New Conglomerates and the Ecosystem Advantage

It is the purpose of this paper to explore the emergence of a new form of web-based company and how the new organisational form is able to access multiple-markets and industries by exploiting the benefits of a platform ecosystem business model. Internet-based companies such as Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Apple were referred to as the ＂Gang of Four＂ in May, 2011, by Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman of Google. These 21st century companies are leading an internet-based consumer revolution which is having a disruptive impact on a broad range of industries and markets. Using their platform-based ecosystems, the internet-based corporations are able to leverage these core competencies and enter industries that appear unrelated to their core businesses. This has given rise to a new form of conglomerate business model that contrasts with the Western industrial conglomerates of the 1960s and early 1970s. Most of these corporations were broken-up in the early 1980s and the remaining core businesses resorted to focused strategies. The paper also analyses why the new internet-based firms do not follow the positioning school of strategy and seek monopolistic rents--profits arising from market power--by locating in attractive industries. Instead, these firms leverage core competencies and achieve Ricardian economic rents--profits arising from superior resources--through strategies of stretch and leverage. By adopting a core competency tree configuration, a core competency platform is leveraged which allows the internet-based firms to enter multiple markets using asset-light business models. This new form of competitive advantage is based on having a superior ecosystem that uses data as the key resource instead of capital; capital being the main resource underpinns the success of the traditional Western conglomerates of the 1960s and early 1970s.     

Financial Performance of SMEs Evidence on the Influence of Environmental Uncertainty： A Conceptual Framework

The purpose of this study is to understand the association between environmental uncertainty and financial performance of small and medium enterprises （SMEs）. Current study describes the influence of environmental uncertainty on the financial performance of SMEs in lraq. The objective of this study was to assess the influence of environmental uncertainty on financial performance of SMEs. SMEs play an important economic role in many countries. In Iraq for example, the available data from the Central Organization for Statistics （COS） indicate that private sector in Iraq consists primarily of SMEs where those companies represent 99% of all companies in lraq and this sector contributed over 50% of new jobs created. Despite their significance, facing competitive business environment, SMEs are required to develop innovation strategy in order to sustain competitive advantage. SMEs also are faced with the threat of failure with past statistics indicating that three out five fail within the first few months. This study sought to understand how SMEs manage the challenges they face. These challenges seem to change （evolve） according to different environmental uncertainty conditions. In this study, authors will develop an empirical model that can be applied in other sectors to improve financial performance of SMEs in lraq.     

The Strategic Partnership Cutting the Costs or not

There are numerous articles which have been written about strategic partnership and how they can be beneficial for both buyer and supplier. The aim of this article is to find out the ways of how the strategic partnership cuts the costs by using semi-structured interviews. Semi-structured interviews were found to be the most appropriate method of data collection because they enabled the researcher to gather valid and reliable data. Ten companies have been interviewed in different industries in Saudi Arabia （four in computer industries, three in bank industries, and three in food industries）. The article gives a valuable resource and rich information for those interested to know more about the Saudi market or those wishing to invest in it. All interviews were conducted with purchasing managers by using semi-structured interviews. The study found that the strategic partnership does cut the costs. Cutting the costs comes from sharing skills and information, reducing the investment risk, and decreasing the operation costs.     

Research on CRM Strategy Implementation of Banking in China

With China entry into WTO and opening of the financial markets, banking industry will be sure to be faced with drastic competition from foreign banks that have apparent competitive advantages Over native banks in such aspects as capital, technology, operation, management and innovation. Especially, they have abundant experience in CRM. Up till now, native banks are in their first step on implementing CRM. To establish competitive advantage, native banks must change their operation idea and reinforce the construction of CRM. This paper analyzes CRM implementation characteristics of banking in China, put forward a new CRM strategy system of banking in China, and then points out some problems deserve attention in bank＇s CRM implementation     

On the Demand for Earnings Quality: Implications for Fundamental Analysis in China

I. IntroductionIn 2003, China launched a $15.7 billion investment fund to shore up a weak pension systemand up to 40 percent of the investment fund will be put into Chinas stock markets. Chinesefund-management companies, selected to invest a portion of the pension funds in stocksand bonds, now have the task of finding quality companies. An August 2003 Wall StreetJournal article indicated that the fund managers are patiently planning for the long-termwith expectations that Chinas market co…     

Harmonization of Accounting Standards Facing with Global Economy

Over the past two decades, the business environment has become increasingly competitive. Prior to the 1980s, lots of companies faced a protected competitive environment. But during the 1980s, this environment has been changed. Because of globalization, companies began to encounter competition from overseas competitors who could provide high-quality products at low prices. So companies have to compete not only against domestic competitors but also against Other good companies in the world in order to success. Facing with these new economics, we need to harmonize international accounting standards. In this paper, the author focuses on the importance of harmonization and international accounting standards, and points out current debates on international accounting standards. From it we can examine whether we need international accounting standards （IASs） and how to harmonize it.     

