Background: What initially caught our attention was the fact that many Swedish manufacturing firms establish production abroad and consequently many jobs are lost. However we decided to go behind the alarming reports of lost jobs, and instead study the subject from the companies’ perspective. Purpose: The purpose of the thesis is to study why Swedish companies establish production in China and Eastern Europe, how the production in these regions works, and what effects it has had on the company. Method: A qualitative study was conducted where interviews were performed with six Swedish manufacturing firms. The answers from each interview were then analyzed in order to match the empirical findings to the theoretical framework. A joint analysis was conducted where the answers from the six interviews were compared and analyzed. Finally conclusions were drawn as answer to our purpose. Conclusions: Our studies show that there are two main reasons for Swedish manufacturing firms to establish production in China and Eastern Europe respectively. These reasons are reduced costs and possibility to produce closer to the market. Keeping the product development in Sweden when producing abroad does not imply any problems as long as regular visits are paid to the plant. These visits are also important in order to maintain the relationships, which seems to be especially important in China. Cultural differences affecting the production exist to a varying extent both in China and Eastern Europe compared to Sweden. Establishing production abroad seems to be successful for most companies.

This dissertation takes a step towards providing a better understanding of post-socialist welfare state development from a theoretical as well as an empirical perspective. The overall analytical goal of this thesis has been to critically assess the development of social policies in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania using them as illustrative examples of post-socialist welfare state development in the light of the theories, approaches and typologies that have been developed to study affluent capitalist democracies. The four studies included in this dissertation aspire to a common aim in a number of specific ways. The first study tries to place the ideal-typical welfare state models of the Baltic States within the well-known welfare state typologies. At the same time, it provides a rich overview of the main social security institutions in the three countries by comparing them with each other and with the previous structures of the Soviet period. It examines the social insurance institutions of the Baltic States (old-age pensions, unemployment insurance, short-term benefits, sickness, maternity and parental insurance and family benefits) with respect to conditions of eligibility, replacement rates, financing and contributions. The findings of this study indicate that the Latvian social security system can generally be labelled as a mix of the basic security and corporatist models. The Estonian social security system can generally also be characterised as a mix of the basic security and corporatist models, even if there are some weak elements of the targeted model in it. It appears that the institutional changes developing in the social security system of Lithuania have led to a combination of the basic security and targeted models of the welfare state. Nevertheless, as the example of the three Baltic States shows, there is diversity in how these countries solve problems within the field of social policy. In studying the social security schemes in detail, some common features were found that could be attributed to all three countries. Therefore, the critical analysis of the main social security institutions of the Baltic States in this study gave strong supporting evidence in favour of identifying the post-socialist regime type that is already gaining acceptance within comparative welfare state research. Study Two compares the system of social maintenance and insurance in the Soviet Union, which was in force in the three Baltic countries before their independence, with the currently existing social security systems. The aim of the essay is to highlight the forces that have influenced the transformation of the social policy from its former highly universal, albeit authoritarian, form, to the less universal, social insurance-based systems of present-day Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. This study demonstrates that the welfare–economy nexus is not the only important factor in the development of social programs. The results of this analysis revealed that people's attitudes towards distributive justice and the developmental level of civil society also play an important part in shaping social policies. The shift to individualism in people’s mentality and the decline of the labour movement, or, to be more precise, the decline in trade union membership and influence, does nothing to promote the development of social rights in the Baltic countries and hinders the expansion of social policies. The legacy of the past has been another important factor in shaping social programs. It can be concluded that social policy should be studied as if embedded not only in the welfare-economy nexus, but also in the societal, historical and cultural nexus of a given society. Study Three discusses the views of the state elites on family policy within a wider theoretical setting covering family policy and social policy in a broader sense and attempts to expand this analytical framework to include other post-socialist countries. The aim of this essay is to explore the various views of the state elites in the Baltics concerning family policy and, in particular, family benefits as one of the possible explanations for the observed policy differences. The qualitative analyses indicate that the Baltic States differ significantly with regard to the motives behind their family policies. Lithuanian decision-makers seek to reduce poverty among families with children and enhance the parents’ responsibility for bringing up their children. Latvian policy-makers act so as to increase the birth rate and create equal opportunities for children from all families. Estonian policy-makers seek to create equal opportunities for all children and the desire to enhance gender equality is more visible in the case of Estonia in comparison with the other two countries. It is strongly arguable that there is a link between the underlying motives and the kinds of family benefits in a given country. This study, thus, indicates how intimately the attitudes of the state bureaucrats, policy-makers, political elite and researchers shape social policy. It confirms that family policy is a product of the prevailing ideology within a country, while the potential influence of globalisation and Europeanisation is detectable too. The final essay takes into account the opinions of welfare users and examines the performances of the institutionalised family benefits by relying on the recipients’ opinions regarding these benefits. The opinions of the populations as a whole regarding government efforts to help families are compared with those of the welfare users. Various family benefits are evaluated according to the recipients' satisfaction with those benefits as well as the contemporaneous levels of subjective satisfaction with the welfare programs related to the absolute level of expenditure on each program. The findings of this paper indicate that, in Latvia, people experience a lower level of success regarding state-run family insurance institutions, as compared to those in Lithuania and Estonia. This is deemed to be because the cash benefits for families and children in Latvia are, on average, seen as marginally influencing the overall financial situation of the families concerned. In Lithuania and Estonia, the overwhelming majority think that the family benefit systems improve the financial situation of families. It appears that recipients evaluated universal family benefits as less positive than targeted benefits. Some universal benefits negatively influenced the level of general satisfaction with the family benefits system provided in the countries being researched. This study puts forward a discussion about whether universalism is always more legitimate than targeting. In transitional economies, in which resources are highly constrained, some forms of universal benefits could turn out to be very expensive in relative terms, without being seen as useful or legitimate forms of help to families. In sum, by closely examining the different aspects of social policy, this dissertation goes beyond the over-generalisation of Eastern European welfare state development and, instead, takes a more detailed look at what is really going on in these countries through the examples of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. In addition, another important contribution made by this study is that it revives ‘western’ theoretical knowledge through ‘eastern’ empirical evidence and provides the opportunity to expand the theoretical framework for post-socialist societies.

