Taming the Chinese Dragon: A Promising Cornerstone for Transatlantic Trade Cooperation?

Intereconomics - The desire of many policymakers to tame the Chinese Dragon is apparent. But what is particularly disappointing is the little, if any, reflection on how to induce the government in...     

International Cartel Enforcement: Lessons from the 1990s

The enforcement record of the 1990s has demonstrated that international private cartels are neither relics of the past nor do they always fall quickly under the weight of their own incentive problems. Of a sample of forty cartels prosecuted by the United States and European Inion in the 1990s, twenty‐four cartels lasted at least four years. And for the twenty of the cartels in this sample where sales data are available, the annual worldwide sales in the affected products exceeded US$30 billion. Prevailing national competition policies are oriented towards addressing harm done in domestic markets, and in some cases merely prohibit cartels without taking strong enforcement measures. In this paper we propose a sequence of reforms to national policies and to international cooperation that will strengthen the deterrents against international cartels. Furthermore, aggressive prosecution of cartels must be complemented by vigilance in other areas of competition policy. If not, firms will respond to the enhanced deterrents to cartelisation by merging or by taking other measures that lessen competitive pressures.     

To Go Or Not To Go? Ethical Perspectives on Tourism in an ‘Outpost of Tyranny’

For many years, the actions of Myanmar’s military government have provoked domestic discontent and strong condemnation overseas. The government is encouraging tourism in an attempt to legitimize its actions whilst generating valuable foreign currency. However, a number of organizations are urging people to avoid travel to Myanmar and thus prevent the military junta from obtaining the hard currency and global legitimacy it needs to survive. In this article, the ethical arguments for and against tourism in Myanmar are discussed, and for the first time the ethical perceptions of tourists themselves are explored. The study applied the Multidimensional Ethics Scale to a group of 376 Myanmar visitors, finding that respondents were generally in favor of tourism in Myanmar, but were uncomfortable with the ethical implications of their visit. Simon Hudson is an Associate Professor in the Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary. He has a marketing degree from Brighton, England, an MBA from California, and a PhD from Surrey, England. Prior to working in academia, he spent several years working in the tourism industry in Europe, and six years running his own business. Dr Hudson has published numerous journal articles and book chapters from his work, and has three books to his name; Snow Business, Sport & Adventure Tourism and Tourism & Hospitality Marketing.     

EU Commercial Policy in a Multipolar Trading System

In recent years the bipolar multilateral trading system of the post-war years has given way to a multipolar alternative. Although many specifics have yet to be determined, some contours of this new trade policy landscape are coming into focus. This article examines their implications for the EU's external commercial policy. Particular attention is given to both the state of business-government relations and the propensity to liberalise under the auspices of reciprocal trade agreements by Brazil, India, and China, the potential new poles of the world trading system. I thank John Curtis and Bob Wolfe for stimulating my thinking on this subject in a recent conversation on the multipolar trading system. I also thank Roderick Abbott, Richard Baldwin, Krishna Gupta, Bernard Hoekman, Patrick Low, and John Whalley for helpful comments on the first draft of this paper. I alone am responsible for the errors contained herein.     

Decision Support Systems in Marketing

The practical application of decision support systems in marketing is still in its infancy, even though academic research has been recommending the use of such systems for years. This is largely due to the lack of a single, generally applicable decision support system. The specific requirements and problems of management are too dissimilar to make the development of one universal decision support system feasible. However, improved PC performance, enhanced market survey methods such as conjoint measurement, and further developed programming tools permit the varying requirements to be fairly flexibly met. The following article describes state-of-the-art know-how regarding the practical utilization of such systems, and addresses the preconditions for employing them. We have included many examples gathered from our own experience with numerous applications.     

Consumption,Resistance and Everyday Life: Ruptures and Continuities

This paper makes the case for regarding political consumption and more generally individual collective action as an instance of “everyday resistance.” In doing so it seeks to make connection with the political case against representative politics, one that stretches back to the origins of “official” politics at the start of the 19th century. Three moments in the history of the idea of everyday resistance are presented: Max Stirner’s egoistic individualism, Leo Tolstoy’s critique of violence, and Agnes Heller’s evocation of the everyday as a site of civic courage. The examples show the longevity and persistence in political thought of the idea of the individual as the locus of social power, one that puts it at odds with the normative assumptions of theories of representation. They also show the dangers of assuming that individual collective action can unproblematically be considered a form of participation in democratic processes as opposed to a resistance against incorporation into mainstream or “official” politics. Rights which are often at the core of efforts of activists become remodelled as a weapon of contingent “everyday” struggles as opposed to a universal or transcendentally posited phenomenon.

Self-referencing and consumer evaluations of larger-sized female models: A weight locus of control perspective

In two experiments, we show that the beliefs women have about the controllability of their weight (i.e., weight locus of control) influences their responses to advertisements featuring a larger-sized female model or a slim female model. Further, we examine self-referencing as a mechanism for these effects. Specifically, people who believe they can control their weight (“internals”), respond most favorably to slim models in advertising, and this favorable response is mediated by self-referencing. In contrast, people who feel powerless about their weight (“externals”), self-reference larger-sized models, but only prefer larger-sized models when the advertisement is for a non-fattening product. For fattening products, they exhibit a similar preference for larger-sized models and slim models. Together, these experiments shed light on the effect of model body size and the role of weight locus of control in influencing consumer attitudes.

The impact of the euro crisis on Switzerland

The euro area crisis is the main external factor threatening the Swiss economy. In 2010 and 2011, the Swiss franc was rapidly appreciating against the euro, causing a drop in exports, losses for the tourism business and a rise in unemployment. This paper gives an overview of developments in the euro area and explains the reasons for the strength of the franc, the effects it had on the economy and the measures taken to curtail its appreciation.     

The entrepreneur's mode of entry: Business takeover or new venture start?

We extend the well-known occupational choice model of entrepreneurship by analyzing the mode of entry. Individuals can become entrepreneurs by taking over established businesses or starting up new ventures from scratch. We argue that the new venture creation mode is associated with higher levels of schooling whereas managerial experience, new venture start-up capital requirements and industry level risk promote the takeover mode. A sample of data on entrepreneurs from The Netherlands provides broad support for these hypotheses, and also bears out a prediction that entrepreneurs whose parents run a family firm tend to invest the least in schooling. We go on to discuss the implications for researchers, entrepreneurs and public policy makers.