This book, by one of China's leading economists, explores the past and present of the RMB-the people's currency-as it is poised to compete with the dollar as the international reserve currency. Exchange rate movement and its pass-through to changes in domestic prices have been topics of wide concern among economists. However, relatively few studies have empirically investigated the relationship between exchange rate movements and China's international trade.This book fills this gap, using the general equilibrium theory of the western economic science norm systems, integrating the leading heterogeneous firm theory of international trade, attempting to set up a theoretical structural model for further prediction, and applying the data from sample cases to examine the structural model. This book will be of interest to economists, financiers, and China watchers.

This book comprehensively investigates the challenges to Myanmar's access to the global market. Myanmar is a late entrant in the global trade and investment scenario after years of isolation. However, it has large untapped potentials for trade and investment in minerals, agro and forest based industries, other labour intensive industries, services like tourism, IT, etc. Different chapters of the book explore the implication of democratic transition of Myanmar, the progress of Myanmar's industry and infrastructure, its international linkages and feasible options for integrating more in regional economic groups and also analyses how far Myanmar could exploit the global value chain. Although a number of reports have discussed sector specific prospects of Myanmar, this book is an authoritative work on these aspects for policy planners, academicians, researchers as well as potential investors.

* An essential resource for original business ideas, strategy and branding * How a single store grew into a $30-billion global market-leader * 100 per cent equity retained since the company was founded * Includes the IKEA briefing given to top management * The only warts-and-all view by a C-suite insider and right-hand man of its founder IKEA-branded products are bought all over the world - from the Americas to the Far East. This is the only book to tell from the inside with candour the IKEA story and how one man created its astonishing success from a modest furniture store in rural Sweden. Remarkably, the founding family still holds all of IKEA's shares. Its unorthodox business philosophy has proven so successful that IKEA's meteoric expansion continues to be financed from the company's cash flow only. Without attracting public scrutiny, its founder became the richest man in the world while making IKEA a unique phenomenon among fast-growing businesses.

The TPP was negotiated among 12 economically diverse countries, including some most highly developed and rich countries (i.e., the United States, Japan, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Singapore), some newly industrialized countries (i.e., Mexico and Malaysia), and some less-developed countries (i.e., Peru, Chile, and Vietnam). A new paradigm created in this context is that countries with vastly different economic developments can actually agree on a set of very high standards to regulate their economic activities, to liberalize their trade, and to protect intellectual property and foreign investment. The contents of the TPP also reflect its status of being a "new paradigm" as the "21st-Century Trade Agreement" and being a pioneer in rule making in many key regulatory areas. These include not only the improved and enhanced rules on traditional issues already covered by the WTO , such as goods, services, and IP rights, but also the carefully designed rules in areas that have never been addressed in the WTO or comprehensively covered in other FTAs , such as state-owned enterprises, electronic commerce, and labor and environmental issues. Although the United States has withdrawn from the TPP, the remaining countries are still putting efforts into establishing a TPP without the United States or a TPP with China. Economically speaking, the current 11 parties account for about 20 % of the global economy. If such agreement is put into force, there will be significant implications for the region, for the multilateral system, and even for other FTAs. The book addresses the potential of the TPP to change the ways trade and investments are conducted and argues for its potential to be the start of an international trade/economic law revolution. The book elaborates the relationship between the TPP and other existing trade agreements such as the WTO and other FTAs and explains how the TPP is to deal with traditional and new issues. Taken together, the authors argue that the implications of the TPP go beyond its current membership. It is hoped that the book will make an important contribution to the field of international economic law.

