Forest management after the economic transition

Germany and Scandinavia represent two paradigmatic forest management traditions, based on management for volume and management for profit, respectively. This study examines the prevailing silvicultural regimes and resulting economic outcomes in Germany and Sweden as benchmarks, and then corresponding analyses are performed for post-transition EU countries, represented by Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. The analyses reveal a regional gradient where Poland stands closest to the German tradition, Latvia goes through a “scandinavisation”, and Lithuania takes an intermediate position. Poland adheres to longer rotations and follows the principle of self-sufficiency, while economic efficiency has gained increased importance in Latvia. The observed gradient is likely to be sustained in the coming decades as the survey of key forest sector stakeholders reveals ideological patterns that correlate with the pace of reform of State forestry in Poland, Lithuania and Latvia

On the Organisation of SMEs and Economic Growth in the USA and Japan

The total number of firms, out of which around at least 95 to 99 per cent (or even more) are SMEs approximates the degree of competition that exists in each country and within each sector of a national economy. A historical examination of the American and Japanese firm evolutions, which shows a divergence in industrial organisation between the companies in the USA and Japan provides a qualitative evidence to this role of competition. Also, the same historical trip reveals the close relationship, which prevails between the degree of competition as represented by the total number of firms and the speed of economic growth. The cross section regression model developed in this paper quantitatively confirms this relationship. Furthermore, it is suggested that the historical divergence between the American and Japanese firm evolutions is due to some precise factors such as relative abundance of resources, and other historical circumstances. Consequently, there is not a unique path of optimum growth, since what is good for the USA might not be good for Japan and vice versa. For instance, for the USA, the 'big business' type has always prevailed during the last 120 years, whereas for Japan, the smaller focal type of firms together with some huge conglomerates dominated the Japanese economy. The cross country regression model not only confirms the importance of organisational differences but also supports the endogenous type of economic growth.firms, evolution, economic growth, endogenous, competition, resources, history, Chandler, Fruin, organisation, integration, big business, focal firms, SMEs, economies of scope, sub-contracting, diversification, decentralisation of decisions, multidivision, oligopolies, regression, developed countries, zaibatsu, keiretsu

Slow growth and revolutionary change. The Norwegian IT industry enters the global age, 1970-2005

The article concludes that although the Norwegian IT industry has been lacking in export success the last 30 years, it has been important for the development of the Norwegian economy. Several IT companies have been on the verge of international breakthroughs, but have been stopped by rising costs and guided by national opportunities. The rise of the important oil-sector has been both a hindrance and an opportunity for the Norwegian IT industry. Specialised products for national markets rather than general mass-market products have become the norm for the Norwegian IT industry. This development had to a remarkable degree been associated with continuity in terms of organisations and people. The firms these people and organisations have been attached too, however, have experienced turbulence, bankruptcy and change, making the whole development from 1970 until today a seemingly messy and problematic affair. But this has really been a period of IT industry growth, and in the end the national development is reasonably successful.

Territorial Institutions

Territorial politics as social and political constructs are major issues for governement and for policy-making. Studying its properties and its dynamics shapes a domain of its own in social sciences. The text presents dominant approaches that have structured knowledge in the last thirty years about center-periphery relationships. Is also summarizes key findings from a comparative perspectiveterritories; nation-state dynamics; state theories; interorganizational systems; comparative contexts

Where Schumpeter was Nearly Right - The Swedish Model and Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy

In Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy Joseph A. Schumpeter concluded that socialism would eventually displace capitalism in Western democracies. This would come about as a result of the superior performance of capitalism. We extract six "stylized" propositions that are essential elements of Schumpeter's prediction about the fate of capitalism. These propositions are confronted with the development of the Swedish economy. The three main results of the analysis are: (1) The evolution of the Swedish economy closely followed Shumpeter's predictions until about 1980: Large firms became increasingly predominant in production and innovative activity, ownership of firms became more and more concentrated, individual entrepreneurship waned in importance, the general public grew increasingly hostile towards capitalism, and by the late 1970s explicit proposals for a gradual transfer of ownership of firms from private hands were launched. (2) Design of tax and industrial policies fueled a development of the economy along the lines predicted by Schumpeter. In general, the policies discouraged private wealth accumulation. In particular, the policies favored concentration of firms and concentration of private ownership. (3) The turning point away from the path to socialism coincides with real world developments that disclosed two major flaws in Schumpeter´s analysis. First, the ever more obvious failure of socialism in Eastern Europe went against Schumpeter's assertion that socialism can work. Second, Schumpeter, who thought that modern technology would make the giant corporation increasingly predominant, did not foresee the revival of entrepreneurship that took place in the Western countries around 1980.Corporatism; Entrepreneurship; Industrial Policy; Schumpeter; Swedish Model

Scheduling science on television: A comparative analysis of the representations of science in 11 European countries

While science-in-the-media is a useful vehicle for understanding the media, few scholars have used it that way: instead, they look at science-in-the-media as a way of understanding science-in-the-media and often end up attributing characteristics to science-in-the-media that are simply characteristics of the media, rather than of the science they see there. This point of view was argued by Jane Gregory and Steve Miller in 1998 in Science in Public. Science, they concluded, is not a special case in the mass media, understanding science-in-the-media is mostly about understanding the media (Gregory and Miller, 1998: 105). More than a decade later, research that looks for patterns or even determinants of science-in-the-media, be it in press or electronic media, is still very rare. There is interest in explaining the media’s selection of science content from a media perspective. Instead, the search for, and analysis of, several kinds of distortions in media representations of science have been leading topics of science-in-the-media research since its beginning in the USA at the end of the 1960s and remain influential today (see Lewenstein, 1994; Weigold, 2001; Kohring, 2005 for summaries). Only a relatively small amount of research has been conducted seeking to identify factors relevant to understanding how science is treated by the mass media in general and by television in particular. The current study addresses the lack of research in this area. Our research seeks to explore which constraints national media systems place on the volume and structure of science programming in television. In simpler terms, the main question this study is trying to address is why science-in-TV in Europe appears as it does. We seek to link research focussing on the detailed analysis of science representations on television (Silverstone, 1984; Collins, 1987; Hornig, 1990; Leon, 2008), and media research focussing on the historical genesis and current political regulation of national media systems (see for instance Hallin and Mancini, 2004; Napoli, 2004; Open Society Institute, 2005, 2008). The former studies provide deeper insights into the selection and reconstruction of scientific subject matters, which reflect and – at the same time – reinforce popular images of science. But their studies do not give much attention to production constraints or other relevant factors which could provide an insight into why media treat science as they do. The latter scholars inter alia shed light on distinct media policies in Europe which significantly influence national channel patterns. However, they do not refer to clearly defined content categories but to fairly rough distinctions such as information versus entertainment or fictional versus factual. Accordingly, we know more about historical roots and current practices of media regulation across Europe than we do about the effects of these different regimes on the provision of specific content in European societies

Competition Policy and the Swedish Model

The aim of this paper is to present some findings from a study on the development of competition policy in Sweden since 1945. The comprehensive questions are about the view on knowledge in competition policy, the trust to the Swedish model, the change of the model and what has replaced it, and the attitudes to competition and co-operation in politics, authorities and interest groups. The study is basically built on government bills and directives to committees, committee reports, and comments on the later from authorities and interest groups. Typical signs of the Swedish model were a consensus and co-operative attitude towards interest conflict, with institutional arrangements aimed for negotiations and pragmatism. This was also typical for competition policy. During the 1990s we find a change to an EU-model. It meant a transition to a more legalistic and theoretic view on competition. When it comes to attitudes they changed successively in the direction of favouring competition before co-operation. The change was however radical when it comes to politicians and competition authorities. Not least the later came to argue for an “antitrust” view on competition. However, business interests were sceptical to the new competition law copying the EU-model.competition policy; Swedish model