector: Privatization and Foreign Direct Investment in Eastern Europe," in Horst Siebert, ed., Overcoming the Transformation Crisis (Tuebingen, Germany: J. C. B. Mohr, 1993), 119-66; John H. Dunning, "The Prospects for Foreign Direct Investment in Central and Eastern Europe," in Peter J. Buckley and Pervez N. Ghauri, eds., The Economics of Change in East and Central Europe (London: Academic Press, 1994).
14. Friedrich Schneider and Bruno S. Frey, "Economic and Political Determinants of Foreign Direct Investment," World Development 13:2(1985): 161-75) Edward Crenshaw, "Foreign Investment as a Dependant Variable: Determinants of Foreign Investment and Capital Penetration in Developing Nations, 1967-1978," Social Forces 69:4(1991): 1169-82; Paul J. Welfens, "The Growth of the Private Sector: Privatization and Foreign Direct Investment in Eastern Europe," in Horst Siebert, ed., Overcoming the Transformation Crisis (Tuebingen, Germany: J. C. B. Mohr, 1993), 119-66; John H. Dunning, "The Prospects for Foreign Direct Investment in Central and Eastern Europe," in Peter J. Buckley and Pervez N. Ghauri, eds., The Economics of Change in East and Central Europe (London: Academic Press, 1994).
15. Friedrich Schneider and Bruno S. Frey, "Economic and Political Determinants of Foreign Direct Investment," World Development 13:2(1985): 161-75) Edward Crenshaw, "Foreign Investment as a Dependant Variable: Determinants of Foreign Investment and Capital Penetration in Developing Nations, 1967-1978," Social Forces 69:4(1991): 1169-82; Paul J. Welfens, "The Growth of the Private Sector: Privatization and Foreign Direct Investment in Eastern Europe," in Horst Siebert, ed., Overcoming the Transformation Crisis (Tuebingen, Germany: J. C. B. Mohr, 1993), 119-66; John H. Dunning, "The Prospects for Foreign Direct Investment in Central and Eastern Europe," in Peter J. Buckley and Pervez N. Ghauri, eds., The Economics of Change in East and Central Europe (London: Academic Press, 1994).
16. Friedrich Schneider and Bruno S. Frey, "Economic and Political Determinants of Foreign Direct Investment," World Development 13:2(1985): 161-75) Edward Crenshaw, "Foreign Investment as a Dependant Variable: Determinants of Foreign Investment and Capital Penetration in Developing Nations, 1967-1978," Social Forces 69:4(1991): 1169-82; Paul J. Welfens, "The Growth of the Private Sector: Privatization and Foreign Direct Investment in Eastern Europe," in Horst Siebert, ed., Overcoming the Transformation Crisis (Tuebingen, Germany: J. C. B. Mohr, 1993), 119-66; John H. Dunning, "The Prospects for Foreign Direct Investment in Central and Eastern Europe," in Peter J. Buckley and Pervez N. Ghauri, eds., The Economics of Change in East and Central Europe (London: Academic Press, 1994).
17. Walter Powell and Paul DiMagglo, The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1991).
18. John W. Meyer et al., "World Society and the Nation-State," American Journal of Sociology 103 (1997): 150.
19. Connie McNeely, Constructing the Nation-State: International Organizations and Prescriptive Action (London: Greenwood, 1995).
20. Frank Dobbin, Forging Industrial Policy: The United States, Britain, and France in the Railway Age (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994); Frank Dobbin, "Cultural Models of Organization: The Social Construction of Rational Organizing Principles," in Dianna Crane, ed., Sociology of Culture: Emerging Theoretical Perspectives (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1994); Peter Katzenstein, Cultural Norms and National Security: Policy and Military in Postwar Japan (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1996).
21. Frank Dobbin, Forging Industrial Policy: The United States, Britain, and France in the Railway Age (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994); Frank Dobbin, "Cultural Models of Organization: The Social Construction of Rational Organizing Principles," in Dianna Crane, ed., Sociology of Culture: Emerging Theoretical Perspectives (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1994); Peter Katzenstein, Cultural Norms and National Security: Policy and Military in Postwar Japan (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1996).
