On the Re-Emergence of Small Scale Production: The Norwegian Case in International Comparison

Several studies on industrial restructuring point to the phenomenon of a changing size structure in many western economies. This article first rewievs international studies along these lines and then analyses developments in Norway from 1970 to 1990. For manufacturing, a pattern similar to those observed in other countries is found: from the middle of the 1970s there has occurred a slight shift from concentration in bigger establishments to growing employment shares in smaller establishments. Detailed analysis furthermore reveals that the shift towards smaller units has occurred in most sectors of manufacturing. When explaining this shift, however, the conclusion is the opposite of popular views emphasising the dynamism of small firms. The data points very clearly to a general industrial decline in Norway as a main explanation for the change in size structure. Rather than being attributed to the strengths of SMEs, the growing share of SMEs may be interpreted as a result of industrial weakness.     

本币升值条件下中日两国对外直接投资比较研究 ——基于产业选择的视角

近年来人民币升值频繁,与20世纪70年代日元升值情况有相似之处。基于中日两国在本币升值背景下的对外直接投资状况,本文从对外直接投资规模及嬗变、区域分布特点与产业选择行为3方面比较分析了中日对外直接投资的异同,最后针对日本产业选择的经验与教训,提出了中国对外直接投资要统筹兼顾服务业与制造业、促进投资区域和产业多元化以及提升投资者应对海外投资风险能力的对策建议。     

"You know we are not an Employment Agency": Manpower, Government, and the Development of the Temporary Help Industry in Britain

This article looks at the early development of the temporaryhelp industry in Britain. It focuses on the activities of oneof the largest suppliers of temporary workers, Manpower, inthe late 1960s and early 1970s. Drawing on material from TheUK National Archives, the article examines Manpower's effortsto gain access as a genuine employer to the state employmentexchange network to advertise their temporary vacancies. Thearticle reveals the incremental changes in attitude within thegovernment towards Manpower's activities and argues that thisgave the company a competitive advantage over other employmentagencies, facilitating their development of relations with thegovernment and the trade unions in Britain over the 1970s and1980s. The main conclusion of the article is that explicit attentionneeds to be paid to the actions and strategies of agencies themselvesin order to develop an adequate understanding of the growthand development of the temporary help industry.     

Trends in the Leisure Industry since the Second World War

This article seeks to provide an overview of the salient trends in the post-war British leisure industry. It suggests that the industry expanded at an unprecedented rate with the emergence of a range of new products, fed on the demand side by rising real incomes and reduced annual working time. On the supply side both employment and capital investment increased, but by far the most important trend has been the growth of industrial concentration.     

UK Building Societies: ‘Deregulation’ change myths

An academic and official orthodoxy has it that late 1970s and 1980s UK Building Societies ‘deregulation’ (part of wider financial services/banking ‘deregulation’) foreshadowed great change in the nature of the industry and its markets and, so, in the task for management (change from stewardship to strategic management requiring greatly enhanced capability and from regulation protected marketplace, and permitted industry cartel, to open aggressive competition). In this article the orthodoxy is challenged and is exposed as being largely in the nature of myth through statements of building society finance directors in semi-structured interviews and financial data concerning the profitability nexus and markets.     

Facing the inevitable? The public telecom monopoly’s way of coping with deregulation

The telecommunications industry has gone through a total restructure since the late 1970s, as state-owned national monopolies have given way to listed enterprises and competitive international markets. Scholars have explained wide-ranging privatisation and deregulation at a general level, but what happened to the former state-owned monopolies and how they adapted to the emerging business-oriented environment, has had with less scrutiny. It has been assumed that external factors caused these institutions to adapt a business approach, but did these organisations themselves have any significant power of decision in these processes? This article explains how one of these former state organisations, the Finnish Post and Telecommunications Department (PTL) was turned into the business enterprise ‘Sonera’. The analysis focuses on the management’s point of view. As the national telecommunications operator encountered international developments as a compelling external force, which turned it from a local office-holder into a recipient of international influences, PTL’s management came to the conclusion that the organisation, in order to survive, had no other choice but to change. It virtually took a strategic decision to transform the department to meet new expectations. However, the state-owner’s support was crucial. The change, although dependent on external factors, was to a large extent an endogenous, time-consuming but accelerating process. Failure might have resulted in the PTL’s defeat. Eventually the change became a self-fulfilling, ‘inevitable’ process which for one’s part strengthened the international trend.     