Enter the glamorous domain of world-famous jewellery house, Harry Winston, and discover the true rags-to-riches story of the immigrant family behind the phenomenon. Harry Winston’s famous slogan for his success was: “knowledge, courage, and the ability to finance.” King of Diamonds: The Flawless World of Harry Winston is the quintessential rags-to-riches success story of a very poor immigrant family emigrating from Ukraine to America. It is the story of how one man, Harry Winston, created a famous name with his company, founded in New York City in 1932. Winston became known for the owning and sales of very large diamonds. At one point, he owned a third of the world’s most famous gems, including the Hope Diamond, which earned him the moniker “King of Diamonds.” The book details how author Ronald Winston’s father got his start and began what would eventually become the most famous jewellery house in the world. Peek inside his first office, an upstairs Fifth Ave location, followed by subsequent locations in Rockefeller Centre, an office across from St. Patrick's Cathedral, and finally an image-building store on Fifth Avenue. Known as the “Jewelleer to the Stars,” Winston’s gems have appeared both on the Hollywood red carpet and in famous Hollywood films like Notorious starring Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant, The Graduate starring Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft, and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days starring Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey. Celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe, Viola Davis, Helen Mirren, Gwyneth Paltrow, and many more have worn Winston pieces on Hollywood’s biggest nights. The story then follows Harry Winston’s successor and heir, Ronald Winston, and his making of the family name. Under Ronald, the company’s name would not remain just famous, but would become world-famous. Ronald built locations in Los Angeles, Hawaii, Japan, and China. Ronald’s saga continued with his entry into the revolution in Angola, buying diamonds from its charismatic leader, Jonas Savimbi. Ronald Winston risked his life in order to make profits that repaid the death taxes caused by his father’s passing. In all, King of Diamonds is a joyous evocation of two men who added an innumerable amount to the image, story, and marketing of luxury products, as well as to the joy of people who love and purchase these objects. After all, as frequent Winston jewellery-wearer Marilyn Monroe would say, “diamonds are a girl’s best friend.”

Economic Life of Mexican Beach Vendors: Acapulco, Puerto Vallarta, and Cabo San Lucas is based on interviews with 82 men and 84 women who vend their wares on beaches in three Mexican tourist centers. Assuming that some people may actively choose self-employment in the informal or semi-informal economy, the employment and educational aspirations of the vendors and their levels of satisfaction with their work are explored. Most of the vendors had other family members who were also vendors, and 75 (45.2 percent) had 5 or more family members who vended, most usually on Mexican beaches. The vendors are aware of the forces of globalization (though they do not express these forces in those words), as revealed by their responses to questions as to how the current world economic recession has affected them. The beach vendors live in essentially segregated neighborhoods that can be considered apartheid-like, far from the tourist zones. Most of the vendors or their parents are rural-to-urban migrants and cross ethnic, linguistic, and economic borders as they migrate to and work in what have been called transnational social spaces. Of the vendors interviewed, 82 (49.4 percent) speak an indigenous language, and of these, 60 (73.2 percent) speak Nahuatl. The majority are from the state of Guerrero, but there were also Zapotec-speakers from Oaxaca. Both indigenous and non-indigenous women take part in beach vending. They are often wives, daughters, or sisters of male beach vendors, and they may be single, married, living in free union, or widowed. Their income is often of central importance to the household economy. This monograph aims to bring their stories to tourists and to scholars and students of tourism development and /or the informal or semi-informal economy in Mexican tourist centers.

Retail is the essential link between production and consumption. The dynamics of a nation's economy cannot be fully understood without a good understanding of its retail sector. This book is written to achieve three broad objectives. First, it provides a comprehensive assessment of the changes in consumption patterns in China, the current size of the Chinese consumer market, and the regional variations. Second, it presents an interpretation of the changes in the country's regulatory system and the corresponding policy initiatives, including the new state spatial strategies devised after its admission to the WTO. Third, it delivers a systematic analysis of the transformation of China's retail sector. This includes the entry and expansion of foreign retailers, the development of indigenous retail chains as a national strategy to modernize China's retail industry, and the changing retailer-supplier relations. This book is a useful reference not only for university students and faculty researchers, but also for international retailers and commercial real estate developers who contemplate business and investment opportunities in China.

Markets are at the origin of urban life as places for social, cultural and economic encounter evolving over centuries. Today, they have a particular value as mostly independent, non-corporate and often informal work spaces serving millions of the most vulnerable communities across the world. At the same time, markets have become fashionable destinations for 'foodies' and middle class consumers and tourists looking for authenticity and heritage. The confluence of these potentially contradictory actors and their interests turns markets into "contested spaces". Contested Markets, Contested Cities provides an analytical and multidisciplinary framework within which specific markets from Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Santiago de Chile, Quito, Sofia, Madrid, London and Leeds (UK) are explored. This pioneering and highly original work examines public markets from a perspective of contestation looking at their role in processes of gentrification but also in political mobilisation and urban justice.

