How far away is Europe?

Institutional development in new and potential member countries determines the success of deepening European integration. This papers argues that the timing of future enlargement should depend on institutional convergence between the EU and potential accession candidates. It therefore looks at institutional quality in the EU, in the EU's neighbouring Balkan and Black Sea regions, and especially in Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, and Turkey, i.e. the next countries in the queue for entry. Three dimensions of institutional quality—legislative, administrative and judicial institutions—are analysed on the basis of the World Bank Governance Indicators using institutional quality in EU member states as a benchmark in order to reveal institutional deficits.     

Converting Academic Expertize into Industrial Innovation: University-based Research at Solvay and Gevaert, 1900-1970

The question this article seeks to address relates to the strategiesdeployed by the chemical firms Solvay & Co. and GevaertN.V.—two multinationals operating in a highly innovativesector and depending on Belgium's national system of innovation—bytaking advantage from the research capabilities located in thesurrounding academic landscape. The two companies adopted differentmethods to capture the knowledge produced in university laboratories,which corresponded best to the kind of research they wishedto explore. It will be argued that, instead of conforming toany previous blueprint for linear innovation, industrialistsand academics have sought to overcome their conflicting interestsand cultural divergence by bringing out mutual opportunitiesthat eventually led to unexpected forms of utilitarian cooperation.In the long run, informal linkages and social networks helpedshaping the patterns of increasingly coordinated and elaboratedprocedures of innovation.     

A Proposal for the Efficient Taxation of All Business Income in the EU

There is a growing awareness in many EU member states that business taxation solely on the basis of “taxable profits” enables, in particular, multinational companies to avoid paying taxes, with negative consequences both for tax revenue and—in the longer run—also for the stability of the economy. The following article proposes the taxation of all compensation of capital—not only profit for equity, but also interest for outside capital and licence fees for outside rights—at the site of production.     

The Role of Stakeholders in Sustainability Reporting Assurance

The main purpose of this exploratory analysis is to understand whether, based on evidence gathered from international best practices selected among corporations which adopt the Global Reporting Initiative guidelines in sustainability reporting (SR), stakeholders are significantly consulted and involved—as international literature would indicate—by assurance providers, during assurance processes of SR. We aim at verifying if this practice—known as stakeholder assurance—is in fact widespread in SR assurance by carrying out empirical research, through content analysis, into a sample of 161 assurance statements of international corporations, in order to test characteristics of any stakeholder assurance implemented.     

George Feifer. Breaking Open Japan: Commodore Perry, Lord Abe, and American Imperialism in 1853

Commodore Matthew Perry commanded a squadron of US Navy shipsthat sailed east from Norfolk in November, 1852, carrying aletter from President Millard Fillmore to the Japanese Government.In it, the USA asked Japan, which had been essentially closedto westerners for more than two centuries, to provide for thehumane treatment and return of US seamen—mostly whalers—shipwreckedin Japanese waters, to open Japanese ports to US ships for provisioningand refueling, and to establish trading relationships—Perryat     

Garret Epps. Democracy Reborn: The Fourteenth Amendment and the Fight for Equal Rights in Post-Civil War America

In the spring of 1866, Congress drafted what would become theFourteenth Amendment—a promise of citizenship and civilrights for all Americans regardless of race. However, the Redeemeryears following its ratification blurred its importance, illuminatedlatent racial prejudice, and then provided for the failure ofcivil rights—not normally the makings of a success story.Yet, despite the racial issues of this nation, the FourteenthAmendment has remained a part of the Constitution—readyto serve its duty to     

Comparing Customer and Supplier Perceptions of Value Offerings: An Exploratory Assessment

This paper proposes an exploratory assessment of similarities and differences between the perceptions of suppliers and their customers about what is important in a value offering—and to which extent—in a specific business sector.     

Digital- und Medienpolitik in Parteiprogrammen zur Bundestagswahl 2021

Wirtschaftsdienst - Vier Parteien — Die Linke, SPD, Bündnis 90/Die Grünen und FDP — haben bis Ende April 2021 den Entwurf ihres Programms zur Bundestagswahl am 26. September...     

Old structures versus new logic in the electronics industry

Electronics is a branch of industry in which the competitive position of European firms is relatively weak, compared to the chemical, motor vehicle and mechanical engineering industries. This fact appears to some observers—in view of the electronic industry’s high rates of growth and its technologically “strategic” importance—to represent a threat to Europe’s future industrial development. This has led to intensive political discussions in recent years and to a multitude of initiatives for the revitalisation of the European electronics industry. This paper analyses the extent to which the discussions and initiatives have in fact dealt with the problems in hand.     

Customers�� zone of tolerance for retail stores

The present study describes the zone of tolerance for customers’ service expectations and determines their satisfaction level for retail stores. It attempts to diagnose the service quality level of customers’ in retail store setting. A conceptual model RETZOT is presented in this study, and the results demonstrate that evaluation of services can be scaled according to different types of expectations—‘desired’ and ‘adequate’—and that customers use these two types of expectations as a comparison standard in evaluating retail store services. The findings reveal that customers have a narrow zone of tolerance with regards to the services provided by retail stores.     

The fight over the global development agenda: How the west tries to marginalise UNCTAD

The UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has a long history of intellectual independence. This article details how Western countries tried to marginalise the organisation and its work — which is often critical of Western powers — during the 2012 UNCTAD conference. While developing countries were able to mobilise and partially beat back these attempts for now, the organisation’s ability to contribute to global macroeconomics remains under threat.     

