BUSINESS HISTORY OF EASTERN EUROPE

In accordance with the learning objectives of the Master degree in Comparative International Relations, the course offers students a clear and comprehensive guide to the business history of Central and Eastern Europe in the 20th century.
Students will become acquainted with the main approaches and methods of international business history, and have the opportunity to read and discuss new research work on the business history of Central and Eastern Europe.
The history of enterprises will integrate the economic history narrative on the area. Through the prism of the historical evolution of enterprises in the region, the course aims at developing the students’ ability to critically analyze, comment and debate the many political and economic processes in CEE countries, singling out the main historical actors and their interactions. The course focuses on three periods: the interwar years (1918–1939); The state socialist period (1945–1989/91); The transition period (1989/91 to the present); it follows a thematic approach and considers literature on different countries of the area.
During the first lessons, students will become acquainted with business history’s methods and frameworks. Particular attention will be devoted to the history of international business, multinational corporations and globalization. In the second part of the course, we will place the specific historical experience of enterprises located in Central and Eastern Europe in the economic history of the area and will make reference to different case studies and countries. A few lessons will be dedicated to the relations between Western European, US and Japanese companies and socialist enterprises during the Cold War years. Finally, the varieties of business responses to post-socialist transformations will be observed and discussed.

1. Students appraise different theoretical approaches to the study of the economy in CEE focusing specifically on the history of the enterprises;
2. Students distinguish and appraise the peculiarities of business evolution in Central and Eastern Europe compare to the Western European and US experience;
3. Students recognize, describe and contextualize the organizational trajectories of enterprises in Central and Eastern Europe from early 20th century to the present;
4. Students comment and debate historical case studies, are able to place them in their historical context, critically discuss sources and methodologies.
5. Students recognize different views and critically discuss the literature on the economic and business history of CEE.

Adequate knowledge of English

Part I Business History in CEE: Concepts, issues, and perspectives

1. Presentation of the course content, requirements, and of assessment methods. Basic conceptual distinctions.
2. Business History. Approaches and methods
3. Multinationals and firms in 20th and 21st century

Part II Multinationals and cartels in The Interwar Years

4. Business History in Central Eastern Europe in the Interwar Years (cartels and multinationals)
5. The Soviet Union. The firm in the planned economy from Tzarism to Stalinism
6. Ford (and the other Multinationals) in the Soviet Union (1920s-1930s)

Part III The Cold War and the East-West economic relations

7. The Soviet Model of Management and the Sovietization of CEE
8. COCOM, Sanctions and East-West trade: stages and channels
9. COMECON integration
10. Italian companies and Socialist CEE

Part IV, The 1989 and the post socialist transformation

11. The 1989 in CEE: privatization and industrial integration
12. The Economy of Favor in Russia
13. The transition Period in Russia. The emergence of the oligarchs
14. The transition Period. Post- socialist business transformation and Markets
15. Exam simulation

Reading unit 1: Morys, Matthias. 2021. “Introduction” in Morys M. (ed.), The Economic History of in Central, East and South East Europe, Routledge. p. 5-11.
Reading unit 2: Amatori, Franco, Colli, Andrea. 2011. “Theories of the Firm” in Business History. Comparisons and Complexities, Routledge, p. 33-52.
Reading unit 3: Jones, Geoffrey. 2005. “Frameworks” in “Multinationals and Global Capitalism”, Oxford University Press, p. 4-35.
Reading unit 4: Morys, Matthias. 2021. “Economic Growth and Structural Change in Central, East and South East Europe in 1918-1939” in Morys M. (ed.), The Economic History of in Central, East and South East Europe, p. 161-187.
Reading unit 5: Eloranta, Jari. 2021. “Between Disintegration and Convergence. 1918-39” in Morys M. (ed.), The Economic History of in Central, East and South East Europe, p. 216-242.
Reading unit 6: Link, Steven, 2020. “The Soviet Auto Giant” in Forging Global Fordism, Princeton University Press, p. 90-130.
Reading unit 7: Yudanov, Andrei Yu.. 1997. “USSR: Large Enterprises in the USSR—The Functional Disorder,” in Alfred D. Chandler, Franco Amatori, and Takashi Hikino (eds.). Big Business and the Wealth of Nations, Cambridge, U.K., 395–432.
Reading unit 8: McGlade, Jacqueline. 2005. COCOM and the Containment of Western Trade and Relations in Eloranta, Jari and Jari Ojala, East-West Trade and the Cold War, JYVÄSKYLÄN YLIOPISTO. p. 47-62 OR Canestrini (2021): Economic sanctions and new strategies in East-West economic relations in 1981–1982, The International History Review.
Reading unit 9: Richter, Sandor Economic Integration within Comecon with the Western Economy in Morys M. (ed.), The Economic History of in Central, East and South East Europe. p. 324-351.
Reading unit 10: Fava, Valentina. 2018. “Between Business Interests and Ideological Marketing: The USSR and the Cold War in Fiat Corporate Strategy, 1957– 1972,” Journal of Cold War Studies 20, no. 4 (2019): 26–64.
Reading unit 11: Voskoboynikov, Ilya. 2021. Economic Growth and Sectoral Developments during the Transition Period. 1990-2008 in Morys M. (ed.), The Economic History of in Central, East and South East Europe, Routledge, p.383-412.
Reading unit 12: Ledeneva, Alena V. Russia's economy of favours: Blat, networking and informal exchange. Vol. 102. Cambridge University Press, 1998. Chapter 2: Understanding blat.
Reading unit 13: Guriev, Sergei and Rachinsky, Andrei. 2005. The Role of Oligarchs in Russian Capitalism. Journal of Economic Perspectives, p.131 - 150
Reading unit 14: Jones, Geoffrey; Comunale, Rachael and Kate Lazaroff-Puck. 2017. “Boris Berezovsky, Vladimir Putin and the Russian Oligarchs” (Harvard Business School Case No. 317-005, Mar. 2017, rev. Dec. 2019)
Readings will be available in Moodle

1. Online forum: one memo per week to be posted by Tuesday evening. Write a post commenting on the most relevant or interesting concept that you have found in one of the previous week’s readings. The memos will be visible to your peers, and you are supposed to interact each other. Feedback and further discussion on the following class (5 memos on time for 1 extra point).
2. Final exam: for all students, oral exam covering all readings and the slides prepared by the professor for each class.

The course will be based on short frontal lectures and guided class discussions. Materials will be available through Moodle. Some lessons will be held by the teacher in cooperation with the authors of the readings.

English

written and oral

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Human capital, health, education" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development