Coping with Retail Giants critically analyzes the modern retail market and identifies how businesses gain the competitive edge over the major retailers that currently control the market. Dr. Samli argues that as society advances economically, consumers will seek better values generated by the retailing sector.

The emerging present is a fast-changing context for incumbent organizations, especially in market segments where online behavior is replacing physical proximity, and users engage with digital platforms for the acquisition of products and services. These are platforms that allow users to behave, to leave a mark, and to participate in the community of others, which are the values people now seek. Transforming Organizations for the Subscription Economy: Starting from Scratch aims to prepare executives for a world in which everything is social, augmented and autonomous; objects and spaces will have multiple purposes, capabilities and meanings. This is a new territory full of opportunity which is generally discussed only at the level of technology involved instead of the intellectual level, where the real understanding of the need for transformation resides. The book reveals ideas about what is possible if we transform the present. The narrative is organized around what is actual and what is potential; what is the probable future that we can arrive at through change, and what is the possible future that we can build through transformation. When engaging in transformation, the following strategic question develops: if you were designing your organization today, how would you design it? In other words, how would you go about it starting from scratch? This book provides the intellectual framework that empowers organizations to understand and navigate the emerging present, and to develop and deliver products and services of intrinsic value to users.

China's rise as an economic superpower has been inescapable. Statistical hyperbole has been accompanied by a plethora of highly publicized architectural forms that brand the regeneration of its increasingly globalized urban centres. Despite the sizeable body of literature that has accompanied China's modernization, the essence and trajectory of its contemporary cityscape remains difficult to grasp. This volume addresses a less explored aspect of China's urban rejuvenation - the prominence of the shopping mall as a keystone of its public spaces. Here, the presence of the built form most representative of Western capitalism's excess is one that makes explicit the tensions between China's Communist state and its ascent within the 'free' market. This book examines how these interrelationships are manifested in the culturally hybrid built form of the shopping mall and its role in contesting the 'public' space of the modern Chinese city. By viewing these interrelationships as collisions of global and local narratives, a more nuanced understanding of the shopping mall typology is explored. Much architectural criticism has failed to address the levels of meaning implicit within the shopping mall, yet it is a building type whose public popularity has guaranteed its endurance. Consequently, if architecture is to remain a relevant social art, a more holistic understanding of this phenomenon will be indispensable to the process of adapting to globalizing forces. This examination of Chinese shopping malls offers a timely and relevant case study of what is happening in all our cities today.

Written by marketing experts, this authoritative and comprehensive full-colour textbook made up of both accessible research and theory, real-world examples and case studies including Prada, Gucci and Burberry, provides students with an overview of the global fashion industry and fashion marketing, strategy, branding, communications, retailing and distribution, as well as the psychological factors involved in consuming fashion and luxury. The role of social media, celebrities and influencers such as Kim Kardashian and Lil Miquela are discussed, as is the ever-increasing role of ethical fashion and sustainability. The authors also offer an expanded view of fashion and luxury by moving beyond just clothing and apparel to include other fashionable and luxurious products and services, including technology. Packed with attractive visuals from fashion and culture, and accompanied by chapter summaries, questions and exercises, this textbook is essential reading for students studying fashion, luxury, marketing, management, retailing, branding and communications. Also provided for educators are supporting PowerPoint slides and an instructor's manual to support use of the textbook with students. Suitable for Fashion Marketing/Fashion Consumer Behaviour modules as well as a general text for Fashion Marketing programmes. The text will also appeal to Luxury programmes (MBA etc) and Retail Marketing modules (UG).

The late twentieth century saw rapid growth in consumption and the expansion of retailing and services. This was reflected in the number and type of stores and locations, from regional shopping malls and out-of-town superstores to concept and flagship stores. Retail design became an essential part of its success by creating distinctive brands and formats. However, the economic recession in the developed world and competition for consumer goods from the developing world has led to a re-assessment of the growth-led conventions of the retail industry. In addition, the rapid advance of e-commerce and online shopping has created new challenges for physical stores and the communication and distribution of retail brands. The book will provide students, researchers and practitioners a detailed assessment of retail design, taking a distinctive global approach to place design practice and theory in context. Chapters are devoted to key issues in the visual and structural contribution of design to retail brands and format development, and to the role of design in communication. In the course of the book, the authors engage with problems of convergence between retailing and other services and between the physical and virtual worlds, and also changing patterns of use, re-use and ownership of retail spaces and buildings. Retail Design concerns designers and organisations but also defines its broader contribution to society, culture and economy.

