Review of Cross-border Electronic Retail Logistics Research in the Last Five Years

Nearly five years, retail in cross-border e-commerce (CBER) has gradually attracted more attention with the expansion of domestic e-commerce in several retail major economies. Scholars both here and abroad have become increasingly interested in CBER. As the important supporting services, logistics services of CBER have also be deeply concerned. However, compared with the rich practice, the theoretical outputs of logistics services in CBER are still less. Previous studies have focused on the relationship between cross-border e-commerce and logistics services , and international distribution network. So far, there is little research on content-based logistics services concerning CBER. Based on the literature review, this paper has determined a series of possible research directions, including strategic significance of cooperation in forming CBER distribution structure and how to implement customer-driven logistics service improvement. Finally, some future research directions are proposed

ESPON Project 2.3.1., Application and effects of the ESDP in Member States. First Interim Report

This First Interim Report includes the initial results of the project "Application and Effects of the ESDP in the Member States" within the ESPON Programme 2000-2006. The focus of the study is the application of the European Spatial Development Perspective (ESDP), which was adopted at the Potsdam European Council meeting in May 199

Cohesion policy at the interface between regional development and the promotion of innovation

Taking the implications of the cohesion policy framework for innovation governance as a starting point, it is the objective of this paper to discuss challenges for regional policy making with regard to a policy mix that is new to regional policy makers. Based on two German regions representing convergence and competitive and employment regions it will be discussed how regional policy makers can deal with this new policy approach and what could be appropriate strategies, programmes and learning tools. What can be seen from both the Bavarian and the Saxon case study is that the two regions apply a broad mix of different innovation policy measures, supporting all innovation policy tasks with relevance to regional development. In both regions innovation policy is not a new task, but Saxony as well as Bavaria can look back to a quite long tradition in the im-plementation of this policy. Differences exist with regard to policy learning in a way that due the longer innovation policy experiences of Bavaria more sophisticated structures and activities can be found in this federal state. --

Re-structuring competetive metropolitan regions: on territory, institutions and governance. RheinRuhr compared with London, Paris and the Randstad Holland

Currently social and political constructed urban regions are about to approach a threefold role regarding their functional, economic and political function. At first they constitute a basis for economic and social life. What is next is their role as a vital relational asset to refine competitive advantages and thirdly they exemplify the significance of a new era of reflexive capitalism. One underlying consequence of the "new" interest concerning the de- and re-territorialisation of political economic activity is to consider the regional scale as a functional space for economic planning and political governance. Our intended contribution for the ERSA-Conference deals with the role of selected European Metropolitan Regions as "driving forces" for national and Europe`s competitiveness and the involved challenges for such urban regions to pool their resources and potentials in order to cerate some kind of "appropriate organising capacities". To do so, the authors would draw on the ongoing debate about the adequate analysis of regional political economies and on the empirical results produced within two recently finished international research projects (named as EURBANET and GEMACA II: both were executed under the umbrella of the INTERREG IIC operational programme for the North Western Metropolitan Area). Whilst GEMACA II focussed on the competitiveness of metropolitan regions, the EURBANET project took on board the possible contribution of polynuclear urban regions, such as RheinRuhr and the Delta Metropolis, in order to strengthen the regional competitiveness and quality of life. Additionally, their potential roles in transnational planning processes were under study. The planned paper would start with the observation that a great number of examinations on urban or city-regional economies reduce these "spatialities" to empirical given administrative bounded cities and simultaneously to a "container" for socio-economic processes. However, a "region" is comprehended as a historical contingent process and its emergence needs to be understood as a part of socio-spatial structure and collective consciousness of society. Questions of spatial scales, territorial shapes, institutional formations and cultural identities are thus given preference by a number of social scientists and human geographers. In order to respond to this perspective, the authors want to discuss three key factors of the economic development exemplified by four metropolitan regions (as named in the headline). 1. the territorial shape of comparable functional urban regions including the specific questions of the internal spatial shape (rather monocentric or polycentric configurations without a dominant core); 2. the present "economic performance" of the selected regions embedded in the discourse of "regional competitiveness"; 3. the importance of "appropriate" institutional and policy-making frameworks for effective metropolitan governance and governments by bringing together the mutual interests of various city-regional stakeholders.

He Role Of The State In The Information Society: Evidence From Greece

Drawing on recent theorisations on the information society/knowledge-based economy (IS/KBE) and the transformation of the roles and functions of the nation-state, the paper argues for the importance of the state and its mechanisms for the sustainability of the IS/KBE. In doing so, it supports the claim in the literature, also proven by the empirical reality in different national contexts) that the state has been transformed towards a generic model of ‘competition state’ involved in the establishment of the IS/KBE paradigm. Nonetheless, surpassing this model, this paper argues that the state is called upon to operate also in a developmental way, at least in certain national contexts, if a sustainable IS/KBE is to be achieved. The paper draws on the Greek IS/KBE case so as to assess these competition and developmental state aspects