FOCUS: The Volkswagen Experience of Investing in Central Europe

The Chairman of Volkswagen's Board of Management made the following presentation in London last November at a Conference on'Business and Moral Standards in Post-Communist Europe', held under the auspices of the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster and sponsored by the Sedgwick Group and KPMG Peat Marwick. Dr Hahn's lecture is reproduced with permission.     

Empowering the consumer movement in central and eastern Europe: Experiences of a United Germany

In this paper, the author, an official of the German consumer association AgV, examines recent developments in consumer protection in eastern Germany. The background, the opening of the borders and the rapid transition to a market economy, with the ensuing dramatic increase in the demand for information and counselling, is described, and the concrete steps taken to establish consumer policy and protection in the former GDR, are presented.

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Anstöe für die Verbraucherbewegung in Zentral- und Osteuropa: Erfahrungen im geeinten Deutschland

Zusammenfassung Die Autorin, Geschaftsführerin der Deutschen Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Verbraucherverbände (AgV) behandelt in diesem Beitrag neue Entwicklungen des Verbraucherschutzes in Ostdeutschland. Der Hindergrund dieser Entwicklung, die Öffnung der Grenzen, der schnelle Übergang von der Plan- zur Marktwirtschaft, wird ebenso beschrieben wie der sich daraus ergebende dramatische Anstieg des Bedarfes nach Verbraucherinformation und beratung. Vorgestellt werden die konkreten Schritte auf dem Weg zum Aufbau eines Systems der Verbraucherpolitik und des Verbraucherschutzes in den Ländern der früheren DDR.

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Anne-Lore Köhne is Director of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Verbraucherverbände (AgV), Heilsbachstrasse 20, D-5300 Bonn 1, Federal Republic of Germany.This paper was first presented at the 13th World Congress of the International Organization of Consumers Unions, Hong Kong, 8–12 July 1991.     

FOCUS: A New French Course in Business Ethics

The Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Rennes has recently introduced a final year group-taught compulsory course in Business Ethics. Its organisers here describe and discuss their aims, methods and results. Michael Brent is Head of the Human Resources Department at Groupe ESC Rennes, 2 rue Robert-d'Arbrissel, 35065 Rennes, and has an MA in Philosophy and diplomas in business and marketing, as well as several years European consultancy experience. Susan Grinsted teaches production management and related subjects at Rennes, with a first degree in Metallurgy and a PhD in Engineering as well as several years UK industrial experience and a previous appointment at Warwick University, England.     

FOCUS: A Comparison of Business Ethics in North America and Continental Europe

The author of this major study compares the significantly different approaches to business ethics on both sides of the Atlantic and considers what they have to learn from each other. He has considerable experience of business ethics in both Europe and North America, having taught and researched the subject at the University of St Gallen in his native Switzerland before his appointment as Professor of International Business Ethics in the College of Business Administration, University of Notre Dame, Indiana 46556, USA. Professor Enderle was also the founding Honorary Treasurer of the European Business Ethics Network and is an Associate Editor of this Review.     

FOCUS: Business Ethics in Europe Current Developments in German Business Ethics

Germany is at the leading edge of European reflection on the nature and requirements of ethical business. Two scholars in the field provide a survey of the main lines of discussion in the current German business ethics scene, and discuss three important books which are helping set the scene for further developments. Prof. Dr. Horst Steinmann holds the Chair for Business Administration and Management at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Lange Gasse 20, D-90403 Nürnberg, and Dipl.-Hdl. Brigitte Kustermann is research assistant to the same chair.     

The United Germany in The Single European Market

Dr Hermann von Richthofen, German Ambassador in London 1988–1993, now German Ambassador to NATO, spoke at the second LSE Business Performance Lecture on 29 January 1992 about the radical changes taking place in Europe. In particular, the Ambassador stressed that Germany's integration is an inseparable part of Europe's integration and will provide opportunities not only for Germany but also for the rest of Europe.     

Economy and “New Economy” in the United States and Germany

The expression “New Economy” is used inconsistently. This article reviews the driving forces of the US boom of the 1990s, examining the changes introduced in the period and before, focusing on the IT sector and new technologies. The “New Economy” is not just the new sectors, but changes in the overall economy emanating from them. These changes will not evaporate in an economic slowdown. Comparisons of the USA with Germany and Europe illustrate that the “New Economy” will also continue to develop there on the foundations already laid.     

