ABSTRACT
In Eastern Europe, Hungarian enterprises were among the most likely to have moved away from the state socialist past for two reasons. First, because of the increasing foreign ownership in manufacturing industry during the 1990s. Second, though mainly formal, increase in managerial autonomy in state enterprises, direct contacts between these enterprises and their capitalist customers and suppliers, and to the growth of quasi-private and private firms in the small and medium sized firm sector. In order to examine the effects of radical institutional changes and market collapse on enterprise structures and behaviour, it is first necessary to summarise the key characteristics of the typical late state socialist Hungarian enterprise. Some of the changes in employment were the results of disposals of organisational sub-units. Differences in the number of closures and sales of various types of organisational units were related to combinations of type of control, company size and financial position.