22. Frank Dobbin, Forging Industrial Policy: The United States, Britain, and France in the Railway Age (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994); Frank Dobbin, "Cultural Models of Organization: The Social Construction of Rational Organizing Principles," in Dianna Crane, ed., Sociology of Culture: Emerging Theoretical Perspectives (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1994); Peter Katzenstein, Cultural Norms and National Security: Policy and Military in Postwar Japan (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1996).
23. Dobbin, Forging Industrial Policy, 10.
24. John L. Campbell and Ove K. Pedersen, The Rise of Neo-Liberalism and Institutional Analysis (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2001).
25. John H. Dunning and Matija Rojec, Foreign Privatization in Central and Eastern Europe, CEEPN Technical Paper Series, No. 2 (Ljubljana, Slovenia: Central and East European Privatization Network, 1993), 34.
26. Foreign Investment Advisory Service (FIAS), Slovenia-Promoting Foreign Direct Investment (Washington, DC: FIAS, 1998).
27. FIAS, Slovenia-Administrative Barriers to Investment (Washington, DC: FIAS, 2000).
28. From the description of the Europe Agreements, EU official Web site at http://europa.eu.int/comm/enlargement/pas/europe_agr.htm (retrieved 10 December 2001).
29. Article 68 of Slovenian Constitution. All translations from Slovenian are of the author.
30. Amendment to Slovenian Constitution, 1997.
31. Excerpts are from the speech of Marjan Podobnik, former Slovenian vice prime minister. The speech is from transcripts of National Assembly Session, Government of Slovenia, 14 July 1997. The emphasis in the quoted text is my own.
32. Meyer et al., "World Society and the Nation-State," 144-50.
33. Dobbin, "Cultural Models of Organization," 117-41.
34. Meyer et al. "World Society and the Nation-State," 144.
35. Anne Swldler, "Culture in Action: Symbols and Strategies," American Sociological Review 51 (1986): 273-86.
36. There are various definitions of culture. According to Talcott Parsons, The Social System (New York: Free Press, 1951), culture acquired during socialization, is an exogenous force providing "value orientations" coherent across social groups. In sharp contrast, recent work highlights a fragmentation of culture perspective, pointing to inconsistency in the manifestation of culture across groups and situations. The most commonly used image employed in cultural analysis today is that of "culture as a 'tool kit' of symbols, stories, rituals and world-views which people may use in varying configurations to solve different kinds of problems" (Ann Swidler, "Culture in Action: Symbols and Strategies," 273). According to Swidler, "people may have in readiness cultural capacities that they rarely employ . . . and know more culture that they use." Research on memory confirms that people retain in their memory almost every image or idea with which they come in contact. People's cultural toolkits thus consist of a variety of elements with loose linkages to each other. Such fragmentation enables people to "maintain distinctive and Inconsistent action frames" and to "participate in multiple cultural traditions, even when those traditions contain inconsistent elements" (Paul DiMaggio, "Culture and Cognition," Annual Review of Sociology 23 (1997): 268). This micro-level view of culture can be adopted at the national level as a national cultural repertoire with elements institutionalized at the nation-state level or at the most macro scale in terms of a world cultural repertoire.
37. There are various definitions of culture. According to Talcott Parsons, The Social System (New York: Free Press, 1951), culture acquired during socialization, is an exogenous force providing "value orientations" coherent across social groups. In sharp contrast, recent work highlights a fragmentation of culture perspective, pointing to inconsistency in the manifestation of culture across groups and situations. The most commonly used image employed in cultural analysis today is that of "culture as a 'tool kit' of symbols, stories, rituals and world-views which people may use in varying configurations to solve different kinds of problems" (Ann Swidler, "Culture in Action: Symbols and Strategies," 273). According to Swidler, "people may have in readiness cultural capacities that they rarely employ . . . and know more culture that they use." Research on memory confirms that people retain in their memory almost every image or idea with which they come in contact. People's cultural toolkits thus consist of a variety of elements with loose linkages to each other. Such fragmentation enables people to "maintain distinctive and Inconsistent action frames" and to "participate in multiple cultural traditions, even when those traditions contain inconsistent elements" (Paul DiMaggio, "Culture and Cognition," Annual Review of Sociology 23 (1997): 268). This micro-level view of culture can be adopted at the national level as a national cultural repertoire with elements institutionalized at the nation-state level or at the most macro scale in terms of a world cultural repertoire.
