Transferring Rhineland Capitalism to the Polish-German Border: Perceptions of Bank Governance and Practice in Zgorzelec-Görlitz

Abstract

This article looks at the past development and potential of the Rhenish capitalist model. We discuss the origins and nature of the model and the model in crisis. Because, we contend, Rhineland capitalism’s future will be decided in East-Central Europe, we focus – using a survey questionnaire – on bank customers perceptions of bank governance and practice in the Polish-German city of Zgorzelec-Görlitz. The experience of Dresdner Bank is stressed as is the fact that the local people not long before lived under Communism. A control group in the UK is used to ascertain the presence of German management traditions as opposed to Anglo-American approaches to management in the context of retail bank markets.banking, corporate governance, UK, Poland, Germany, cross border services