Do environmental regulations harm international competitiveness? In answer to this question, this book focuses on the impact of regulatory policies on competitiveness and employment at the firm level. It investigates the trade-off between environmental regulations and competitiveness across countries and regions throughout Europe, using the food processing industry as a case study.The authors compare and contrast the experiences of similar firms across Europe to examine the different costs firms face in applying environmental regulations and the different levels of competitiveness they achieve as a result. The investigation includes a detailed and thorough comparison of the European food processing industries using 67 company case studies. The results show that firms can achieve national or international levels of competitiveness even when they face a relatively unfavourable level of regulatory costs. These important findings will almost certainly have general application to small and medium sized firms in other industries. This book will be welcomed by policymakers, practitioners, researchers and academics interested in industrial economics, environmental management and environmental economics.

Trade and investment liberalization in the Pacific has highlighted the importance of structural competitiveness for both corporate executives and national policymakers. In Structural Competitiveness in the Pacific, a distinguished group of authors contributes to our understanding of patterns of structural competitiveness affecting trade and production links between East Asia and North America. Interaction between national policies and corporate strategies has given East Asian states clear advantages over North American competitors. The place of the Pacific in the world economy, infrastructures and financial structures in the region, American and Japanese structural competitiveness, sourcing by Japanese and American multinationals in the Pacific, as well as structural interdependencies and the potential for collective management across the region are all addressed in this volume. Unlike previous comparative work addressing the decline in American competitiveness, Structural Competitiveness in the Pacific takes into account the significance of transnational production by international firms and places US problems in a regional comparative context which includes Japan and the industrializing East Asian states.

This book develops new theoretical perspectives on the economics and politics of innovation and knowledge in order to capture new trends in modern capitalism. It shows how giant corporations establish themselves as intellectual monopolies and how each of them builds and controls its own corporate innovation system. It presents an analysis of a new form of production where Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft, and their counterparts in China, extract value and appropriate intellectual rents through privileged access to AI algorithms trained by data from organizations and individuals all around the world. These companies' specific form of production and rent-seeking takes place at the global level and challenges national governments trying to regulate intellectual monopolies and attempting to build stronger national innovation systems. It is within this context that the authors provide new insights on the complex interplay between corporate and national innovation systems by looking at the US-China conflict, understood as a struggle for global technological supremacy. The book ends with alternative scenarios of global governance and advances policy recommendations as well as calls for social activism. This book will be of interest to students, academics and practitioners (both from national states and international organizations) and professionals working on innovation, digital capitalism and related topics.

Globalization brings far more benefits to the U.S. economy than it takes away. In a timely response to Friedman's The World is Flat and other books that fuel anxiety over globalization, William Gamble shows that both Europe and emerging economic powers like China and India have serious long-terms problems linked to their cultures, political structures, occasional instability, and state ownership of companies. These and other factors will eventually put a brake on the economic growth and manufacturing output of the Old World and hot emerging economies. As Gamble proves, American institutions, while imperfect, are stable, flexible, and dynamic--good news for U.S. workers and the economy overall. This book has the power to reframe the debate over immigration, protectionism, and trade imbalances. A steady stream of books, articles, and reports are ringing the death knell for American economic supremacy. The argument goes something like this: In a rapidly integrating global economy, technology and know-how travel at the speed of light, and nations with low-cost labor forces are replacing high-cost American workers in every industry. The next century will belong to China, India, a resurgent Russia, and other emerging regions. Hogwash, says Bill Gamble! Drawing from his research and many years in the trenches advising individual and institutional investors on legal, financial, political, and corporate issues, Gamble demonstrates that the forces of globalization are nothing new. Most important, as long as American institutions limit the power of interfering politicians and bureaucrats and protect free markets, the American economic system will guarantee resilience, competitiveness, andprosperity. The fundamental protections of property and free speech, a culture that promotes and rewards entrepreneurship, banking policies that make capital easily available, relative transparency in corporate accounting, universal access to education, and other elements, despite their flaws, are still more supportive of economic growth and wealth creation than can be found anywhere else. Through in-depth examples drawn from around the world and insights honed advising a diverse clientele, Gamble dispels common myths and misconceptions about American competitiveness and its future prospects. He also identifies potential threats to the U.S. system from within and assesses the ways in the U.S. ultimately stands benefit from the forces of globalization. In addition, this book: *Provides an international perspective by comparing U.S. institutions, structures, and practices to those in such hot spots as China, India, Russia, Eastern Europe, and Southeast Asia. *Addresses issues like outsourcing, entrepreneurship, immigration, and low-cost labor head on. *Offers insights based on a combination of rigorous research and practical expertise. *Presents complex ideas in an engaging and accessible style. Designed to stir up debate, this book is sure to open minds and help readers better understand and appreciate the institutions that have made the United States an economic powerhouse for two centuries.

