This paper is prepared within the project ‘The Emerging Industrial Architecture of the Wider Europe; the Co-evolution of Industrial and Political Structures ’ funded by the ESRC programme ‘One Europe or Several?’ * Authors would like to thank Nick von Tunzelmann for his valuable comments in earlier draft versions. Following the collapse of Communism, central European countries have experienced an invasion of foreign investment in many sectors. The sectors that target consumers directly have found an opportunity to gain market share with considerable long-term profit potential. Thus, investments by western retailers are quite large when compared to other industries1. These multinational