This thesis is about some Swedish organizations that are connected to the labour movement and their actions to cope with the new hegemony around market liberalism. After the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 90-ties, the liberal order, meaning market economy and democracy reduced to the election of elites, has become totally domineering both in the western and in the former communist world. Even left wing oriented organizations have adopted their operations and activities accordingly, especially in their internal governing structure. The organizations that I have studied, mainly the Swedish Tenants organization at its local level of Stockholm, developed during the 70-ties and the 80-ties a participatorier member structure. The “Swedish model” of consensus/corporative decision-making and agreement, used by them on the national level for decades, was during that period introduced also on local and regional levels. In the 90-ties these organizations, according to earlier studies, have instead adapted a more costumer-oriented and elite-democratic way of operating and governing. These later changes could be seen as contradicting both the development of the 80-ties and the basic values of those organizations. My questions are therefore how these changes became possible and my aim is to study how the active members have contributed to this development. Using a constructionist theoretical perspective and discourse analysis, I am showing how this potential conflict between a participatory and an elite-democratic model can be reconciled by a discursive construction. The active members have in fact been able see these changes just as a modernization of their organization. From their point-of-view their organization still works in a participatory democratic way. My analysis shows how this ambiguousness and potential paradox became possible thru internal discourses and under influence from the liberal hegemony.

This thesis analyzes the Visegrad Group&rsquo / s stance toward the Russian-German Nord Stream and Russian-Italian South Stream gas pipeline projects, which aimed to circumvent the traditional energy routes situated in Central Europe and Eastern Europe. The level of the Visegrad Group&rsquo / s dependency on inherited Soviet gas pipeline routes is examined alongside the Visegrad Group&rsquo / s policy setting ability within the group itself and in the European Union. The thesis also traces the evolution of energy relations between Europe and Russia and Visegrad Group&rsquo / s adaptation to the new state of affairs after the collapse of the Soviet Union, particularly with respect to energy issues. It is argued that despite all differences, Visegrad Group members are able to set a cooperation platform at times of crisis and develop common energy strategies. However, the thesis shows that the Visegrad Group&rsquo / s endeavor has encountered some setbacks at the national level and serious challenges at the European level, largely owing to the lack of a common European energy policy. The thesis concludes that the Visegrad Group&rsquo / s energy policy is both dependent on the stances of Russia and larger EU actors.