粤港澳大湾区新一代信息技术产业和知识产权服务业融合发展研究

先进制造业和现代服务业融合是顺应新一轮科技革命和产业变革、增强制造业核心竞争力,更是推进粤港澳大湾区经济转型升级的关键点和构建现代产业体系的主攻方向。本文在厘清两业融合发展基础概念的基础上,以现代服务业的重要组成知识产权服务业为切入点,尝试构建分析研判新一代信息技术产业和知识产权服务业发展融合度的指标体系。在此基础上,本文聚焦新一代信息技术产业开展了实证研究,结果显示当前湾区内新一代信息技术产业与知识产权服务业存在着需求定位不清晰、服务不规范等问题,两业融合状况仍有较大提升空间。据此,本文围绕合作路径、业务关联、业态模式、政策环境等维度提出了若干对策建议,以期为保障现代服务业推动粤港澳大湾区先进制造业高质量发展提供了有益参考。     

韩国船配业发展分析

韩国从上世纪70年代初期开始发展造船业。造船业起步后,船舶配套设备完全依赖从国外进口,从船板、船机到各种配套部件,几乎是100％的进口货。一艘船建造完工交付后,韩国造船企业算算细账后发现,自己仅挣下了几个劳动力的血汗钱。这种切肤之痛使韩国造船人深深体会到要发展本国的造船工业,就必须同时下大力气发展船舶配套业,要尽快实现国产化,     

The Uses of Business History

In the 1960s small computers emerged in the United States, based on the new semiconductor technology. Originally developed for use in industrial automation, they soon began to compete with the established mainframe computers. A number of British firms entered the new market, including diversified electronic goods manufacturers, enterpreneurial start-ups, and office machinery suppliers. The Wilson government saw small computers as a central element of industrial modernisation, and thus a part of its solution to Britian's economic decline. The Ministry of Technology was given twin objectives: to support industrial modernisation and to promote the British small computer manufacturers. However, US-built systems proved more competitive, and by the mid-1970s they had come to dominate the industry, with the few remaining British firms relegated to niche markets. The paper concludes that government involvement in the industry was well-guided, but ineffectual, and that organisational cultures were to a large extent responsible for the British companies' decline.     

Trademarks,product differentiation and competitiveness in the Catalan knitwear districts during the twentieth century

Using the number of trademarks registered as an indicator, this article explores the functioning of the economies of product differentiation that characterise industrial districts. In order to assess the role of districts in the creation of trademarks, the analysis focuses on knitwear production, a highly competitive industry and a pioneer in brand creation in Spain, and examines the development of the country's two main knitwear districts during the twentieth century. The article presents empirical evidence from trademark and business records to show that more trademarks were created in these two districts than in other areas. The imitation and rivalry characteristic of industrial districts favoured the proliferation of trademarks and encouraged firms to diversify their products through the creation of new brands. It also suggests that the success of the brands was uneven and depended on the industrial structure in each district and the kind of product specialisation. In conclusion, not only were the industrial districts an important factor in brand creation, but brand consolidation was decisive in raising levels of competitiveness in knitwear districts in Spain.     

Italian fashion business: Achievements and challenges (1970s–2000s)

The article aims to provide a critical insight into the history of the Italian fashion business from the 1970s onwards by exploring a mix of sources including information provided by the industrial partners of fashion designers, articles published in the economic and financial press, and evidence collected from the main financial and economic databases. The analysis shows that although Italian ready-to-wear was extremely effective at meeting the new trends emerging in consumption patterns, Italian fashion companies have remained niche businesses compared to their French counterparts. The conclusions stress the contribution which business history can provide in explaining such a gap as well as the strategies pursued by fashion corporations.     

The Role of Employer Unions in Hegemonic Struggle,Interest Representation and Promotion of Managerial Perspectives in Turkey

This article explores power and hegemony in the context of industrial relations in Turkey. Analysis of interest, articulation and representation is built around three strands: a Gramscian reading of hegemony, periodization through the political economy of industrial relations and the communicative action staged by the prominent employer union. Starting with the 1970s, continuities and shifts in discourse are identified. The rise and fall of different voices (i.e. insiders and outsiders) in texts point towards a search for a full blown hegemony in the 1990s with a new set of challenges confronted and resolved through new legislation passed in 2003.     

New technologies and industrialization prospects of developing countries

Industrial technologies are both an outcome of the industrialization process and one of its main driving forces. The introduction of new technologies can be seen as one of several important factors which directly and indirectly change the context and modes of international industrial production, thus being among the key determinants of the international division of labour. Given the accelerating pace of technological development in industry, there is an urgent need not only to identify incipient technological breakthroughs but above all, at an early stage, to analyze their short-and long-term implications for the worldwide industrialization process and to reassess the validity of crucial assumptions underlying developing countries’ current industrial strategies. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the UNIDO Secretariat.     