The origin of markets is a central issue in economics and economic history, but until now there has been no definitive reference source on the subject. This authoritative collection fills the gap by reprinting key papers analysing the evolution of markets over the past millennium. These papers, written by leading scholars in the field, relate market development to urban growth, the spread of the credit system, and the evolution of capitalism. They show that markets did not evolve in a purely spontaneous fashion, but as part of the planned development of market centres by local landowners and business people. This volume, with an original introduction by the editor, will serve as an excellent reference tool to students, academics and practitioners interested in the broad field of economics and economic history, and market evolution in particular.

In this pioneering study of the development of the Asian department store, economists, anthropologists and historians examine various aspects of retailing, business organization, networking and consumerism in the expanding economies of Asia.

What Does it Take to Be an Online Rockstar JVZoo is an amazing resource for entrepreneurs to turn their knowledge into digital products and recruit hundreds or thousands in their field to promote those products. Whether you are a business consultant, lawyer, real estate agent, or even someone who knows how to build the perfect birdhouse, JVZoo allows you to put your knowledge into a format that can be sold and profited from. While the rest of the world looks for jobs, JVZoo's members create their own. In the three years that JVZoo has been around, it's members have generated over $100 million in sales revenue. Our members are mainly people who started making money online as a part-time venture. Rockstars of JVZoo is a compilation of case studies, written by people just like you, people who listened to their inner voices and created jobs for themselves. Everything you are about to read in this book has been achieved by ordinary people who did that one thing that separates entrepreneurs from the rest of society: they took action.

This book, which is a mixture of fact, anecdote and quotation, describes the author's meandering exploration of some of the best of England's provincial second-hand bookshops, from Newcastle-upon-Tyne to the Isles of Scilly. Judged by the contents of the author's bookshelves, he has a strong but highly selective interest in sport, with rugby union, cricket and bowls foremost, and the odd place allowed to football and golf. There are biographies and autobiographies from Bernard Shaw to Alan Ross; a dozen volumes by W H Hudson, greatest of naturalists; travels with Henry James and Paul Theroux and Edwin Muir; books on cinema Westerns; essays by Ford Madox Ford and Edward Thomas; a novel or two; and a little poetry. The bulk of these books, as you may notice, are dependent, to a greater or lesser extent, on fact, suggesting, correctly, that their owner is a journalist.

Anticipating that marketing will experience a strategic change in the new normal post COVID-19, this book sets out to capture interesting insights from researchers and practitioners through in-depth research on the myriad aspects of industrial transformation. It discusses the facets in which markets can be reached sustainably delivering value to people, planet and create prosperity. Sustainable Marketing and Customer Value establishes an overview and framework for major ideas that connect marketing, consumption and sustainability. It addresses dominant areas of research of sustainability from the marketing perspective, the origin of interest in sustainability, as well as the practice of deprioritising sustainability ideas in pursuit of short-term business goals. Research scholars and business students will find this book of primary relevance, but it is also written for marketing academics and professionals, especially those in large corporations.

By turns exotic, valuable and of cardinal importance in the development of world trade, spices, as the editor reminds us, are today a mundane accessory in any well-equiped kitchen; in the 15th-18th centuries, the spice trade from the Indian Ocean to markets all over the world was a major economic enterprise. Setting the scene with extracts from Garcia da Orta's fascinating contemporary Colloquies on the drugs and simples of India [Goa 1563], this collection reviews trade in a wide variety of spices, exploring merchant organisation, transport and marketing as well as detailing the quantitative evidence on the fluctuations in spice trade. The evidence and historical debates concerning the 16th-century revival of the Mediterranean and Red Sea spice trade at this time, are fully represented here

'Business Development in Licensed Retailing: a unit manager's guide' details the indispensable skills and techniques needed to manage units within licensed retail organisations in a flexible and entrepreneurial manner. This book: * Forms the basis of a complete course for a unit manager's development. * Provides an overview of the range of skills needed for effective unit management. * Supports the development of techniques with examples from existing best practice and case examples from companies such as JD Wetherspoon's, TGI Fridays and McDonald's amongst others. Business Development in Licensed Retailing considers the functional management techniques required at unit management level, covering recruitment, human resource management, operations, service quality and customer relations, financial measurement and analysis, promotions and strategic planning. The analysis systematically provides all the practical know-how you need to produce of a comprehensive business plan for your unit. Ending with a comprehensive case study that demonstrates all the aspects of business development working in a real-life scenario, the text is ideally suited for lecturers and management development personnel to use as a learning resource through which readers can apply the principles and techniques outlined.

