Analyzing the United States Department of Transportation’s implementation strategy for high speed rail: Three case studies

High-speed rail (HSR) has become a major contributor to the transportation sector with a strong push by the Obama Administration and the Department of Transportation to implement high-speed rail in the United States. High-speed rail is a costly transportation alternative that has the potential displace some car and airport travel while increase energy security and environmental sustainability. This thesis will examine the United States high-speed rail implementation strategy by comparing it to the implementation strategies of France, Japan, and Germany in a multiple case study under four main criteria of success: economic profitability, reliability, safety, and ridership. Analysis will conclude with lessons to be taken away from the case studies and applied to the United States strategy. It is important to understand that this project has not been established to create a comprehensive implementation plan for high-speed rail in the United States; rather, this project is intended to observe the depth and quality of the current United States implementation strategy and make additional recommendations by comparing it with France, Japan, and Germany

Leading in Service Innovation: Three perspectives on service value delivery in a European context

This paper explores the relationships between the shaping of “service value propositions” according to three dimensions: “intangible mix”, “physical support”, and “time”, and the strengthening of Innovative Capability in service organizations. After the first introductory section, we describe a series of related innovative moves experienced in the European context by leading companies. We analyze how JCDecaux addresses service recipients simultaneously as citizens and consumers, focusing especially on the Cyclocity project. With CS2 Lawyers in the UK, we envision how automation and technology adoption in professional services may lead to significant productivity improvement for the good of society. Finally, we study how SNCF in France has succeeded in implementing a permanently strengthening value proposition in public service through the recent launching of the IDTGV initiative. In these situations, the service companies have clearly addressed their market considering three different forms of interrelated, yet distinct, targets: “ultimate beneficiaries”, “paying bodies”, and entities or individuals who somehow “prescribe” the consumption of services. In these three situations, we investigate the robustness of the “value propositions” thus implemented, and analyze the particular role played by technology in the success of the new ventures.Service and innovation; value proposition; technology implementation

From old to new industrial policy via economic regulation

Major institutional reforms that have introduced economic regulation in Europe and elsewhere appear to have ended traditional industrial policies of favouring selected national champion suppliers. Privatisation, the delegation of powers over mergers and acquisitions to the EU and independent competition authorities, new rules to ensure competition and prohibit state support to favoured companies and the end of planning, all appear to have led to a regulatory state. However, the article argues that regulatory reforms have in fact provided additional or alternative instruments for policy makers to favour European or international champion firms. The article analyses the different institutional reforms to show how they have provided instruments for policy makers to construct larger Europeanised and internationalised champion firms, shape markets through mergers and acquisitions, aid selected firms in liberalised markets, and to plan policies in ways that privilege chosen firms. It concludes that regulatory institutions are compatible with new forms industrial policy

Why and how do national monopolies go global? International competition, supranational regionalism and the transnational reorganization of postal and logistics companies in Europe

The paper documents and analyses the rise of a transnational transport and logistics' industry within the European Union. Neither a global commodity chain, nor a national business system approach is considered adequate to help comprehend trans border reorganization within the European Union signalling a need for an approach to organization research able to tackle transnational institutionalization processes. To illustrate the extent to which transformation and 'denationalization' of traditional transport industries has proceeded in the 1990s, the paper starts with an account of the very recent ascent of the largest European diversified logistics service company: the German Post office (now Deutsche Post AG). The rapid conversion of the public postal system (by way of aggressive M&A activity mainly) into a transmodal, transnational, and information technology intensive private organization able to supply a wide range of both uniform and highly specialized services across borders is used to introduce the argument on: a) the overall transformation of national European transport systems and on b) new structures of competition and cooperation with regard to an emerging transnational production related service branch. -- Der Beitrag dokumentiert und analysiert die Enstehung einer transnationalen Transport- und Logistikindustrie in der Europäischen Union. Weder der 'global commodity chain'-Ansatz, noch der 'national business system'-Ansatz werden als hinreichend erachtet, grenzüberschreitende Reorganisationsprozesse innerhalb der Europäischen Union zu bearbeiten. Damit wird auf die Notwendigkeit verwiesen, einen organisationssoziologischen Ansatz zu entwickeln, der transnationale Institutionalisierungsprozesse erfassen kann. Um die Reichweite der Transformations- und De-Nationalisierungsprozesse zu illustrieren, vermittelt das Papier einen Überblick über die jüngste Entwickung des größten diversifizierten europäischen Logistikdienstleistungsunternehmens: die Deutsche Post AG. Die Analyse des rapiden Umbaus der öffentlichen Postverwaltung (vorwiegend durch aggressive Übernahme- und Fusionsaktivitäten) in eine transmodale, transnationale und informationstechnologieintensive privatwirtschaftliche Organisation, welche eine breite Palette von einheitlichen und hochspezialisierten Dienstleistungen grenzüberschreitend anbieten kann, wird aus zwei Gründen vorgenommen: zum einen zur Darstellung der generellen Transformation der nationalen europäischen Gütertransportsysteme und zum anderen zur Erfassung der neuen Strukturen von Wettbewerb und Kooperation in einer im Entstehungsprozess befindlichen, transnationalen produktionsbezogenen Dienstleistungsbranche.

High-Speed Rail: lessons for policy makers from experiences abroad

In April 2009, the US government unveiled its blueprint for a national network of high-speed passenger rail (HSR) lines aimed at reducing traffic congestion, cutting national dependence on foreign oil and improving rural and urban environments. In implementing such a program, it is essential to identify the factors that might influence decision making and the eventual success of the HSR project, as well as foreseeing the obstacles that will have to be overcome

A survey of the liberalisation of public enterprises in the UK since 1979

This paper examines the course of the deregulation and privatisation of public enterprises in the UK since 1979. The UK privatisation programme has been the most significant in the OECD involving the transfer of ownership of over 7% of GDP from the public to the private sectors. We examine the history and genesis of this programme, the development of the regulatory system based around RPI-X price control and the evidence on the effects of the privatisation. We conclude by evaluating the policy in the terms of its original aims. We find that public enterprise privatisation successfully reduced government involvement in industry, led to increased economic efficiency and a reduced fiscal deficit. Less clearly, it contributed to the curbing of Trade Union power and wider share ownership. Most significantly of all, as the most sustained and consistent policy of the 1979-97 Conservative governments, it gained sustained advantage for pro-market political forces in the UK

Imagining Destinations: Art Posters and the Promotion of Tourism

abstract: This study examines transnational connections between art as advertising and the tourism industry. The development of railroads, and later airlines, played a crucial role in the growth of travel. Art posters supported this expansion. By the mid-twentieth century, art posters gained wide acceptance for encouraging leisure travel. Posters and paintings were constructed by artists to visualize destinations, underscoring the social status and modern convenience of tourism. This thesis describes how advertising, as an aspect of popular visual culture, offered compelling parallels to stylistic developments in modern art.Dissertation/ThesisM.F.A. Art History 201