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Abstract

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Understanding Intercultural Interaction: An Analysis of Key Concepts, 2nd Edition
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83753-438-8

Article
Publication date: 22 February 2024

Ramazan Uctu and Ahmet Şahbaz

The China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI, hereafter) has reenergized the Silk Road concept, with most literature focusing on the political and economic effects of the BRI. While…

Abstract

Purpose

The China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI, hereafter) has reenergized the Silk Road concept, with most literature focusing on the political and economic effects of the BRI. While certain aspects of the Digital Silk Road (DSR), digital component of BRI, have been researched, much less focus has been placed on the technological development, tech transfer and information diffusion aspects of the BRI. The aim of this study is to investigate the opportunities, issues and critiques that have arisen as a result of the Belt and Road Initiative’s implications on innovation, knowledge transfer and dissemination.

Design/methodology/approach

Research in its nature is descriptive. Literature reviews are a significant part of the development of a field. Therefore, secondary sources were considered.

Findings

The literature and the study have highlighted several opportunities, problems and criticism that decision-makers and the relevant agencies and institutions should take into account when deciding how to move forward with BRI and its digital component DSR.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to the research literature on BRI and its subset DSR’s impacts on innovation, knowledge transfer and information diffusion. In fact, the DSR’s primary aim is to strengthen international cooperation in the digital economy. Furthermore, digital platforms now play a significant role in global trade, emphasizing the necessity of DSR.

Details

Journal of Science and Technology Policy Management, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2053-4620

Keywords

Abstract

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Problems in Paradise?
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83753-509-5

Article
Publication date: 19 January 2024

Raghuvir Kelkar and Kaliappa Kalirajan

Most economic growth is concentrated in the eastern and coastal provinces of China, while the western and central provinces have not yet experienced the expected economic growth…

Abstract

Purpose

Most economic growth is concentrated in the eastern and coastal provinces of China, while the western and central provinces have not yet experienced the expected economic growth. This study aims to address the following crucial research questions: Do the central and western provinces achieved potential efficiency in economic growth? Have China’s provinces used their resources effectively in implementing economic growth strategies?

Design/methodology/approach

The research design concerns the use of a panel dataset on province-specific economic growth in China over the years to 2000–2020. The methodology used was a stochastic frontier gross domestic product (GDP) model with time-varying technical efficiency over time. The approach uses the existing literature to identify the important variables influencing economic growth at the provincial level to model the stochastic frontier GDP model for empirical analysis.

Findings

This study concludes that the central provinces show the highest rate of efficiency in economic growth, though not 100%, followed by the Eastern and Western provinces. By increasing and improving skilled education institutes and intensifying supply chain opportunities through foreign direct investment (FDI), the central provinces achieving 100% growth efficiency may not be ruled out.

Research limitations/implications

The modes of economic governance and policies to improve GDP growth have been rapidly changing from increasing incentives to improving competition. Thus, more unique avenues and expansion of the horizon for impending research on provincial, national and international macroeconomics would emerge that would make current methodologies of the growth analysis outdated.

Practical implications

The empirical analysis highlights the importance of improving skilled education institutes and intensifying supply chain opportunities through FDI for achieving sustained economic growth.

Social implications

The empirical analysis facilitates finding ways to reduce income inequality across provinces in China.

Originality/value

To the authors' knowledge empirical analysis examining the Chinese province-specific economic growth efficiency explicitly has not been carried out using the recent Chinese panel dataset.

Details

Journal of Economic and Administrative Sciences, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1026-4116

Keywords

Content available
Article
Publication date: 18 January 2024

Stefania Kollia and Athanasios A. Pallis

Container liner shipping companies started expanding their business by investing in container port terminals in the late 1990s. This market entry results in an extensive presence…

Abstract

Purpose

Container liner shipping companies started expanding their business by investing in container port terminals in the late 1990s. This market entry results in an extensive presence of vertically integrated liners and terminals. This study aims to explore the competition effects of this vertical integration trend based on a regional (European) analysis. In particular, it extracts lessons from the European Commission (EC) cases on the competition effects of vertical integration. The critical analysis of the cases examined at the institutional level intends to reach conclusions on whether liner–terminal vertical integration harmed or advanced competition in the relevant markets and/or the extent that there is a need to revise the current policy practices.

Design/methodology/approach

This study critically assesses the EC’s decisional practices in port container terminal vertical mergers in the last 25 years (1997–2021). Based on a literature review comparing maritime and competition economists' perspectives, it reviews the types of mergers examined, the methodology followed for relevant market definition and calculation of market shares and the estimated competition effects. The Hamburg–Le Havre area is the port range used as a case study for comparing the decisional practice with actual market developments. These container ports serve the greatest consuming market of final and intermediate goods in Europe and are gateways to Central and Eastern Europe.

Findings

The assessment identifies a need for expanding the investigation as a precondition for reaching conclusions on both the anti- and pro-competitive effects. First, only a limited number of transactions have been notified to the EC. Second, the empirical research identified a gap in this process, as there were no decisions (phase I) on vertical mergers between 2008 and 2016. Third, the exante assessment has not applied a phase II in-depth analysis to any case due to the absence of competition concerns. Finally, due to the absence of complaints, there is a lack of any ex post assessment of the effects of vertical integration.

Research limitations/implications

This assessment is important for understanding the current and emerging features of intra-port and inter-port competition and the potential effects that the continuation and expansion of liner companies' vertical integration strategies will have along maritime supply chains. It also contributes to the broader discussion on liner companies' strategies, such as the research and policy-making efforts around the globe to understand the impact of both vertical and horizontal integration.

