The dynamics of regional specialization and cluster formation: dividing trajectories of maritime industries in two Norwegian regions

The theoretical starting point of this paper is the academic debate on regional specialization, agglomeration and industrial clusters. The paper offers further insights into the industrial dynamics within regional contexts by combining two approaches: (1) an historical study of industrial agency focusing on entrepreneurship, diversification and specialization; (2) a study of the relations within contemporary industrial systems important for industrial upgrading. Methodical triangulation has provided longitudinal studies. Particular attention is paid to path dependence as well as entrepreneurial capacity in order to explain why the industrial trajectories of matching regions divide. As the paper discusses continuity and change, a more dynamic perspective on path dependency is introduced. The past is not just regarded as a constraint, but as heritage as well. The dynamics leading to cluster formation and upgrading as well as industrial fragmentation are investigated in detail. The developments of shipyards and related maritime industries of the two Norwegian regions compared are characterized by static continuity and dynamic continuity, respectively.     

Perfect simulation for models of industry dynamics

In this paper we introduce a technique for perfect simulation from the stationary distribution of a standard model of industry dynamics. The method can be adapted to other, possibly non-monotone, regenerative processes found in industrial organization and other fields of economics. The algorithm we propose is a version of coupling from the past. It is straightforward to implement and exploit the regenerative property of the process in order to achieve rapid coupling.     

Mapping supply dynamics in renewable feedstock enabled industries: A systems theory perspective on ‘green’ pharmaceuticals

This paper provides a multi-stage multi-layer mapping methodology for capturing the macro-level supply chain dynamics that govern industrial systems using renewable feedstocks. The mapping approach combines the Industrial Systems Mapping and System Dynamics principles to systematically capture the interrelations across: (i) institutional players, (ii) sector specialists, (iii) products and intermediates, (iv) production operations, and (v) firms within the supply chain. The interfaces are further explored at four interconnected and mutually interacting theme areas of analysis, namely: (i) renewable chemical feedstocks, (ii) production technologies, (iii) target markets, and (iv) value and economic viability. We demonstrate the applicability of our approach by mapping the dynamics in industrial systems for the production of ‘green’ pharmaceuticals, particularly via the illustrative case of paracetamol. Through the use of the proposed integrated mapping process the case study demonstrates the principal interrelationships and inter-firm dynamics between the different layers of analysis. Three main drivers are identified that could enhance supply network transformations for improved viability of these developing industrial systems, namely: (i) regulatory conformance with market requirements, (ii) system level feasibility assessment of given renewable feedstocks, and (iii) target market volume demand. The causal feedback elements of the provided mapping technique indicate that it could support the analysis of industrial systems’ transformation dynamics enabled by renewable feedstocks. The standardisation of the methodology and its elements provides for an effective visualisation technique with cross-industry relevance.     

Workers,communities, and industrial property: An emerging language of rights

Out of recent national debates and local struggles over plant closings, an alternative language of industrial property rights has emerged. This language places the rights of workers and communities above, or on a par with, those of owners and managers. While this new language of rights coexists with more traditional conceptions of owner/manager prerogatives, its emergence suggests that rights of property ownership, which are often seen as relatively immutable structural constraints upon the capitalist labor process, may themselves be contested and subject to change.     

The Europeanisation—or the Erosion—of Industrial Relations?

This article considers the impact of European integration on industrial relations. An industrial relations regime can be understood as a tension between employment structured by market dynamics and broader social regulation, between the principles of contract and status. Economic Europeanisation threatens this relationship. Its survival may depend on new forms of supranational regulation, but not necessarily as the ‘social dimension’ of Europeanisation is customarily conceived.     

