Exploring geographic variation in corporate broadband adoption; evidence from Irish small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)

Despite its growth experience, Ireland still lags behind in international league tables on broadband adoption and within Ireland great disparities exist between central and peripheral regions. This paper explores the context-specific determinants of broadband adoption among Irish small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), attempting to shed some light on the sources of the considerable geographic variation in particular. Drawing from determinants of broadband adoption identified in literature the authors develop a number of plausible hypotheses. Using cross-section data from a ComReg survey of Irish-based SMEs, a logit model of broadband adoption is estimated. Among other factors, a company's industrial sector and other demand proxies are good predictors of broadband adoption. Controlling for other factors, regional ISP market concentration appears to be negatively associated with the probability of broadband adoption. It is argued that, in the absence of more detailed information, statistics on regional-level market structure could be a promising indicator of the supply-side.     

Good governance? Perceptions of accountability,transparency and effectiveness in Irish food risk governance

In an attempt to govern increasingly globalised, industrialised and risky food chains, food safety authorities (FSAs) have been established worldwide as part of a catalogue of food risk governance reforms undertaken in response to continuing food crises. Despite these significant shifts in governing arrangements however, little work has been conducted regarding how consumers respond to, resist and/or engage with these new governance systems in everyday, non-crisis contexts. As such, this paper explores the everyday governance of food risk from the perspective of those whose voices typically go unheard in food policymaking processes – consumers. Drawing on empirical results from focus groups conducted with publics across the Republic of Ireland, consumer perceptions, priorities and lived experiences relating to food risk governance, and the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) in particular, are explored. This analysis is couched within a normative frame of multi-scalar governance and what makes it ‘good’ or effective. Accordingly, the paper advances food risk policy debates through a lens of normative good food risk governance, including analysis of the perceived accountability, transparency and effectiveness of Irish food risk governing structures from a consumer perspective. Identifying limitations in current governing regimes, the paper concludes by critically reflecting on the opportunities and challenges for adopting more adaptive forms of governance in the multi-scalar and evolving policy context that typifies food risk.     

Economic integration and new firm formation: Britain's impact on Irish enterprise

The paper examines the impact of economic integration on enterprise in a small open economy. The paper analyses large, small and total new company registrations in Ireland. It examines the impact of spill-overs from the United Kingdom labour and product markets on Irish firm formation. The study finds that negative labour market spill-overs dominate positive product market spill-overs so that a net negative effect results from Irish-British economic integration. The results indicate that enterprise in peripheral economies may be more vibrant if product market integration is introduced before labour market integration. The paper also finds enterprise to be positively affected by the number of university graduates in the labour force. House prices are found to have a net negative impact on enterprise.     

Not for the Profit,But for the Training? Gender Differences in Training in the For-Profit and Non-Profit Sectors

In this article, we use Canadian-linked employer–employee data to examine gender differences in receiving firm-sponsored training. We find that women in the for-profit sector are less likely to receive classroom training and receive fewer classroom training courses. However, we find the opposite in the non-profit sector, where women are more likely to receive both classroom and on-the-job training, and also receive more classroom training courses. We show that women's worse training opportunities in the for-profit sector mainly operate within workplaces. We find no evidence that gender gaps in training in the for-profit sector are driven by lower probabilities of accepting training offers, child or family commitments, weaker labour market attachment or worker self-selection. We also find that gender differences in expected changes in wages and training opportunities between the two sectors can explain a large portion of women's higher probability of employment in the non-profit sector. Finally, decomposition results suggest that part of the gender wage gap in the for-profit sector, which is twice as large as in the non-profit sector, can be explained by gender differences in training.     

Modeling Housing Market Fundamentals: Empirical Evidence of Extreme Market Conditions

This article examines the issues encountered in the modeling of market fundamentals during a period of extreme price behavior. The study analyzes the price behavior of the residential property market in Ireland using a number of alternative methodological approaches in the estimation of fundamental market value. Limitations in conventional models such as an inverted demand model are highlighted, in particular, with regard to diagnostic concerns and the static nature of the model. The use of an error correction framework provides more consistent and robust findings. The analysis does appear to indicate that a substantial premium over fundamental values developed in the Irish market during the late 1990s, reaching a peak in 1999 and 2000. However, in recent years, prices have largely been in line with fundamentals.     

