英式血统“跨界”中国

名爵MG凭借纯正的英系风格能否在最终站稳脚跟,从目前来看,它还面临着不小的挑战。对于拥有百年历史和经典品牌的名爵MG来说,似乎是一笔很大的无形资产,已走过了三年的名爵MG,目前摆在他们面前的问题似乎还不少。如何让中国的消费者能够接受这一“外来者”？     

Action for telecommunications development: STAR: a European community programme

This article describes the European Communities' STAR programme: Special Telecommunications Action for Regional Development. It begins by situating STAR in the context of European Community policy, and explains how Community financial instruments are being used. The analysis which led to the formulation of the programme is briefly described, and an outline is provided of the main components of the regulation establishing the programme. The article concludes by presenting the current status of STAR activity.     

Conceptualizing digital and physical connectivity: The position of European cities in Internet backbone and air traffic flows

‘Digital’ telecommunication flows and ‘physical’ corporeal flows provide researchers with comprehensive indicators of the economic interactions between cities. However, previous research drawing on telecommunication-based measures of inter-urban connectivity has been hampered by inadequate conceptualizations and data. This paper draws on this observation to devise a new approach for measuring inter-urban connectivity based on a city’s insertion in Internet backbone networks. The straightforward example of air transport flows is thereby used to outline this approach. To investigate telecommunication and air passenger flows, use is made of European statistics on Internet eXchange Points and the MIDT airline database respectively. The approach is illustrated through a systematic comparison of the position of European cities in both types of networks. It is found that European cities assume largely similar hierarchical levels in terms of digital and physical information flows, albeit that the digital connectivity of centrally located European cities is often somewhat higher than that of peripheral cities with a similar levels of physical connectivity.     

The contribution of manufacturing to shortening design cycle times

Shortening design cycle times, without increasing design costs or sacrificing quality has become an important management goal. In this paper, we will provide a short overview of the literature on shortening design cycle times. Building on this, we want to establish how manufacturing and the manufacturing/R&D interface can contribute to shorter development cycle times. The European Manufacturing Futures database will be used to test some of the literature findings on a sample of large European Manufacturers.     

Multiple scenario approach and strategic behaviour in European companies

Nowadays, scenarios are a popular subject in management literature. However, information available about how extensively scenarios are used and the possible motives for their use, as well as their effects on strategic behaviour in companies, has hitherto been very limited. Results of a survey among Fortune's top 1000 companies in the U.S.A. in 1977 and 1981 showed a growing corporate interest in scenarios. A survey of the use of scenarios in large Western European companies in 1981 provided evidence of similar interest in Europe. In this article, results of the European survey are presented and the differences between user and non-user attitudes towards the future among European firms analysed and the implications for strategic behaviour outlined.     

Payment Card Interchange Fees and Price Discrimination

We consider the implications of platform price discrimination in the context of card platforms. Despite the platform's ability to price discriminate, we show that it will set fees for card usage that are too low, resulting in excessive usage of cards. We show this bias remains even if card fees (or rewards) can be conditioned on each type of retailer that the cardholder transacts with. We use our model to consider the European Commission's objection to the rules card platforms have used to sustain differential interchange fees across European countries.     

Environmental Tax Reform in the European Union: Impact on CO2 Emissions and the Economy

Economic instruments in environmental policy try to correct prices in order to internalise externalities. The environmental tax reform is a specific policy approach, which raises taxation of ‘bads’ such as resource use or emissions and reduces other taxes on ‘goods’ such as labour that are felt as a burden so that the total tax revenue remains constant. On a small scale some European countries introduced this instrument, and the results have been evaluated broadly positive by the literature. The paper at hand gives answers to the question, what might happen to CO₂ emissions and the economy, if this instrument would be used in all European countries in a scale that allows reaching the European CO₂ emission targets. The instrument of the analysis is the global economy-energy-environment model GINFORS. The simulation results show that the targets can be met with only small losses in GDP and gains in employment.     

