Globalization and Entrepreneurial Response in Post-Socialist Transformation: A Case Study from Transcarpathia, Ukraine

Abstract

This paper sets out to examine the extent and characteristics of the globalization process in a region undergoing a process of socio-economic transformation. In doing so it draws upon the experience of an entrepreneurial, globally orientated, garment-making enterprise in Transcarpathia, the western most region of the Ukraine. The bulk of earlier scholarly research focused upon the consequences of the strategies implemented by multinational corporations. We argue, that this study points towards an alternative mode of integration in the global economy-one which received little attention in the Central and Eastern European context. This takes the form of a set of sub-contracting relationships between parent enterprises in Western Europe, intermediaries located in economies which achieved significant advances in the process of transformation (such as Hungary and Slovakia), and manufacturers in the locality.