807 research outputs found
Coping with complexity in emerging markets
With low growth driving European and American businesses
to faster-growing economies, how do these foreign companies
handle the complex challenges they face in emerging markets
Towards a New Agenda for the Study of Business Internationalization: Integrating Markets, Institutions and Politics
Business is becoming increasingly international. At the same time, governments are intervening more in the conduct of business. A further development is the growing significance of emerging economies, many of which have a tradition of active government involvement with business. Taken together, these trends make it imperative to understand the relationships between firms and their institutional contexts. Conventional theories adopt an over-rationalized view of these relationships international business. Their apolitical perspective misses the fact that in order to build and maintain international operations, firms need to develop political relations with governments and institutions in home countries and abroad.
The aim of this lecture is to develop an alternative perspective with particular reference to the internationalization of firms, large and small. This considers how multinationals gain international positions through bargaining power with foreign governments. By contrast, SMEs face liabilities in dealing with foreign governments and instead often have to achieve internationalization through networking with other SMEs, with domestic communities and support agencies via various forms of social innovation. The lecture concludes that political and social innovation perspectives open new research avenues in the field of international business
Co-evolution of industry strategies and government policies: The case of the brazilian automotive industry
This study examines the evolution of the automotive industry in Brazil and its key drivers. We argue that the rules of the game â industry policies â are an outcome of exchanges between the host government and industry. These arise from changes in economic and political environments and interdependence between industry and the countryâs economy. To this end, we draw upon literature on institutions and co-evolution to understand the industry footprint over a 50-year period, as well as its relationship with changes in government policies. This study generates new insights on institutional and co-evolution political perspectives by showing that the rules of the game are not only the making of the government, but are also the result of interdependencies between industry and government
Understanding the Environments of Emerging Markets: The Social Costs of Institutional Voids
During the past decade, emerging markets have had extraordinarily high
growth rates compared to developed countries. Many agree that a distinctive
characteristic of emerging markets is their rhythm of growth. Over the past thirty
years, emerging markets have been encouraged to shape their institu tions to
foster the development of business, both domestic and international, under the
assumption that the efficient functioning of markets is core to economic growth.
Although emerging markets have achieved fast growth rates in the past, and are
expected to do so in years to come, there is evidence that they still lag behind
developed countries in several key areas, such as human development, institu -
tional competence, transparency levels and other social features. I argue that insti -
tu tio nal weakness is one of the main reasons for this disappointing performance.
The view that markets provide superior mechanisms to incentivise econo mic
activity has dominated academic perspectives on economic growth. A major
challenge for a perspective whose goals are centred primarily on economic
growth is that it tends to ignore the potential benefits of institutions in shaping
other features of society which are core to a more comprehensive view of growth,
i.e. one that takes into account its sustainability. In this lecture, I define institu -
tional voids as gaps between rules and their purpose and the effecti veness of their
implementation. Though institutional voids can be positive to business in many
respects, by creating opportunities for new business and entrepreneurship, it is
also important to consider that voids emerge when economic growth advances
faster than social and institutional structures. Hence, voids can also generate
unwanted consequences for society, such as the over-exploitation of human and
natural resources. In this lecture, I will consider two types of voids: structural and
contingent. Structural voids relate to the distance between rules as they are in the
book and the institutional capacity for their enforcement. Contingent voids arise
from a combination of factors unique to given environments such as the social
and economic contexts in which they are embedded, i.e. pressures for growth.
I will discuss some examples of structural and contingent voids mainly in the
Brazilian context and propose a model to analyse how they emerge, in order to
indicate how institutions can address the issue of voids. I suggest that emerging
markets can only make the leap forward to a stage of sustainable growth if
attention is focused on institution building and effectiveness, through a design
that considers intra- and inter-institutional coordination together with strategies
aimed at achieving embeddedness in both practice and behaviour. I now want to
share with you some ideas about economic development, the institutional
environments in emerging markets and the costs of growth
The role of structural evolution on the quantum conductance behavior of gold nanowires during stretching
Gold nanowires generated by mechanical stretching have been shown to adopt
only three kinds of configurations where their atomic arrangements adjust such
that either the [100], [111] or [110] zone axes lie parallel to the elongation
direction. We have analyzed the relationship between structural rearrangements
and electronic transport behavior during the elongation of Au nanowires for
each of the three possibilities. We have used two independent experiments to
tackle this problem, high resolution transmission high resolution electron
microscopy to observe the atomic structure and a mechanically controlled break
junction to measure the transport properties. We have estimated the conductance
of nanowires using a theoretical method based on the extended H\"uckel theory
that takes into account the atom species and their positions. Aided by these
calculations, we have consistently connected both sets of experimental results
and modeled the evolution process of gold nanowires whose conductance lies
within the first and third conductance quanta. We have also presented evidence
that carbon acts as a contaminant, lowering the conductance of one-atom-thick
wires.Comment: 10 page
Dengue in Madeira Island
This is a preprint of a paper whose final and definite form will be published in the volume
Mathematics of Planet Earth that initiates the book series CIM Series in Mathematical Sciences
(CIM-MS) published by Springer. Submitted Oct/2013; Revised 16/July/2014 and 20/Sept/2014;
Accepted 28/Sept/2014.Dengue is a vector-borne disease and 40% of world population is at risk.
Dengue transcends international borders and can be found in tropical and subtropical
regions around the world, predominantly in urban and semi-urban areas. A
model for dengue disease transmission, composed by mutually-exclusive compartments
representing the human and vector dynamics, is presented in this study. The
data is from Madeira, a Portuguese island, where an unprecedented outbreak was
detected on October 2012. The aim of this work is to simulate the repercussions of
the control measures in the fight of the disease
Norms and trust-shaping relationships among food-exporting SMEs in Ghana
There is a marked paucity of empirically rigorous research that focuses on the impact that indigenous institutional influences can have on the internationalization strategies of entrepreneurs operating in developing countries. This study therefore explores the complex processes through which owner-managers of food-exporting SMEs in Ghana draw on cultural norms to build networks that enable internationalization, in the absence of formal institutional support. The results facilitate a better understanding of the hybridization of indigenous and global norms that underpin SME internationalization in Ghana and other developing economies, particularly in Africa. The study contributes to the theory and practice of interorganizational relationships and to international entrepreneurship in an African context
Preparation and scale up of extended-release tablets of bromopride
Reproducibility of the tablet manufacturing process and control of its pharmaceutics properties depends on the optimization of formulation aspects and process parameters. Computer simulation such as Design of Experiments (DOE) can be used to scale up the production of this formulation, in particular for obtaining sustained-release tablets. Bromopride formulations are marketed in the form of extended-release pellets, which makes the product more expensive and difficult to manufacture. The aim of this study was to formulate new bromopride sustained release formulations as tablets, and to develop mathematical models to standardize the scale up of this formulation, controlling weight and hardness of the tablets during manufacture according to the USP 34th edition. DOE studies were conducted using Minitab(tm) software. Different excipient combinations were evaluated in order to produce bromopride sustained-release matrix tablets. In the scale-up study, data were collected and variations in tableting machine parameters were measured. Data were processed by Minitab(tm) software, generating mathematical equations used for prediction of powder compaction behavior, according to the settings of the tableting machine suitable for scale-up purposes. Bromopride matrix tablets with appropriate characteristics for sustained release were developed. The scale-up of the formulation with the most suitable sustained release profile was established by using mathematical models, indicating that the formulation can be a substitute for the pellets currently marketed
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