"Jon and Andy lay out a road-map for great brand management, packed with the essentials of brand theory and practical tips to make it happen. It does for brand management what the Haynes workshop manuals do for cars." Peter Gowers, Chief Executive, InterContinental Hotels Group, Asia-Pacific "Brands are about difference and personality. This book really is different. It makes you think and makes you smile!" Peter Fisk, The Genius Works "Branding isn't rocket science but it sometimes pretends to be. Here's abook without such pretensions, a book to make you smile, learning while you smile." John Simmons, Director, The Writer "an enjoyable read full of practical tips. There is far too much jargon in business generally and in branding and communications in particular, this book is an entertaining antidote to that" Mike Lee, OBE, CEO Vero Communications Humorous, practical and everything you need to know about branding. This is a different kind of business book. You will find no jargon or dense, theory-laden text. Building a brand with impact is one of the most important tasks that any business faces. Few people understand how to actually go about creating an effective brand. This book is a no holds barred guide to what brand building is, what it isn't and exactly what you have to do to build your brand. Be inspired by real-life stories from the people who did and didn't mess with their logo and succeeded or failed as a result. Read the stories from big-name brands like Orange, M&S, Red Bull, Apple, Innocent, PwC and FCUK. There are numerous brand books but they either fall into the dull, worthy and theoretical which nobody reads or they tell case studies of famous brands which are soon out of date and which do not easily translate into practical advice. This book is unashamedly the antidote to that. It will tell you all you need to know about branding and entertain you at the same time.

Multinationals are increasingly taking internationalised approaches to the ways in which they generate new knowledge and develop innovative new products from it in the pursuit of global competitiveness. These new perspectives in MNEs' technological behaviour open up important additional possibilities for those countries that play host to operations of these companies. This book analyses in detail the new dimensions in MNEs' approach to global competitiveness and the role played in this by overseas R & D units, and discusses the implications of this for host countries' growth and welfare.

The Second Chinese Revolution explores some of the keys to understanding China, a country whose evolution already affects all of us. Beginning in 1978 - when China's GDP was only 6% of the USA's - the author takes us through the different aspects that have played a fundamental role in the country's change: China's eruption in world markets in the background of the West's economic crisis; its obsession with science and technology and its relentless march towards a 'knowledge society'; and a reassessment of the Tiananmen Square events of June 1989 and the ongoing debate on political reform. The book also includes a comparative analysis of the reforms in China and Russia in the last decades.

This book provides an introduction to the concept of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial business management. It covers many elements of the entrepreneurial management discipline including choosing a business, organizing, financing, marketing, developing an offering that the market will value, and growing the business in all its dimensions.

Pepsi-Cola and Coca-Cola are widely recognized as being two of the premier marketing companies in the world. They have introduced a great variety of new products and package types. They have raised celebrity advertising to a new level. Coca-Cola even changed the formula for Coke. These and other developments in the carbonated soft drink industry came about from major strategy changes by Pepsi-Cola and Coca-Cola. Rather than simply reacting to a changing competitive environment, PepsiCo and The Coca-Cola Company have created and implemented strategies that turned the new environment to their advantage. Although Pepsi-Cola attacked Coca-Cola's dominance and achieved near-parity with Coke in bottled soft drinks, both Coke and Pepsi have benefitted from fighting the Cola Wars. The battle between them has stimulated continuing growth in an industry regularly pronounced by the experts for many years to be on the verge of maturity.