A View on the United States from Europe

The recent behaviour of the U.S. economy poses two conundrums: short-term interest rates are much lower than would normally be expected, and the yield curve is flat. These suggest to many European observers that U.S. economic prospects are not as rosy as often depicted. In particular, deficits in the federal budget and the current account are not sustainable in European eyes; and significant Fed tightening will be necessary, thus causing a significant deceleration of U.S. growth.JEL Classification E200,E600     

Economics in Europe and the United States

Abstract

Business disciplines, including international business, are influenced by economics. This paper examines the facilitating role played by the English language in the dissemination of works in economics and attempts to show that authors who use English gain significant advantage over others. A look into the backgrounds of Nobel Prize winning economists and the predominance of American and British journals lend support to this view. Also, the overwhelming influence of quantitative neo-classical economics, which has gained great strength in the United States, seems to spread to the rest of the world. Still, international business is markedly different from economics not only in content but also in its relationship with other social sciences.     

FOCUS: New Ethics in a Future Dutch Health Market

Changes being introduced to deregulate the Dutch health care system after decades of extensive state control are to be welcomed, and will in future require consumers to be 'well-informed, cost-conscious and assertive patients, who are aware of their responsibility for their own health.' R.B. Kool MD, PhD and E.J.J.M. Kimman PhD are attached to the Department of Business Ethics in the Faculty of Economics and Econometrics at The Free University, P.O. Box 7161, 10107 MC Amsterdam.     

East Asian FDI in Europe and Germany

During the 1980s foreign direct investment (FDI) expanded remarkably. Simultaneously, the regional structure of foreign direct investment changed. This relationship is discernible among industrial countries, as well as between industrial and developing countries. Of particular importance is the interface of foreign trade relations between the “Triad” and the economically dynamic East Asian and Pacific area. This article highlights, in particular, foreign investment coming from Eastern Asia into Europe and Germany.     

The New Deal in Services - A Challenge for Europe

This article is based upon surveys on services and their development carried out by 15 European research centres, within the context of the FASTprogramme of the European Communities' Committee. After an analysis of why the question of services is the object of growing attention on the part of governments, some of the aspects analysed by FAST, such as the new technology/service interaction and the change in the productive system are considered, and the implications of these evolutions for the community policies are discussed.     

Scoring: New Legislation in Germany

Data protection has become an increasingly important aspect of consumer policy in recent years in Germany. One of the most interesting subjects under discussion was that of scoring. Scoring attempts to give a prognosis as to whether a consumer is willing and able to repay a given kind of credit. While the USA already had specific regulations on scoring, there was no such equivalent in Germany, especially with regard to consumer rights on transparency. In 2009, the German parliament approved a specific regulation under the Data Protection Act on scoring which came into effect on 1 April 2010. This new law set standards for scoring and granted transparency rights to consumers. One of the effects has been that large numbers of consumers have since availed of these new rights and addressed scoring agencies in order to receive information on their scores.     

A New Strategy for Europe

WWWforEurope has developed a comprehensive strategy to set Europe on a path to a socio-ecological transition. The strategy begins by renouncing the long-established concept of using GDP growth figures as the benchmark for economic and societal progress. In contrast, it sets “well-being in a sustainable environment” as the optimal benchmark for economic performance and social progress.     

参加欧洲博览会,德国占尽天时地利

举办国际博览会,欧洲是最佳的选择地。国际上主要的行业在欧洲都有博览会,并且也在世界其他地方建立了小规模的博览会。你可在汉诺威CeBIT或贝斯尔德（Baselworld)参展你的IT产品,在瑞士或巴塞尔（Basel）参加钟表珠宝博览会,或在巴黎视觉纺织品展览会（Premiere Vision）上展示你的产品。在这些地方,你能获得大量观众并可从事世界范围内的营销活动。     

FOCUS: Women in Business - A Select Bibliography

Sources include the data-base of the Institute of Management Information Centre, Management House, Cottingham Road, Corby, Northants NN17 1TT, England (tel 0536 204222), to whom acknowledgement is made.     

The Emergence of Big Business: The Largest Corporate Employers of Labour in the United Kingdom,Germany and the United States c. 1907 1

This article, which builds on previous studies published in Business History, documents the largest employers of labour in the Edwardian United Kingdom. It provides a more comprehensive coverage than hitherto by indicating several important firms which have previously escaped enumeration. More specifically, it demonstrates the neglected importance of several large companies in the coal industry and in metallurgy. With the identification of large employers in Wales, Scotland and the north-east of England, it also redresses an imbalance caused by previous under-enumeration of large firms in ‘Outer Britain’. This more comprehensive coverage also contributes to analysis of several aspects of big business in twentieth-century Britain: first, it contributes to analysis of concentration, analysis which can be undertaken for the whole economy or with reference to specific sectors; second, it reveals firms which exhibited economic dynamism, stasis or decline; third, it is indicative of the impact of internal growth and amalgamation for individual companies; fourth, it discloses many of the firms which would have had recourse to an internal labour market. An international perspective is adopted by comparative analysis of similar developments in Britain's major rivals, the USA and Germany. All told, it sheds important light on both the emergence of big business and the historiography of this phenomenon, reaffirming a revisionist view that British companies were larger and more varied in their activities than previously suggested.