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The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the relationship between intensity of competition and technical efficiency of large European container ports, accounting for regional diversities and spatial aspects of inter-port competition.

The analysis consists of applying a stochastic production frontier approach to a dataset of 77 large European container ports over the period 2002-2012, with inefficiency terms simultaneously modeled as a function of (among other factors) a constructed index of competitive intensity at different spatial levels.

The results indicate that there is no significant negative effect of competitive intensity on efficiency. In fact, for competing European ports within a proximity of 300 km, a higher level of competition is found to be associated with a higher level of technical efficiency.

The originality of the paper stems from its particular focus on European port regions and its novel findings in this context, which have implications for the discussions regarding pro-competitive port policy and regulation in the European Union.

Although bankruptcies in the TMT sector are flowing thick and fast, the collapse of the media empire built up by Leo Kirch over a 42‐year period is arguably the most dramatic. Protected by its links with German business and financial institutions as well as politicians, the KirchGruppe appeared to be impervious to the periodic downturns in business conditions. However, not only did the “German” way of doing business behind closed doors come under increasing pressure by the end of the 1990s, but the KirchGruppe acquired enemies such as the Springer family as well as shareholders, such as Rupert Murdoch and Silvio Berlusconi, who were intent upon expanding their own empires. Because he assumed that his empire was well‐protected via his associates, Leo Kirch took excessive risks, not least the issuance of put options which, if exercised, could bring down his empire – which in the event was what transpired earlier this year.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a method to quantify the digital economy using a representative measurement approach and use it to analyze the USA, Germany, the Republic of Korea and Sweden.

The research approach of this paper is based on a developed methodology to identify firms of the digital economy by measuring the market capitalization of selected countries in comparison over time using financial databases.

Comparing the market capitalization of the digital economy, the USA lead both in absolute as well as in relative terms. The 11 firms with the largest market capitalization are all American. For Germany, the results show that policy measures should be undertaken to ameliorate competitiveness in the field.

This current measurement only includes public firms. An interesting avenue for future research would be to transfer the approach to investigate private firms.

Previous research has focused on comparing information and communication technologies adoption and infrastructure as well as innovation hubs between countries. The authors are not aware of any paper to date which has compared market capitalization in the digital economy between countries using a representative sample. This paper offers a research approach to measure and compare the digital economy between countries. The methodology could be applied to other countries which seek to benchmark their performance and derive policy measures to be able to compete with jurisdictions leading in the digital economy.

This article addresses the claim, particularly popular in the 2000s and implicitly resting on a segmentation view of the labour market, that a flexible labour market-driven immigration policy (within the EU as well as from outside), often associated to a ‘Canadian model’, would respond to the economic needs of continental European countries.

A comparative historical approach is applied, including analysis of historical series of unemployment and migration data and a qualitative analysis of secondary sources on Germany, Spain and Canada, selected as best representatives of different labour market and immigration regimes. The research asks to what extent, and how, immigration has been used as a ‘buffer’ for labour market uncertainty.

Against ideas of a ‘Canadian’ model advertised in Europe (e.g. Germany), the historical and quantitative analysis shows that Canada itself has moved from short-term labour market-driven immigration policies to more long-term approaches. In fact, there has been a stronger labour market-migration link in Spain, but not without problems,

The article is a small-N comparison of critical cases, that is most different labour market models. Major demographic and geographic differences exist between the three countries, which raises even more scepticism about the suitability of a Canadian model in Europe.

The policy implications are centred on the detected paradox of labour market-driven immigration policies: in order to be sustainable, they need to have a long-term orientation and involve some degree of social integration policies.

The article adds to comparative studies of migration policies through a stronger link to labour market analysis and in particular issues of uncertainty and segmentation.

This study aims to explore the main discursive images of women managers as reproduced by selected German newspapers at the time of the political debate surrounding gender quota on management boards between 2011 and 2013.

Drawing on critical discourse analysis according to Wodak (2001), an empirical analysis of media articles on women managers in two German newspapers, Welt and Bild, has been conducted.

The results of the study show that despite the diversity of images fabricated by the media in reference to women managers, the debate surrounding the issue of establishing a gender quota in management boards is dominated by dualistic categories and reductionist identity ascriptions, like women managers as being “over-feminine” or “over-masculine”, “exclusive” or “outsiders”.

As the empirical focus of the study lays on two right-wing newspapers in Germany, the results do not allow for generalizations regarding the German media landscape.

Public dispute surrounding gender quota in German companies tends to reproduce stereotypical discursive figures regarding women managers instead of challenging them. A fundamental change in the media reports on women managers is needed.

The research contributes to the analysis of media representations of women managers, by providing context-sensitive results from the current political debate in Germany. The findings reveal the stability of discursive structures over time, particularly gendered bias in the case of media representations of women managers, notwithstanding political aspirations to change established practices.