One widely ignored aspect of the Cola Wars is the ongoing transformation of the soft drink distribution systems of Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola from systems of independent bottlers to captive bottling subsidiaries. Chandler advanced the hypothesis that successful firms develop strategies to take advantage of new opportunities, and that those strategies then determine the organizational structure required for effective implementation. We find that changes in the organization of the two leading carbonated soft drink firms' distribution systems provide support for Chandler's hypothesis. The independent bottling systems were a unique and effective organization for many decades. Changes in the external environment, however, raised the costs of transacting between the parent concentrate manufacturers and their independent bottlers. In particular, the new competitive environment required rapidly changing product and marketing strategies, and the implementation of these strategies required the close cooperation of the distribution systems. In effect, Coke and Pepsi needed to change the organization of their distribution systems to implement effectively the strategies that stimulated the new competitive environment, because the relative transaction costs of the independent bottling systems in the new environment were too high. The book presents a strategic analysis of the history of the industry.

Cooperative activities, or joint ventures, are becoming increasingly popular as instruments of strategic action. But although more and more companies are entering into these alliances full of hope and enthusiasm, past experience shows that most will likely experience the disillusionment of having their ventures fall apart. William Murphy contends that our understanding of the strategic management of collective action needs improvement if the hoped for benefits of cooperation are to be realized. In this work, he examines the management of a specific type of cooperative action that has become critically important to company and national competitiveness: the cooperative research venture.

Murphy thoroughly details this new class of inter-firm cooperation to produce knowledge, which has only recently been made possible by changes in the competitive and legal environments. He begins with an introduction and review of the prior literature on cooperative ventures, followed by an extensive survey of competition and cooperation. The management challenges of cooperative research, particularly the need to forge a consensus among participants, are examined in a brief chapter, which precedes four studies of specific cooperative ventures: the Chemical Industry Institute of Toxicology, the Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation, Sematech, and U.S. Memories. A final chapter draws conclusions and lessons from the examples, and three appendixes detail antitrust laws applicable to cooperative ventures, Japanese and European microelectronic and computer ventures, and cooperative ventures under NCRA. This work will be an important resource for executives and managers in companies involved in research and development, as well as for college courses in business and economics. Public and academic libraries will also find it to be a valuable addition to their collections.

This book studies the dynamics of alliance group formation in technology-based networks. The author attempts to develop the concept of alliance blocks from a social network perspective, and explores the relationship between alliance block membership and innovative performance in a changing technological environment. The book demonstrates that as an alliance network grows, the likelihood of alliance block formation also increases. The author presents evidence that pursuing a block membership strategy favourably affects innovative performance. This is true for conditions of both cumulative and disruptive technological change. However, over time the technology profiles of alliance block members tend to become more similar, which can eventually lead to a reduction in innovative activity. She also reveals that, when compared to their non-member counterparts, firms in alliance blocks are likely to apply for more patents, hold more central positions in the network, have larger revenues and undertake more R&D intensive research. In addition, they are also inclined to originate from an Asian background. This is the first book to propose a well-developed theoretical framework, supported by empirical evidence, to explain alliance block formation processes and their effect on innovative performance. As such, it fills a substantial gap in the literature on competitive rivalry among alliances, an increasingly important area of research. It will be essential reading for academics and practitioners in the fields of industrial organization, strategic management, technological alliances, competition and innovation studies.

Martin Starr addresses two of the most important concerns in business today: the globalization of commerce and the problem that U.S. business is having competing with other companies worldwide. Starr approaches these problems from the standpoint of how American corporations can develop business alliances with corporations elsewhere, rather than competing with them, and how they can build on their own strengths by incorporating the strengths of others. He fully analyzes the massive changes that are creating a new global-based economy, and offers strategies and tactics that can help corporate America to improve its global standing.