External information acquisition for decision making in small businesses

Markets are broadening and global trends have created a new competitive landscape for companies, moving along the information era. The proper acquisition and information management of external information may lead companies to acquire better knowledge, productivity, and, in general, better performance. This organizational behavior of information acquisition, in SMEs, has its own characteristics that must be analyzed to foster the designing and development of information technologies and organizational strategies.     

Foreign Manufacturing Investment in China： The Role of Industrial Agglomeration and Industrial Linkages

This paper investigates the forces that determine the industrial distribution of foreign manufacturing investment. It highlights the importance of industrial agglomeration and industrial linkage in attracting foreign investment to manufacturing industries. Using panel data for two-digit manufacturing industries in Beijing during the period of 1999-2004, this study finds that geographically agglomerated industries with strong intra-industrial linkages are indeed attractive to foreign investment. Previous foreign investment has led to the current industrial concentration or foreign investment. Investors also favor capital-intensive and technology-intensive industries, and they tend to be attracted to the most profitable and exporting industries, but avoid industries with high real labor costs and high entry barriers. Competitive local industries that possess comparative advantages are critical for attracting foreign investment. The existence of industrial clusters certainly enhances a city＇s attractiveness to foreign investment.     

Understanding Business Relationship Management in China： A Power and Leverage Perspective

This paper examines whether a power and leverage perspective, successfully applied to analyse extended buyer-supplier relationships in a western context, can be used to analyse business relationships in China. A single embedded case study is presented in this paper and a power and leverage approach is used to analyse business relationships. The power and leverage perspective is applicable for investigating buyer-supplier relationships in a Chinese cultural context. However, in this context using power as coercion is an extremely counterproductive relationship management strategy, which can draw both buyers and suppliers in to a ＂no-win＂ or negative sum situation. The findings are based upon a single case, which makes drawing generalisable conclusions more difficult. In addition, although every effort was made to limit the subjectivity of the power and relationship analysis, researcher interpretation of the data was required. In the Chinese business context, it may not be advisable to manage any relationships in an arms-length manner. Chinese business networks are centred on less explicit or formal power relationships and therefore companies that have learnt the rules of the game of exchange in the west need to modify their approach in China. This work extends the understanding of buyer-supplier relationships and provides additional empirical evidence validating a power and leverage perspective. In addition, the paper provides the first assessment of whether this approach can be used in a non-western context without significant modification.     

Information and communication technologies as an incentive for improving relationships in Business to Business markets

The managerial theory as well as the practice of the industries consider the relationships of collaboration between enterprises, the most important resources for business strategy, contributing in the creation of value and economic capital, sustainability of the competitive advantage and also in the definition of innovative ways of enterprise development.
The management of these capacities could improve from the sustaining information and communication technologies （ICT）. The impact that ICT may have in the relations between clients and suppliers, is not entirely elaborated. The use of ICT, based also in the intense connectivity through Internet remains limited when speaking of some activities that generate value. The effects of interconnecting Internet technologies are even now partially unexplored.
This paper will analyze how ICT affect the collaboration relationships between clients and suppliers and related processes of creating value, focusing on the value drivers in Business to Business （B2B） markets, value process in the supply chain and client-supplier relationships and B2B E-marketplaces in the processes of creating and delivering value in the supply chain. Examples of European companies as well as the stage of Albanian companies in relation with these concepts illustrate the ideas throughout the paper.     

Target costing as a strategic cost management tool for success of balanced scorecard system

The precondition of gaining and sustaining competitive advantage for companies that operate today＇s competitive markets is the effective cost management. Since price is determined by the market, the ways of increasing profits are productivity and cost reduction. Balanced scorecard system is accepted by academicians and practitioners as an effective strategic management tool for applying the strategy successfully. In the financial perspective of the balanced scorecard system, cost reduction is a strategic objective. It is necessary that company＇s cost reduction strategy should not only be a reaction to the market, but also a continual strategy. The approach which aims to the reduction of costs that reveal along product life cycle and preset this aim at the design stage is target costing （TC）. TC can be used as an effective tool in BSC＇s financial perspective for the objective of cost reduction. In this study, the authors aim to display how to integrate the TC to BSC.     

