Land consolidation – A great need to improve effectiveness. A case study from Poland

Among the different factors which have an influence on the profitability of small and medium-size farms, a very significant and sometimes even crucial role is played by the unfavourable parameters of land fragmentation (LF). However, this adverse limiting factor can be improved in a relatively short time through land consolidation (LC) treatment. The financial support of these kinds of activities is one of the main aspects of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which aims to equalise the conditions for farming production. Since accession to the EU in 2004, Poland is one of the biggest beneficiaries of various financially-supported projects oriented to the development of rural area, where LC work takes a special position.This paper sums up the outcomes of the LC work that was undertaken in Poland over the period 2007–2013. The results of the investigation delivered the information about the effectiveness of LC work at the farm level. Also, the efficiency of the existing funding strategy of LC work was evaluated. Additionally, the findings revealed poor effects of land swapping and re-parcelling activities, which is disturbing bearing in mind the financial scale and the amount of time spent conducting these actions. As a remedy, several solutions for improvement of the inefficient LC proceedings were proposed.     

How Did Finance Capital Infiltrate the World of the Urban Poor? Homeownership and Social Fragmentation in a Spanish Neighborhood

When working‐class localities in developed countries are in question, social fragmentation is often analyzed along ethnic lines. Instead, this article claims that it is more critically fruitful to explore fragmentation in terms of people's relations with the state and different forms of capital. It does this by considering housing in Spain as a key resource that connects state policies both with the forms of reproduction and (dis)organization of the disadvantaged, and with the development of real estate and finance capital. First, it unfolds the historical formation of the Spanish ‘homeownership culture’ and the construction–finance complex. Second, starting from an in‐depth ethnography of a peripheral neighborhood in Barcelona, it emphasizes the embeddedness of recent financialization in the livelihood strategies of poor households. Finally, it shows how the process led to a commodification and erosion of those social relations on which it partially depended, thereby exposing problems for class reproduction and fracture lines among the urban poor.     

The communal roots of entrepreneurial–technological growth – social fragmentation and stagnation: reflection on Atlanta's technology cluster

Why do some entrepreneurial high-technology industrial clusters grow and prosper, while others stagnate? Even after several decades of research, we have yet to find a definitive answer. One of the main debates in the literature revolves around the importance of societal variables, such as the growth of a cohesive community, versus the importance of factor availability, such as the supply of highly educated labour. Employing a critical case study design to analyse the technology industry in metropolitan Atlanta, this article shows that although the availability of certain factors might be necessary, it is not sufficient without the crystallization of a cohesive social structure. More specifically, we argue that unless a local high-technology industry develops rich multiple, locally centred social networks, which embed companies in the region, cluster development will stagnate. This is true even if the region is extremely rich in all the factors identified as growth-inducing in the literature.     

Stakeholders’ perception of defragmentation of new plots in a land consolidation project: Given the surprisingly different Slovak and Czech approaches

There is a fundamental difference in the way of merging the fragmented plots of one owner within a land consolidation (LC) in Slovakia (the Slovak Republic, SK) and the Czech Republic (CZ). All the scattered shares of a single owner in SK are merged into a minimum amount of new plots in the proportion of 1/1; the shares of one owner in CZ are merged only to a group of owners who are on the same ownership title.Through an LC project a Slovak owner automatically acquires sole ownership and the Czech one remains in an unchanged ownership in equal shares. Authors wondered what general public and the owners themselves in particular think of these two ways of merging. A simple online questionnaire for all surveyed groups (representatives of owners, public administration officials, LC designers/experts) for a virtual model territory was created. The results based on the questionnaire (563 responses, 10–25% estimated rate of return, were evaluated at the time of preparing the contribution) show that there is a clear preference (90–98%, estimated margin of error 5–16%) for the exclusive ownership. The (surprising) differences in merging as well as subsequent findings provoked an informed debate about the causes which is still pending.     

Standardization Versus Adaptation in Global Markets: Is Channel Strategy Different?

The argument over standardization versus adaptation of marketing strategy in international markets has raged for several decades. This argument has generally taken place at the aggregate level to include all four strategic areas of the marketing mix (product, price, promotion, and place) taken together. This article disaggregates the standardization-versus-adaptation argument by focusing on just one strategic area of the marketing mix—channel strategy. We argue that three underlying phenomena or forces in global markets (culturally distant distribution behavior, distributive institution rigidity, and international functional fragmentation) inhibit a firm's ability to standardize channel strategy in global markets to a greater degree than is the case for product, price, and promotional strategies.     

Globalization and economic development

A feature of the continuing integration of the world economy is the globalization of production and the consequent rise of trade in parts and components. Products are more internationalized and less identified with any particular country. Non-trivial shares of the value-added of many exports consist of imports and vice versa. Extension of the international division of labour beyond finished products offers developing countries a broader range of choices for industrialization. This paper explores the implications of these developments in the context of a standard trade model. Component specialization in a developing country's import sector is shown to be superior in overall welfare terms to specialization in the integrated product. Output and employment are higher in the sector, but the wage-rental ratio is lower.     

Globalization and Country‐Specific Service Links

Abstract

The Jones–Kierzkowski model of global fragmentation of production draws attention to the efficiency of ‘service links’ connecting ‘production blocks’ in different countries. Country‐specific service links include transport and telecommunications infrastructure and the overall business climate. Mobile factors of production, most prominently foreign direct investment (FDI), can shop around for countries with the most functional and inexpensive service links along with low labor costs. Those countries with favorable business climates and well‐functioning service links are able to attract FDI and other mobile inputs. We provide cross‐sectional evidence that successful exporters of manufactures, notably in East Asia, have relatively favorable service links.     

International production fragmentation,trade in intermediate goods and environment

This paper examines the implications of growing international production fragmentation-induced trade in intermediate goods on environmental quality. Specifically, by making use of a general equilibrium framework, this paper explores the link between trade in intermediate goods and pollution in a setting of endogenous environmental policy. The paper shows that international trade in intermediate goods, through an increase in the number of components available to the international producers, affects the level of pollution and environmental quality. Specifically, developed countries may reduce pollution at the cost of more pollution in developing countries.     

市场分散性对我国企业横向拓展的影响

本文主要研究我国现阶段的市场分散性对企业跨地域横向扩张的影响,通过对已有相关文献进行深入探讨,对市场分散性的定义及其发展趋势等相关内容进行了总结,发现国内市场的一体化程度正在日益提高,市场分散性对我国跨区域经营的企业的影响正在日益缩小,制约企业发展壮大的主要因素不是市场分散性,而是企业的内部管理能力。     

潜孔锤钻进的岩石破碎机理研究

本文论述了潜孔锤钻进的岩石破碎机理以及影响潜孔锤碎岩效果的因素。