Introduction and Diffusion of Electronic Commerce – What is Switzerland’s position in an international comparison? Results of an empirical study

What is Switzerland’s position today with regard to the acceptance, diffusion and usage of new work forms and business methods in the economy and society? One of the most extensive international surveys of population and businesses done thus far gives well founded answers to these questions: Last year, distinguished research institutes from 10 different countries of the European Union (Denmark, Germany, France, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom) and Switzerland carried out the research project ECATT99 Electronic Commerce and Telework Trends. With it they produced a study of the adoption and diffusion of new electronic business methods and work forms in the information society. Its approach makes the study unique within the framework of the European ESPRIT programme. In the whole of Europe (including Switzerland) around 8,000 private individuals and around 4,300 decision makers in private and public businesses were interviewed about knowledge, acceptance, current and planned usage of Electronic Commerce and telework. In addition, around 100 detailed case studies were carried out. For the future, regular biennial repeat studies are planned. Switzerland is taking part in this international comparison for the first time. The results of this report are primarily based on 400 interviews in the Swiss population and 200 interviews with owners or responsible senior staff in businesses of all sectors of German, French and Italian Switzerland. This report is limited to the project section on Electronic Commerce; a separate report is being prepared for the section on telework.Electronic commerce; E-commerce; Electronic Business; Information and Communication Technologies (ICT); Economics of Internet; Firms; Diffusion of technology; Adoption of technolgy; Swiss firms; Switzerland

Internationalisation of Spanish fashion brand Zara

Zara is one of the world’s most successful fashion retailers operating in 59 countries. However, there is little research about the firm in English as the majority of publications have been written in Spanish. This paper seeks to address this gap in the literature by examining the internationalisation process of Zara. This study adopts an in-depth case approach based on extensive secondary research. Literature published in both English and Spanish has been reviewed, including company documents such as annual reports. The paper starts with a brief overview of the global textile and clothing industry, followed by the case study of Zara. The main part of the case examines the key aspects in the internationalisation of Zara namely: motives for internationalisation, market selection, entry strategies, and international marketing strategies. In the final section, comparisons are made between Zara and two of its main competitors, H&M and Gap

Are there Economies of Scale in Stock Exchange Activities?

This is the first paper that examines economies of scale in stock exchanges. The data employed in the study include cost and output statistics for 37 stock exchanges in four continents around the world for the year 1997. I estimate two traditional cost functions and find that ray (overall) scale economies exist only in the very large stock exchanges but that there are significant scale economies with respect to one of the outputs, ie the processing of trades. On the other hand, there are not equally clear scale advantages related to activities involving company-specific information. There are thus opposing forces, some tending to increase standardization and scale and others favouring the continuization of more localized facilities. The outcome of increasing competition may be not be the amalgamation of exchanges but instead the centralization of certain functions, eg the trading function, and continued realization of others on a decentralized basis. There is nonetheless an obvious incentive for closer and deeper cooperation between European stock exchanges.stock exchanges; alliances; economies of scale; technology

Measuring the Information Society in Europe: From Definitions to Description

Information Society (IS) indicators describe the level of information society development achieved in a particular society in quantitative terms. They can serve a range of purposes related to providing a view of the society’s state: for example, following the evolution of IS or benchmarking IS with other territories. By considering changes over time, IS indicators also comprise a critical tool in the monitoring, evaluation and improvement of IS policy. Inevitably, the primary benefit of indicators lies in this capacity to guide policy-makers into proactive thinking i.e. to focus their attention on future priorities. The aims of this article are to examine how the evolution of the information society has been measured, and to relate European territories with each other by these measures. Constructing a comprehensive set of IS indicators requires a sound definition of the Information Society to establish meaningful benchmarks and to measure change. The task becomes complicated as it seems that IS is more or less ‘undefined’ at the moment. This means that IS is what one wants it to be: countries held as “information societies†are those countries, which people think of being such – and not defined by, for example, achieving a level measured by some quantitative IS-related indicators. Tentative results show that despite this lack of a clear and single definition of Information Society (IS) one can derive some conclusions about what IS consists of by taking a look at previous IS projects having collected IS indicators. They indicate three different levels of IS. These levels range from the narrow technological and the intermediate techno-economic definitions to the broad, all-inclusive IS definition. The indicators used to measure IS can also be grouped by a lifecycle model. While there seems to be a lack of available consistent territorial data on IS, there is plenty of data available on the national level. Using this data and background variables the European state of IS is analyzed from a territorial perspective. This article is an outgrowth of the ESPON project “Identification of Spatially Relevant aspects of the Information Societyâ€.

