Industrial Organization

During the 1990s, a long historical cycle of Bucharest came to an end. From the mid-19th century on, industry became an important economic and cultural presence in Bucharest's landscape. During the last 10-15 years it began to contract. Along with other urban processes such as urbanization, gentrification and emergence of ghettos, deindustrialization represents a major trend in Bucharest's recent history. Deindustrialization is both an economic and a cultural transformation. This volume uses insights from urban geography, heritage studies and urban history in order to understand the landscape of deindustrialization, situated between the fetish of gated communities and post-industrial wasteland.

Contents:

Chapter 1. Dezindustrialization and changes of urban landscape
Chapter 2. Postindustrial nostalgia, industrial heritage and refunctionalization
Chapter 3. The geography, history and the memory of Bucharest's industrialization
Chapter 4. Current usage of industrial spaces and the new urban landscape
Chapter 5. The social life of industrial ruins: The cultural reinsertion of industrial spaces

Product design defines the functions that qualify a product or service, in order to identify and organise the distinctive specifications of the company offer, and to develop goods and services based on analysis of the needs of demand (customer satisfaction). The first imperative for global corporations is, indeed, to deliver value to empowered customers (market-driven management). For global corporations, achieving a differential advantage in terms of product design therefore means designing an offer based on the best interpretation of corporate imitation and innovation processes

The ultimate objective of the present paper is to empirically investigate the effectiveness of competition policy in developed and developing countries. Although its importance is continuously increasing, the effectiveness of competition policy still seems to lack the attention that it would deserve. At the present state of art, the number of academic contributions that attempts to estimate its impact on relevant economic variables appears very limited, in particular for the less developed countries. However, an empirical literature aimed at measuring in objective terms the effect of competition policy on economic growth is emerging, starting from narrow variables of interest, such as Gross Domestic Product and Total Factor Productivity. As a result, the principal aim of the current work is to contribute to this branch of research, focusing on broader indicators of market performance, in order to understand whether the presence of an antitrust authority has a significant impact, thus an effective utility, on the level of competition of a country. | Samà, Danilo (2013), The effectiveness of competition policy: an econometric assessment in developed and developing countries, Law & Economics LAB, LUISS “Guido Carli” University, Rome, Italy, pp. 1-50.

Supply chains for fresh fruit and vegetables, are going through considerable re-shaping phase worldwide. This study analyses the trends which impose those changes and focuses mainly at the wholesale and export trading of the Euro-Mediterranean supply chain (namely, on how fruit and vegetable producer, wholesale and export firms react to the market forces that direct them). Producer organizations and wholesale firms one the one hand of The Netherlands, Germany and other EU member countries, and of Non- EU Member Mediterranean countries, on the other hand, are the subject of this study. Two graphical representation of the Dutch and the German supply chains respectively are presented here as the main instrument to demonstrate the dynamics of the sectors structure, by describing the position, function size and development for the main chain partner in each of the aforementioned markets. The Euro-Med dimension of the fruit and vegetable supply chain, is analyzed by attempting an impact a...

This paper presents alternative models of oligopoly behaviorfor the Argentine gasoline market and applies parametric estimations to analyze the effect that the Repsol-YPFmerger had on that market. Using monthly data for the different provinces of Argentina during ...

The resurgence of farmers' markets in New Jersey has been welcomed by farmers, consumers and municipalities alike. This form of direct marketing has the potential to benefit all three sectors simultaneously. Farmers' markets allow growers to capture a greater share of the consumer's food expenditure thus increasing their profitability. Similarly, consumers' need for fresh, high quality commodities as well as for farm-based recreational experiences are met. Also, drawing customers to downtown areas can contribute to the revitalization of these areas by boosting the business of local retailers. However, despite their rapid spread throughout the state, no study has been conducted on the efficiency of the farmers' markets in terms of management and organization. This study provides an overview of various characteristics of managers as well as of the factors that have an effect on the organization and well functioning of these direct marketing outlets. Besides demogra...

What are the cornerstones of Nobel laureate Jean Tirole’s thinking and how do they influence the contemporary debates about the future of economic science, its role in society, and the need to regulate markets? This paper aims to illustrate the main characteristics of the French economist’s thought and to contextualise them with respect to its time, its biography, and other thinkers’ critiques.

After a brief introduction, Section 2 presents the main events making Tirole’s life and career, Section 3 expounds the change in economic paradigm proposed by the author departing from the pervasive assumption that decision-takers (i.e. consumers, firms, governments, etc.) are rational, Section 4 summarises Tirole’s analysis of competition and regulation which won him the Nobel Prize, while Section 5 focuses on the regulation of financial markets, and Section 6 concludes.

A case study for organizational behavior based on the "DownCity"episode of the fourth season of Kitchen Nightmares.

This document contains (1) a summary of the series (2) a list of the cast of characters (3) an episode recap and (4) two discussion questions suitable for classroom use in undergraduate courses such as organizational behavior and principles of management.

For solutions to the discussion questions, please email "starling.hunter@alumni.duke.edu" with the phrase "Solution request" in the subject line.

SHOW SUMMARY Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares is a television program featuring British celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay first broadcast on Channel 4 in 2004 in the UK. An American adaptation of this show entitled Kitchen Nightmares debuted September 19, 2007 on Fox. In each episode, Ramsay visits a failing restaurant and acts as a troubleshooter to help improve the establishment in just one week. Ramsay revisits the restaurant a few months later to see how business has fared in his absence.

