Purpose – While previous studies have highlighted opportunities, this chapter sheds light on the negative effects of globalization that mature European multinational enterprises (MNEs) encounter. Design/methodology/approach – We develop an extended network perspective to argue that...

Beugelsdijk S. and Van Schaik T. (2005) Differences in social capital between 54 Western European regions, Regional Studies 39 , 1053-1064. Based on the extant literature, a newly developed index measuring social capital at the regional level in Europe is presented. It is shown that there are...

Beugelsdijk S., Van Schaik T. and Arts W. (2006) Toward a unified Europe? Explaining regional differences in value patterns by economic development, cultural heritage and historical shocks, Regional Studies 40, 317-327. The concept of the 'Europe of the regions' has given rise to the question of...

Well-functioning institutions, both formal (i.e. rule of law) and informal (i.e. trust), facilitate economic exchange. To investigate the nature of the relationship between formal and informal institutions, we analyze bilateral trade patterns in a sample of 16 European countries between...

To investigate the relation between trust and formal institutions, we analyze bilateral trade patterns in a sample of 16 European countries between 1996-2009. Trust in trading partners has a significant positive effect on bilateral trade. However, our results suggest that trust and formal...