European Integration and Institutional Fragmentation: The Case of the Polich Transport Industry

The author demonstrates that Europe is heading towards the emergence of a transnational integrated economy, in which national policies of deregulation are combined with the growing role of supranational institutions and in which new global market actors and new forms of market hierarchies are emerging. As Poland has not been capable of deploying the necessary resources for successful adaptation, a selective approach has been adopted and this works in favour of the needs of international transport while neglecting the restructuring of the domestic transport system. Thus a fragmented and dualistic transport regime has emerged in terms of its institutions and regulations, its geographical patterns, and its infrastructural developments. The article shows that the fragmented regime has created strikingly different firm structures, business and organisational strategies, and ultimately works in favour of multinational forwarding and logistic enterprises. The latter occupy strategic market segments in Poland, whereas the endogenous transport enterprises are in danger of being marginalised.