ABSTRACT
The term ‘industrial structure’ is normally used as a collective description of various characteristics for a particular country's total industry. Important examples of such characteristics are the relative significance of industries such as engineering and chemicals, the degree of company concentration (i.e. their number and size) within the various industries, the technology of companies and their regional localisation. The total picture of industry in terms of the various dimensions which jointly comprise its structure is the result of a long historical process in which foreign direct investments have been one influential factor. Thus, structural effects can be said to be more comprehensive than foreign direct investments, on the one hand, but they are also more difficult to envisage, on the other hand.
