Continuity and Discontinuity in the Interaction of Regional and Corporate Cultures: Potsdam (Germany) and Győr (Hungary)

Abstract

The paper compares the specific identical and different features of the relationship and interaction between corporate and regional cultures in Potsdam (Germany), on the one hand, and in Győr (Hungary), on the other hand, based on the empirical research results obtained in the Corporate Culture and Regional Embeddedness project. The major conclusion is that regional and, to some extent, broadly defined corporate cultures survived the socialist episode of history in both regions to a more pronounced extent than in the rest of the respective countries, thereby representing a high degree of continuity. Although the driving forces were different, embedded in a set of specific factors, the mobilization of this social capital produced a vicious circle after the transition to market economy in both regions, making the adjustment to the new situation more successful than in the other regions.