http://www.ecommunics.org/http://www.ecommunics.org/modules/pub/view.php/RePEc:cbr:cbrwps:WP29The economics literature has largely ignored the nature of risk in rationalising inadequate insurance coverage or missing markets. A possible reason for this oversight is because the commonly defined zero profit condition for long-run competitive equilibrium cannot retain risk aversion and thus the nature of risk is of no consequence. This study overcomes this problem by defining competitive equilibrium as a function of reservation preference levels for entry and exit of firms. This innovation allows us to examine the effects of systemic risks on the current US federal program to deliver crop insurance through reinsurance. The study concludes that any federal reinsurance program that takes the proportional form is insufficient to facilitate an equilibrium if none existed due to high levels of systemic risks. The presence of high systemic risks would require very generous reinsurance schemes such that it may be unrealistic to expect the program to run on an actuarially fair basis if crop insurance is to be delivered via risk averse competitive firms. http://www.ecommunics.org/modules/pub/view.php/RePEc:cbr:cbrwps:WP28Since 1980, the small firms operating within industrial districts of Tuscany have experienced significantly increased international competition from low cost countries and reduced demand associated with recession and changes in consumer markets. The research reported here however demonstrates that the small firms in these districts have revealed a remarkable ability to restructure their activities in different ways so as to remain competitive, while falling industrial employment has been more than offset by growth of services. Firm restructuring strategies include product diversification and innovation, quality upgrading and ommercial specialisation, with consequent changes in the division of labour within the districts and between the districts and external firms. External links have increased,although internal link remain dominant. Within the districts, there has been growth of formal and informal enterprise groups of firms, which reduce uncertainty and increase coordination and efficiency. Increased collective action of this kind is essential for continuing successful adaptation to external pressures. http://www.ecommunics.org/modules/pub/view.php/RePEc:cbr:cbrwps:WP27This paper examines the dynamics of the European computer services industry, a major growth sector in the European Union (EU) that has been neglected in terms of research or policy initiatives. In particular the analysis focuses on a number of key technological and industrial changes that are affecting the evolution and growth of the industry in the Union. These key drivers of the industry are then assessed in terms of their impact on the wider structural and locational development of the sector. The paper concludes by analysing the evolving policy context of the computer services industry within the EU. http://www.ecommunics.org/modules/pub/view.php/RePEc:cbr:cbrwps:WP26This review article is aimed at discussing the theoretical foundations of firmsgrowth processes which lie beyond the assumptions of standard (neoclassical) theory, according to which sizeless firms are simply pushed - by the existence of a U-shaped long-run averag cost curve and by the goal of maximum profit - to expand their size until they reach the scale corresponding to minimum average cost. The paper stresses the relevance of the analysis of the internal functioning of complex organisations in the development of a theory of flesh and blood firms growth, in order to focus attention upon many important points which the standard approach to the analysis of firms behaviour, by its very nature, cannot take into account. Given such a perspective the analysis tries to set within a common framework a wide range of theoretical approaches on this issue, which both deal with supply and demand issues, and involve the analysis of the role played by technological, financial and organisational determinants of growth, as well as that of the factors affecting motivation and the degree of rationality of agents. In this context the paper naturally refers to the main developments of non-neoclassical theories of the firm, but it also pays attention to some contributions which appear to have been neglected by more recent analysis, and which nonetheless may help in highlighting important questions related to the phenomenon of growth. http://www.ecommunics.org/modules/pub/view.php/RePEc:cbr:cbrwps:WP25The paper reviews and analyses the system of cooperative credit and financing developed by the Mondragon industrial cooperatives of the Basque region of northern Spain. It demonstrates that this system, centred on the operations of a credit cooperative (the Caja Laboral), has reduced risk, encouraged the creation and survival of many of the industrial cooperatives, and facilitated successful external intervention in and management of cooperative restructuring. Since the late 1980s, however, severe international competition, the liberalization of Spains financial and labour markets, and institutional changes within the Mondragon cooperative group have significantly altered and