The Demographic and Economic Transition in Central and Eastern Europe - Management Implications*

Zusammenfassung

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Although the population in Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC) is still younger, on average, than in Western Europe, the CEEC also have to cope with challenges caused by the demographic shift towards an ageing, shrinking population. Some countries are ageing even faster than Western Europe. Apart from ageing, the CEEC also have to face problems caused by the economic transition. Based on neo-institutional organisation theory this paper looks at the management implications of these developments and points out strategies for Human Resources Management and Marketing in how to cope with upcoming challenges.

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Auszug

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The Demographic and Economic Transition in Central and Eastern Europe - Management Implications*

1. Introduction

The demographic shift towards ageing, shrinking populations and its implications are widely discussed in Western European countries like Germany. Although the population in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) is still younger, on average, than in Western Europe, the Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC) also have to cope with these problems. As a result of very low birth rates and increasing remaining life expectancies, some countries are ageing even more rapidly than Western Europe. Apart from ageing, the CEEC also have to cope with problems caused by the economic transition like unemployment and negative net migration, which has put additional pressure on the economy as a whole. As a consequence, labour force and consumption patterns will change and firms will need to adapt to these changes of their institutional context.

By applying neo-institutional organisation theory this paper (a) summarizes the demographic and economic trends and their main policy implications and (b) looks at the management implications of these developments in two distinct areas: Human Resources Management and Marketing. While neo-institutional organisation theory has become a new dominant approach in analysing enterprise adaption to economic transition, this theory has not been applied to demographic transition so far. The extensive literature for Western European countries as well as the US on how to cope with the demographic challenges has not referred to this theory. Moreover, so far only few studies exist that look explicitly at the demographic challenge in the CEEC. This paper intends to fill these gaps.

The paper is structured as follows. Section 2 starts with a discussion of the theoretical background and gives an overview of current and future demographic and economic developments. Section 3 then discusses the implications for Human Resources Management. Section 4 focuses on the Marketing implications. Section 5 concludes.

2. The demographic and economic transition

2.1. Theoretical background

This...

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