Practical implications

These discussions are critical for a diversity of businesses that use liner shipping services or provide facilities and services to container shipping lines or ports. They are important for the interests of customers and consumers as they could inform any needed re-visiting of competition policy to protect from the dominance of any market developments that would lead to conditions limiting competition. Expanding analysis on the competition effects of non-notified mergers would help a better understanding of market changes.

Social implications

Enhancing competition and limiting monopolies is valuable from a consumer's perspective. This is more so in the case of maritime trade that serves the needs of societies. The study contributes by generating a better understanding of how decision-makers have worked towards that direction and what realignments are worthy.

Originality/value

There are no previous comprehensive reviews and analyses of the ways that policy-makers at the regional level have addressed the competition effects of vertical integration strategies of liner shipping companies when enhancing competition is valuable from a consumer perspective. Comparing maritime economists and competition, the study, via its literature review, also offers a comparison of maritime and competition perspectives on these competition effects, allowing positioning of how effective decisional-making practices have been.

Details

Maritime Business Review, vol. 9 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2397-3757

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 7 February 2023

Michael Touchton, Stephanie McNulty and Brian Wampler

Participatory budgeting's (PB’s) proponents hope that bringing development projects to historically underserved communities will improve well-being by extending infrastructure and…

Abstract

Purpose

Participatory budgeting's (PB’s) proponents hope that bringing development projects to historically underserved communities will improve well-being by extending infrastructure and services. This article details the logic connecting PB to well-being, describes the evolution of PB programs as they spread around the world and consolidates global evidence from research that tests hypotheses on PB's impact. The purpose of this paper is to address these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

Unstructured literature review and comparative case study across five global regions.

Findings

The authors find evidence for PB's impact on well-being in several important contexts, mostly not only in Brazil, but also in Peru and South Korea. They also find that very few rigorous, large-N, comparative studies have evaluated the relationship between PB and well-being and that the prospects for social accountability and PB's sustainability for well-being are not equally strong in all contexts. They argue that PB has great potential to improve well-being, but program designs, operational rules and supporting local conditions must be favorable to realize that potential.

Originality/value

This is one of the few efforts to build theory on where and why the authors would expect to observe relationships between PB and well-being. It is also one of the first to consolidate global evidence on PB's impact.

Details

Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting & Financial Management, vol. 36 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1096-3367

Keywords

Abstract

Details

Redefining Educational Leadership in Central Asia
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83797-391-0

Expert briefing
Publication date: 13 February 2024

The poorly publicised law provides for an entirely new visa system, focused on streamlining guest-worker and skilled worker permits from third countries. It addresses an…

Article
Publication date: 12 February 2024

Vasileios Vlachos

Several empirical studies indicate that the existence of a large informal sector is a major obstacle to firms’ choices of innovation strategies. This paper aims to address this…

Abstract

Purpose

Several empirical studies indicate that the existence of a large informal sector is a major obstacle to firms’ choices of innovation strategies. This paper aims to address this issue and investigates the effect of the informal sector on the innovation of formal firms in Greece.

Design/methodology/approach

Using the World Bank’s Enterprise Survey data, the impact of informal competition on formal firms’ innovation in Greece is investigated by testing whether formal firms use innovation as a tool to protect and sustain their competitive advantage vis-à-vis informal firms and whether overall and informal competition has an inverted-U relationship with the innovation of formal firms. The effects of bribing and other variables drawn from the empirical literature are also controlled for.

Findings

The findings fill a gap in the literature regarding the effects of the informal sector on formal economic activity in Greece, by indicating that the informal sector puts pressure on formal firms to innovate, in order to differentiate their product or service and enhance their productivity and by offering learnings to help policymakers to promote innovation in Greece.

Originality/value

The originality of this study is that it investigates the impact of informal competition on formal firms’ innovation in Greece, a developed economy with a large informal sector. It does so by focusing on the effects that formal firms’ informal practices have on their competitors’ innovation activities, and the role of informal competition in creating and sustaining a competitive advantage in Greece.

Details

International Journal of Development Issues, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1446-8956

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 20 March 2024

Rahila Huma Anwar, Urooj Yahya and Sajida Zaki

Before the British colonial regime, Muslims in South Asia recognized a transnational notion of education that stretched on all sides, including the Middle East, Africa, Europe…

Abstract

Before the British colonial regime, Muslims in South Asia recognized a transnational notion of education that stretched on all sides, including the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and Central and South-East Asia, with a great social awakening and consciousness about the importance of inclusive education. Academia included theological and secular subjects and focused on producing thoughtful, sophisticated, and confident individuals ready to defend their beliefs with sound knowledge and reasoning. However, the British Raj in the 19th and 20th centuries had a lasting and indelible impression on the Muslims and the Islamic education system. British colonial regime challenged the theological discourse and education and compelled a Western style of education. These transformations in the education system raised several dilemmas and impasses for the Muslims of South Asia. Pakistan has remained a silent recipient of this tension underpinned in its educational systems even before its inception. This chapter traces the roots of education systems operating in Pakistan starting from the ninth century with the victory of Mohammad Bin Qasim through the 19th-century colonial rule of Great Britain until today, when the country offers a blend of diverse education systems. The study explores values embedded in different education systems operating in Pakistan. It is essential to understand the values inherent in these systems to see the harmony or conflict prevailing as a consequence which might have repercussions for the different societal segments and communities. Renewed focus toward value realization will facilitate refining educational frameworks and a promise for the acceptance of global and international advancements.

Details

Worldviews and Values in Higher Education
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80262-898-2

Keywords

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