Study on the applications of the Sarbanes Oxley Act in multinational corporations

The United States Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002 （Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002）. The Act included many provisions that reflect on corporate governance for publicly traded corporations. The authors thought that the provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act generally should apply to all US and non-US companies that had reporting obligations under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended or that had filed registration statements under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended which they had not withdrawn. In Section two of the paper, from different perspectives, the author discussed why Many Multinational Companies （MNCs） should abide by the provisions pertaining to publicly trade corporation in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. At last, the authors examined which provisions that related to publicly traded corporations should be applied in MNCs and why others should not be applied.     

Regional Incentives to Increase the Competitiveness of a Renewable Energy Business Cluster in a Small Island Like Corsica （France）

Renewable energy （RE） has grown to become part of mainstream economics, industry, and energy. The process started in the wake of oil shortages amid the 1970s energy crisis, when the major industrial countries of the world sought out an array of energy security strategies. Diversifying energy import-export trade, restructuring GDP, and increasing and backing home-sourced offers are all basic essential measures that different countries have adopted to different degrees in an effort to reduce dependency on imported oil. The last of these measures counts RE as a vector of local generation. The past decade has seen the RE sector really take off, driven by now well-structured industries starting to mobilize now-mature technologies. This developmental shift towards RE has been framed by different policy measures that nevertheless share the same core rationale climate change. Among the pro-renewables policies adopted by France, the deployment of competitive clusters has proved an effective tool for leveraging the growth of renewables. Business clusters are geographically-concentrated economic structures assuring the often tenuous link between efficient national industrial policy .efforts and regional planning and branding issues. From this perspective, the logic of synergy by connecting global to local issues remains to be created around a new paradigm： regional attractiveness/place branding. In today＇s fast-globalizing world, the much-hyped concept of place branding has become critical for regions in fierce global competition to capture and secure geographically-mobile investment. In this context, promoting and attracting inward investment is a multidimensional challenge where business clusters have a pivotal role to play. Corsica, a small island economy, represents a case-in-point target of analysis through its long-standing plan for the regional and sustainable development of Corsica （French decentralization policy on Corsica under the law dated 22 January 2002） and the CAPENERGIES business cluster a key l     

Creativity and Innovation as Strategic Resources in International Business Markets

This study focuses on Medium-Sized Multinationals （MSMs） that belong to the sectors of mechanics and electronics, and that operate in dynamic international business markets. This work aims to investigate how international marketing strategies are based and maybe in some cases actually heavily dependent on the capacity to form and enhance skills in design, engineering, and production activities, and on the propensity to invest more resources in research and development （R＆D） activities as well as in activities that are more strictly speaking production based （manufacturing）. Undoubtedly, in a global and dynamic business, creative knowledge is one of the key resources that firms must possess in order to take up international strategies successfully. Creativity and innovation are strategic resources for all firms, including those of a medium size and even more for those that belong to the so-called ＂traditional sectors＂. This study also has the objective of examining the influence of the structure and composition of a technological MSMs international alliance portfolio in order to understand which forms of international collaboration are more opportunities for firms that aspire to increasing their know-how and taking up new and more sophisticated forms of exploratory innovation. The present work highlights the results of an empirical research that were carried out during the years 2000-2009. The research involved more than 80 firms of the mechanical and electronics department in the Marche region in Italy.     

The Empirical Analysis on B to B Product Strategy in China

According to the business survey, we found that there are some problems in the practice of the Chinese B to B product strategy. The business should take the following countermeasures： Setting up a marketing concept of customer oriented; Upgrade the integration power of product strategy; Do well the job of market segmentation and product positioning; Improve the rate of successful new product development through reinforcing marketing research, innovating the process of new product development and increasing consumers＇ participation.     

Strategic Drift and Strategic Crisis Management of Organization

The research reports how the choice of the organization behavior--strategic drift can lead to strategic crisis as a form of manifestation of a deepening organizational crisis. The research questions whose solution is sought are connected with the relation of strategic drift--strategic crisis--strategic crisis management, in terms of whether the errors in the process of strategic management lead to organizational crises. The results of the historical analysis of the theoretical research and practice in this field show the interdependence among these processes and the reasons for strategic crisis in support of the concept of strategic crisis management and its implementation in business. The study outlines the evolution of the theory of strategic drift, as well as opinions of various scientists on the types of crises, which are perceived as a uniform classification and universal interpretation of the term ＂strategic crisis＂. The organization＇s ＂strategic drift＂ leads to serious organizational crisis which first form that strategic crisis. Practice shows that the management of market leaders often leads to complacency, choosing strategy stability. Soon, as a result of aggressive strategies or implemented innovations of their competitors, they lose their competitive position.     

