The basic ideas and prospects

The locomotive theory is likely to come up again for discussion at the next summit of the major industrial nations in Bonn in July. What are the basic ideas behind this theory? And what are its chances of success if adopted as an economic policy?     

Multinationals and structural changes

The effects of the activities of multinational corporations on the economy of the Federal Republic of Germany have hardly ever been examined empirically. The role of the multinational corporations (MNCs) in the process of structural change had not been studied either until an enquiry was recently undertaken for the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs¹. The following article is based on the expert report which deals with this and other aspects for the first time and is to be published shortly.     

Strategic supply chain management: Improving performance through a culture of competitiveness and knowledge development

For many firms, using their supply chains as competitive weapons has become a central element of the strategic management process in recent years. Drawing on the resource‐based view and theory from the organizational learning and information‐processing literatures, this study uses a sample of 201 firms to examine the influence of a culture of competitiveness and knowledge development on supply chain performance in varied market turbulence conditions. We found that synergies exist between a culture of competitiveness and knowledge development: their interaction has a positive association with performance. In addition, based on behavioral and contingency theories, we found that market turbulence moderates these relationships, having a positive influence on the knowledge development–performance link and a negative influence on the culture of competitiveness–performance link. Managers who are confident about the level of market turbulence they will face can use this sense to decide whether to emphasize developing either a culture of competitiveness or knowledge development in their supply chains. For those firms whose managers are unlikely to be able to predict the degree of turbulence they will face over time, a focus on both a culture of competitiveness and knowledge development is critical to ensuring success. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Social norms and the indirect evolution of conditional cooperation

We develop a model of social norms and cooperation in large societies. Within this framework we use an indirect evolutionary approach to study the endogenous formation of preferences and the co-evolution of norm compliance. The multiplicity of equilibria, which emerges in the presence of social norms, is linked to the evolutionary analysis: individuals face situations where many others cooperate as well as situations where a majority free-rides. The evolutionary adaptation to such heterogenous environments favors conditional cooperators, who condition their pro-social behavior on the others’ cooperation. As conditional cooperators react flexibly to their social environment, they dominate free-riders as well as unconditional cooperators.     

The coming era of the financial executive: A broadened,less specialized role

Because corporate financing is becoming more complex, the role of financial executives is increasing in both importance and complexity. In addition to his traditional function of procuring funds from external sources, the new tasks of the financial executive will include generating funds from internal sources. His job will have to be broadened to include actively managing all of the corporations's major balance sheet items, and the author presents seven key questions a financial executive must consider in facing these new tasks. Thus, his role will be less specialized; it will require a knowledge of and experience with general management. The financial executive will increasingly become directly involved in the strategic issues handled by top management.     

Frank Esser

Ohne Zusammenfassung

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Frank Esser

     

Structural changes in world trade since the oil crisis

The sudden shock of the fivefold increase of the price of oil in the autumn of 1973 has been reflected since in the world trade by structural changes in its composition by categories of goods and its regional distribution. How has the international trade coped with this shock, and which more recent tendencies can be observed in the structure of world trade, not least as a result of cyclical impulses?     

Vietnam's Rice Policy: Recent Reforms and Future Opportunities

The present paper examines the economic consequences of the most recent reform of Vietnam's rice policy, the removal of the rice-export quota. The reform is analyzed in light of domestic policy barriers, such as restrictions on cross-sectoral land mobility, as well as international policy barriers, such as distortions introduced by preferential trade agreements. The analysis expands and amends a global computable general equilibrium model to represent these features. The analysis shows that the export quota has been a very restrictive policy tool that has kept Vietnamese rice production and exports well below potential. Both the domestic and international policy constraints contribute to this situation.