This book is about promising collaborative avenues for connecting Finland and India with value propositions for enterprises, consumers and investors worldwide. The book covers institutional and cultural differences and explains the logic of business systems, entry modes, and managerial styles in both countries. It draws on experience of successes and also failures to know what should be done differently. It would also interest policymakers that India's challenges of planting economic orchards in patches of social desert and Finland's struggle to preserve a social paradise against pulls and pressures of economic graveyards in Europe are both solvable with attention to complementarities and synergies. "From his long and rich experience of working with Finnish and Indian companies and passionate research at IIM Ahmedabad in India, and Aalto University and University of Tampere in Finland, Professor Mathur has a very deep knowledge of how to do business in both countries. Every company leader who considers starting Finnish-Indian business should read this new book. This valuable book will help companies entering new markets to flourish by building robust sustainable business relations." - Paivi Leiwo, Chairperson Oilon Oy, Lahti, Finland "This book is a treasure trove of knowledge explaining the business opportunities, policies, cultures, institutions, country trajectories and nuances pertaining to Finland and India. The author has worked in business, government and academia in India and abroad. He has also had a long association with Finland and is able to bring you an insider's perspective of both countries" - Ambassador Ashok Sharma "The author's deep insider experience in the two countries enables him make very sharp observations on both sides. This book will definitely help in understanding the cultural differences and making interactions and communications smoother. " - Iiro Rossi, Managing Director, Holiday Club Resorts, Helsinki "This book is a delightful and important guide for those who want to do business between Finland and India. It brings you the numerous business opportunities which wait to be availed, and highlights the deep understanding of the author of the culture and institutional environment of both countries. Read this book, learn and be surprised!" - Niina Nummela, Vice Dean, Professor of International Business, Turku School of Economics, University of Turku, Finland "This book is a reflection of Ajeet's penchant for deep research and ability to structure and articulate content. This book will be extremely helpful to those who want to develop Indo-Finnish business relations specifically and international business in general. Sonata is currently engaged with business in Finland" - Srikar Reddy, Managing Director, Sonata Software Limited, Bangalore

This book covers significant recent developments in the field of Intelligent Meth ods applied to eCommerce. The Intelligent Methods considered are mainly Soft Computing Methods that include fuzzy sets, rough sets, neural networks, evolutionary computations, probabilistic and evidential reasoning, multivalued logic, and related fields. There is not doubt about the relevance of eCommerce in our daily environ ments and in the work carried out at many research centers throughout the world. The application of AI to Commerce is growing as fast as the computers and net works are being integrated in all business and commerce aspects. We felt that it was time to sit down and see how was the impact into that field of low-level AI, i.e. softcomputing. We found many scattered contributions disseminated in con ferences, workshops, journal, books or even technical reports, but nothing like a common framework that could serve as a basis for further research, comparison or even prototyping for a direct transfer to the industry. We felt then the need to set up a reference point, a book like this. We planned this book as a recompilation of the newest developments of re searchers who already made some contribution into the field. The authors were se lected based on the originality and quality of their work and its relevance to the field. Authors came from prestigious universities and research centers with differ ent backgrounds."

This detailed study is the first exploration of rural consumption of clothing in early nineteenth-century Britain. Drawing on evidence from a range of sources including newspapers, trade directories, court records, visual sources and surviving garments, Toplis investigates how the apparel of the mass of the British population was acquired.

This path-breaking collection, edited by two leading scholars in the field, brings together seminal contributions from the burgeoning multidisciplinary literature on the globalization of retailing. In addition to focusing on the retail corporations and their expansionary strategies, it explores the multi-faceted impacts of retail globalization on host economies and profiles the store and sourcing dimensions of transnational retail activity.These volumes are of particular interest to scholars in management and business studies, economic geography, development studies and economics, and more generally to all social scientists interested in the transformative role of retailing within the global economy.