Price V. Fishback et al. Government and the American Economy: A New History

In Government and the American Economy: A New History, a distinguishedpanel of economic historians chronicles and evaluates how governmenthas shaped U.S. economic development and growth from the colonialperiod to the present. The volume is dedicated to Robert Higgs,whose seminal thesis on the growth of government—thatit is a crisis-induced and persistent process—is one ofthe volume's underlying themes (and the subject of Higgs’chapter titled, "The World Wars"). The other is that government     

David P. Billington and David P. Billington, Jr. Power, Speed, and Form: Engineers and the Making of the Twentieth Century

This is an enjoyable book. Historians of technology will findit especially appealing, but this book deserves—and willno doubt find—a wide audience. The Billingtons, a father-sonteam of engineer and historian, have written an engaging andcomprehensible account of modern engineering. They examine eighttechnologies fundamental to the modern world: electric power,the telephone, oil refining, the automobile,     

Building the foundation of a Firm’s market competence

Many firms are experiencing difficult times regarding their turnover and profits. What started as a financial crisis soon became a sales crisis. This article offers a definition of market competence — what areas a firm needs to master in order to drive sales — and a model offering a stable foundation for knowledge sharing, strategizing and executing regarding customers.     

Modernisation of EC competition law, economy and horizontal cooperation between undertakings

Conclusion  From both the Commission's explanatory comments to the proposal for the new “Regulation 17” and the new approach towards horizontal co-operation agreements as witnessed in the Guidelines and the two group exemption regulations, it seems abundantly clear that the Commission holds the view that the time is not yet ripe for an overall safe harbour approach for horizontal co-operation agreements. That being the case, there would have been no objection—if only for an intermediate step and until the moment that the horizontal market would be ripe for an overall safe harbour approach—to the introduction of a notification system for such horizontal agreements similar to the one applicable for vertical restraints by virtue of Regulation 1216/1999.⁴⁷ This would have considerably alleviated the Commission's workload as far as reducing the number of and dealing with notifications is concerned. If this system had been combined with the sharing of the exemption powers by the Commission with the NCAs—which would have been a truly appropriate and proportional signal regarding the application of the principle of subsidiarity—this would have left the complicated economic assessment under article 81(3) where it belongs, i.e. with the administrative authorities that would be best placed (and trained) to perform this task. The national courts could then continue to concentrate on their tasks as defined by the ECJ in Delimitis, with the result that these institutions would also be doing exactly that for which they are best placed and trained, i.e. the application of the legal norms provided for in article 81(1) and (2) and article 82. The proposals of the Commission are deemed to be premature—at least in the view of this author—in the light of the forthcoming enlargement of the EU, the enforcement puzzles as described above, the monitoring of the cohesion of Community competition law and all the problems of training that come with it. The Commission's workload is likely to increase as a result of all this, and not just for an intermediate period of time but expectedly forever.     

Which Socio-economic Model for Europe?

Disappointing growth rates and high unemployment in Europe have given rise to a debate on whether the European socio-economic model—or which of its variations—has a future in the face of increasing international competition. The following two articles discuss the current challenges facing Europe in this field and the options for meeting these challenges.      

EUCO2 80/50 — Entwicklung regionaler Reduktionsstrategien durch Stakeholder-Beteiligung

Analysen und BerichteInvestitionen

Die deutsche Investitionsschw?che und die EWU — Fakt oder Fiktion? — eine Replik     

Organizational ethics: A stacked deck

The astute manger should be aware that, in organizations, the deck is frequently ‘stacked’ against higher levels of ethical behavior. This deck stacking occurs because of socialization processes, environmental influences, and the organization hierarchy. As a result of bosses using hierarchical leverage to take the ethical dimension of decision-making away from subordinates, the stage is set for a they-made-me-do-it defense of their moral integrity by these subordinates if and when violations of ethical norms come to light. There is also at work, however, an I-made-them-do-it situation in which professionals who prefer to ‘nest’ in the more technical aspects of their work ‘delegate’ — upward — to their bosses ethical decision-making. Understanding these dynamics is crucial in an age which is especially sensitized to the ethical facet of organizational behavior. He has taught at the University of Georgia since World War II, with the exception of a Rockefeller Foundation Year at the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration, and two years with the Ford Foudation in Cairo, Egypt. He is the author of four books on management and public policy — the co-author of a recent Principles of Management text — and he has written many articles on economics and management in a wide variety of journals. His most important publications are:Business and Society: Managing Corporate Social Performance (Little, Brown, Boston, 1981), ‘A Three-Dimensional Conceptual Model of Corporate Social Performance’,Academy of Management Review (Oct., 1979), pp. 497–506, and ‘Business Ethics and the Management Hierarchy’,National Forum: The Phi Kappa Phi Journal (Summer, 1978), pp. 37–40.     

Globalization: Economic challenges and the political response

Recently, resistance to the—presumed and actual—consequences of globalization in both developed and developing countries has gained momentum. While the arguments raised against globalization often lack economic substance, it will probably only prevail if a broad majority of the population can be convinced that closer worldwide integration does serve their interests. This can hardly be achieved without a convincing strategy for compensating the potential losers of globalization, given that globalization tends to reduce the national states’ leeway for taxation and redistributive measures through social policies.     

Ivan T. Berend. An Economic History of 20th Century Europe: Economic Regimes from Laissez-Faire to Globalization

If economics is the dismal science, it should be no surprisethat economic history—with its many statistics and tables—hasfew opportunities for lyrical flourishes to avoid becoming dismalreading. Ivan Berend's very competent economic history of Europein the twentieth century makes a great effort to overcome thisgeneric failing with lively analysis and interesting asides. While providing a rich assortment of good comparative statisticsand clear graphics, Berend does an excellent job of integratinghis economic story into