Measurement and characterisation of the Digital Divide of Spanish regions at enterprise level. A comparative analysis with the European context

Until now, a reduced number of research is observed on the adoption and use of ICTs in enterprises and on the digital divide (DD) between them at regional scale in Europe. What is meant by DD are the differences in the levels of digital development of the enterprises; being the digital development the degree of adoption and use of ICTs and e-commerce by the firms. The aim of this piece of work is to characterise and measure the DD in the Spanish regions and those in the countries of the European Union based on the data of their enterprises with more than 10 employees which have used ICTs. The methodology is developed in the following stages: 1) Construction of a synthetic index of digital development (Enterprise Digital Development Index –EDDI-) for countries in the EU and Spanish regions. The production of this index is carried out based on the factors obtained with the factor analysis (FA) with the aim of identifying the key variables which define the different EDDI components. These variables come from the “Community survey on ICT usage and e-commerce in enterprises” of Eurostat. 2) Classification of Spanish regions into the groups of European countries with a similar level of EDDI components based on the discriminant analysis. Those groups are previously obtained by using cluster analysis. And 3) Comparative analysis of the DD between the Spanish regions and those in countries of the EU based on EDDI components and the identified groups. The study provides a synthetic index (EDDI) at European scale comprising 3 dimensions which permits obtaining: i) a ranking from more to less digital development of countries and regions permitting the measurement of the DD among them is established; and ii) a typology of European countries and Spanish regions is defined according to the 3 dimensions of EDDI. The main results of this piece of work show that the Spanish regions at enterprise level: i) are in a medium or higher level of digital development than their European counterparts, presenting, furthermore, a lower DD between them in relation to what happens in European countries; ii) stand out for having a higher digital inclusion than European countries in the ICTs related to infrastructures of internet access and for the interaction with the public authorities; and iii) have a digital development deficit in the integration of ICTs for e-commerce.     

The Performance of European Works Councils in Engineering: Perspectives of the Employee Representatives

Drawing on a structured survey of European works council representatives within the engineering industry, this paper identifies a number of shortfalls in the performance of European works councils. In particular, it shows that European works council representatives retain a national rather than a European point of reference and are critical of the integration of European works councils with other aspects of trade union organization and activity. In contrast, European works council representatives welcome the transparency within multinational companies introduced by the directive. The paper concludes in terms of a range of revisions that might usefully be introduced to improve the performance of the directive.     

An assessment of the equality of access and no-regulation approaches to next generation networks

The European Commission believes that for the regulation of next generation fixed telecommunications networks the continuity approach is preferable to the equality of access approach and the no-regulation approach. According to the European Commission, (i) functional separation eliminates discrimination and promotes competition, but should only be used as a measure of last resort because it involves various complex trade-offs, whereas (ii) the no-regulation approach fosters investment, at the cost of sacrificing competition. The article agrees that functional separation involves complex trade-offs but disputes the assertion that functional separation necessarily eliminates discrimination and promotes competition. In addition, the article also establishes conditions under which the no-regulation approach does not reduce competition.     

More Uncertainties: German Unions Facing 1992

West German unions' early endorsement of European integration set them apart from many other European unions, but it was in agreement with German business and governments. The completion of the European Internal Market in 1992 and the weakness of its "Social Dimension" are likely negatively to affect German unions' national institutional power base. Nevertheless, German unions have little choice but to continue to support integration at the European level.     

The evolution of cognitive radio technology in Europe: Regulatory and standardization aspects

Cognitive radio (CR) is considered a promising technology that could provide important benefits in the telecommunication domain. In Europe, the number of research projects, standardization activities and public consultations by the European Commission and regulatory authorities testify to the growing interest in CR. The introduction of CR in the telecommunication market may require new regulations or changes to the way spectrum is licensed and the conditions under which it can be used. The concepts of CR can be applied to various operational scenarios, which are described in this paper.This paper identifies the main challenges for the deployment of CR technology in Europe, provides an overview of the activities by European regulatory and standardization bodies to address the identified challenges and describes a roadmap with potential actions to support the adoption of CR technology.     

BPR implementation in Europe: the adaptation of a management concept

This paper analyses Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) implementation in 20 European firms. In contrast with the radical postulates of the early orthodox literature, the find- ings reveal that BPR was used in a preventive way, with implementation time lengths directly related to the scope of the organisational changes attempted and generating moderately positive results according to corporate performance indicators, with relatively low social cost.     

Airline hubs in the Single European Market: A benchmark analysis

‘Liberalization’ of European air markets could allow the formation of airline hubs to obtain the associated economies of scope and scale. This study simulates the formation of these hubs. A model of U.S. hub location, estimated as a function of demographic and economic characteristics, is applied to European cities to identify likely hub locations. The results provide a benchmark for evaluating future airline competition in the Single European Market. However, the study is only an approximate prediction of hub location because political and structural constraints will keep the European air market from developing the competitive atmosphere found in the U.S..     

