Nanoethics: Old Wine,New Bottles?

This paper reviews the question of whether “nanoethics” should be treated as a special essay in ethics, quite different to bioethics, cyberethics, or neuroethics. Whilst some believe that a fundamental rethinking of our ethics is needed, others conclude that ethics as applied to nanoproducts or to nanomedicine will prove to be largely a case of business as usual. The paper is in four principal parts. In the first part, the basic pattern of ethical argument is set out, a pattern that holds no matter which of the emerging technologies is under debate. In the second part, a sketch is offered of the way in which precautionary reasoning plays relative to three key ethical constituencies (utilitarian, rights-led, and dignitarian), including some reflections on how these constituencies would view the so-called precautionary principle (as a guide to regulators). In the third part, the essential features of a particular kind of ethical community, (a “community of rights”) are outlined, such a community being put forward as the appropriate setting for debating matters of nanorisk and regulation. In such a community, the protection of rights is focal, ethics and regulation are viewed as deeply connected discourses, and the aspiration is to develop regimes of control and compensation that are fully integrated and coherent. Finally, there is a discussion of the way in which this kind of community, with its rights-led approach to precaution, would address questions concerning liability for nanoproducts and nanomedical services in a context of profound uncertainty.     

Mexico： Old Friend, New Exchang

Whenever talking about Mexico, I often recall a romantic scene:a handsome young man wearing a big straw hat,singing a love song and playing along a guitar to his loved girl that is hiding behind the curtain of her bedroom's balcony.When we met H.E.Mr.Jorge Guajardo,the Mexican Ambassador to China,the image of this passionate,hospitable and energetic nation became more vivid and clearer. He arrived in China just two months ago,hut he has actively taken on his job in order to enhance the business,cultural and political ties that both countries have kept for long.After the interview with him,this lovely and admirable young Ambassador and our report- ers nearly became good friends. By Editor     

Industrial Policies in France: The Old and the New

Industrial policy is mainly sector based in France, moulding industrial specialization and often promoting “grand projects.” It intended to make use of economies of scale, specifically in technologically sophisticated sectors and has been labelled as High Tech Colbertism. The European unification and the Single Market Programme has to some extent converted European industrial policy to the horizontal approach, banning sectoral activities, promoting framework policies, and a sound macro economic policy. The Lisbon strategy then designed a new agenda for growth which acknowledged a gap in competitiveness relative to the USA. In France new initiatives were launched in the past decade, which to some extent are echoing the French type of industrial policy. Regional cluster programs (“poles de competitivité”) were introduced, an industrial innovation agency and a national research agency were founded and the Oseo program promotes small and medium firms. The history, preconditions and chances of the new initiatives are analysed.     

老市场里的新CEO

<正>在北京爱淘货的MM圈子里,几乎没有人不知道万通新世界商品交易市场的。早在1996年,万通市场曾以高档商城的经营业态出现在京城。当时社会上还流行"东有燕莎,西有万通"的说法。但是,由于缺乏对区域经营环境的深入考查,万通商场的经营业绩日渐窘迫。而到了1998年,北京日常生活类的小商品市场却正进入了一个蓬勃发展的时期。这时,万通市场做出了这样一个决定——由高档商城转型为小商品市场。这个看似冒险的举措后来带来了很大的成功。     

A Note on Global Welfare in Pharmaceutical Patenting

This paper revisits the question of whether global welfare is higher under a uniform world‐wide system of pharmaceutical product patents or with international rules allowing low‐income nations to free‐ride on the discoveries of firms in rich nations. Key variables include the extent to which free‐riding reduces the discovery of new drugs, the rent potential of rich as compared to poor nations, the ratio of the marginal utility of income in poor as compared to rich nations, and the competitive environment within which R&D decisions are made. Global welfare is found to be higher with free‐riding across plausible discovery impairment and income utility combinations, especially when rent‐seeking behaviour leads to an expansion of R&D outlays exhausting appropriable rents.     

New Insights into Old Discoveries: Two Kinds of Markets

The first supply and demand experiments in the 1950s converged more strongly and quickly than people thought likely. Equally surprising, the first asset market experiments in the 1980s converged far less strongly and rapidly than expected. The economic crisis in 2008 brought a re-thinking of these old discoveries, motivated new experimental exercises and led to new insights.     