The size and performance of public sector activities in Europe

The obvious difference in the economic performance of countries has led to the question why some countries are so much wealthier than others, and whether the size, the structure, and the organisation of the public sector contribute to cross-country income and growth gaps. Public sector activities may have an effect on overall productivity and growth either directly by the level and changes of productivity within the public sector, or indirectly by triggering off productivity changes in private production. This paper is concerned with the former aspect. It provides an overview of the size and the structure of the public sector in Europe and compares it with the US and Japan. This is related to the more recent empirical literature on public sector performance. After reviewing some of the measurement issues related to public services, the evidence on the size of government and its performance is analysed. The results on industrial countries are not fully conclusive, but seem to attribute more efficiency to smaller rather than to larger governments. Public sector reforms to consolidate the size of government are therefore likely to enhance the sector's own productivity and thereby positively contribute to overall economic performance.public sector size, performance of public sector

Synthesis and final recommendations on the development of a European Information System for Organic Markets. = Deliverable D6 of the European Project EISfOM QLK5-2002-02400

Executive summary European markets for organic products are growing rapidly, but the market information available in most European countries is woefully inadequate. Often only very basic data such as certified organic holdings and land area are reported, and sometimes not even individual crop areas or livestock numbers. Important market data, such as the amount of production, consumption, international trade or producer and consumer prices, do not exist in most European countries. In some European countries there are only rough estimates of the levels of production and consumption. There is no standardisation and data are seldom comparable. Furthermore, detailed information on specific commodities is missing. Hence, investment decisions are taken under conditions of great uncertainty. Policy evaluation, including periodic monitoring of the European Action Plan for Organic Food and Farming and RDP 2007-2013, will require many other data in addition to those regarding production structures and financial data that are already available, but obtaining this information would require a new EU-wide data collection and processing system (DCPS) to be put in place. The European Information System for Organic Markets (EISfOM) project is an EUfunded Concerted Action which has analysed and documented the current situation and proposed ways in which organic data collection and processing systems (DCPS) can be improved by means of: • improvement in the current situation of data collecting and processing systems for the organic sector • innovation in data collection and processing systems for the organic sector • integration of conventional and organic data collection and processing systems This report summarises the most relevant findings of the EISfOM project, which are analysed in the main project reports: Wolfert, S., Kramer, K. J., Richter, T., Hempfling, G., Lux. S. and Recke, G. (eds.) (2004). Review of data collection and processing systems for organic and conventional markets. EISfOM (QLK5-2002-02400) project deliverable submitted to European Commission. www.eisfom.org/publications. Recke, G., Hamm, U., Lampkin, N., Zanoli, R., Vitulano, S. and Olmos, S. (eds.) (2004a) Report on proposals for the development, harmonisation and quality assurance of organic data collection and processing systems (DCPS). EISfOM (QLK5-2002-02400) project deliverable submitted to European Commission. www.eisfom.org/publications. Recke, G., Willer, H., Lampkin, N. and Vaughan, A. (eds.) (2004b). Development of a European Information System for Organic Markets – Improving the Scope and Quality of Statistical Data. Proceedings of the 1st EISfOM European Seminar, Berlin, Germany, 26-27 April, 2004. Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL), Frick, Switzerland. www.eisfom.org/publications. Gleirscher, N., Schermer, M., Wroblewska, M. and Zakowska-Biemans, S. (2005) Report on the evaluation of the pilot case studies. EISfOM (QLK5-2002-02400) project deliverable submitted to European Commission. www.eisfom.org/publications. QLK5-2002-02400 European Information System for Organic Markets (EISfOM) D6 final report Rippin, M. and Lampkin, N. (eds.) (2005) Framework for a European Information System for Organic Markets. Unpublished report of the project European Information System for Organic Markets (EISfOM) (QLK5-2002-02400). Rippin, M., Willer, H., Lampkin, N., and Vaughan A. (2006). Towards a European Framework for Organic Market information, Proceedings of the 2nd EISfOM European Seminar, Brussels, November 10 and 11, 2005. Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL), Frick, Switzerland. www.eisfom.org/publications

Report on proposals for the development, harmonisation and quality assurance of organic data collection and processing systems (DCPS)

This report represents the conclusion of the European seminar on development, harmonisation and quality assurance of organic data collection and processing systems (Berlin, April 2004) as well as of the first phase of the EISFOM-project. - In the first chapter the objectives and general approach of this workpackage are described. - Chapter 2 focuses on quality assurance, the main results of WP2 and WP3 and the European Seminar in Berlin (see Recke et al. 2004; https://orgprints.org/2935/. Furthermore, the strengths and weaknesses of organic DCPS (data collection and processing systems) are analysed and the chapter closes with proposals for the development of organic DCPSs. - Chapter 3 focuses on results of expert interviews on the main barriers for the implementation of improved organic statistical data collection and processing systems. - Chapter 4 gives a summary and some general conclusions are drawn. This report provides perspectives on how the above mentioned issues of the European Action Plan might be implemented