There is something happening in Central Eastern Europe and the Baltic States. There is an economic boom and the GDP is growing. But, what causes the economy to grow? Is the explanation factor accumulation or is there a technologic growth. The long-term growth in East Asia from 1960 to 1997 was misinterpreted by many. The purpose of this thesis is to determine how large the total factor productivity growth has been in Central Eastern Europe and the Baltic States between 1996 and 2001. The stated purpose is being tested by using growth accounting. The result differs between countries; some countries have a strong technological growth while others’ GDP growth is dependent on factor accumulation. The result of the latter, if it will continue, is a downturn in the GDP growth since it is not viable in the long term. / Vad är det som händer i Centrala Östeuropa och de Baltiska staterna? Deras ekonomier växer, men frågan är vad tillväxten kommer ifrån. Är det faktorackumulation eller teknologisk tillväxt? Den långvariga tillväxten i Östra Asien från 1960-talet fram till slutet av 1990-talet misstolkades av många. I den här uppsatsen undersöks vad som ligger till grund för tillväxten i de tidigare kommunistländerna. Med hjälp av ”growth accounting” estimeras vad var och en av kapital, arbetskraft och teknologisk utveckling bidrar med till utvecklingen. Resultatet var inte likartat för alla undersökta länder. Vissa länder hade en stark teknologisk tillväxt under den undersökta perioden, medan andra länders tillväxt enbart berodde på faktorackumulation. Resultatet av den senare, om detta kommer att fortsätta, är att tillväxten kommer att avta då faktorackumulerad tillväxt inte är långsiktig.

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Eastern Europeans in Gotland is an essay with the purpose to find out how persons born in Eastern Europeans countries have adapted and integrated on Gotland. European community and notions about other groups of immigrants on Gotland have been relevant questions besides. The results of the essay show that the conditions for adaptation and integration are very different between the periods of time and for the individuals, depending on how they arrived to Sweden. The migrant workers quickly adapted to the labour market and had good premises to be in a position of financial independence. The demands of skills were low in the 60’s, but as a result of this, many of them didn’t learn the Swedish language very well and during the crisis in the 90’s they were no longer that attractive on the labour market. My essay also shows that most Eastern Europeans today are more aware of the benefits of their origin countries now becoming members of the EU, compared to immigrants from other parts of the world, they consider themselves to have better chances on the labour market and in the society on Gotland.  A curious observation is that the immigrants on Gotland are not automatically seen as “the others” in the society; the local population more likely distinguish “the islanders” and “the mainlanders”. / Östeuropéer på Gotland är en empirisk studie med syfte att ta reda på hur personer som har sina rötter i Östeuropeiska länder har anpassas och integreras på Gotland. Det har även varit relevant att ställa frågor om europeisk gemenskap samt föreställningar om andra invandrargrupper i det gotländska samhället. Uppsatsens resultat visar att förutsättningar för anpassning och integration skiljer sig avsevärt mellan de undersökta tidsperioderna och för individerna, beroende på hur de kom in i landet. Medan de flesta arbetskraftsinvandrare anpassades snabbt på arbetsmarknaden och hade de bästa premisser för att bli ekonomiskt oberoende i samhället, hade de flesta flyktingar under slutet av 1980- och början 1990-talet det väldigt svårt att hitta ett arbete överhuvudtaget. Min studie visar även att de flesta östeuropéer idag är mer medvetna om de fördelar som finns nu, när deras ursprungsländer har blivit/blir medlemmar i EU och att i en jämförelse med utomeuropeiska invandrargrupper, anser de flesta, att det är just de som har bättre förutsättningar för att komma in i det gotländska samhälls- och arbetslivet. En kuriös observation är att invandrarna på Gotland inte ses direkt som ”de andra” i samhället; den lokala befolkningen drar gränserna i första hand mellan ”gotlänningar” och ”fastlänningar” .