A New Look at Old Coefficients

For more than 50 years, numerous studies have shown low price–quality correlation coefficients, mostly close to 0.2. That prices fail to function as valid indicators of product quality has been interpreted as informational market failure. This article, however, argues, that, according to the economic theory of price formation, prices are not an indicator of quality, but an indicator of scarcity. This allows the conclusion that workable consumer goods markets, at least as seen from the consumer’s point of view, should be characterized by low or even negative correlation coefficients rather than by strong positive coefficients.     

A Strategy Change for Europe: Old Myths Versus New Roads

Despite the substantial economic and political problems currently, it is important to recall that European integration has by and large been a success. However, restarting economic growth now should not follow the old trajectory, nor should it be built on old myths. It should start from a new vision with a much stronger emphasis on social and ecological investment.     

New CAP Delivery Model,Old Issues

Intereconomics - The proposed Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) for the period 2021–2027 will be more flexible and, presumably, more effective. To provide for sufficient ambition and prevent a...     

产业集群:黑龙江老工业基地振兴的新视点

产业集群理论是一种值得重视的区域发展理论,在成本、效率、品牌和区域创新等方面具有竞争优势。黑龙江老工业基地振兴采用产业集群战略,对加快技术创新,扩大招商引资力度,吸引人才,解决就业,具有重要的现实意义。     

Propensity to Support Sustainability Initiatives: A Cross-National Model

Businesses and the social sciences are increasingly facing calls to further scholarship dedicated to understand sustainability. Furthermore, multinationals are also facing similar calls given their high profile and their role in environmental degradation. However, a literature review shows that there is very limited understanding of sustainability at a cross-national level. Given the above gaps, we contribute to the literature by examining how selected GLOBE [House et al., Culture, leadership and organizations: The GOBE study of 62 societies. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, 2004] cultural dimensions are related to individuals’ propensity to support sustainability initiatives in 33 countries. We use data from the World Values Survey [World Values Study Group, World Values Surveys and European Value Surveys, 1999–2001. Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research, Ann Arbor, 2004] and test our hypotheses using Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM). Results support all but one hypothesis. Specifically, uncertainty avoidance is not related to propensity to support sustainability initiatives. In contrast, performance orientation and assertiveness have the desired negative relationship with our dependent variable while collectivism, future orientation, and human orientation have the desired positive relationship. We discuss the conceptual and practical implications of this study.     

Export Commitment and the Global Financial Crisis: Perspectives from the New Zealand Wine Industry

The study investigates how firms adjusted their export commitment in response to the recent global financial crisis. Findings based on New Zealand wine companies suggest that firms' commitment to exporting is influenced by both their export performance achieved before the crisis and the negative effect that the crisis exerted on their subsequent export performance. These two performance‐induced influences can be further moderated by managerial attitude toward exporting and managers' perceptions of export market uncertainty. Theoretically, the study builds on the behavioral theory of the firm and extends the past performance–strategy relationship to the situation of exporting in a financial crisis.     

Everything Old is New Again: The Age of Consumer-Centric Supply Chain Management

Over the past several decades, the disciplines of marketing and logistics grew apart from their common historical origins as marketing became more behavioral and more quantitative, while logistics leaned toward a more operational orientation. We argue in this editorial that social and technological changes in the past 20 years, coupled with the effects of the COVID pandemic, have created the conditions for the two disciplines to reconnect. We propose that scholars and practitioners consider a consumer-centric approach to supply chain management. Such an approach advocates that the entire supply chain should focus on consumer experience rather than mere customer service and that experiences might include issues such as last-mile delivery, supply chain visibility, and consumer values. We also introduce the papers appearing in this issue of the journal.     

Entry,Growth and Patenting in Industrial Clusters: A Study of the Aerospace Industry in the UK

This paper studies how firm performance is influenced by the strength of the industrial cluster (or industrial district) in which it is located. The paper presents estimates of firm-level employment and patent growth models for a range of '5-digit' aerospace industries in the UK. In these models, employment in the firm's own sector and employment in other sectors is taken as a measure of the strength of the cluster. Strong positive clustering effects are found in many sectors, but nevertheless some clustering effects are negative. Entry into clusters of this industry is also examined and some sectors are found to attract new entry while others are only attracted.