Frankfurt/M., Berlin, Bern, Bruxelles, New York, Oxford, Wien. European University Studies: Series 31, Political Science. Vol. 458

The report Roads To Success: SME Exports (HL 131) examines the crucial role of Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs) in the UK which have a crucial role to play if the UK is to achieve export-led recovery. There are nearly five million SMEs in the UK, but only a very small number of these are helped by UK Export Finance (UKEF), with only 21 receiving help from the agency up to August 2012. UKEF services need to be better promoted both to SMEs and banks who act as the gatekeeper to the scheme. The Committee say that unless banks are prepared to take on some of the risks of lending to exporters, then UKEF's programs are 'dead in the water'. The transition from loan decisions being made by local bank managers to a centralized process driven by formulae has weakened SME access to bank finance. Local bank managers are much better placed to make informed decisions about loan applications from small local businesses. SMEs must also do more to explor

Traces the history of Merritt Parkway from the proposals for its construction and design in the early-1920s to its completion in 1940. This book provides a tour of this landmark and also an appraisal of its contribution to the built environment. It is on the US National Register of Historic Places.

Written by the company's founder and first CEO Pat Byrne, he tells the remarkable story of how a fledgling airline, against all odds, literally stayed in the air. Set up in 1993 to fly business travellers to London City Airport and back from Dublin. Cityjet was highly regarded and developed a loyal customer base, but was continually struggling to compete in a very difficult market. A deal with Richard Branson and Virgin Airlines seemed to be the answer, but the deal eventually went sour and by 1997 Cityjet had accumulated losses of 16.5 million. The company went into examinership, emerged again with new investors, but the financial woes continued. Thanks to committed management and a hard-working staff Cityjet somehow managed to stay in business but time was against them. Eventually, seven years after it was founded. Cityjet became a wholly owned subsidiary of Air France and Pat Byrne's dream of running his own airline was over. As he says. "The difference between success and failure in a tough business like airlines is minimal. In virtually every case failure means the airline closes down. We didn't let that happen."

Having provided theoretical models of such items as capacity, network, scheduling, costs, organisation, environment and forecasting, the author uses these models to compare and evaluate the city transport problems in London, Paris, Copenhagen and Los Angeles, as well as in Cairo, Singapore and Rio de Janeiro. Finally future demand is assessed and guidance on future planning is given.

Taking the German container ports of Hamburg and Bremen as examples, this book analyzes the impact of environmental policy-making on a globalized industry. Competing for the leading position within the expanding European seaport and logistics system, both cities try to ensure constant infrastructure extension. Case studies illustrate the development of these regional port industries. The book investigates how political and economic actors pursue the adaptation to changing economic conditions. The main focus lies on the confrontations with actors representing environmental concerns. The study explores processes in various networks, in the public, and in political arenas at different political levels. Thereby, it combines questions of environmental policy research with regional development and the investigation of European multi-level relations. What can be said about the effect of European, national, or regional governance structures aiming toward the protection of environmental quality? While economic interests are less dominant than often claimed, the existing institutional arrangement is characterized as insufficient to influence the ongoing spatial restructuring substantially.

The purpose of this Safety Guide is to provide information to organizations that are developing, implementing or assessing a management system for activities relating to the transport of radioactive material. Such activities include, but are not limited to, design, fabrication, inspection and testing, maintenance, transport and disposal of radioactive material packaging. This publication is intended to assist those establishing or improving a management system to integrate safety, health, environmental, security, quality and economic elements to ensure that safety is properly taken into account in all activities of the organization.

Emerging from the ruins of the Second World War, the Japanese economy has grown at double-digit rate throughout much of the 1950s and 1960s, and, when the oil crisis of the 1970s slowed growth throughout the industrialized world, Japanese growth throughout the industrialized world, Japanese growth rates remained relatively strong. There have been many attempts by scholars from a wide range of disciplines to explain this remarkable history, but for economists interested in the quantitative analysis of economic growth and the principal question addressed is how Japan was able to grow so rapidly.
The contributors focus their efforts on the accurate measurement and comparison of Japanese and U.S. economic growth. Assuming that any sustained increase in real GNP must be due either to an increase in the quantity of capital and labor used in production or to the more efficient use of these inputs, the authors analyze the individual contributions of various factors and their importance in the process of output growth.
These essays extend the methodology of growth analysis and offer many insights into the factors leading to the superior performance of the Japanese economy. They demonstrate that growth is a complex process and no single factor can explain the Japanese 'miracle.'

Innovation - the imaginative attempt to introduce something new or to solve some problem - smashes routine and demands choice, even if only the choice to retain the status quo. This collection of fourteen essays provides a spectrum of historical perspectives on how, when, or why, individuals, societies, governments, and industries have made choices regarding the use of technologies. Through historical accounts that span centuries and national boundaries, exploring the complexity of a nuclear power plant and the apparent simplicity of an electrical plug, the contributors to this volume dramatically illustrate the push and pull between technology and society. General topics addressed include: Regulation of private industry Social acceptance of commercial innovation Negative perceptions of the "Technological Age" Cultural and artistic features of technology Provocative and accessible, this collection will serve both students and faculty in history, sociology, and public policy, as well as in history and philosophy of science and technology. These essays were originally published in the journal Technology and Culture