Following a brief introductory essay, the work is divided into four main sections. Part I looks at the causes of economic turmoil, focusing on the long-wave cycles of technological change that have placed the industrialized United States at a disadvantage. Part II examines the effects of technological change, in particular the increasing need for flexible manufacturing systems and new methods of management. The reorganization of established firms, and the use of global corporate alliances, is the focus of Part III, while Part IV explores timing, the new competitive variable of the 1990s, and the strategies of time-based management. Also included are two research reports that describe how Japanese firms employ alliances and how foreign firms view the effect of alliances. This book will be an essential resource for managers and executives in all types of corporations, as well as for students in business and related fields.

This is the first book to address the real issues and problems confronting the competitive intelligence industry today. It pinpoints the reason why competitive intelligence is on hold in corporate America and offers practical advice and solutions to position competitive intelligence systems as the systems of choice for intelligence users. The key is to stimulate demand and the author tells us why and how. A must read for intelligence providers, for managers and intelligence users, and for management program faculty and students in our colleges and universities. The author identifies missing links in the system--purpose, domain, terminology, and research. He identifies value-added opportunities for strengthening competitive intelligence programs by focusing on user needs and benefits. How to define and measure the benefits of a Competitive Intelligence program, as the primary source of competitive advantage, the key question plaguing intelligence providers, is addressed and answered.

Changing social values, skepticism of corporate behavior, and regulation are forcing firms to recognize the impact of these issues on potential success. Political and social action can impact dramatically on individual firms and industry-wide competitiveness by changing the rules by which competition occurs. In addition, policies that restrict trade in the international arena, regulatory interventions that impose additional costs, and public interest group activities that challenge the legitimacy of the firm and industry product and service offerings also alter the rules of competition. Firms and industries that learn to play by the new rules of engagement can significantly improve their competitive positioning within the economy. There has been almost nothing written on the topic of industry political strategy. As competition moves increasingly to a global scene, the businesses will have to deal with more complex social and political interactions.

Business academicians and business managers have become more interested in the impact of social and political issues on success. Until this work, there has been a lack of models of how to deal with the general issue. In addition, formulations of strategies and tactics have been lacking before this work along with the means of their implementation.

Global Solutions for Teams is a strategy-packed resource essential for multinational organizations or any company that is considering going global. The book's cultural guidelines and case examples of leading multinational corporations demonstrate how cross-cultural teams can overcome a disjointed state of cultural collision...and progress to the more productive stages of coexistence and finally, collaboration. As workplace borders expand and the mobility of the workforce increases, new techniques are needed to manage transnational teams. Global Solutions for Teams shares these concepts, as well as the approaches that can position a company more competitively now - and well into the 21st century.

Uncertainty in Entrepreneurial Decision Making fills an existing gap in understanding three key concepts of business management: entrepreneurship, uncertainty, and strategy. By extending the impact of uncertainty on entrepreneurship and the role of strategy in reducing uncertainty, Petrakis and Konstantakopoulou emphasize that uncertainty can be converted into creative advantage. Given that the business environment is changing both very quickly and very often, any wrong decisions taken can lead to devastation. This exciting new volume explains the reasons why we cannot see the complete the future and our position in it. This uncertainty affects entrepreneurship and how it can be turned into a competitive advantage for businesses sustainability.

"Dogfight "examines the intense rivalry of the past two decades between the European Airbus consortium and the major U.S. aircraft manufacturers, Boeing and McDonnell Douglas. From the Americans' point of view, Airbus has been heavily subsidized by its supporting governments--indeed nearly nationalized--and not exposed to the risks and disciplines of the market place. From the European perspective, Airbus has been a standard-bearer for European technological, manufacturing, and marketing prowess in the face of historical American industrial domination. This dispute has spilled over the bounds of the purely commercial and become a serious transatlantic trade issue.