Contractual arrangements between farmer cooperatives and buyers in China

The agrofood market in China is dominated by spot market exchanges of small farmers and various small traders, with only minor penetration of the modern supply chain at the farmgate. The emerging Farmer Professional Cooperatives (FPCs) are expected to facilitate vertical coordination. The overall goal of this study is to investigate the contractual arrangements between the FPCs and the buyers. Based on a national representative survey of 157 FPCs in China, this study shows that 32% of FPCs introduced written contracts in the primary marketing channel. Contracts are more likely to be adopted in the livestock sector and are positively related to the scale of production. While branding promotes contracts between FPCs and buyers, public certification of quality and food safety often substitutes for contracts. Furthermore, the membership heterogeneity of FPCs affects an FPC’s decision to use contractual arrangements with the buyer.     

服务外包与中国产业升级：基于全球化的视角

全球化和信息技术发展为后起国家的产业升级提供了新的选择。通过发展服务外包,新兴经济国家可充分发挥后发优势,这些国家的产业升级有可能突破传统的线性路径。相对于制造业,中国服务业的市场化和国际化水平较低。发展服务外包将为中国产业升级带来新的机遇。本文以全球化为视角,探讨服务外包与后起国家产业升级的路径变化,并运用SWOT方法,分析我国发展服务外包的优势与差距,提出推进服务外包发展、促进产业升级的政策措施。     

Food aid and food policy in Bangladesh

Bangladesh has now replaced India as the most publicized large scale recipient of food aid, importing 1.67 million tons of food grains, four fifths of which were on concessional terms, in 1977/78 (July to June). Some analysts, extrapolating from the poor performance of the agricultural sector up to the mid 1970s, also project that Bangladesh will be one of the largest importers of foodgrains in a decade's time merely in order to maintain current pitifully inadequate levels of nutrition.¹ Yet so far there has been no open debate or systematic attempt to analyse the impact of food aid on the Bangladesh economy, compared with the controversy and intensive analysis of food aid to India. This article² is intended to demonstrate the seriousness of this gap in the literature. It includes a review of provisional evidence on the role of food aid in the Bangladesh economy during the first quinquennium of ‘planned’ development, 1972/3–1977/8.     

Food imports of developing countries

The trend of food imports of developing countries and its interpretation are discussed. The author presents an analysis across countries of changes in the food supply balances and cereal imports from the early 1960s to the late 1970s. Changes in food energy supplies have not corresponded closely with changes in domestic food production per head, and the increase in imports tends to be greater in middle income than in low income countries. The balance of payments implications are examined, and the article concludes with a consideration of the reliability of international market supplies.     

Moving toward the EU or the Middle East? An assessment of alternative Turkish foreign policies utilizing the GTAP framework

This paper assesses the new orientation in Turkish foreign policy towards the Arab world by analyzing the potential impact of Turkey’s membership in either the European Union (EU) or the Greater Arab Free Trade Area (GAFTA). We utilize the most recent version of the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) database, its global Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model, and the gravity border effect approach to estimate the ad-valorem tariff equivalents (AVEs) of non-tariff barriers (NTBs). In our overall analysis, we account for 24 various sectors. However, in our evaluation, we focus primarily on the food and agricultural sectors because this sector is characterized by high tariff and non-tariff protection. In the CGE simulation analysis, we consider the removal of tariffs and NTBs simultaneously. After projecting the GTAP framework to 2020, we conclude that Turkey would gain unambiguously from EU membership, whereas Turkey’s gains from GAFTA membership would be more limited. The paper also presents that the welfare gains from the removal of NTBs are of considerable importance and would generally be greater than the gains stemming from the elimination of import tariffs.     