Sponsored spin-offs,industrial growth and change

This paper focuses on the role of sponsored spin-offs for industrial growth and dynamics. A sponsored spin-off is a firm born out of the venturing activities and the active involvement of an established organization; in this paper the latter in the form of retained partial ownership in the new firm. Sponsored spin-offs are one mechanism whereby the respective potential advantages of large and new firms may be exploited. Little is known about the nature and magnitude of contributions by existing firms to the creation of new technology-based firms and the effects these new firms have on innovation, change and renewal.In this paper, an empirical sample of 101 Swedish IPO firms is used in the analysis of three research questions. (1) Are sponsored spin-offs an important mechanism for the creation of new technology-based firms? (2) Are sponsored spin-off firms important for industrial growth? (3) Are sponsored spin-offs influencing industrial renewal and change? The results add to the understanding of how, and to what degree the venturing activities of existing firms contribute to the creation of new firms, as well as how and to what extent these spin-offs differ from other new firms in terms of their impact on industrial growth and change.     

共享经济下产业价值网络创新的系统动力学分析

共享经济给产业价值网络的发展带来了新的挑战与机遇,只有不断加大产业价值网络的创新力度,才能充分把握共享经济带来的发展机遇,实现产业的现代化发展。文章以J省农业共享经济领域的茶叶产业价值网络为案例,采用系统动力学方法建立共享经济下产业价值网络创新的系统动力学模型,并以A茶产业集团共享经济平台的相关运营数据为例进行定性与定量的分析与仿真,归纳影响共享经济下产业价值创新的关键因素。结果显示,平台、流量、协同、分享四个关键因素会正面影响共享经济下产业价值网络的创新。除上述因素之外,共享经济平台资源整合能力、政府支持及行业协会支持,也会影响产业价值网络的创新。     

The take-up of human resource management by mainstream companies: key lessons from research

Drawing upon a major British study involving over 300 interviews in fifteen case organizations from the private and public sectors, this paper draws out the essential elements of recent changes in industrial relations. In particular, it examines the significance of human resource management initiatives for the practice of industrial relations. The main thrust of the paper examines the ways, and the extent to which, mainstream organizations have transposed and absorbed concepts and practices from the highly publicized ‘lead cases’ into their own routines.

The central argument has three component elements: a whole array of managerial initiatives was launched in the period covered by the research; many of the more far-reaching of these were devised and driven from outside personnel or industrial relations management; cumulatively, these initiatives have impacted on the conduct of industrial relations.

A key concept which is identified and explored is that of HRM/IR ‘dualism’. This is the attempted bolting-on of HRM techniques and language alongside prevailing, albeit to some extent diluted, IR proceduralism. Many of the significant changes in labour management practices stemmed from initiatives taken by general managers, manufacturing directors and line managers. Transformative initiatives in the guise of culture change and structural change often carried profound implications for industrial relations even though these initiatives would not traditionally be regarded as part of industrial relations proper.     

Cities as the Industrial Districts of Housebuilding

In North America the housebuilding industry is ubiquitous and locally autonomous. In Ontario during the 1990s, 81% of urban single‐family homes were erected by locally based builders, a proportion that varied with urban isolation. Urban areas may be regarded as the industrial districts of home builders: numerous small, specialized firms interact frequently within a rich, embedded market network; subcontracting is the norm; networks and firm boundaries are fluid. The theory of industrial districts offers a useful vocabulary for analysing the neglected building industry. Analytically, the building industry offers unequalled opportunities to explore the dynamics of industrial districts, and how economic globalization meets local limits.     

生态工业园建设和发展的动力研究

工业发展理念的转变催生了生态工业,作为生态工业载体的生态工业园是目前世界工业园发展的主流。在生态工业园的建设和发展中,资源及环境保护的压力、企业经济利益的驱动力、政府行政参与的支持力及科技创新的推动力构成了生态工业园建设和发展的动力。     

基于虚拟物流的产业链整合仿真研究

提出了基于虚拟物流的产业链整合策略,构建了基于虚拟物流的产业链整合系统动力学模型,建立了系统各要素之间的因果反馈关系和模型流图,通过仿真验证了基于虚拟物流的产业链整合策略的可行性,分析了产业链整合过程中各因素对产业链整合整体收益的影响。     

Labour market segmentation and wage dynamics

The article contains results of a quantitative empirical investigation into the effects of labour market segmentation on wage dynamics in total industry as well as in several industrial branches in West Germany. By testing correlations between several indicators of earnings and the labour market it is shown that wage dynamics, in so far as they are determined by shop floor bargaining, can be explained at least as well and partly even better by indicators of certain partial labour markets than by conditions of the general labor market (i.e. the traditional Philipps approach).     

