ABSTRACT
Since the fall of the Iron Curtain and state socialism, the world's largest automakers have established several auto production complexes in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Enticed by significant government incentive packages, the most prominent of these were Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia (i.e., the Visegrad-4). 1 This process began in earnest in early 1990–91, when Fiat took control of Poland's state-owned FSM, Magyar Suzuki was established in Hungary, and Volkswagen acquired Czechoslovakia's Škoda and BAZ. 2 These facilities quickly attracted many of the world's largest auto suppliers, and later, during the 2000s, other major carmakers. All of these manufacturers located in the CEE in order to gain access to its largely untapped consumer markets and to take advantage of its relatively inexpensive, skilled labor force. The central locations of the Visegrad-4 nations also made them prime production bases for exporting automobiles and parts to both the emerging CEE and developed Western European nations.