38. There are various definitions of culture. According to Talcott Parsons, The Social System (New York: Free Press, 1951), culture acquired during socialization, is an exogenous force providing "value orientations" coherent across social groups. In sharp contrast, recent work highlights a fragmentation of culture perspective, pointing to inconsistency in the manifestation of culture across groups and situations. The most commonly used image employed in cultural analysis today is that of "culture as a 'tool kit' of symbols, stories, rituals and world-views which people may use in varying configurations to solve different kinds of problems" (Ann Swidler, "Culture in Action: Symbols and Strategies," 273). According to Swidler, "people may have in readiness cultural capacities that they rarely employ . . . and know more culture that they use." Research on memory confirms that people retain in their memory almost every image or idea with which they come in contact. People's cultural toolkits thus consist of a variety of elements with loose linkages to each other. Such fragmentation enables people to "maintain distinctive and Inconsistent action frames" and to "participate in multiple cultural traditions, even when those traditions contain inconsistent elements" (Paul DiMaggio, "Culture and Cognition," Annual Review of Sociology 23 (1997): 268). This micro-level view of culture can be adopted at the national level as a national cultural repertoire with elements institutionalized at the nation-state level or at the most macro scale in terms of a world cultural repertoire.
39. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Slovenia, "Strategy of the Republic of Slovenia," 2000, http://evropa.gov.si/iso/euf_00i.html (accessed 21 December 2001).
40. Branko Caratan, "The New States and Nationalism in Eastern Europe," International Politics 34 (1997): 285-302.
41. National Assembly Session, Government of Slovenia, 14 July 1997.
42. Poland, Czech Republic, and Hungary, which signed Europe Agreements earlier than Slovenia, received some leeway in adjusting their foreign ownership policies. Slovenian National Assembly members speaking in the debate on the Article 68 amendment frequently pointed out how other countries would have several years to adjust their legislation. Slovenes, on the other hand, felt forced to make their decision right away.
43. Francisco Ramirez, "Institutional Analysis," in George M. Thomas et al., eds., Institutional Structure: Constituting the State, Society, and the Individual (Beverly Hills, CA: Sage, 1987), 317.
44. Meyer et al., "World Society and the Nation-State," 164.
45. The notion of coercive isomorphism suggests that actors adopt similar policies due to political influence and under pressures of acquiring legitimacy. See Paul DiMaggio and Walter Powell, "The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizational Fields," in Walter Powell and Paul DiMaggio, eds., New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991), esp. 67-69.
46. Verdery also reports that "U.S. and West European governments have pressured the Czech Republic and Latvia [since their citizenship laws supposedly hindered] European Integration and foreign investment. The Council of Europe announced that no one with such laws would find an easy path into the European Union or post-NATO structures," See Katherine Verdery, "Transnationallsm, Nationalism, Citizenship, and Property: Eastern Europe since 1989," American Ethnologist 25:2(1998); 295, ff. 19.
47. John W. Meyer and Brian Rowan, "Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony," American Journal of Sociology 83:2(1977): 340-63.
48. Meyer et al., "World Society and the Nation-State," 151.
49. Amendment to the Slovenian Constitution, Article 68, 1997.
50. Based on a personal interview, 10 January 1999.
51. FIAS, Slovenia-Administrative Barriers to Investment.
52. Based on the Information provided by the owner of the land sold to the foreign Investor, 23 December 2000.
53. The proposition that policies are both regulatory and constitutive follows the notion that structures are both constraining and enabling. See Anthony Giddens, The Constitution of Society: Introduction of the Theory of Structuration (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984); William H. Sewell, "A Theory of Structure: Duality, Agency, and Transformation," American Journal of Sociology 98:1(1992): 1-29.