Vocational training and the labour market in liberal and coordinated economies

In recent decades, the differences between the education and training systems in the liberal and coordinated market economies have increased. It is not possible to understand such different developments by focusing exclusively on the internal dynamics of vocational and general education systems. Vocational education and training (VET), and particularly apprenticeship systems rather than school‐based VET, are deeply embedded in the different national production, labour market, industrial relations and status systems. In order to contribute to a better understanding of the dynamics of VET, we examine recent developments in general and vocational training and its links to the labour and product market in five contrasting countries, namely, Denmark, Canada, Germany, Korea and the USA. In particular, differences in industrial relations, welfare states, income distribution and product markets are the main reason for the persistent high level of diversity in vocational training systems. The difference can perhaps be summarized as follows: in the coordinated market economies, the modernisation of vocational training is seen as a contribution to innovation in the economy, while in liberal market economies, it is seen as a siding into which weaker pupils can conveniently be shunted.     

Industrial organization and the evolution of concepts for strategic planning: The new learning

This paper reviews the parallel development of the disciplines of corporate strategy and industrial organisation. Recent developments in industrial economics suggest that the two may be about to merge, or at least be capable of synergy. This potential advance has come about because of the movement of industrial organisation theories towards dynamics and away from static concepts such as the traditional structure: conduct: performance model. Simultaneously, corporate strategists, who have always been dynamically oriented, have long been in search of the more sophisticated theories industrial economists have in their tool kits.     

Industrialization and environmental externalities in a Solow-type model

In this paper we examine the role played by environmental externalities in shaping the dynamics of an economy with two sectors (a farming sector and an industrial one), free inter-sectoral labor mobility and heterogeneous agents (workers/farmers and industrial entrepreneurs). We find that, in the presence of the environmental pressure of the economic activity of the industrial sector, the stability properties of the equilibria and their features in terms of environmental preservation, welfare outcomes and sectoral allocation of labor are sensitive to the level of carrying capacity. We show that an endogenous process of industrialization associated with a reduction in farmers/workers׳ welfare can emerge.     

文化语境与多媒体技术的整合研究

文化知识在二语教学中的导入至关重要。在西北地区英语教学中,由于多媒体技术的使用,可以使学习者在文化语境与多媒体技术的整合下更好的习得第二语言。     

依托地方高校外语资源促进西部区域经济发展

随着我国西部大发展战略的进一步加强,西部区域经济发展迎来了前所未有的机遇。然而,由于文化、地域等因素的影响,外语能力一直是限制经济发展的瓶颈。利用西部地区高校外语资源,促进校企合作,加强高校人才交流平台建设,促进高校外语毕业生本地就业,鼓励风险投资进入,促进高校外语资源进行产业化转换,是弥补西部区域经济在高速发展中外语能力短缺的有力措施。     

基于产业集群的城市化动力机制研究

产业集群和城市化的内涵都是要素的聚集,二者存在很重要的内在联系。产业集群是城市化发展的重要载体,集群创新是产业结构升级的重要动力。文章从城市化动力机制方面阐述了产业集群对城市化的巨大推动作用,简要介绍我国产业集群的现实状况及存在的问题,提出加强产业集群发展以促进城市化的具体建议。     

ANSYS二次开发在薄壁墩参数优化设计中的应用

介绍大型有限元分析软件ANSYS的二次开发及其在双支薄壁桥墩参数优化设计中的实现过程,最后给出具体的应用示例。     

Economic flexibility and society in Italy

There is a positive and stimulating aspect to the current attitude towards social solidarity, especially in a context of economic and social change. Where once the concepts of interest and solidarity were contrasted, micro-level developments of a corporatist nature are contributing to ways of achieving a link between economic flexibility and social solidarity. A greater amount of negotiation is occurring on a range of key industrial issues compromises are being made due to the awareness of a ‘common danger’. In Italy, developments along such lines point to a need to reassess the assumed language used for understanding the politics of industrial relations.