Although there has been a certain amount of admiring writing about Airbus in Europe, there has been no previous attempt to weigh the issues even-handedly by exploring them on both sides of the Atlantic. Dogfight examines the roots of the conflict in the middle sixties and carries the story forward to the tentative agreement on some of the outstanding issues reached by the U.S. administration and the European Commission in the spring of 1992. In placing the controversy in its political and international context, the author has had access to many of the key players in the industry in both Europe and the United States and has interviewed a large number of politicians, officials, and senior airline and aircraft executives.

Business intelligence has always been considered an essential ingredient for success. However, it is not until recently that the technology has enabled organizations to generate and deploy intelligence for global competition. These technologies can be leveraged to create the intelligent enterprises of the 21st century that will not only provide excellent and customized services to their customers, but will also create business efficiency for building relationships with suppliers and other business partners on a long term basis. Creating such intelligent enterprises requires the understanding and integration of diverse enterprise components into cohesive intelligent systems. Anticipating that future enterprises need to become intelligent, Intelligent Enterprises of the 21st Century brings together the experiences and knowledge from many parts of the world to provide a compendium of high quality theoretical and applied concepts, methodologies, and techniques that help diffuse knowledge and skills required to create and manage intelligent enterprises of the 21st century for gaining sustainable competitive advantage in a global environment. This book is a comprehensive compilation of the state of the art vision and thought processes needed to design and manage globally competitive business organizations.

This volume brings together fourteen papers by leading economists, regulators, and industry practitioners presented at a historic conference on natural gas deregulation. From the origins of gas regulation in the last century to a reexamination of the policy reforms of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) over the last decade, these essays constitute a primer on today's major gas policy issues. These topics include the case for incentive regulation, the costs and benefits of mandatory open-access transportation, the methodology used for determining "workably competitive" markets, lessons from light-handed intrastate regulation, new transactions in the gas market, and private contracting to bypass regulation. Many of these issues and insights can be applied to restructuring other industries such as electric power and telecommunications. Academics and industry practitioners alike will find this book an indispensable reference guide to the history of gas regulation, the recent industry restructuring, and the options for future regulatory reform toward greater market reliance.

The theory of antimarket behavior proposes that economic behavior to escape or control market competition is a normal part of free enterprise. The most common state of economic competition in the modern economy reflects both market and antimarket forces. A better general economic model must include these dynamics, and normative economics must recognize the welfare implications of innovation and variety engendered by the ability to escape market forces. The theory of antimarket economics is supported with evidence from current events, expectations and information theory, public choice, and institutional, environmental and other economic fields.

In Germany's Economic Renaissance, veteran European correspondent Jack Ewing of The International New York Times explains how a country with some of the highest labor and energy costs in the world beat the odds to become the third-largest exporter of manufactured goods, after China and the United States. Men and women who manage German companies both big and small explain how any company can behave like a multinational, as well as the secrets of conquering the high end of the market where quality is more important than price. Both informative and entertaining, filled with rich character studies, this book is essential reading for everyone wondering how to bring factories - and the jobs they provide - back to American shores.

Given the increase in large scale mergers throughout the world, this book addresses the growing problem of restricted competition through collusion and the perennial debate surrounding the use of government subsidies for industries to further national interests. The aims of the book are threefold; firstly, to elucidate the antecedents of competition policy in the US and Europe and to demonstrate how far a convergence of principles has developed. Secondly, to outline the theory of industrial organisation as a major tool to devise an appropriate policy, and thirdly, to discuss the practice of competition policy in the US, individual European countries and the EC as a whole, in terms of collusion, mergers and vertical restraints. Manfred Neumann comprehensively explores the economic arguments that justify the need for competition policy. He considers the historical development of competition policy and the relationship between competition policy and the objectives of governmental policy as a whole. In conclusion, he argues that competition policy should be regarded as a constituent part of economic and social policy. This enlightening and comprehensive book will be of great value to students, researchers and practitioners of law, corporate strategy and industrial and political economics.