Publications by type - Case studies - 2011

In 2006, the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, the city of Stuttgart and Eurofound formed the ‘European network of cities for local integration policies' (CLIP). This fourth and final module of the CLIP project looks at ethnic entrepreneurship. The general aim of this module is to explore the development of ethnic entrepreneurship and to review the role of policy interventions in that process. It is motivated by the desire of municipal, national and European governments as well as third sector institutions, who want to create an environment that is conducive to setting up and developing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in general and ethnic businesses in particular. This case study was carried out in Strasbourg.

In 2006, the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, the city of Stuttgart and Eurofound formed the ‘European network of cities for local integration policies' (CLIP). This fourth and final module of the CLIP project looks at ethnic entrepreneurship. The general aim of this module is to explore the development of ethnic entrepreneurship and to review the role of policy interventions in that process. It is motivated by the desire of municipal, national and European governments as well as third sector institutions, who want to create an environment that is conducive to setting up and developing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in general and ethnic businesses in particular. This case study was carried out in Amsterdam.

In 2006, the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, the city of Stuttgart and Eurofound formed the ‘European network of cities for local integration policies' (CLIP). This fourth and final module of the CLIP project looks at ethnic entrepreneurship. The general aim of this module is to explore the development of ethnic entrepreneurship and to review the role of policy interventions in that process. It is motivated by the desire of municipal, national and European governments as well as third sector institutions, who want to create an environment that is conducive to setting up and developing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in general and ethnic businesses in particular. This case study was carried out in Stuttgart.

In 2006, the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, the city of Stuttgart and Eurofound formed the ‘European network of cities for local integration policies' (CLIP). This fourth and final module of the CLIP project looks at ethnic entrepreneurship. The general aim of this module is to explore the development of ethnic entrepreneurship and to review the role of policy interventions in that process. It is motivated by the desire of municipal, national and European governments as well as third sector institutions, who want to create an environment that is conducive to setting up and developing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in general and ethnic businesses in particular. This case study was carried out in Wrocław.

GfK, the German-based market research company, transformed itself into an SE in 2009. Management saw the change as reflecting GfK’s international perspectives and structure, although it also had the side effect of avoiding a major change in the composition of the supervisory board. The transformation has strengthened the European character of social dialogue in GfK, as there are now two non-German members on the supervisory board, and SE works council brings together members from almost all European countries, where GfK operates – the threshold is five employees. The SE works council has already agreed joint European guidelines on one issue, and both management and employee representatives have a generally positive view of the change.

In 2006, the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, the city of Stuttgart and Eurofound formed the ‘European network of cities for local integration policies' (CLIP). This fourth and final module of the CLIP project looks at ethnic entrepreneurship. The general aim of this module is to explore the development of ethnic entrepreneurship and to review the role of policy interventions in that process. It is motivated by the desire of municipal, national and European governments as well as third sector institutions, who want to create an environment that is conducive to setting up and developing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in general and ethnic businesses in particular. This case study was carried out in Frankfurt.

In 2006, the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, the city of Stuttgart and Eurofound formed the ‘European network of cities for local integration policies' (CLIP). This fourth and final module of the CLIP project looks at ethnic entrepreneurship. The general aim of this module is to explore the development of ethnic entrepreneurship and to review the role of policy interventions in that process. It is motivated by the desire of municipal, national and European governments as well as third sector institutions, who want to create an environment that is conducive to setting up and developing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in general and ethnic businesses in particular. This case study was carried out in Vienna.

MAN was the first German company to create a SE, by the conversion of its subsidiary MAN B&W Diesel into MAN Diesel SE in August 2006. This was followed in 2009 by the conversion of MAN itself into MAN SE. Both management and the employee representatives were well prepared for negotiating an agreement on employee involvement. Management’s overall assessment is that the agreement is an acceptable compromise and will contribute to the internationalisation of the company. The employee representatives are also satisfied because codetermination rights have been secured and important rights have been obtained for the SE works council.

Headquartered in Utrecht/The Netherlands with subsidiaries in Germany, Italy and Finland, Equens is a full-service payment processing company offering services in payment and card processing and a European leader in this business segment. The transformation of Equens N.V. into an SE was concluded in July 2008 by a merger with the German subsidiary. This also reflects the strong European vision of the company. As a financial payment processor in an increasingly European market, the company follows its aims to become a truly European service provider. The case of Equens reflects the search of transnational operating companies for options to harmonise and simplify their governance structures including the practice of employee involvement and participation.

The reinsurance group SCOR was the first French listed company to create a European Company (SE) with employee participation. Three parallel agreements secure employee involvement through a common SE works council for the SCOR SE and its two subsidiaries. This was an important progress, since with only 800 employees in Europe, the former SCOR group did not fall under the scope of the EWC Directive. With regard to participation, an employee representative who is elected by the employees worldwide was maintained on the group’s board of directors. In addition, a second employee director without voting rights was introduced who is appointed by the SE works council. This was an acceptable compromise for both sides of industry which was reached in the course of the negotiations.

Allianz SE is an integrated financial services provider with more than 150,000 employees. The company serves approximately 75 million customers in about 70 countries. Allianz SE operates and manages its activities primarily through four operating segments: property-casualty, life/health, asset management, and corporate and other. Allianz adopted the legal form of a European company (Societas Europea (SE)) by merging with its Italian subsidiary RAS. The process of integrating the two companies started in September 2005. On 13 October 2006, the Allianz-RAS merger was registered and Allianz became recognised as an SE under the 2001 Statute for a European company as set out in Council Regulation 2157/2001.

This report examines whether investment funds – in particular, private equity, hedge funds and sovereign wealth funds – help to revive underperforming companies and thereby contribute to employment growth or whether, on the contrary, they strive to maximise financial returns at the expense of labour. Overall, the report concludes that investment funds are neither wholly ‘bad’ nor wholly ‘good’ with regard to the impact on labour in their invested firms. A report and an executive summary are available.