Language skills and international performance: theoretical framework and research questions

The paper investigates the relationship, surprisingly often forgotten by the literature, between firms' language skills and their international performances. After having contextualized the concept of language within the broader concept of culture, the paper introduces language's characteristics and the functions from the point of view of an internationalized firm. The concepts of language skills and language needs are then defined underling the fact that firms' language needs are determined by the number and the characteristics of the markets of interest as well as by the internationalization strategy adopted. These theoretical concepts and the results of the empirical literature are synthesized into a specific framework from which we deduct a body of research questions to be answered with future ad hoc research. The framework and the research questions are proposed taking the perspective of the Italian SMEs opening to the international markets mainly through import or export strategies.language skills, business communications, internationalization strategies, SMEs

Richard Stone: an annotated bibliography

This ‘Annotated Bibliography’ is part of the ‘Stone Collection’ at the Central Library of the University of Lugano. It presents brief comments on each item in the Collection, biographical notes and some more general considerations. The Collection comprises Richard Stone’s complete works in the field of economics and consists of approximately 200 articles and books, published between 1936 and 1991, the year of his death, as well as some posthumous works, manuscripts and secondary literature. Much of the material comes from a donation by Richard Stone’s wife, Giovanna. The remaining part has been assembled and made available by the authors of this Bibliography and by the Library of the University of Lugano

The effects of information communication technology on the terms of trade between north-south countries: a structural economic dynamic approach

Information Communication Technology has been identified as a major determinant of international competitiveness between nations in recent years, through increased labor productivity. Depending on the choice of techniques, process innovations may also result in increasing differences in income per capita between developed and underdeveloped countries. Following a structural economic dynamic approach, this paper examines the potential impact of Information Communication Technology on the terms of trade between North-South countries and presents two particular scenarios

The effects of information communication technology on the terms of trade between north-south countries: a structural economic dynamic approach

Information Communication Technology has been identified as a major determinant of international competitiveness between nations in recent years, through increased labor productivity. Depending on the choice of techniques, process innovations may also result in increasing differences in income per capita between developed and underdeveloped countries. Following a structural economic dynamic approach, this paper examines the potential impact of Information Communication Technology on the terms of trade between North-South countries and presents two particular scenarios

The Leontief model and economic theory

This article examines the relationship between classical, marginalist and Keynesian economics and the Leontief model and shows how the analysis of productive and distributional interdependencies may provide an appropriate conceptual framework for comparing the different analytical approaches

Limiti di funzioni

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Prezzi positivi e merce tipo nel modello di produzione congiunta di Piero Sraffa

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Sectoral Rates of Profit and Productive Structure

This paper analyzes an economic system in which rates of profit are not uniform but differ from one sector to another, and discusses the acceptable intervals of variation of the rates of profit compatible with non-negative prices. The investigation is conducted in a Leontief price model with fixed capital. The limits of variation of the rates of profit are ascertained using a mathematical algorithm based on the properties of Z matrices and dominant-diagonal matrices

Valutazioni economiche del day surgery: analisi costi-efficacia e analisi costi-benefici

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