Direktinvestitionen nach Mittel- und Osteuropa

The fear of the influence of direct investments in Middle and East European countries on a kind of “work export” into these countries has been existing in Germany for quite some time. The essential factor for such negative effects is the underlying motive of the direct investment. A change of motive from the previous market-driven investment to a cost-driven investment might in the long run result in negative effects on employment in the country of origin. This doctoral thesis has been written under the hypothesis of a motive change of the German direct investments of the production sector in Middle and East European countries from marketing orientation to cost orientation. It summarizes the existing secondary sources and uses a qualitative research with in-depth interviews with experts. The most important finding of this work is that nowadays, a much more differentiated mix of motives exists in the market. The secondary sources confirm the predominance of the market motive, but they also offer reasons for a change of motives. The primary research consisted of the detailed examination of the direct investments of three engineering companies and automotive suppliers by interviews and further expert interviews. Its result is a clear tendency for cost-oriented investments in these industries.