ABSTRACT
This paper provides a study to identify and account for developments in industry during a period of substantial political, economic and social change in east Europe and aims to illustrate the major effects that these changes have had upon a particular sector of Poland’s shipping industry; the passenger ferry sector. The broad approach is to outline the structure, conduct and performance of the ferry industry during communist rule; repeat this for the current situation and finally, account for the variations observed, if any are present. Many of the transitions relate to political, legal and structural entities and as such, by their very nature are more suitable for qualitative rather than quantitative appraisal.
To examine the industry in depth required the opinions and experiences of people within the industry, and a visit to Poland to carry out interviews was made in September 1994. Analysis and conclusions are based upon the use of free response interviews with industry and academic authorities, secondary quantitative data and published literature.63
