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BUSINESS SERVICE SUPPLY AND ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION‐COTTBUS, BRANDENBURG
Author(s) -
ELLGER CHRISTOF
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geografie
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.766
H-Index - 55
eISSN - 1467-9663
pISSN - 0040-747X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9663.1994.tb01345.x
Subject(s) - german , business , work (physics) , service (business) , service economy , control (management) , economy , marketing , economics , management , geography , engineering , mechanical engineering , archaeology
As sources of expertise for firms, business services play a major role in the transformation process of East Germany from a centrally planned economy to a capitalist market economy, in which entrepreneurial knowledge has to be developed. For Cottbus, the easternmost of the German cities with over 100,000 inhabitants and a centre of brown coal mining and energy production, a study of business services, their origin and linkages was undertaken in 1992. It shows that West German control is strong but not all‐encompassing. The small business service offices in the city, however, work predominantly for small and medium‐sized companies in the region and are not engaged by the surviving large economic units controlled by Treuhand or West German and West European enterprises. The massive degree of external control, which characterizes most sectors in East Germany now, limits the market for regional business service establishments.