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.     

The decline of the industrial district of Como: recession,relocation or reconversion?

Industrial districts are experiencing intensifications in those economic conditions that have historically favoured them. Some of them have entered a process of decline, which might seem the cause or the effect of recession, relocation or reconversions into different models. The present paper aims at contributing to the debate on the evolutionary patterns of industrial districts, offering an explorative look at the phenomenon of industrial districts’ decline. This topic has been widely overlooked in literature and demands further empirical evidence and conceptual insights. To this purpose, the paper builds on the longitudinal case study of the industrial district of Como, illustrating and analysing its decline process from 1980 to 2003. The focus of the study is on the determinants of an industrial district's decline and the consequences on the structures of the district itself. The findings are then abstracted to a model for the understanding and explanation of the decline of industrial districts. The conclusion is that scholars, practitioners and policy-makers might benefit from enhancing their knowledge of industrial districts’ decline and also from interpreting industrial districts’ evolution in a wider sense. The paper concludes with contributions and suggestions for further research.     

我国城镇居民消费行为变异的实证研究

以消费倾向的大幅下降为标志,中国城镇居民的消费行为在近十几年来的转轨过程中发生了较大的变异。基于对中国经济转轨特殊现实的分析,得出了解释中国城镇居民消费行为变异支出的不确定性假说。抽样调查结果和实证检验结果也证明了这一假说。     

Send More Tourists! Stakeholder Perceptions of a Tourism Industry in Late Stage Decline: the Case of the Isle of Man

Qualitative interviews, conducted in the Isle of Man, investigate local perceptions of a tourism industry in late stage decline. Social impacts of decline, including facilities loss, cultural changes and a heightening of perceived peripherality, which together undermine local identity, are pronounced despite successful economic diversification. Tourists are welcomed as they help to affirm the pride residents have in their island, create a more active atmosphere, provide social interaction opportunities and combat negative stereotyping. Overall, findings emphasise the diverse, unique and persistent benefits of tourism in the Isle of Man, despite decline. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Shrinking cities: urban challenges of globalization

Urban shrinkage is not a new phenomenon. It has been documented in a large literature analyzing the social and economic issues that have led to population flight, resulting, in the worse cases, in the eventual abandonment of blocks of housing and neighbourhoods. Analysis of urban shrinkage should take into account the new realization that this phenomenon is now global and multidimensional — but also little understood in all its manifestations. Thus, as the world's population increasingly becomes urban, orthodox views of urban decline need redefinition. The symposium includes articles from 10 urban analysts working on 30 cities around the globe. These analysts belong to the Shrinking Cities International Research Network (SCIRN), whose collaborative work aims to understand different types of city shrinkage and the role that different approaches, policies and strategies have played in the regeneration of these cities. In this way the symposium will inform both a rich diversity of analytical perspectives and country-based studies of the challenges faced by shrinking cities. It will also disseminate SCIRN's research results from the last 3 years.     

北京市企业退休人员基本养老金替代率问题调研报告

基本养老金替代率是养老保障制度的重要内容，是国际劳工组织评价世界各国社会保障状况的重要指标之一。北京市基本养老金替代率低于全国水平，并呈现下降的趋势，研究设定目标替代率有重要现实意义。为保证目标替代率的实现，政府应从多方面完善养老保险的法规和政策。     

A brand is forever! A framework for revitalizing declining and dead brands

Over the years, numerous brands—such as Oldsmobile, Pan Am, and Woolworth—have met untimely deaths. Many more have steadily declined into oblivion, while others have been revived. When a brand dies, significant investments that were made to build the brand are also lost. Unfortunately, even the strongest brands with high net worth are not immune from brand decline and subsequent death. In today's market, where new product introductions are both expensive and risky, it may be worthwhile to evaluate brands that are declining and invest in revitalizing them. However, there is a dearth of studies that focus on declining brands. In this article, we use findings from academic literature, detailed case studies, and interviews with marketing executives to provide guidelines in dealing with declining brands. We analyze the conditions that lead to brand decline and brand death, highlight signs that may suggest an impending decline, offer insights into assessing the viability of reviving a brand, and suggest various approaches that can be used to strengthen the brand and give it a second life.     

生育率下降背景下高等教育扩张与大学生就业困难——从“98亚洲金融危机”到2008“次贷金融危机”

运用人口社会学视角对两次金融危机背景下的大学生就业问题进行探讨,尝试从宏观就业市场的人口队列效应、教育规模的"非常规"扩张到后危机时代的产业结构调整维度论证金融危机本身这一"突发性"的外部因素对大学生就业的影响程度。只有深化改革、完善市场调节机制,大学生就业难的深层次矛盾才可能因为这次金融危机获得纾解的时间与机会。教育及其他一系列公共事业投入与发展规划需将宏观人口发展战略纳入其中。     

Turnaround: Retrenchment and recovery

Empirical research was conducted to investigate retrenchment as an integral component of the overall turnaround process. An industry study provided an anchored operational definition of a turnaround situation, indications of its internal and external causes, and an application of an absolute measure of its severity. The research further produced an empirical discrimination between retrenchment as a stand-alone response to financial decline and retrenchment as an initial phase of a turnaround strategy, and an identification of activities that can be used to classify entrepreneurial vs. efficiency emphases in a turnaround firm's recovery response.     

破解我国大型民营企业衰落的规律

民营企业是我国经济发展过程中的一支重要力量。然而．近年来大型民营企业迅速从辉煌走向衰落，以至土崩瓦解的现象屡屡发生。本文分析总结了部分大型民营企业昙花一现的衰落规律，重点剖析了与衰落相关的企业外部因素．提出了相应的防范措施。