54. The proposition that policies are both regulatory and constitutive follows the notion that structures are both constraining and enabling. See Anthony Giddens, The Constitution of Society: Introduction of the Theory of Structuration (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984); William H. Sewell, "A Theory of Structure: Duality, Agency, and Transformation," American Journal of Sociology 98:1(1992): 1-29.
55. Nicole Woolsey Biggart and Mauro Guillen, "Developing Difference: Social Organization and the Rise of the Auto Industries of South Korea, Taiwan, Spain and Argentina," American Sociological Review 64 (1999): 727.
56. József Böröcz, "Informality Rules," East European Politics and Societies 14:2(2000); 348-80.
57. Biggart and Guillen, "Developing Difference," 728.
58. When considering the proportions of investment in Slovenia by different investor countries, we need to take into account the overall amount that a particular investor country Invests abroad. According to the International Direct Investment Statistics yearbook 22 (2000):22, published by Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), in Paris, the Italian investment was about three times larger than the Austrian one.
59. For classic statements on economic sociology, see Max Weber, Economy and Society (New York: Bedminster Press, 1968); and Mark Granovetter, "Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness," American Journal of Sociology 91 (1985): 481-510. For a review of the new economic sociology, see Richard Swedberg, "New Economic Sociology: What Has Been Accomplished, What Is Ahead?" Acta Sociologica 40 (1997): 161-82.
60. For classic statements on economic sociology, see Max Weber, Economy and Society (New York: Bedminster Press, 1968); and Mark Granovetter, "Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness," American Journal of Sociology 91 (1985): 481-510. For a review of the new economic sociology, see Richard Swedberg, "New Economic Sociology: What Has Been Accomplished, What Is Ahead?" Acta Sociologica 40 (1997): 161-82.
61. For classic statements on economic sociology, see Max Weber, Economy and Society (New York: Bedminster Press, 1968); and Mark Granovetter, "Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness," American Journal of Sociology 91 (1985): 481-510. For a review of the new economic sociology, see Richard Swedberg, "New Economic Sociology: What Has Been Accomplished, What Is Ahead?" Acta Sociologica 40 (1997): 161-82.
62. Nina Bandelj, "Embedded Economies: Social Relations as Determinants of Foreign Direct Investment in Central and Eastern Europe," Social Forces 81:2(2002): 411-44; Nina Bandelj, "Particularizing the Global: Reception of Foreign Direct Investment in Slovenia," Current Sociology 51:3/4(2003): 377-94.
63. Nina Bandelj, "Embedded Economies: Social Relations as Determinants of Foreign Direct Investment in Central and Eastern Europe," Social Forces 81:2(2002): 411-44; Nina Bandelj, "Particularizing the Global: Reception of Foreign Direct Investment in Slovenia," Current Sociology 51:3/4(2003): 377-94.
64. Trade and Investment Promotion Office (TIPO), Raziskava podjetij s tujim in mešanim kapitalom [Research on Companies with Foreign and Mixed Capital] (Ljubljana, Slovenia: TIPO, 1998).
65. Luc Boltanski, "Visions of American management in Postwar France," in Sharon Zukin and Paul DiMaggio, eds., Structures of Capital: Social Organization of the Economy (Cambridge: University of Cambridge Press, 1991), 343-72.
66. Delo, 10 June 1997, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
67. This case study is based on the evidence collected from interviews with the management of Rotor and news articles. All names are fictional for confidentiality.
68. Dunning and Rojec, Foreign Privatization in Central and Eastern Europe, 12.
69. Theda Skocpol, "Bringing the State Back In: Strategy of Analysis in Current Research," in Peter B. Evans, Dietrich Rueschemeyer, and Theda Skocpol, eds., Bringing the State Back In (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985).