MANAGEMENT AND EMPLOYEE BUY-OUTS FROM THE AUSTRIAN PUBLIC SECTOR Oliver WIESER*, Mike WRIGHT { and Ken ROBBIE { *Graz University, Austria { Centre for Management Buy-out Research, University of Nottingham, England ABSTRACT: This paper seeks to extend our understanding of the nature and e¡ects of privatization to the case of Austria, a relatively small economy in which management buy-outs have been a numerically important but neglected part of the privatization programme. The study reviews the development of privatization in Austria and sets management and employee buy- outs within this context. The paper identi¢es 35 privatization buy- outs, analysing their form and industrial distribution. Evidence from detailed interviews with the 22 largest is used to analyse the e¡ects of buy-out on corporate change, the role of insiders and performance. Comparisons are made with the UK, where management and employee buy-outs have also been an important part of the privatization programme. 1. Introduction Privatization has now become a worldwide phenomenon (Vuylsteke 1988; Shirley and Nellis 1991; Kikeri, Nellis and Shirley 1992) with massive programmes long established in developed countries such as the UK (Wright and Thompson 1994) and New Zealand (Boston 1992), and in less developed and developing countries (Molz 1989) including Chile (Yotopoulos 1989); it is also well advanced in many of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (Filatotchev, Grosfeld, Karsai, Wright and Buck 1996; Boycko, Shleifer and Vishny 1993; &CIRIEC 1997. Published by Blackwell Publishers, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics 68:4 1997 pp. 689^711 The helpful comments of two anonymous referees are acknowledged with thanks. Financial support for CMBOR from BZW Private Equity and Deloitte & Touche Corporate Finance is also acknowledged. * Re¨ sume¨ en ¢n d'article; Zusammenfassung am Ende des Artikels; resu¨ men al ¢n del art|¨ culo