Rising trends and variability of rice prices: Threats and opportunities for sub-Saharan Africa

Nearly 40% of the rice consumed in Africa is imported. That is about one third of all rice traded in world markets. With such high dependence on imports, Africa is highly exposed to international market shocks with sometimes grave consequences for its food security and political stability as attested by events during the 2008 food crisis. In this paper, it is argued that Africa can turn the rising trends in world markets to a historical opportunity to realize its large potential for rice production. After a review of the policy responses of African countries to the 2008 global rice crisis, the opportunities and challenges for enhancing domestic rice supply are discussed. The competitiveness of rice production in Africa is analyzed for selected countries and rice ecologies. The potential for increasing paddy production is illustrated using a spreadsheet simulation that considers alternative rice sector development scenarios. Reducing the yield gap and expanding cultivated rice areas under lowland and irrigated hold the greatest potential for substantially increasing paddy production in Africa.     

The Individualization of Irish Industrial Relations?

Research claims that industrial relations in greenfield sites in Ireland are commonly individualized. Data from a representative sample of workplaces in Ireland show that no trend towards more pronounced individualization is apparent in the use of HRM practices in new as compared with established workplaces. The state of collective industrial relations in workplaces in general is also shown to be independent of the extent to which individually focused HRM practices have been adopted. The Irish findings, and recent international research, question the idea of individualization as a useful way of understanding the character and dynamics of employment relations in advanced economies.     

Unnatural Extinction: The Rise and Fall of the Independent Local Union

This article analyzes what happened to independent local unions (ILUs), also known as company unions, since 1935. After providing a statistical analysis of ILU membership since 1935, the article looks at the factors that shaped membership trends: changes in labor law, the characteristics of ILUs, worker attitudes toward ILUs, and employers' industrial relations policies. New evidence is presented that suggests that even those employers who still favored ILUs in the 1950s were orienting them away from collective bargaining and toward the "new nonunion model" of the 1960s and 1970s.     

Product development in the chemical industry: A description of a maturing business

To help us understand the massive complexity of the chemical industry, Robert A. Linn breaks it down into product/market sectors that show differing business requirements, and hence, differing new product development requirements. This is an important industry that has struggled through the 1970s with sharp changes in external pressures and very little technological excitement. Where are the new product opportunities in an industry such as this? How do you pursue them? On the basis of his years of experience in the industry, Linn offers some suggestions and some challenges for managers.     

The Affordability of New Homes

There has been much recent public discussion about the rising price of new homes, and concern that an increasing number of families are priced out of the new home market. This paper argues that new homes are no more expensive, relative to income, than they have historically been, although the large volume of subsidized new home production during the early 1970s has tended to distort the recent trends. The main problem for new home buyers is the increase in mortgage interest rates generated by inflation in the past decade. However, current homeowners have also benefited from inflation and may be better able to afford a new house as a result. This paper also presents data on recent new home buyers, showing that a large number of families are buying new homes supposedly beyond their means, and that the typical buyer has a much lower income than has been thought feasible by many housing market analysts.     

Web-hosting market development status and its value as an indicator of a country's e-readiness

A country's e-readiness is essentially a measure of its business environment, a collection of factors that indicate how amenable a market is to Internet-based opportunities. An e-readiness assessment is based on several quantitative criteria, and among them the ICT market development indicators are considered as the most influential. Studies in the past have shown that the well-known indicators used for assessing the level of ICT market development in countries with emerging economy are not directly applicable. This paper provides another insight into the level of ICT market development in an emerging economy by analysing the adoption of web-hosting services in the country's business sector. The potential of such assessment to be as an indicator of the level of ICT development in a country is analysed. The underlying study of the web-hosting development was carried out as part of the European project WEBHOSTS. The approach applied and the findings were intended to be used as a decision support in locating and managing some of the risks in e-business development and potential investment by new entrants in a region that is accessing the developed part of Europe.     

The big bug: The legitimation of the edible insect sector in the Netherlands

This study analyzes the legitimation process of an emerging novel food sector in the European Union (EU). Current EU policies are cautious with regard to new food sources and new food technology, and we aim to determine how the sector is addressing both this caution as well as a general public that may be skeptical of its products. By utilizing a legitimacy strategy framework and conducting 19 semi-structured interviews with actors and experts in the Dutch edible insect sector, we assess the sector’s progress and limitations with regard to its legitimacy journey. The findings show that sector focus has thus far been on organization, intraindustry, and interindustry legitimacy strategies, and that additional emphasis on institutional strategies will be imperative to securing more accommodating legislation. In addition, the lack of a common vision, a strategic communication plan, and interfirm linkages may also be hindering sector legitimation. The framework and conclusions presented here may prove useful to other sectors introducing novel foods.     