We discuss issues of the application of antitrust law and regulatory rules to network industries. In assessing the application of antitrust in network industries, we analyze a number of relevant features of network industries and the way in which antitrust law and regulatory rules can affect them. These relevant features include (among others) network effects, market structure, market share and profits inequality, choice of technical standards, relationship between the number of active firms and social benefits, existence of market power, leveraging of market power in complementary markets, and innovation races. We find that there are often significant differences on the effects of application of antitrust law in network and non-network industries.

In this paper, we study a simple model in which two horizontally differentiated firms compete in prices and targeted advertising on an initially uninformed market. First, the Nash equilibrium is fully characterized. We prove that when the advertising cost is low, firms target only their “natural markets”, while they cross-advertise when this cost is high. Second, the outcome at equilibrium is compared with random advertising. Surprisingly, we prove that firms' equilibrium profits may be lower with targeted advertising relative to random advertising, while firms are given more options with targeted advertising.

"Formal methods aim to apply mathematically-based techniques to the development of computer-based systems, especially at the specification level, but also down to the implementation level. This aids early detection and avoidance of errors through increased understanding. It is also beneficial for more rigorous testing coverage. This talk presents the use of formal methods on a real project. The Z notation has been used to specify a large-scale high integrity system to aid in air traffic control. The system has been implemented directly from the Z specification using SPARK Ada, an annotated subset of the Ada programming language that includes assertions and tool support for proofs. The Z specification has been used to direct the testing of the software through additional test design documents using tables and fragments of Z. In addition, Mathematica has been used as a test oracle for algorithmic aspects of the system. In summary, formal methods can be used successfully in all phases of the lifecycle for a large software project with suitably trained engineers, despite limited tool support.
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The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) is the central bank of South Africa and is privately owned. This private ownership was the secret ingredient for the dismantling of the political regime known as Apartheid. Many years later, it seems that today there has been a reversal of roles because it appears that the current political regime in South Africa is succeeding in dismantling the SARB’s independence and the way it operates. This paper examines interest rate announcements as an indirect measure of the political independence of the SARB. The test constructed in this paper consists of two interest rate models; of actual and projected interest rates. These models are then compared with one another because the difference in the movement of actual interest rates, as measured against the movement of projected interest rates, could provide evidence that the SARB is not performing its duties independently. The results of the study indicate that the SARB is to a great extent independent, but still has some room for improvement.

This paper explores how heterogenous risk drives the firm innovation–survival relationship using a large sample of new entrepreneurial firms in China. Results show that innovation increases the probability of survival, although the impact on firm survival is conditioned by the timing of the innovation, the characteristics associated with the innovation strategy, along with the level of risk embodied in the innovation process. Cautious innovators are found to survive longer and contribute to a higher social welfare via gains in firm efficiency. In contrast, risky innovators are less likely to survive, are less efficient, and are only sometimes compensated for their risk in terms of higher profits. Results therefore show that other factors besides higher payoffs force some firms to engage in riskier innovation strategies.

Odisha’s industry sector began a phase of high growth
in 2002–03. It contributed just 24% to the gross state
domestic product in 1980–81, but 38% in 2007–08,
before declining to 33% in 2012–13. This paper points
out that organised manufacturing, especially in basic
metal and alloys, has been the driver of growth in
the last decade. The average productivity of labour in
organised manufacturing increased during 1981–90,
peaked in 1989–90, declined in 1991–2002, and has
been rising again from 2002–03. Labour productivity
has grown the most in basic metal and alloys, and
capital accumulation in paper and paper products.
Capital productivity shows a negative trend overall. Total
factor productivity fell in manufacturing as a whole and
three major sub-sectors, barring basic metal and alloys,
and chemical and chemical products.

PhD Thesis on Industrial Organization and Human Resource Management in Thailand by using a case study of the telecommunications industry.
The intrinsic motivation comes from the mismatch between education and employment side in the Thai labour market, esp ICT. The graduates are under-employed and take 6-12 months to find the suitable job. At the same time, the companies spend 7.4 weeks to fill the vacancies at the professional level and most blame the lag of adjustment of educational institute. The reason that I choose telecommunications industry is that this industry shows high potential growth and is an important foundation of digital economy and information society. So, I would like to find whether there is a problem of mismatch, or a shortage of ICT personnel. And what are the countermeasure which the companies in this industry have used to solve the problems.

Development of manufacturing small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is a key engine to promote development of rural economy in developing countries. A common industrial organization among manufacturing SMEs, especially in rural areas, in Indonesia as in many other developing countries is clustering, where firms producing similar products concentrate in a certain area. This has led the Indonesian government to adopt

In a competitive fringe model the impact of concentration on price-cost margins can be shown to be ambiguous. Therefore, looking at the relationship between rates of return and concentration ratios is not sufficient for perceiving collusive elements. In this paper a model is set up that permits discerning collusion more clearly. Additional evidence concerning collusion can be gained by analyzing the influence of exports and imports on price-cost margins. Applying this approach to West Germany yields the result that the collusiveness prevailing in domestic markets has not visibly decreased in spite of a substantial increase in foreign trade.