Outsourcing has been a way for firms to reduce their cost of production and enabling them to focus on their core competencies for decades. As the total costs for manufacturing in China – the most prominent outsourcing location, are increasing due to unfavourable mar-ket changes, which in turn leads to loss of the competitive advantage, European companies are more and more often realizing and pursuing the benefits of ‘near-sourcing’ their manu-facturing operations to Eastern European countries. This paper is a study of outsourcing decisions related to specific products in the Swedish manufacturing industry, how the product characteristics identified through the Portfolio Model of Supplier Relationships, and how the dimensions of the CAGE Dimensions Framework affects such decisions. Primary data was collected through three qualitative, semi-structured interviews with re-spondents from Swedish manufacturers currently outsourcing to China and/or Eastern Europe. The data was analysed through categories obtained from thorough literature re-view, where theoretical models were found as a foundation for the research questions that were established. The research revealed that companies do follow the advised sourcing strategies for specific product characteristics. It serves as a good starting step, but can be developed into different directions. The leverage products were outsourced to China and Eastern Europe, while strategic items were also outsourced to Eastern Europe. However, some leverage items outsourced to both countries had some of the characteristics of a strategic item. The bene-fits from economic distance were the main advantage of production in China, whereas cul-tural and administrative distance had a negative impact. The economic distance for Eastern Europe provided benefits as well, even though these benefits were not as substantial as in China. The political distance served as both a positive and negative factor in Eastern Europe – positive due to its membership in European Union (for some of the countries) and negative due to high levels of corruption.

<p>Background:</p><p>What initially caught our attention was the fact that many Swedish manufacturing firms establish production abroad and consequently many jobs are lost. However we decided to go behind the alarming reports of lost jobs, and instead study the subject from the companies’ perspective.</p><p>Purpose:</p><p>The purpose of the thesis is to study why Swedish companies establish production in China and Eastern Europe, how the production in these regions works, and what effects it has had on the company.</p><p>Method:</p><p>A qualitative study was conducted where interviews were performed with six Swedish manufacturing firms. The answers from each interview were then analyzed in order to match the empirical findings to the theoretical framework. A joint analysis was conducted where the answers from the six interviews were compared and analyzed. Finally conclusions were drawn as answer to our purpose.</p><p>Conclusions:</p><p>Our studies show that there are two main reasons for Swedish manufacturing firms to establish production in China and Eastern Europe respectively. These reasons are reduced costs and possibility to produce closer to the market. Keeping the product development in Sweden when producing abroad does not imply any problems as long as regular visits are paid to the plant. These visits are also important in order to maintain the relationships, which seems to be especially important in China. Cultural differences affecting the production exist to a varying extent both in China and Eastern Europe compared to Sweden. Establishing production abroad seems to be successful for most companies.</p>

<p>There is something happening in Central Eastern Europe and the Baltic</p><p>States. There is an economic boom and the GDP is growing. But, what causes the economy to grow? Is the explanation factor accumulation or is there a technologic growth. The long-term growth in East Asia from 1960 to 1997 was misinterpreted by many. The purpose of this thesis is to determine how large the total factor productivity growth has been in Central Eastern Europe and the Baltic States between 1996 and 2001. The stated purpose is being tested by using growth accounting.</p><p>The result differs between countries; some countries have a strong technological growth while others’ GDP growth is dependent on factor accumulation. The result of the latter, if it will continue, is a downturn in the GDP growth since it is not viable in the long term.</p> / <p>Vad är det som händer i Centrala Östeuropa och de Baltiska staterna? Deras ekonomier växer, men frågan är vad tillväxten kommer ifrån. Är det faktorackumulation eller teknologisk tillväxt? Den långvariga tillväxten i Östra Asien från 1960-talet fram till slutet av 1990-talet misstolkades av många. I den här uppsatsen undersöks vad som ligger till grund för tillväxten i de tidigare kommunistländerna.</p><p>Med hjälp av ”growth accounting” estimeras vad var och en av kapital, arbetskraft och teknologisk utveckling bidrar med till utvecklingen.</p><p>Resultatet var inte likartat för alla undersökta länder. Vissa länder hade en stark teknologisk tillväxt under den undersökta perioden, medan andra länders tillväxt enbart berodde på faktorackumulation. Resultatet av den senare, om detta kommer att fortsätta, är att tillväxten kommer att avta då faktorackumulerad tillväxt inte är långsiktig.</p>