Global corporations and smaller actors in textile business: European perspective

Earlier in Europe, there existed many local textile brands and manufacturers. However, these have experienced significant pressure from the rapid expansion, and success of the European based global textile industry corporations, such as H&M and Inditex (Zara). Their further advancement is supported by the expansion into the new locations and application of nearshoring strategies to the favourable markets, such as Russian, which have attracted to some extent previously entirely offshored European manufacturing located in China. In this regard, the objective of the current study is the assessment of the business activities of the given companies, as well as one company from Finland, and three major textile companies from the Baltic States, through the designed methodological approach. Due to the fact that most performance indicators of companies are based on empirical data, the study is explorative in its nature. Moreover, it shows the relationship between the main key performance indicators of the company with one of the functional areas of logistics (warehousing and inventory management). In particular, analysis of this research shows that two global actors (H&M and Inditex) have experienced exceptional growth, profits and profitability during the years 2001–2016. It was concluded that nearly all of these earlier successful ones and smaller actors have faced difficulties in the past decade, and best growing has been company concentrating on warehousing and retail, instead of manufacturing. Most of these smaller actors have faced profitability challenges, and considerable amount of shareholder value has been lost during the decade. © Hilmola O.-P., Tolli A. & Panova Yu. Text. 2019

Устойчивость торговли стран Евросоюза с Китаем и США

«Справедливая торговля», профицит (положительное сальдо текущего счета) и дефицит (отрицательное сальдо) между США, Китаем и Европейским союзом (ЕС) в течение длительного времени являются предметом дискуссий. Данная статья рассматривает текущие счета стран через призму теории международных финансов. На основе финансовых аналитических моделей были исследованы конкурентоспособность стран и изменения их чистых иностранных активов. На основе анализа литературы рассмотрены такие факторы, как обменный курс, тарифная и налоговая политика, норма сбережений, производственная база, инвестиции, изобилие природных ресурсов и другие. Текущие счета проанализированы на основе данных о международной торговле государств-членов ЕС-28, которые в 2019 г. стали основным импортером Китая вместо США, за десять лет (2009-2018 гг.). Проведенное исследование показало, что торговля с Китаем увеличила дефицит во всех европейских странах, что в некоторых странах привело к возникновению структурных проблем (например, в Польше и Чехии). Торговля с США (в которой основным партнером является Германия), в свою очередь, привела к положительному сальдо. Полученные результаты могут быть использованы в управлении международной торговлей для влияния на государственную политику в исследуемых странах. Учитывая нынешний финансовый кризис, экспортный шок может быть использован странами как повод для изменения курса и перехода к принципам свободной торговли.There has been a lot of debate in global politics about fair trade, surpluses (also called positive trade accounts), and deficits (negative trade accounts) among the USA, China and the European Union (EU). The study aims to analyse the countries’ trade accounts through the lenses of international finance theory. Based on financial analytical models, the countries’ competitiveness and changes in their net foreign wealth were examined. The factors considered in the literature review are as follows: exchange rate, government tariff and tax policies, saving rate, manufacturing base, investments, natural resource abundance and others. The computation of the trade accounts was conducted using the ten-year international trade data (2009-2018) for the EU-28 member countries that became the main importer for China instead of the USA in 2019. The conducted empirical research showed that Chinese trade has continuous deficits throughout European countries, and in some countries, it could be considered as an increasingly important structural issue (for example, in Poland and the Czech Republic). Trade with the USA, in turn, typically produces surplus for European countries, where Germany is the leader. The provided conclusions hold value for international trade managers in terms of their potential influence on public policy in the researched countries. In light of the financial crisis, the current export shock could be used by countries as an occasion to change the course and depart from the assumptions, which do not advocate for free trade

On-Demand Warehousing Model for Open Space Event Development Services: A Case Study in Lima, Peru

El texto completo de este trabajo no está disponible en el Repositorio Académico UPC por restricciones de la casa editorial donde ha sido publicado.This study focuses on the idle space within a warehouse which arises due to an inadequate identification of optimum materials, hindering their storage and reuse. Herein, an on-demand warehousing model is developed based on knowledge management, ideal design of warehouse facilities, and continuous monitoring of warehouse processes and activities for achieving an adequate material flow, cost minimization, high customer service levels, and better working conditions. Results show that the developed model reduced the idle warehouse space and operating costs by 72.14% and 58.55%, respectively