reduced the Caja Laborals role in this regard, resulting in increased uncertainty about future cooperative financing. http://www.ecommunics.org/modules/pub/view.php/RePEc:cbr:cbrwps:WP24This paper analyses the micro-economic impact of the growth of the Coca-Cola business system in China since the mid-1980s. It focuses on the Coca-Cola bottling plant in Tianjin. It places the study in the setting of broader changes taking pace in the Chinese beverage industry during the reform period. It analyses the impact of the growth of the Coca-Cola business system in respect to three main issues. First, it looks at the impact upon capital markets, including the effect upon the generation and distribution of profits, upon plant size distribution and firm level structure in the Chinese beverage industry. Second, it examines the impact Coca-Cola has had upon the wide network of suppliers to the company. Thirdly, it analyses the impact upon labour markets, looking especially at both the direct and indirect employment effects. http://www.ecommunics.org/modules/pub/view.php/RePEc:cbr:cbrwps:WP23The expansion of business services in the UK since 1981 is reviewed in relation to general patterns of corporate management control. The results of a survey of strategic expertise exchange between consultancies and managers of major companies are presented. Consultancies are employed most by large, growing, decentralised, service corporations, in southern England, and by those already experienced in change management. The reasons for the employment of different types of consultancy in corporate change are also examined. Clients emphasise their control over consultancies, but are also increasingly dependent on them. Consultancy growth marks a developing social division of elite management labour which has significance for rates of economic restructuring, and the continuing focusing of control functions in southern England. http://www.ecommunics.org/modules/pub/view.php/RePEc:cbr:cbrwps:WP22This paper seeks to define, illustrate and analyse the nature of unfair competition in the context of three important economic relationships: vertical relations between firms, relations between firms and private (or ultimate) customers, and horizontal relations between firms. We start by developing concepts of fairness within each of the three types of relationship with reference to the Bible. We go on to illustrate and analyse these concepts with six case studies of good and bad competitive relationships. The case studies involve Hewlett Packard, the UK clothing industry, ServiceMaster, the UK mortgage market, United Biscuits and the BA Dirty Tricks campaign.http://www.ecommunics.org/modules/pub/view.php/RePEc:cbr:cbrwps:WP21This paper examines from a comparative perspective (Britain and Germany) how two important aspects of institutional order - industry associations and legal regulations - influence the quality of inter-firm relations. It is argued that these institutional structures contribute in important ways to the construction of both trust and power relations and that there exists a complex interrelationship between system trust and system power. It is shown that the radically different institutional orders of Britain and Germany lead to some significant differences in the nature of inter-firm coordination achieved. The paper draws on empirical material from the ESRC project on Vertical Contracts.http://www.ecommunics.org/modules/pub/view.php/RePEc:cbr:cbrwps:WP20This paper looks at two successful efforts to regulate competition in the United States during the 1920s: open price associations and the Federal Trade Commissions experiments in trade practice conferences. I argue that business associations made more progress in the United States than commonly thought. This is demonstrated by showing that 1) counter to the conventional wisdom, one strain of antitrust practice was supportive of price regulation by association and 2) open price associations were more capable of generating cooperation and economic progress than game theoretic interpretations of business associations in the United States suggest.http://www.ecommunics.org/modules/pub/view.php/RePEc:cbr:cbrwps:WP19This paper examines the links between executive pay, executive dismissals and company characteristics. Specific attention is paid to the role of institutional investors and non-executive directors in influencing pay/performance relationships. The analysis shows that in the UK Electrical Engineering Industry in the period 1989-94 pay was positively related to both shareholder welfare measures (profitability and share returns) and to size but that the latter was the most significant influence. The probability of executive dismissal was higher the smaller was company size and the lower was profitability. The presence or absence of institutions as major shareholders made no appreciable difference to either the level of pay or the likelihood of dismissal, or the sensitivity of either to shareholder performance or size.http://www.ecommunics.org/modules/pub/view.php/RePEc:cbr:cbrwps:WP18This paper examines the links between executive pay, executive dismissals and company characteristics. Specific attention is paid to the role of institutional investors and non-executive