The financial centre of Vienna experienced a dynamic internationalisation during the 1990s and early 2000s, which was focused on the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Although Viennese banks were irrelevant players on the European scale, Bank Austria, Erste Bank, and Raiffeisen International became the largest foreign banks in this region. This research project questions the impact of historic preconditions – in particular, the ‘East-engagement’ of Viennese banks before 1989 – for the success-story in the 1990s and early 2000s. Beyond this empirical question, this project intends to make a conceptual contribution towards evolutionary economic geography – the differentiation between a “weak” and “strong” history and the transition between these pathways. A further aim of this research project is the changing media discourse about the East-engagement of Viennese banks, which changed rapidly during the recent economic crisis and the increasing political risks in this region.
Based on annual reports of Vienna’s dominant banks (Raiffeisen, Bank Austria, Erste Bank, Volksbanken AG and BAWAG-PSK) and the FDI statistics of the Austrian Federal Bank, the formation of a dominant pathway could be identified: high levels of sectoral and spatial concentration, above-average company profits and a limited variety of organisational strategy led to increased stability and a self-strengthening effect for the development pathway. This research project identified this period as a “strong history” and traces this story of success back to historic pre-1989 conditions, a “weak history”. Based on quantitative research and expert interviews, this project identified a pre-1989 “weak” history, which has had a significant impact on the successful internationalisation since 1989. The project shows the personal and institutional continuities of Viennese banks in the CEE region, outlasting the historic break of 1989.
Musil, R. und Eder, J. (2015): Entwicklungspfade des Finanzplatzes Wien. Transformation von der weak zur strong history? In: Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftsgeographie 59/4, S. 259-275. DOI 10.1515/zfw-2015-0405
January 2015 to June 2017
Stadt Wien, MA 7