I directed my project at strategic development in textile industry. I worked the project at an example of the company Prima Moda, s. r. o., which has headquarters in Cesky Krumlov. The textile industry can not compete with other branches. Although nowadays the textile industry has automated production already, people have to work by hands. There are high wage cost. It caused, that in developed states the companies canceled production and they transferred it to Eastern Europe.

Les quatre chapitres de cette thèse analysent la manière selon laquelle les différents aspects du droit de la faillite influencent les résultats économiques d’une procédure de faillite notamment le degré de recouvrement de la dette des créanciers. Le premier chapitre montre que les lois sur les faillites présentent des conditions différentes de vote de créanciers en fonction de leur origine légale telle que : l’origine anglaise, l’origine française, l’origine allemande et celle nordique. Le second chapitre soutient que l’utilisation nationale de la procédure de réorganisation est favorisée par des processus moins stricts d’acceptation. Le troisième chapitre montre que les systèmes Est-Européens de faillite offrent une protection plus forte des créances garanties que dans le cas de créances publiques. Une concentration plus élevée de la dette diminue les taux de recouvrement en cas de la procédure de liquidation. Les estimations confirment l'existence de deux effets d'interaction entre les classes de créanciers Est-Européens: l'effet d'entraînement et l'effet de rivalité. Le dernier chapitre propose un modèle théorique qui prédit que les débiteurs ont des fortes incitations à proposer aux créanciers de plans de réorganisation avec un partage sous-Optimal de coûts quelque soit l'orientation de l'environnement juridique de la faillite y compris une orientation pro-Créancier ou une orientation pro-Débiteur. / This thesis analyzes the influence of various aspects of bankruptcy law on the economic outcomes of bankruptcy proceedings, mainly the amounts of the debt recovered by claimants. First, we show that bankruptcy laws settle different voting conditions of creditors according to their legal origin, i.e. English origin, French origin, German origin, and Nordic origin. Second, the national use of reorganization procedures seems to be favoured by less strict approval processes. Third, we find that the Hungarian, the Polish, and the Romanian bankruptcy systems provide stronger protection of the private secured claims than the public ones. A higher concentration of the claims also decreases the total recovery rates produced by the liquidation procedure. Our estimations confirm the existence of two interaction effects between the claimants, i.e. the ripple effects and the rivalry effects. Fourth, we developed a theoretical model that predicts that debtors have strong incentives to submit reorganization plans with suboptimal cost sharing regardless of the orientation of the bankruptcy environment, i.e. creditor-Friendly or debtor-Friendly.

This thesis examines why party systems of some developing countries become deeper and more quickly stabilised than others. Drawing on the scholarship of party system institutionalisation in third wave democracies, the thesis argues that the field can be strengthened by looking to three factors that the current literature has taken for granted: the role of cleavages, the function of personalistic politics, and the requirement of legitimacy to assess party systems. This thesis addresses these issues and in so doing provides a novel view of how, when and why party systems in newer democracies from Latin America, Europe and Asia consolidate over time. The research considers three case studies from three regions of the world, following the most similar approach method of comparison. One country per world region has been chosen for study in detail: Chile (Latin America), Estonia (Central and Eastern Europe) and South Korea (East and Southeast Asia). They all have party systems which have become more stable over time, but they exhibit different trajectories and speeds of consolidation. The thesis uses a variety of methods. In order to infer the causes of different processes of institutionalisation from party systems’ own participants, more than 120 elite interviews were conducted in the three countries over 13 months. To evaluate the overall legitimacy of the stabilisation process, this works presents the results of almost 500 face-to-face interviews with randomly selected individuals from the population. Quantitative analyses based on secondary public opinion surveys are used to test implications and observations, and offer potential generalisations. The findings suggests: 1) Where the ideological cleavage (left-right) is a strong determinant of party support the party system is more stable, and the stronger the ideological cleavage becomes over time, the more consolidated the party system is. Here, an ideological trauma can be at the core of the limitations of the left-right scope development. 2) Party systems with personalistic leaders can consolidate, contrary to the received wisdom, if charismatic figures build their parties around programmatic lines. And 3) legitimacy should not be regarded as a dimension for the Theory of Party System Institutionalisation, because it does not contribute in any way, positive or negative, to the stability of party systems. The thesis concludes that theories of party system institutionalisation should be reconsidered with respect to cleavages, personalism and legitimacy. In so doing, the growing literature on party system institutionalisation can benefit from a more comprehensive understanding of the complexities of party systems in new democracies from different regions of the world.

The present master's thesis discusses the traditional textile technique of embroidery in the context of contemporary art and analyses the way in which this craft technique has evolved from its invention to this day. The historical development points at the inevitable link between this artistic technique and women's history in Western societies, where embroidery strove to maintain stereotypes on femininity. In the twentieth century, embroidery as well as other textile techniques take on a new, subversive quality which enables the beginning of a social dialogue through art. It becomes a part of the public space in the form of banners in demonstrations or craftivist interventions in city streets. It tries to free itself from stereotypes and become an accessible technique for which the artistic process is as important as the finished piece. The work of contemporary artists reveals the shifting position of textile art, which cannot be considered as a simple offshoot of artistic craftsmanship for it has turned into in an autonomous and widely used medium of expression in current artistic production.