The European Commission's approach to mergers involving software-based platforms: Towards a better understanding of platform power

The European Commission’s digital single market policies are increasingly concerned with the impact of so-called ‘platforms’ on competition in the internal market. Whereas the European Commission acknowledges the contributions of platform companies to innovation, it also sees actual and potential damages occurring from their powerful position. As such, the European Commission aims to strengthen the enforcement of its competition law rules in this area. The main research question is how the European Commission has been evaluating the competitive effects of platforms under merger control and whether its approach is adequate to address the manifold concerns related to platforms and competition. Based on a case study analysis, we conclude that the European Commission (1) recognises the platform circumstance, their essential intermediary role in the digital industry and the importance of maintaining fair competition; (2) its analysis has been slowly evolving becoming more granular; (3) platforms’ behaviour and not their size per se is most often the central concern; (4) the proposed Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act packages tackle platform concerns identified in the European Commission’s ex-ante analysis, signalling that its analysis seems to have inspired their creation.     

Accounting for National and Sectoral Variance in the Implementation of European Social Partner ‘Soft’ Law: The Cases of the Implementation of the Telework and Work‐Related Stress Agreements

This article investigates the factors that explicate the implementation of European social partner ‘soft’ framework agreements. The implementation of two such agreements, the Telework and Work‐Related Stress Agreements, in four countries and two sectors is investigated. Seven hypotheses, primarily derived from the study of generic European ‘soft’ law, about the factors that explain the implementation of European social partner ‘soft’ law are tested. The article concludes that European social partner ‘soft’ law is distinctive from generic European ‘soft’ law in that its successful implementation is contingent upon the extent the industrial relations system in which it is implemented is centralized and co‐ordinated.     

Regime Effects of EU Market Integration Policies on the UK Financial Sector

Standard equity capital market methods are used to estimate the share price effects in the UK market of the recent change in regime implied by passage of key provisions implementing the European single banking market. Empirical results indicate that events associated with increasing the likelihood of passage of the new Merger Control Regulation and the Second Banking Directive had positive valuation effects for the portfolio of UK firms involved in banking services.     

KfW/ZEW CO2 Panel: Vermeiden oder kaufen – Deutsche Unternehmen im Emissionshandel

The European Emission Trading Scheme (EU-ETS) is the first large-scale and inter-regional trading scheme for greenhouse gas emissions. It is seen as the central instrument of European climate policy. After a first testing-phase (2005–2007), the second trading period of the EU-ETS had started in 2008, with stronger incentives for investment in low-carbon technologies and carbon dioxide abatement. However, there is hardly any evidence how emissions trading fares in practice. The KfW/ZEW CO₂ Barometer shows that trading of emission permits is actively used by 75 percent of German companies, but the price-signals that stem from the EU-ETS were relatively weak so far—too weak to set strong incentives for carbon dioxide emission reductions on the company-level. Also in the case of the ‘clean development mechanism’ (CDM) which was introduced to promote emission reductions in developing counties, there is need for further development.     

European Integration and Transnational Management-Union Relations in the Enterprise

The Single European Market has generated considerable interest in the prospects for European-level management-union arrangements in transnational companies. European works councils have emerged in a small but growing number of transnationals. The circumstances in which companies might promote such arrangements are analysed. Attention is paid to whether companies are organized along international product or territorial lines and to their product diversification strategies. Transnationals will also be influenced by trade union pressure at European level and by aspects of the industrial relations system in their home country.     

Lopsided effects of telecom reforms on mobile markets in the enlarged EU: Evidence from dynamic quantile model

The European Union (EU) has recently been significantly enlarged with addition of ten countries, almost all from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). This was expected to enhance the performance of the mobile telecommunications industry in the accession countries and in turn to consolidate the highly fragmented European mobile telecoms market to finally reach the single market goal. However, the significant differences between mobile telecommunication performances from one country to another in the enlarged European area raise the issue of how optimal and durable the EU-level reforms have been. We use dynamic quantile regression methods to estimate the effects of mobile telecommunication reforms on the providers' performance in the EU enlargement context. This approach allows uncovering potential asymmetric effects of telecom reforms policy by letting the parameters of regressions vary across the conditional distribution of the sector's performance indicators. Using annual data from on 32 European countries from 1993 to 2011, we document asymmetrical responses to the reforms depending on the conditioning quantile at which they are calculated. Our results show that the effects of the generic and imposed European reforms are notably beneficial and larger for players in developed European countries characterized initially by real and higher degree of the reforms implementation. Accordingly, the success and durability of European reforms, especially in the new CEE member states, which often fail to comply with the pace of the reforms' adoption of industrialized European countries, is not guaranteed when countries specifications are not sufficiently taken into account. A final appealing result regarding the regress of the reform-performance relationship in the mobile markets after enlargement even for western countries attract attention on revising the Europe's current approach to telecoms regulation.