directors in influencing pay/performance relationships. The analysis shows that in the UK Electrical Engineering Industry in the period 1989-94 pay was positively related to both shareholder welfare measures (profitability and share returns) and to size but that the latter was the most significant influence. The probability of executive dismissal was higher the smaller was company size and the lower was profitability. The presence or absence of institutions as major shareholders made no appreciable difference to either the level of pay or the likelihood of dismissal, or the sensitivity of either to shareholder performance or size.http://www.ecommunics.org/modules/pub/view.php/RePEc:cbr:cbrwps:WP17Building on theories of economic and cultural evolution, and on empirical research on technical change, this paper derives a coherent evolutionary theory of economic growth from the basic assumptions of genuine uncertainty and bounded rationality. As a by-product, it also sheds light on the fundamental problems associated with the use of the neo-classical paradigm in dealing with long-run economic growth. The theory developed here improves on previous theories of economic evolution by distinguishing more precisely between the various evolutionary forces driving this process. This distinction enhances our understanding of economic growth, and it is also relevant to the important question regarding the optimality of economic evolution.http://www.ecommunics.org/modules/pub/view.php/RePEc:cbr:cbrwps:WP16Until recently the concept of tacit knowledge has been neglected by academics and managers alike, but this has now changed as tacit know-how has become recognised as playing a key role in firm growth and economic competitiveness. Tacit knowledge forms an important element in a firms knowledge base and has a central role in organisational learning. This paper analyses what is meant by tacit knowledge and outlines its main parameters and traits. The analysis stresses the need to view tacit knowledge in a dynamic setting and that tacit knowledge can be acquired and transferred on a variety of levels: individual, group, firm and inter-firm basis. The paper then explores the policy implications of technology transfer initiatives which seek to shift tacit know-how between firms and analyses the ways that can this be achieved.http://www.ecommunics.org/modules/pub/view.php/RePEc:cbr:cbrwps:WP15The New Institutional economists assume that technology determines property rights, whilst radical economists assume that causality runs in the opposite direction. This paper introduces the concept of "organisational equilibrium" to show how these two approaches can be combined. In such an equilibrium,existing property rights are the most efficient for utilising the current technique of production. At the same time, this technique is also optimal from the point of view of existing property owners. The paper demonstrates that more than one organisational equilibrium may exist. To shift from one equilibrium to another will require a simultaneous change in both technology and property rights. This is likely to be difficult and may help to explain the persistence of inefficient productive arrangements. The paper concludes by comparing its analysis of multiple organisational equilibria with the biological theory of speciation.http://www.ecommunics.org/modules/pub/view.php/RePEc:cbr:cbrwps:WP14This article argues that Britains industrial performance since 1960 has been relatively poor; secondly, that the deindustrialisation which has been associated with this relatively poor industrial performance is a serious problem for the whole economy; thirdly, that neither the specific problem of deindustrialisation nor the consequent general problem of continued relative economic decline were solved in the 1980s; and fourthly, that the key reason why British industry has been doing relatively poorly has been underinvestment in manufacturing.http://www.ecommunics.org/modules/pub/view.php/RePEc:cbr:cbrwps:WP13The paper analyses recent manufacturing and structural economic changes in advanced economies, in relation to the international division of labour between advanced and developing countries, the role of new technology, and the growth of the service sector. It argues that the economic growth of developing countries will create substantial new markets for sophisticated manufactured goods, and that advanced countries will export knowledge intensive goods and services in return for labour intensive goods and services from developing countries. Trade between advanced economies will be concentrated into regional blocs. High, and rising unemployment in advanced countries reflects poor manufacturing performance in the context of both new technology and imports from developing countries, and requires increased manufacturing investment, in capital stock, education and training.http://www.ecommunics.org/modules/pub/view.php/RePEc:cbr:cbrwps:WP12The paper examines the contribution manufacturing industry must make if Britain is to restore full employment in the foreseeable future. The main contribution will be to create a more favourable trade-off between growth and external deficits. Estimates are given of the likely improvement in manufacturing net