Inside the transnational social space: Cross-border management and owner relationship in a German subsidiary in Hungary

This paper examines the social relationships in and around a German subsidiary in Hungary during the first 15 years of Hungarian transition to a market economy. It draws on a recent conceptual framework that sees multinational corporations as transnational social spaces, in which transnational communities - communities of individuals that exhibit a unique cross-national organisational identity - may emerge. Empirically investigating two basic types of cross-border social relationship in multinational corporations, the paper argues that, due to the constant interplay of crossborder management and ownership relationships, the emergence of transnational communities is a demanding process, with established communities being precarious entities.