Globalization frustrated: The case of white goods

This paper challenges the common view that mature industries are always ripe for global strategies. Based on data from the European Domestic Appliance industry, this paper shows how changing economic conditions can diminish the value of global strategies. Critical in these shifts were simultaneous rises in demand for variety (that eroded the benefits of scale and continental market share) and decreases in manufacturing scale (that permitted new supply options), which reduced the extent of the strategic market to national dimensions. They added complexity that decreased the profitability of the global players and increased that of national strategies. The fluctuating fortunes of leading firms are shown to have been caused primarily by choices of strategy, not by national factor costs.     

以保险创新提升中资寿险企业国际竞争力

在经济全球化和人寿保险市场国际化的大背景下,中国寿险业全面竞争的时代已经到来.然而在企业国际竞争力方面,目前中资寿险公司与外国寿险公司之间的差距很大,甚至是巨大的.因此,培育和提升中资寿险企业国际竞争力已迫在眉睫.中资寿险企业可以通过寿险经营理念、寿险制度以及寿险产品3个层面的创新,来提升企业国际竞争力.     

What Can Be Learned from DuPont and the Freon Ban: A Case Study

Between 1974 and 1988, executives of DuPont, the world's largest producer of CFCs, were confronted with emerging evidence that CFCs were destroying the stratospheric ozone layer. The difficulty that executives face in such cases is that scientific knowledge develops over time and does not necessarily proceed in a straight line toward true conclusions. At the beginning of a new field of research, there is much uncertainty and disagreement among the experts. The solution of the ozone problem required a remarkable cooperation among science, business, and international governments. After looking at the role of DuPont executives in this drama, and the difficulties facing any executive dealing with uncertain science, the paper turns to an evaluation of the field of Business Ethics to see what light it might throw on this and analogous problems. Finally, the paper offers specific suggestions in terms of principles in dealing with uncertain science, and concludes that the course of action that DuPont followed, including some mistakes, can serve as a model for analogous crises.     

The Performance of Actively Managed International Mutual Funds

International mutual funds allow individual investors to diversify abroad at a reasonable cost. This paper tests whether international funds that actively engage in country and security selection outperform passive global benchmarks. We apply a mean-variance efficiency test that incorporates the practical prohibition against short sales of open-end mutual funds. Our tests reject the efficiency of the world equity market portfolio over the sample period, and our funds as a group outperform the inefficient world index. However, we find no evidence of security selectivity ability using a 12-country benchmark. We do find that active international funds provide global diversification benefits. Tests using the Positive Period Weight (PPW) measure of Grinblatt and Titman (1989), which is robust to nonlinearity in fund and benchmark returns, yield similar results.     

国际快递公司在华发展特点及启示

简要介绍了联邦快递、联合包裹、敦豪环球快递、荷兰天地快运四大国际快递公司在中国市场发展的特点及成功经验;指出我国目前物流快递业发展的诸多问题,提出有效应对措施与建议,提高我国快递企业的竞争力。     

Business communities in the European confectionery sector: A U.K.-Finland comparison

This paper is based on the early stages of an international collaborative project investigating the structural changes of the confectionery sectors in Finland and the U.K. over the past two decades. An institutional perspective is used to extend conventional understandings of industries via the development of the sector concept. The network and community constructs are shown to be important devices for understanding the institutional character of a sector. Accordingly, the paper reveals the similarities and differences between the two national examples. An explanation is offered of the way domestic networks persist in both countries while contrasting community profiles are apparent.     

我国企业国际科技合作现状及对策研究

文章从经济和科技全球化背景下企业国际科技合作的战略地位分析入手,介绍了我国企业国际科技合作概况,重点分析了企业对外科技合作存在的主要问题,提出了推进企业国际科技合作发展的8点对策建议。     

我国港口经济发展的战略选择

从港口相关概念和发展历程开始，阐述了我国商贸港口发展面临的国际产业转移的重大机遇，以及如何及时抓住机遇，继续扩大区位优势，争取更多政策支持，培育产业集聚形态，促进港口经济繁荣，增强港口城市经济活力。     

我国中小企业国际市场营销策略浅析

积极有效地开展国际市场营销是我国中小企业成长和发展的必由之路。文章在国际市场营销理论的基础上,分析了我国中小企业在开展国际市场营销活动中存在的问题并提出了我国中小企业国际市场营销的若干策略。     

Outsourcing and trade in a spatial world

This paper provides an analysis of outsourcing and trade in a spatial model à la Hotelling. In this setting, we discuss the trade-off between transport-cost-related disadvantages and outsourcing-related production cost advantages of a large economy and we investigate how the existence of national transport costs influences both the structure of industrial production and the pattern of final goods trade. In addition, the model gives a rich picture of the possible welfare effects of trade liberalization. In particular, we show that a final goods exporting country definitely gains from economic integration, while a final goods importing country may lose. Finally, when lowering domestic outsourcing activities, trade liberalization may reduce world welfare, even if pro-competitive effects lead to a decline in consumer prices.