Clusters Pulled by FDI in China and the Development of the SMEs： Theory and Typical Cases Study

In China, clusters are divided into two categories according to their initial power. One category is the spontaneous and endogenous industrial cluster represented by clusters of a range of small and medium-sized private enterprises such as those in Zhejiang. The other represents those attracted by the foreign direct investment （FDI） such as those in Guangdong and Jiangsu. This paper focuses on the second type. It is an attempt to analyze the role of FDI in the development of industry clusters. It also tries to explain how existing clusters attract new FDI. The factors that constrain the promotion and development of SME clusters are also examined in this research. The countermeasures of promoting the healthy development of clusters and SMEs further are put forward.     

International Trade,Entrepreneurship, and Monopolistic Competition： German Hidden Champions and Global Markets

The Chicago School of Monetarism dominates the debate on the competition models. In the last decades, the pendulum has swung back towards the German historical school of economics by List, Schnmpeter, Gutenberg, and Simon. The new trade theory by Paul Krugman is the standard in analysis of economies of scale and product differentiation in intra-industry trade. Chamberlin＇s product differentiation concept and monopolistic competition theory are included in Krugman＇s theory. Diversity matters in B2B-business in global markets. About 100,000 multinational corporations （MNCs） dominate the international trade of commodities worldwide but they need partners as suppliers of complementary products, services, and technologies, German hidden champions （HCs） that consist of over 1,300 mid-sized firms （Mittelstand） have revolutionizes the managerial economics. In terms of Peter Drucker, striving for leadership is the greatest gamble. Their success rate has been about 90% as Hermann Simon has reported. Their success recipe is the humble choice of markets segments, mainly B2B-industries, to make good business in any kind of goods and articles, not to follow trends or hit lists. The dilemma in EU-27-countries is that only Germany has succeeded to develop its own management doctrine initiated by Friedrich List and modified by Joseph Schumpeter. List argued that economic policy had to be adapted to the needs of specific nations to create the national system of innovation. Germany is the most diversified country worldwide. German small and medium-sized firms （Mittelstand） are globally oriented. Germany＇s family business is the unbelievable success story. Alfred Chandler has been a highly influential business writer. Because of Chandler＇s view, the personal capitalism was generally thought to be the old-fashioned model in comparison to the stock market capitalism. The Germany case is the strong evidence on the fact that Chandler＇s famous conclusion may be wrong. The family-ownership is perhaps the most sus     

Labor Reform in Mexico,Analysis of Principal Changes and Method of Recruitment

Actually, the country＇s development aims to achieve higher levels of productivity, so it had to adapt to international standards. This has served to ease the hiring of both operational and managerial controls, giving emphasis on training and allowing the pairing boss-worker to take the productivity like benchmark. The labor reform allows companies to make changes with their workers; such changes must be reflected in lower costs for businesses, by labor input and increased competitiveness, however, two years ago this guideline was implanted and society asks if the results are congruent, because Mexican society is undergoing economics problems issue as well as a deficit in generating jobs. Therefore, analyzing whether modifications made to the federal labor law （FLL） are designed to optimize safety of workers and enterprises in which they work is the subject of this research. The corresponding analysis was performed using the deductive method.     

China＇s Sovereign Wealth Fund： Weakness and Challenges

The establishment of sovereign wealth funds in large developing countries has generated hot debate among participants in the international financial market. When accumulated foreign exchange reserves surpass a sufficient and an appropriate level, the costs, risks and impacts of holding reserves on the macroeconomy of a country need to be considered. The Chinese Government established China Investment Corporation （ CIC） in 2007 to diversify its investment of foreign reserves and to raise investment income. However, because of certain conflicts of interest and institution-design caveats, CIC possesses some internal weakness, including a vague orientation, mixed investment strategies and an inefficient bureaucratic style. Although the subprime crisis has softened certain regulations and lessened rejection by the USA of ClC potential investments, the increased volatility and uncertainty of the market means that CIC is facing some new challenges in terms of its investment decisions. Moreover, CIC is competing with other Chinese investment institutions for injections of funds from the Chinese Government.