Sino-South Korea Trade Relations

Trade relations between Mainland China and the Peninsula of Korea date back 1000 years. The advantage of geography and historical, cultural origins are now more tempting while regional cooperation has become more and more important. Fifteen years ago, indirect trade started between China and South Korea. Direct non-governmental trade began in     

China-US Business Forum:Trade Deficit Not Big,Not to Hurt Sino-US Trade Relations

The trade between China and America has never been better." Bruce W. Blakeman, Special Councel to the US Secretary of Commerce said in August, 2005 when interviewed by China's Foreign Trade. But the trade conflicts between the two countries have always been seen during the past a half year.     

The Oriental Finance and Trade Center Emerging at Lujiazui

The development of Pudong hasattracted worldwide attention whilePudong's "face", the Lujiazui Financeand Trade Zone, is more striking. Hundredsof tall buildings have sprung up likemushrooms in Pudong; the grand YangpuBridge and Nanpu Bridge cross the HuangpuRiver, setting each other off fantasticallywith the imposing Oriental Pearl TV Towernearby; the broad avenue traverses the zonelike a rainbow; the new Shanghai CommerceCity is emerging on the horizon, adding     

All at once or one at a time? The effect of simultaneous versus sequential discount presentation on store patronage intentions

Retailers often employ store flyers, be they in print or digital form, to drive store traffic. A fundamental difference in the presentation of multicomponent information, such as the multiple discounts presented in flyers, is whether the components are displayed simultaneously (all at once) of sequentially (one at a time). Yet a little extant research examines how these different presentations affect individuals' responses to retailer price promotions. Three experiments demonstrate that a sequential display of price discounts is associated with more positive store patronage intentions. Evidence, gleaned by both measuring and manipulating the process by which the discounts are evaluated, implicates a greater sense of accumulating benefit with each successive discount when presented sequentially as the driver of the cross-format difference in patronage intentions.     

Pragmatic Development： Briton, China Economic and Trade Relations ——An Interview with British Ambassador

For British government, the promotion of trade and investment in both directions are very important priority     

Professional Ethics – a Managerial Opportunity in Emerging Organizations

Professional Ethics, viewed as a managerial challenge and opportunity in this study, deals with the often overlooked conceptions, actions and behavior of individuals who see themselves both as members of a profession and as members of an organization. Managers have to deal with this dual loyalty and inherent potential for conflict. This is of particular importance for new types of organizations when wanting to develop and sustain an ethical platform for the ultimate goal – assuring that future business decisions of individuals are in "ethical balance" with the organization's own values and goals.     

Business Ethics Auditing – More Than a Stakeholder's Toy

The explosion of interest in responsible corporate citizenship since 1995 has reminded many of the earlier rapid development of interest in environmental management issues. Active stakeholders and lobby groups have successfully exerted pressures on management for improved corporate behaviour. The paper looks at some recent initiatives and draws conclusions about the imprecise terminologies in use. It moves on to consider tools to better manage business risk exposures within the corporation. The example of the Business Ethics Strategic Survey is described, together with the attendant benefits it can deliver to company chairmen, Audit Committees and investment fund managers.     

International market entry mode – a systematic literature review

This wholly conceptual paper examines the breadth of literature on Market Entry Modes, a fundamentally important and strategic issue for managers in growing organisations of all sizes in all sectors. Key concepts and terms are defined and then a set of key Internationalisation Theories are systematically and critically reviewed, these being: the Transaction Cost Approach, Institutional Theory, the Eclectic Paradigm, the Uppsala Internationalisation Model and the Resource Based View. The final portion of the paper is integrative and highlights three key literature gaps as signposts for future work.     

A systems perspective on markets – Toward a research agenda

This paper addresses the implications of an emerging, increasingly important way of thinking about markets: systems thinking. A market is one of the most founational abstractions in marketing and business research; yet, it often receives too little attention. As a result, the taken-for-granted assumptions about markets spur from over-simplified conceptualizations of neoclassical economics that depict markets as static and mechanistic. Systems thinking represents a major change in perspective that involves transcending this mechanistic worldview and thinking instead in terms of wholes, relationships, processes, and patterns. We argue that building a theory of markets based on systems thinking, would enable scholars to develop more realistic models that correspond with fast-changing business environment and therefore, increase both the rigor and relevance of future research. To further this aim, we identify the main implications of systems thinking and formulate them into a research agenda to further the systemic understanding of markets.     

Beyond Organizational Innovation Adoption – a Conceptual and Empirical Analysis

The purpose of this study is to conduct a conceptual and empirical analysis of the research on the organizational adoption of innovations. The empirical part consists of three cases. On the basis of the results, we could question and criticize the dominant single-choice operationalization of organizational adoption and argue for a more process-like approach.     