Thesis is focusing on trends in foreign direct investment flows and stocks in Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia break down by country and activity. The main data analysis is for years 2000 - 2006. Recent trends from 2007 till H1 2009 are mentioned only in terms of total flows and stocks.

The goal of the master thesis titled "Trade openness and income inequality in Eastern Europe" is to analyze the effects on income inequality changes in the population in the period of transformation from centrally planned economies to market economies in the last decade of the twentieth century. The first part of the thesis focuses on the development before the individual countries started to join the European Union. The subsequent liberalization in the early 21st century is evaluated in the second part of the thesis. The multiple regression analysis is used to estimate the effects. The data were provided by the World Bank for the period of from 1989 to 2014. The objective of the thesis is to enlighten the factors which are influencing the changes in income inequality.

The diploma thesis deals with the analysis of outward foreign direct investment of the People's Republic of China in Europe in general and with focus on Central and Eastern Europe. This work gives an overview of the main determinants that influence Chinese investor's decision and gives specifics and main features of Chinese FDI. The work also assesses the attractiveness of the CEE region in terms of FDI.

This thesis explores EU borders and bordering in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) in the context of the 2004 EU enlargement, the 2007 extension of the Schengen zone and the 2004 Eastern Dimension of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) that, in 2009, was upgraded to the Eastern Partnership (EaP). The thesis links borders with identities and governing orders to argue that while the EU has successfully included, inter alia, Czechs and Poles, it has excluded Ukrainians sufficiently to impact negatively on their lives and on the achievement of EU goals in the neighbourhood. The de-bordering and re-bordering inherent to enlargement, Schengen, ENP and EaP have (partially) displaced CEE borders from traditional locations at state frontiers. Bordering activities still take place within the supposedly borderless Schengen zone as well as at external frontiers with neighbouring states, but the EU has also exported border practices onto the territories of its neighbours. These processes prompted the questions addressed in this thesis: where, how, why and with what effects the EU makes its borders in CEE. An analytical framework – the ‘Borderscape’ – is developed to explore the complex manifestations of post-frontier bordering and to understand its socio-political, spatial and temporal underpinnings, and the consequences that EU bordering has for identities and subjectivities, order and governance in CEE. The borderscape encompasses border features, bordering discourses and bordering practices, which are constituted by EU and national governmental actors, border security and law enforcement agencies, by civil society actors and the people who move and dwell in the region. The borderscape is tailored to the regional particularities of CEE, with specific reference to processes of post-communist transition, EU accession and the EU’s engagement with its neighbours, specifically Ukraine. The findings of the research are based on extensive, interpretive fieldwork conducted in the Czech Republic, Poland and Ukraine. The thesis shows the various sites, forms and functions of contemporary EU bordering that comprise a diverse yet connected border archipelago stretching from the Schengen interior into the Eastern neighbourhood. The EU’s bordering discourses are shown to be plural and often contradictory: notions of freedom, security and justice and the desire to benefit from sharing these with Central and Eastern Europeans are juxtaposed with narratives of fear, suspicion and narrow-minded self-interest. The EU’s Europeanised bordering practices, including Risk Analysis and the protection of both borders and migrants, have enhanced mobility for EU-Europeans (such as Czechs and Poles) who now share in the highly desirable form of order that it has created. However, the EU has also restricted mobility for Ukrainians, who are still seen as ‘Eastern-Europeans’. The borderscape betrays the EU’s internal crises of identity and confidence, which has had psycho-social exclusionary effects on Ukrainians and contributed to the politico-strategic crisis in the Eastern Neighbourhood. However this analysis also points to ways that the EU can address these issues.

This thesis deals with the analysis of problems of transnational corporations. It is defined which positive and negative effects can transnational corporations have on the host country mainly in economic and political terms and to what extend and in what ways can the national states regulate their activities. This work presents the largest non-financial transnational corporations in the world and in the developing countries and the largest financial transnational corporations in the world. They are weighted by their size, geographical and sectoral distribution. A special attention is paid to the region of Central and Eastern Europe. At first this thesis deals with FDI flows that are associated with the mentioned region. In addition, it focuses on the reasons of entry of corporations from the West to the region and on the effects of their action. Space is also given to the transnational corporations with the headquarters in the monitored region.

The Master Thesis deals with offshoring and its logistic requirements. The first part of thesis characterizes terms as outsourcing, offshoring and offshore outsourcing. The main reasons for foreign production are seeking of resources (typically low cost labour) and expansion into new markets. Benefits and risks of offshoring are analyzed in the thesis, as well as criteria for selection of suitable host destination. Often overlooked impacts of globalization on integrated supply chain are also considered in this thesis. Central and Eastern Europe is one of important offshoring regions. CEE offers relatively cheap and qualified labour. However, its main benefit is its small geographical distance from Western Europe. The costs of servicing markets at Western Europe from CEE are much lower compared to servicing these markets from Asia.