exports which would be necessary to bring a sustained reduction in employment without persistent external deficits. The paper provides estimates of the extra growth of output and manufacturing investment expenditure in additional capacity necessary to accompany faster growth of manufacturing production.http://www.ecommunics.org/modules/pub/view.php/RePEc:cbr:cbrwps:WP11The paper presents employment projections and reviews the major economic problems which are likely to face Korea in the next two decades. These are the decline of agricultural employment and the rural economy, rising wage costs and pressures for immigration of lower-cost workers, and the growth of overseas investment by large Korean firms with negative impacts on the Korean economy itself. It concludes by discussing policy implications and possible policy responses to these problems.http://www.ecommunics.org/modules/pub/view.php/RePEc:cbr:cbrwps:WP10This paper examines the nature of contractual cooperation within and between firms in vertical supply chains. We suggest that such cooperation should be conceptualised not as a consequence of but as an alternative to market-based competition between economic agents. The quality of cooperation between agents is then dependent upon the presence of norms, conventions and other institutional arrangements which foster trust, particularly by controlling the process of competition through product and labour-market standards. One implication is that arrangements which are commonly condemned as collusive or restrictive may, for this reason, have important efficiency-enhancing effects.http://www.ecommunics.org/modules/pub/view.php/RePEc:cbr:cbrwps:WP09Using a three-sector, two-labour-category general equilibrium simulation model of North-South trade, based on Wood (1994), the paper explores relationships between production, trade and employment in more developed Northern and less developed Southern economies. The results are related to recent empirical findings on Western Europe, and suggest a range of significant implications for understanding North-South trends in labour-intensive and capital-intensive production, levels of skilled and unskilled employment, productivity and wages.http://www.ecommunics.org/modules/pub/view.php/RePEc:cbr:cbrwps:WP08A parsimonious explanation for the positive skew of enterprise size distributions is Gibrats law. In large multi-establishment enterprises, do establishment-specific idiosyncratic shocks penetrate the veil of common ownership and lead to a similar regularity in the intra-enterprise, establishment size distribution? We use a maximum entropy method to derive statistically a null hypothesis on the nature of this distribution for UK manufacturing industries. We show that the degree of concentration of the intra-enterprise establishment size distribution determines the variance of the distribution of growth rates of the enterprise - and thus the risk it faces.http://www.ecommunics.org/modules/pub/view.php/RePEc:cbr:cbrwps:WP07The paper examines the relationship between capital stock and investment, on the one hand, and employment and unemployment, on the other, both theoretically and using regression analysis of empirical data for OECD countries. It considers the causes of low capital investment, especially in manufacturing, in industrialised economies and argues that this has been a significant factor in the rise of unemployment in Western Europe.http://www.ecommunics.org/modules/pub/view.php/RePEc:cbr:cbrwps:WP06In this paper the research focus is on counterfactual cases of growth oriented SMEs in peripheral regions of Britain (Scotland, Northern England, Wales and Merseyside). These firms are systematically compared to three control groups, made up of growth-oriented SMEs in the South East, slow-growth firms in the Periphery, and slow-growth firms in the South East. Apart from some performance measures such as profits and exports, three key characteristics of the firms are analysed. These are the extent of competition in the markets served, levels of innovation and R&D, and work force and labour market characteristics. The analysis is conducted for manufacturing firms and professional and business services separately. Firms of the research group stand out against the other firms in the sample as businesses with a very favourable R&D input-output ratio and greater propensity for providing a combination of formal internal and external training programmes. Possible explanations for these findings are suggested. The results provide considerable grounds for questioning the strong link between firm and environment implied by regional development theory and for greater emphasis on the ways in which organisations may counteract and overcome comparative environmental disadvantages.http://www.ecommunics.org/modules/pub/view.php/RePEc:cbr:cbrwps:WP05Trust and power are analysed as means to reduce uncertainty and risk in inter-firm relationships. Both theoretically and with reference to empirical comparative research (Britain and Germany) it is shown that trust-based relations between buyer and supplier firms rarely evolve spontaneously on the level of individual interaction but are highly dependent on the existence of stable legal, political and social institutions.