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Digital
Divide and the Complexities in the Contemporary Networked
World: The Role of WTO
-- Arup Choudhuri
Technological
revolutions in the past few decades have reduced the costs
of logistics and communication. This in turn has paved the
way for a truly global economy. This paper examines the convergence
of world economy into a single global economy and the coming
of the digital age. These developments also bring with them
new challenges. The rise of trade over Internet has only added
to the complexities of the trading world. The regulatory framework
required to regularize trade over the Net is yet to be developed.
Under such circumstances, the author envisions that WTO will
have an increasingly critical role to play in the coming years.
He urges that WTO should find global consensus on a set of
general principles for Internet trade. It will not only have
to ensure an open, competitive, well-regulated information
economy but will also have to harmonize technical standards.
This can be brought about by the WTO members committing to
technological neutrality, which means ensuring that current
WTO agreements and basic WTO concepts of non-discrimination,
national treatment, and most-favored-nation status apply to
e-commerce as well as to conventional trade.
© IUP. All Rights Reserved.
The
Growing Importance of Chaos Theory
-- Ravi
Madapati
Chaos
theory tries to explain apparent disorder in a very ordered
way. Chaos theory states that things are not really random,
just complex. Many apparently random events can be represented
by a simple computation that, when iterated, produce complex
results. Chaos theory has served an important role for empirical
researchers. It reminds us of the possibility that some ostensibly
well-understood theoretical models may contain a hidden wealth
of rich, dynamic structure. It will be of great interest to
watch the developments in chaos theory in the coming years
because of its wide applications.
© IUP. All Rights Reserved.
Corporate
Governance, Strategy and Survival in a Declining Industry:
A Study of UK Cotton Textile Companies
-- Igor
Filatotchev& Steve Toms
This
paper examines the influences of a firm's ownership structure
and Board characteristics on strategic responses to industrial
decline in firms from the textile industry. Study of samples
of successful and unsuccessful companies revealed that the
successful companies were for the greater part owned by institutional
investors and board directors. They also tend to have more
diverse Boards. These corporate governance factors are associated
with higher investment, financial performance, and growth.
The results are consistent with a resource-based view of the
corporate governance factors.
©Steve
Toms and Igor Filatotchev. The article was sourced from the
website www.bbk.ac.uk. Reprinted with permission.
Environmental
Factors Affecting the Implementation of Dual Marketing Channels -- Niels Peter Mols
This
article finds support for the prediction that the existence
of dual marketing channels where manufacturers sell directly
to users or consumers as well as through independent marketing
intermediaries are likely to become more widespread in the
future. First empirical studies on dual channels are reviewed.
A model consisting of five hypotheses delimiting the environmental
factors influencing the implementation of dual marketing channels
is suggested. The hypothesis is tested on the basis of answers
from 231 manufacturers. The results indicate that existing
marketing channels, high costs and low perceived benefits
hamper the adoption of dual channels. On the other hand, customers
and competition put pressure for additional marketing channels.
©Niels
Peter Mols. The paper was sourced from the website, www.econ.au.dk.
Reprinted with permission.
Research
Summary
Leveraged
Growth -- Promod Mantravadi
The
traditional growth strategies of organic expansion and acquisition
require businesses to make up-front investments in additional
assets. The need to own physical assets like factories and
machinery or intangible ones like information and skills,
makes traditional growth strategies risky, due to uncertainty
in returns. The pursuit of growth through asset building can
also cause a lowering of margins, hitting profitability of
the firm.
© IUP. All Rights Reserved.
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