French textile specialisation in long run perspective (1836–1938): trade policy as industrial policy

Abstract

This article concerns textile industry dynamics. Using a new database covering French international trade between 1836 and 1938, it focuses on France’s specialisation in various textiles. It demonstrates, for the first time, the major influence of trade policy on the French textile trade during the first globalisation. Tariffs appear to be key factors in specialisation, measured by the Lafay Index and intra-industry trade in textiles. By analysing changes in tariffs between textile raw materials and finished textiles and decorrelation between tariffs, we show that an effective trade protection approach was applied by successive French governments in order to sustain the industrial competitiveness of textile firms. Such trade policy slowed down textile de-specialisation in silk and wool fabrics until World War One.     

Downfall delayed: Danish shipbuilding and industrial dislocation

This article analyses the decline of the Danish shipbuilding industry. European shipyards dominated global shipbuilding markets in the first half of the twentieth century, but began to be challenged by the Japanese from the 1950s and by the South Koreans from the late 1970s. More recently, China has taken over large slices of the global shipbuilding market and currently is the world's largest shipbuilding nation. As a result of this new competition, European shipyards closed en masse and Europe experienced a process of maritime deindustrialisation in the 1970s and 1980s. Danish shipyards were not immune to these challenges, although maritime deindustrialisation in this country was almost two decades later than in many other European countries. This article examines how Denmark was able to escape this general maritime deindustrialisation for so long and offers three explanations: institutional, entrepreneurial and political.     

浅析外贸政策对我国物流产业发展格局的影响

本文在对我国"出口创汇"经济政策对产业布局影响的分析和物流行业东、西部发展不平衡现状分析的基础上,重点讨论了新宏观经济政策的变化以及在新宏观经济政策下我国物流行业发展的新趋势。     

引进香港现代服务业提升广州城市竞争力

在信息技术与经济全球化进程的推动下,全球产业结构发生了巨大变化,其变化的重要特征就是服务贸易得到快速发展并成为国际贸易的重要组成部分。一座城市的国际竞争力和国际化水平,主要取决于经济结构中的服务业,尤其是现代服务业的比重。因此,要将广州建设成为具有国际竞争力的中心城市,就必须进一步解放思想,确立以现代服务业为主体的结构方向,率先构建以现代服务业为主导的现代产业体系,加大开放力度,引进香港先进的现代服务业,加快广州现代服务业的国际化步伐,全面提升广州中心城市的集聚力、辐射力和竞争力。     

Mad women: gendered divisions in the Swedish advertising industry, 1930–2012

This article constitutes a first attempt to systematically map the presence of women in the greatly changing Swedish advertising industry since 1930. The overarching aim of the study is to analyse how the gendered divisions of labour and business changed in relation to both business structure and the overall labour market in Sweden. While we conclude that women constituted around 40–50% of the workforce over time, we see an increase in the shares of women in higher positions and in women who were self-employed and managers. This upturn, however, stabilised during the 1990s. We argue that the changes in gendered divisions of labour and business coincided with a fast-changing business structure. First, the old cartel broke down in the mid-1960s. Then, the number of firms increased quickly during the 1970s and 1980s, and the market share for the largest firms declined. This, in turn, meant new business opportunities for women at the same time as their overall labour market participation increased. The article stresses the importance of both acknowledging women’s presence in the industry development as well as the structures constituting gender divisions.     

全球产业布局调整背景下中国制造业外迁问题研究

本文通过构建中美多区域投入产出模型,从制造业的三个技术类别、两个发展阶段以及三个影响渠道定量测算了制造业外迁对中国GDP和产业结构的影响。研究发现:(1)中国对美出口以高技术产品为主,高技术制造业受美制约较大,需要重点关注;(2)制造业外迁通过直接效应、关联效应和溢出效应三个渠道产生影响,短期内直接效应是主要影响渠道,而长期内溢出效应是造成部门间差异的主要因素;(3)短期内低技术制造业外迁对国内GDP的影响程度最大,长期内中高技术制造业的影响将超过低技术制造业,而且中高技术制造业外迁更加不利于国内产业结构升级。为减轻产业外迁的冲击,本文建议应对不同技术类别的制造业采取差异化政策,特别要注重强化中高技术制造业在产业链上的主导性与不可替代性。     

‘Size revolution’: the industrial foundations of the Italian clothing business

From the beginning of the 1950s, how to size clothing became an issue debated within national and international organisations which were committed to the standardisation of the technical specifications of industrial products, clothing included. At the time the Gruppo Finanziario Tessile (GFT), which would later act as the industrial springboard for the Italian fashion, introduced a new system of sizes in Italy. Drawing on the company's extensive historical records, the article deals with the technical, organisational, and cultural nature of the process of standardisation of the sizing of clothing. The research provides new evidence about the emergence of a new competitor within a mature industry.