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Does the network economy strengthen brands, suppliers alliances, customer relationships, and the value of information-or does it obliterate them?

Transitional entrepreneurship in distressed economies is a fairly new concept with respect to new ventures in such challenging economic environments. Formal institutional voids are sometimes held up as a reason for the difficulties present in distressed economies, along with exogenous shocks and other upheavals. In this research, the authors seek to contribute empirically and theoretically as to ways in which formal institutions voids can be filled by a culture developed by transitional entrepreneurs. Indeed, in transition economies, formal institutions need to be enhanced by informal institutions to control corruption and other misbehavior by authorities. Iranian economists emphasize these essential reforms to be able to manage current difficulties, yet top down policies cannot help transitional entrepreneurs benefit from the country’s value-adding cultural heritage to informally address this. To study this, qualitative research methods were used to interpret transitional entrepreneurs’ ideology and ethical routines as the ingredients of a commercial culture that can establish soft law that substitutes for formal institutions. This helps to reduce the disfunctionality of formal institutions in distressed economies.

A thematic analysis interviewing key Iranian entrepreneurs and economists is conducted. Also based on an interpretive paradigm, a hermeneutic cycle has been carried out on selected texts. Results have been verified throughout related literature as to come up with a solid synthesized interpreted outcome.

This paper contributes to theory from a new perspective by discussing transitional entrepreneurship and navigating a distressed economy; in which, ideology and ethics as the ingredients of soft law (Newman and Posner, 2018) are discussed as the base to further develop a commercial culture that fills voids of formal institutions. The formal–informal institutional cycle in distressed economies as the major difficulty entrepreneurs face (Peng and Luo, 2000) is important, because they try to increasingly enhance their move toward a market orientation (Bruton et al., 2008). The authors contribute as to how transitional entrepreneurs can complete this process of adaptation and also the fact that those informal institutions do actually respond to those adaptations. The other contribution is to enrich theories about institutions from the point of view of culture. Knowing these facts helps transitional entrepreneurs, because in distressed communities, formal institutions’ function has an important effect on economic performance (Amorós, 2009). This research’s contributions shed light to help government leaders understand the pros and cons of their actions forced on the industry. As it has been characterized in this research, it can turn in to new formal set of legitimacies (Ahlstrom et al., 2008) to root out corruption and help set the economy on a path to innovation and new venture creation.

Transitional entrepreneurs can depend on the less formal cultural-cognitive aspect of ethics and ideology. These entrepreneurs can be working on the burgeoning private sector, who want to connect with the outside effectively to overcome an economy in distress. Transitional entrepreneurs may face governmental institutional intermediaries as a barrier. Formal intermediaries tend to benefit from inefficiencies caused by hierarchal orders and will improve informality in order to overcome difficulties. In this research, institutional theory from the third pillar of the cultural-cognitive sheds light on transitional entrepreneurship in distressed economies, where inquiry is to fill voids of formal institutions as a process of possible linking between new generated soft law derived by beliefs, ideology and professional morality in order to influence (old) legitimacies. The research’s focus evolves on values transitional entrepreneurs utilize to build informal institutions and then impact further on formal institutions to handle distressed communities. This theoretical background expands on subsections to define conceptual building blocks for the study, essential aspects such as individuals as transitional entrepreneurs, the values they utilize to generate soft law, informal institutions and soft law, to manage voids in formal institutions and legitimacy building aspects in policy agenda setting for transitional entrepreneurship in distressed economies.

This study aims to analyse the observation that the economics of many countries have boomed after the input of substantial investments into physical and social infrastructures.

A structural equation model is formulated to examine the effect of transportation infrastructure on the relationship between institutions and gross domestic product per capita (GDPPC). This study further differentiates between developed and developing economies.

The study identifies the different roles of transportation infrastructure in mediating the relationship between institutions and average income in these two types of economy. Institutions and transportation infrastructure positively influence GDPPC, whereas institutions positively influence transportation infrastructure. In addition, the results found indirect influence of institutions on GDPPC via transportation infrastructure.

This study provides new insights into international business studies based on institutional theory and factor-mobility theory.

This study aims to examine the influence of the blue economy factors on the economic growth of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries.

Secondary data from 1995 to 2018 have been used for the analysis of eight countries. The contributing factors that measure the fishing production are total aquaculture production, total fisheries production and agriculture, forestry and fishing. Trade and the rate of inflation are used as control variables. Using the feasible generalized least square technique.

It was found that the blue economy factors play a statistically significant role in the economic growth of SAARC countries and contribute to the achievement of Goal 14 of the United Nations’ sustainable development goals: to conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.

This study highlights the fact that proper management and utilization of water resources may assist the stimulation of economic growth and meet the challenges of food insecurity by improving the supply of seafood in developing South Asian countries. The study proposes that the sustainable management of water resources requires an alliance across nation states. The alliance will be useful in understanding the concept of the blue economy and the role it plays in ensuring economic growth in developing nations throughout the world.

This paper aims to address the following questions: is good liner shipping connectivity a requisite for merchandise imports plus exports? What is the average of merchandise imports plus exports of the countries neighboring China? Do the merchandise imports plus exports of these countries correspond to each country’s own merchandise imports plus exports or liner shipping connectivity index (LSCI)?