An Ecological Perspective on New Product Failure: The Effects of Competitive Overcrowding

Practitioners and researchers have carefully explored the causes of new product failures. Studies have been conducted, results analyzed, and recommendations offered. Yet despite these efforts, new product failure rates have not decreased. In fact, they appear to be increasing in some product categories. Are we missing something? Noting that most research on new product failures has focused on a firm's activities in specific projects, William H. Redmond proposes that new product outcomes might also be influenced by macro-level or environmental factors. By focusing on environmental factors rather than a firm's activities in specific projects, we might better understand why competent firms in one industry consistently experience higher failure rates than those of firms that are no more competent, but operate in a different industry. For example, failure rates for new food products are consistently higher than those for new industrial products. With no evidence that product development professionals in industrial firms are simply superior to their counterparts in the food industry, Dr. Redmond suggests that we need to look beyond specific product development projects and consider the effects of the market in which these products are introduced. Encouraged by past successes, many firms in the food manufacturing business seek sales growth through the development and introduction of additional new products. Over time, this creates a market in which customer demand is fragmented into increasingly small niches and distribution channels are flooded with product choices. As a result, the failure of a new product is more likely than it might have been under less crowded conditions. In much the same way that the population of deer on an island is limited by the available food and physical space, food products are apparently faced with the market equivalent of natural selection. In the absence of available market niches and a clear competitive advantage, a new product's chances for success are meager. In a market that is overcrowded by existing products and new product introductions, it becomes increasingly difficult and uneconomical to identify opportunities for meaningful differentiation. On the other hand, industrial products face a much different set of environmental conditions. Compared to the food manufacturing business, relatively few new industrial products are introduced, and those introductions are typically successful. In most cases, the new products are simply replacements for inefficient or obsolete products. In such an environment, failed introductions are probably the result of errors in the product development process.     

Market reform and private trade in Eastern and Southern Africa

This article reviews the experience of market reform in Eastern and Southern Africa and highlights some key lessons learned. A distinction is drawn between countries whose policy regime before reform was favourable to food production and those whose policies were unfavourable, and alternative reform paths are described. The two key issues emerging are the role of the public sector after reform, for which there is still no clearly appropriate model, and how the strong short-term response of the private sector to trading opportunities can be transformed into investment. Post-reform markets have been competitive, but operate under tight constraints with little evidence of significant capital accumulation. Critical research issues to inform policy making are identified.     

Alternatives for Danish agriculture

In the years prior to Denmark's entry into the European Common Market (EEC) in 1973, Danish agricultural exports began to encounter difficulties. As exports account for about two thirds of production in the sector, total agricultural production also stagnated in the 1960s and early 1970s. Entry into the EEC was expected to result in an increase in agricultural production; the increase has, however, failed to materialize.The fact that agricultural production has not increased in the years following entry into the EEC is due to a complex interaction of factors. One explanation is a fall in the number of agricultural holdings which has led to a considerable reduction in the productive capacity of the sector. The relatively high level of interest and costs has also had a dampening impact on the investment propensity. However, in 1977 and 1978 there has been a trend towards an increase in investment in livestock production which indicates an increase in total agricultural production for the years to come.An important part of the Danish economy is the integration of the agricultural sector with the large food processing industry.¹ The links between agriculture and other sectors are rising. The purchase of raw materials and means of production, plus the depreciation of machinery and building requirements, now account for up to 60% of the total agricultural production in terms of value. There is consequently a strong general interest in the future development of Danish agriculture. The recent international recession has also furthered an increased political interest in the exploitation of agriculture. Agricultural policy is thus tending towards a more central importance in the general and the specific economic policies.The central elements of the current discussion have been the volume of the production potential of Danish agriculture, and the market potential existing in the years to come. These considerations are discussed below, on the basis of both historical trends and of a study recently published on alternative development possibilities for Danish agriculture.²