Expanding the magic circle – gamification as a marketplace icon

ABSTRACT

This article explores the gamification trend sweeping the globe promising increased engagement and motivation, in practically any industry, context and culture, based on a stratagem of “game design elements in non-game contexts,” which is its most quoted definition [Deterding, Sebastian, Miguel Sicart, Lennart Nacke, Kenton O'Hara, and Dan Dixon. 2011. “Gamification – Using Game-Design Elements in Non-Gaming Contexts.” Paper presented at the CHI EA “11 proceedings of the 2011 annual conference extended abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Vancouver, BC, May 7–12.]. The rise of gamification as marketplace icon is examined and particularly claims that position gamification as the manifestation of a wider societal transformation into playful societies – a “ludic turn.” Many of these grandiose statements are the result of ahistoricity and ambiguity regarding the definition of gamification. Based on game philosophy, game studies and gamification research this article posits gamification as an emergent perspective, as distinct conceptualisation, on the rule-driven organisation of sociotechnical management systems that reference “games.” Of particular importance is the role of rules. Examples such as Frequent Flyer Programmes and Foursquare are analysed according to the player/consumer positions they bestow, which are explored from participatory, co-creational, critical and game philosophical perspectives. Conclusively, a “gameful” perspective of rule-generated goal-oriented behaviour, or “playful” perspective of instinctive and limitless fun, shed two challenging perspectives on the interpretation of gamification in the marketplace.     

Vocational Ethics as a Subspecialty of Business Ethics – Structuring a Research and Teaching Field

Vocational ethics and vocational moral socialization are important for the business ethical climate in a given country and in a given industry, but have not received attention in the literature. Our article suggests vocational ethics as a legitimate sub-specialty for business ethics research and development. The article addresses the exposure of vocational students to a combination of vocational school-based and workplace-based socialization, and outlines an agenda for teaching-oriented research and research-based teaching. More specifically, we first draft a conceptual frame of reference and then report results and experiences from a scenario-based pilot study at one of the biggest vocational schools in the country. As a third step such a preliminary situation analysis inspires a number of suggestions for how one could start with developing this field, practically, empirically and theoretically.     

The Euro at 20: Still a Project Projected to Fail?

Intereconomics - Since growth and employment are the economic variables dominating the public debate in an era of low inflation, it is no surprise that, that the euro has become a matter of...     

Small shop survival – The financial response to a global financial crisis

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), many of which are small retail shops, remain the largest employer in the western world. Yet the financing of their fixed and working capital investments remains under-researched. This study focuses on this topic by examining Eurozone wholesale and retail SMEs enterprises at the peak of the 2008 financial credit crisis. In order to do this, an innovative analysis of existing theories in retail finance and policy research using generalised multilevel structural equation modelling is performed to establish how retail SMEs sourced capital during this period. This analysis, a first of its kind in wholesale and retail SME research, finds that pecking order theory, the independence of investment and financing, as well as the contest for financial resources between fixed and working capital do not hold for wholesale and retail SMEs. Moreover, it is found that government grants and subsidised loans were not used by SMEs in this sector of the Eurozone as primary sources of finance during the aftermath of the 2008 global credit crisis. Crucially, it is posited that a business environment characterized by stronger legal rights and deeper credit information did not improve SMEs’ access to external finance. The authors recommend that further research should be pursued in this field in order to improve current understanding of the resilience of retail SMEs for future global financial crises.     

Removing the rough edges? Nostalgia and storytelling at a UK museum

This paper offers a practitioner's viewpoint of the new Riverside Museum in Glasgow and discusses its successful transition to a new building and location. The role of nostalgia in the museum's appeal through storytelling and collective memory is discussed and shown to be an important element in this success. This paper also highlights the museum's efforts to avoid sanitisation of the past in how it presents this history and argues that the use of nostalgia should not be to just present a rose-tinted selective version of what was past, but rather to present as complete and truthful a representation as possible.     

From an aggregate to a brand network: a study of the brand portfolio at L'Oréal

Abstract

Our purpose is to contribute to the understanding of brand-portfolio management by examining the brand-portfolio strategies of a world-leading company. We started to work on a case study with L'Oréal. Our research focused on two questions: (1) what reasons lead L'Oréal to develop a brand-portfolio strategy?; (2) how can brand-portfolio management create a higher and stronger level of competitive advantage for this company? The results show that an aggregation of brands is not in itself a brand portfolio. The juxtaposition of brands is one of, but not the sole, element necessary for the development of a brand portfolio, which is a combination of a brand ensemble and key competences born out of organisational savoir-faire. By analysing the evolution of the L'Oréal brand portfolio, this work shows how the brand combination within a portfolio is a key factor for company development, growth, and risk management. It is a crucial phase to understand L'Oréal's competitive advantage.