The objective of this thesis is to examine the nature of health care system change in the Czech Republic and Hungary after the collapse of communism. In order to do so, the thesis focuses mainly on Europeanization and New Institutionalism as competing approaches in explaining domestic changes in Central and Eastern European Countries. While doing so, first this study tries to explore whether Europeanization is one of the main determinants in the transition process of the health care systems of the Czech Republic and Hungary and discusses the EU-level policies, laws and regulations related to the health care sector. Second, the study looks through the historical legacy and path dependency theories as branches of the New Institutionalist approaches to investigate the transition of the health care systems of case countries. The review of the related literature and empirical case studies exhibit that the transformation process of the health care systems of the Czech Republic and Hungary were possibly affected by many factors and it would be misleading to attribute all consequences to only one determinant. In this respect, the main argument is that the Europeanization effect is weak compared to the New Institutionalism approach in explaining the transition process of health care systems of Hungary and the Czech Republic / however, there are strong opportunities for EU institutions to shape the future contours v of health care systems and public health programs in Hungary and the Czech Republic.

Die Geographie kann im Vergleich mit anderen Disziplinen getrost als ein auffallend breit facettenreiches Fach mit zahlreichen Schnittstellen zu Nachbarwissenschaften charakterisiert werden. „Der Geograph“ schlechthin – so er denn angesichts des soeben erwähnten großen Spektrums in Reinform überhaupt existiert – zeichnet sich daher oftmals durch die ausgeprägte Fähigkeit zum interdisziplinären Arbeiten und vernetzten Denken sowie der Fertigkeit des sinnvollen Zusammenfügens vieler Einzelteile zum „großen Ganzen“ aus. Der Blick für’s Ganze und der Blick über den Tellerrand, also das positive Interesse am „Anderen“ und „Neuen“ sind diesbezüglich besonders wichtig. In Kombination mit angewandten – d.h. gesellschaftlich relevanten, konkret nachgefragten Untersuchungen - wird daher bisweilen auch „Geographie im weitesten Sinne“ betrieben. Geographie kennt nur wenige Grenzen, zumindest, wenn sie von Peter Jurczek betrieben wird. Peter Jurczek, dessen 60. Geburtstag der Anlass für Freunde, Weggefährten, ehemalige und aktive Mitarbeiter ist, ihn mit dieser Publikation zu ehren, verkörpert vielleicht nicht den oben genannten Typus des Universalgeographen, der erwähnte Blick für’s Ganze, die Freude am interdisziplinären Arbeiten, das Überschreiten der Grenzen ist ihm aber doch zu eigen. Der Blick über den Tellerrand – in räumlicher und fachlicher Hinsicht – ist es wohl auch, der ihm stets neue Perspektiven und Horizonte eröffnete, an denen er immer auch andere teilhaben lässt. Denn die Überwindung des Trennenden dort, wo es ausgrenzt oder gar diskriminiert ist im Rückblick eine wichtige Maxime seines Handelns: Ob es sich um die innerdeutsche urbane Vernetzung von „Ost“ und „West“ handelt oder die Europäische Integration, die durch konkrete Projekte insbesondere in Hinblick auf Deutschlands Nachbarn in Mitteleuropa vorangetrieben wird. Die Themenvielfalt und Interdisziplinarität der Beiträge dieses Sammelbandes wiederum ist letztendlich ein Beleg des regen wissenschaftlichen Austausches von Peter Jurczek und somit auch ein thematisches wie räumliches Abbild seines Wirkens. Sie reichen von Europa über Afrika bis nach Asien, von der Geographie, der Soziologie, der Politikwissenschaft bis hin zu Germanistik und Kulturwissenschaft.

Thesis--Uniwersytet Warszawski. / On t.p.: Śląski Instytut Naukowy w Katowicach. Includes indexes. Includes bibliographical references (p. 240-[251]).

Thesis (doctoral)--Technische Universität Chemnitz, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references.

This thesis examines how the various characteristics of the Central and Eastern European new Member States, as indicated by the case studies of the Czech Republic and Hungary. affect how elite monetary policy makers within these states perceive the euro, both politically and economically. In order to answer this question economic and political expectations of what one would predict the perceptions of the euro within these state to be are developed from the official sources and existing Iiterature. The expectations reflect both the symbolic and political utility of currency in the development of collective sentiment as well as address the economic roles of currency. These expectations are then assessed against interview data collected from interviews with elite decision-makers within the Czech Republic and Hungary. Through this approach I argue that the opinions of elite decision-makers suggest that there is a complex interplay between the economic and the political regarding the perceptions of the euro within these states which reflect the unique character of these states. Moreover, I argue that even though the motivations of policy makers are in many cases particular to the NMS they are also run counter to some intuitive and scholarly predictions which indicate the need for further research.

Japanese-style management and Japanese companies have been popular targets of management studies since the 1970s. Many studies have been devoted to the examination of Japanese companies in Japan. By comparison, less understanding has been achieved about how Japanese companies conduct business in their international operations and how famous Japanese management has been transferred to Japanese subsidiaries. This thesis contributes to an ongoing academic debate about the internationalization processes within Japanese multinational companies. The processes involved in interaction between the parent company and subsidiaries address the research question of how subsidiaries of Japanese multinational firms perceive the relationship with their parent companies. The parent-subsidiary relationship is conceptualized within the boundaries of communication and information exchange theory. The conceptual framework creates a tool for research inquiry into the parent-subsidiary relationship. The framework conceptualizes the relationship between facilitating factors and perceived parental influence. Access to the parent company, motivation to engage with the parent company, and ability to engage with the parent company are conceptualized as factors facilitating the parent-subsidiary relationship. National/country and organizational/industry characteristics are identified as attributes moderating the relationship. Information outflow, inflow, and intraflow are derived components of the parental influence. The study presented here is exploratory with findings based on two sequential comparative research stages. The Czech Republic and New Zealand, although different in terms of national and country characteristics, are argued as a suitable comparable base for conducting research within subsidiaries ofJapanese firms. In stage one, 18 Czech and 17 New Zealand subsidiaries of Japanese companies participated in a questionnaire survey. In stage two, 26 semi-structured interviews were conducted for case studies within Czech and New Zealand subsidiaries of six Japanese parent companies. The case studies provided further insights into the subsidiary-parent relationship. This research seeks contribution to the internationalization literature by offering a new useful framework for the examination of the parent-subsidiary link. The self-identity of Japanese subsidiaries was found to give meaning to the parental relationship as perceived by the subsidiary. This relationship was influenced by the subsidiary�s country location, the industry in which the subsidiary operates, and the presence of expatriate management in the subsidiary. This research also found significant commonalities among the perceptions of parental influence in all Japanese subsidiaries involved in the study. The observed commonalities indicate that Japanese companies might have moved away from the internationalization processes ascribed to them by previous academic research. The change triggered by collapse of stock markets in mid-1990s has resulted to a recent reduction of expatriate staff reported little parental guidance, independence, and the strong self-identification of subsidiaries with their local environment. Keywords Internationalization, Japanese Multinational Company, Subsidiary, Czech Republic, New Zealand, Information, Parent-Subsidiary Relationship

Thesis (doctoral)--Freie Universität, Berlin, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 428-465) and index.

Thesis (M.S.)--Ohio University, November, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 67-72)

Thesis (docotral)--Universität Leipzig, 1909. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universiẗat, Frankfurt (Main), 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 303-311).