The authors spatially analyze liner shipping connectivity and merchandise imports plus exports using 2016 data and a common framework for linear regression to establish the relationship amongst a country’s LSCI and its merchandise imports plus exports and between its merchandise imports plus exports and those of its neighbors. Merchandise imports plus exports of countries are not necessarily independent of each other, and countries that are contiguous may produce similar observations.

North America and Western Europe comprised clusters of countries that participated more actively in the international trading system, while Africa’s countries had less international trade than average. The study identifies and quantifies the geographical ripple of transport infrastructure on merchandise trade from a national perspective. Notably, a spatially lagged term improved the model’s ability to account for variations in merchandise imports plus exports across countries.

The spatial lag of merchandise imports plus exports can contribute to specifying the spread of merchandise imports plus exports beyond what the authors would anticipate from a country’s network of liner shipping.

This paper aims to assess and empirically analyze the impact of marine production manufacturing on gross domestic product (GDP) indicators as a comparative study in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.

This study used analytical quantitative approaches to assess the impact of marine production manufacturing on GDP between GCC countries over the period from 2007 to 2015. The data were collected from Global Competitiveness Reports during 2006-2016 and from Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FAO 2015 reports.

The results show that Saudi Arabia country has the highest production of marine while Bahrain country is the lowest in GCC. The results of ordinary least squares test show that marine production has a statistical significance on GDP indicators as Pearson correlation matrix shows a strong relationship between all variables.

The main conclusion is that GCC countries must adopt a regional strategy to support maritime activities, especially in the light of green environmental fluctuations. Integrated management plans are also needed to protect vital coastal ecosystems while allowing economic growth and ensuring a better quality of life for all coastal populations. Comprehensive and collaborative leadership provides effective long-term management of coastal ecosystems in the GCC. In addition, GCC countries have high competition with each other for their market share in the global export-based marine production manufacturing.

This paper is the first to present most wealthy GCC countries in terms of marine production manufacturing. Marine production manufacturing introduces to create a new competitive market that generates distinctive internal capabilities for survival and growth in international markets.

Expanding and developing the theoretical implications of socialist market economy with China’s experience.

In the course of exploring the development of a market economy, China has given full play to the advantages of the socialist system, which has distinguished itself from the Western countries and some of its developing peers. China's market economy is not directly transplanted and copied from the West. China not only insists on growing its market economy but also unswervingly sticks to the socialist orientation of its market economy.

So far, the socialist market economy has proved to be more effective than the conventional one-sided, planned economy and also outperforms the capitalist market economy.

The socialist market economy has surpassed the conventional planned economy and the capitalist market economy – it is a reconstructed and reshaped mechanism and system as well as a successful and new path of market economy explored by China through reform and opening up, rather than a counterpart of Western market economy or the simple combination of socialism and market economy.

The imperative to conserve resources and minimize operational expenses has spurred a notable increase in the adoption of lean manufacturing within the context of the circular economy across diverse industries in recent years. However, a notable gap exists in the research landscape, particularly concerning the implementation of lean practices within the pharmaceutical industry to enhance circular economy performance. Addressing this void, this study endeavors to identify and prioritize the pivotal drivers influencing lean manufacturing within the pharmaceutical sector.

The outcome of this rigorous examination highlights that “Continuous Monitoring Process for Sustainable Lean Implementation,” “Management Involvement for Sustainable Implementation” and “Training and Education” emerge as the most consequential drivers. These factors are deemed crucial for augmenting circular economy performance, underscoring the significance of management engagement, training initiatives and a continuous monitoring process in fostering a closed-loop practice within the pharmaceutical industry.

The findings contribute valuable insights for decision-makers aiming to adopt lean practices within a circular economy framework. Specifically, by streamlining the process of developing a robust action plan tailored to the unique needs of the pharmaceutical sector, our study provides actionable guidance for enhancing overall sustainability in the manufacturing processes.

This study represents one of the initial efforts to systematically identify and assess the drivers to LM implementation within the pharmaceutical industry, contributing to the emerging body of knowledge in this area.

Higher education institutions and their lecturers are strategic agents and main drivers that contribute to circular economy transition. This requires them to understand the key circular economy competencies and how to integrate circular economy holistically into their curricula with the suitable teaching and learning approaches. This study aims to support them by providing an overview on the characteristics of education for the circular economy (ECE) and suggestions to lecturers to further develop their curricula.

The data consisted of scientific articles (n = 22) describing circular economy courses in higher education. Qualitative content analysis with quantitative features was performed on the selected articles to answer the research question.

The findings confirm that the system’s focus is the key issue in ECE. However, to integrate circular economy holistically into the curricula, ECE should be implemented more widely in the context of different industries and market contexts to find innovative teaching and learning approaches. The demand side needs to be incorporated in the courses, as systemic transformation is also about transforming consumption. All levels of implementation and circular economy objectives should be included in courses to promote systems thinking. In addition, innovative forms of real workplace interaction should be increased.

As ECE has started to emerge as a new field of study, this article provides the first integrated overview of the topic.

This paper examines the effectiveness of the social and political factors as the determinants of antidumping duties against the transition economies. The empirical evidence shows that protectionist pressures tend to be strengthened against them with low labor standards, although protectionist tendencies with respect to social dumping are not so apparent in actual impositions of antidumping duties. There is a weak evidence that the different degrees of democraticness influenced the protectionism against the transition economies during the late 1990s, while such an effect is not found during the period of 2002-2006, as the concerned countries passed the initial stage of transition.