Combating environmental repercussions through ‘TQEM’ and ‘ISO 14000’

Business is totally dependent on society although we sometimes do not experience it that way. All business, even in their most limited form, confront environmental issues, some more than others. Business leaders will be actively addressing social and environmental issues. These companies will be going for certification to ISO 14001 (EMS) and progressive organizations have moved beyond EMS requirement, seizing control of environmental operations through Total Quality Environmental Management (TQEM). Industry leaders are incorporating environmental thinking into every aspect of their operations. As a long‐range plan towards TQEM, an organization can have a road map and a clear model for achieving excellence in the area of Environmental Management. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

From ‘start-up’ to ‘re-boot’: Product lifecycle strategies and competitive advantage in the computer industry

The PC sector, following the packaging and car manufacturing industries, will increasingly be forced to acknowledge and account for its product base throughout the commodity's life, and beyond. The environmental problems being posed by electronic waste have been recognized and both the EU and the individual Member States are discussing solutions which may or may not include legislative action. In anticipation, product take-back programmes are beginning to emerge within the industry and the economics and logistics of re-use and recycling are at the forefront of this debate. The issues in store for this sector are examined and specific initiatives by organizations considered. It is asked whether a ‘closing of the product loop’ will generate a competitive advantage for these companies and what impact an industry-led ‘consortia’ initiative may have.     

‘Sameness’ and ‘Difference’ Revisited: Which Way Forward For Equal Opportunity Initiatives?

Recent interest in ‘managing diversity’ has reopened debates about forms of equality in the workplace. Approaches to equality developed in the 1970s and 1980s have been characterized as an attempt to ensure that if individuals bring the same abilities to work, or perform in the same way, they should receive the same access to jobs and employment benefits, regardless of social group membership. Managing diversity appears to be about a more positive valuing of difference. Benefits are seen to derive from different perspectives and approaches and these should be nurtured and rewarded rather than suppressed. Feminists have long argued about the extent to which women are the same as, or different from, men, and about the political consequences of adopting these positions. Recent theoretical developments have led to some novel solutions to this dilemma. These include asserting claims to both ‘sameness’ and ‘difference’, the deconstruction of ‘difference’, and the reconstruction of ‘sameness’ on women's terms. This paper explores approaches to equal opportunities through both established and novel theoretical perspectives. It argues that existing practice cannot be fitted neatly into the conventional distinctions between ‘sameness’ and ‘difference’, and explores the potential characteristics and strengths and weaknesses of equality initiatives based on the new theoretical perspectives.     

Patent statistics: deciphering a ‘real’ versus a ‘pseudo’ proxy of innovation

Patent statistics have fascinated economists concerned about innovation for a long time. However, fundamental questions remain as to whether or not patent statistics represent the real state of innovation. As Griliches pointed out, substantial questions involve: What aspects of economic activities do patent statistics actually capture? And, what would we like them to measure? He pointed out that these statistics can be a mirage appearing to provide a great number of objective and reliable proxies for innovation.This paper aims to address some of these questions by making a comparative evaluation of the representability of patent statistics in four levels of the innovation process, using as examples research and development (R&D) in Japan's printer and photovoltaic solar cell (PV) industries over the last two decades. Furthermore, this research provides a new set of patent statistics which could be considered a more reliable proxy for innovation.     

Residents’ Responses to ‘Territorial Stigmatization’: Visual Research in Berlin

This article deals with the symbolic dimension of the transformation process in a post‐socialist large‐scale housing estate in Berlin after reunification. This reflection is based on the concept of ‘territorial stigmatization’ and I use a photographic method to analyse the representational strategies employed by residents to manage territorial stigma: identifying with depoliticized images of the past, exiting the estate and questioning the very principle of representation. The first two strategies seem to be different ways of internalizing dominant representations of place. The latter differs from the first two in its use of iconic means to challenge the current spatial order and its opening up of possibilities for emancipation. The article thus also shows how photography as a research method can reflect on existing power relations.     

‘Repeat commercializers,’ the ‘habitual entrepreneurs’ of university–industry technology transfer

Among academic faculty, is there a class of ‘repeat commercializers’ who account for a disproportionate share of commercialized technologies arising from university research? In a survey of 172 engineering, mathematics, and science faculty members from a major Canadian university, we found evidence that a class of repeat commercializers does exist. Further, we found that the 12% of the faculty who are repeat commercializers account for 80% of the commercialized innovations. Interviews with repeat commercializers in the same faculties at the same university suggest that repeat commercializers parallel habitual entrepreneurs in that they have the ability to commercialize (i.e. the ability to generate and identify commercializable inventions and the ability to acquire resources for the commercialization of their inventions) and the aspiration to do so (i.e. commercialization-friendly attitudes). Since repeat commercializers account for such a large percentage of commercialization activity, it is important that programs and policies associated with technology transfer address the needs of this subpopulation of the faculty.     

‘Territorial deregulation’: local authorities at risk from technical networks

Technical networks (transport, telecommunications, energy etc.) possess paradoxical virtues. They produce ‘structuring effects’ on space, obtaining comparative advantages for the places they serve. But they are ubiquitous factors which also enable a homogenization of space. The myths of deterritorialization and dual space are refuted by empirical analyses of the interaction between networks and territories. Networks ‘format’ market areas and political territories. They create matrixes which until now were controlled by the public powers. Linked to current transformations – globalization, deregulation – the present mode of development of the technical macro‐systems brings about a telescoping of geographical scales which is having an adverse effect on the historic compromise between networks and territories. The boundaries of traditional political space have become obsolete and an economic rationale in the form of an extension of the technical networks predominates. In order to rediscover their policy‐making capacity, local authorities must pay more attention to controlling the occupation of public space as well as to the design and organization of the networks’ hubs. They should encourage the emergence of users as players in the regulation of public utilities so that debates on universal service and territorial equality may be activated. Les réseaux techniques (transport, télécommunication, énergie etc.) sont parés de vertus paradoxales. Ils produiraient des ‘effets structurants’ sur l’espace, procurant des avantages comparatifs aux lieux desservis. Mais, facteurs d’ubiquité, ils permettraient aussi une homogénéisation de l’espace. Ces mythes de la déterritorialisation et de la dualisation de l’espace sont réfutés par les analyses empiriques des interactions entre réseaux et territoires. Les réseaux ‘formatent’ des aires de marché et des territoires politiques; ils fabriquent des métriques, dont les pouvoirs publics avaient jusquà présent la maîtrise. Liées aux transformations en cours – globalisation, dérégulation – le mode de développement actuel des macro‐systèmes techniques entraîne un télescopage des échelles géographiques qui met à mal le compromis historique entre réseaux et territoires. Il y a obsolescence des frontières des espaces politiques traditionnels et prédominance de la logique économique dans l’extension des réseaux techniques. Afin de retrouver des capacités d’action, les collectivités locales doivent porter plus d’attention au contrôle de l’occupation de l’espace public ainsi qu’à la conception et à l’organisation des noeuds de réseau. Elles ont aussi à favoriser l’émergence des usagers comme acteurs de la régulation des services en réseau, afin que soient activés les débats sur le service universel et sur l’équité territoriale.     

‘Meeting need: Successful charity marketing’

Ian Bruce (ICSA/Prentice Hall (Charities Management Series), Hemel Hempstead, UK; 1994; ISBN 1 872860 58 3; 292 pp; paperback; £17.95; hot line ordering No. +1442 881883)     

A Look at the ‘Hidden Side’: Turkish Women in Berlin’s Ethnic Labour Market

Recent studies show that ethnic economies are an increasingly vital part of the larger national economy. This is especially true in the case of the Turkish ethnic economy in Germany. This article sheds light on a ‘hidden aspect’ of Berlin’s Turkish ethnic economy: the structure and role of Turkish female labour and female self-employment. It begins with a general discussion on the significance of the gender concept in the international debate on ethnic economies – including findings on minority and immigrant women in self-employment in Europe. The second section of the article focuses on Berlin, using an analysis of the official labour market data at hand to sketch the gendered structure of Berlin’s labour market. The third section presents exploratory empirical data concentrating exclusively on female Turkish entrepreneurs and employees. The results indicate that some of the gendered traits of the ethnic economies described in the international literature also appear in the Berlin survey: the under-representation of women as entrepreneurs and their difficult position in the overall labour market. Furthermore, the data suggest that the concept of ‘ethnic business’ as typically presented in the literature turns out to be a ‘male’ concept and is hardly applicable to the case of the Turkish women in Berlin. The common features of the concept (ethnic clientele, suppliers, labour or involved kin, orientation towards the ethnic community) applied only partially to the Turkish women entrepreneurs. — Des études récentes ont démontré que les économies ethniques sont une partie de plus en plus vitale de l’économie nationale. Ceci est particulièrement vrai dans le cas de l’économie ethnique turque en Allemagne. Cet article explore un ‘aspect caché’ de l’économie ethnique turque à Berlin: la structure et le rôle de la main d’oeuvre féminine turque et des femmes travailleuses indépendantes turques. Il commence par une discussion générale sur la signification du concept du genre dans le débat international sur les économies ethniques – y compris les données concernant les travailleuses indépendantes immigrantes et de minorité ethnique en Europe. La seconde partie de l’article est consacrée à Berlin, et donne un aperçu de la structure du marché du travail de Berlin par rapport au genre grâce à une analyse des données disponibles du travail officiel. La troisième section présente des données empiriques exploratoires concernant les employées et les femmes entrepreneurs turques exclusivement. Les résultats indiquent que certains des traits de genre des économies ethniques décrits dans les bibliographies internationales se retrouvent dans l’enquête sur Berlin: la sous-représentation des femmes entrepreneurs et leur position difficile dans le marché du travail dans son ensemble. De plus, les données suggèrent que le concept de ‘commerce ethnique’, comme il est habituellement présenté dans les travaux sur ce sujet, est un concept ‘masculin’ et qui ne peut guère ? tre appliqué au cas des femmes turques de Berlin. Les points communs du concept (la clientèle ethnique, les fournisseurs ethniques, la place de la famille ou des employés ethniques, une orientation vers la communauté ethnique) ne s’appliquent que partiellement aux femmes entrepreneurs turques.     

‘Re-inventing’ China’s Industrial Relations at Enterprise-Level: an Empirical Field-Study in Four Major Cities

This article discusses the impact of China’s latest reforms on industrial relations at enterprise level in both state-owned firms (SOEs) and foreign-invested joint ventures (JVs) based on a sample of 24 industrial enterprises located in four cities. It concludes that the reforms of the early 1990s have ‘re-invented’ the IR system and have significantly influenced recruitment and selection, wage and reward systems, and social security programmes.