Search results

This study seeks to investigate perceptions of the role of location on the performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Tangier, as understood by local owner-managers.

To explore perceptions of the performance/location relationship for SMEs in Tangier, 20 in-depth online semi-structured interviews were conducted with selected owner-managers of SMEs. The judgement sample was selected to explore their experiences, beliefs and attitudes with respect to their performance and location.

Findings of the study revealed that “location” is a salient factor that, in the minds of respondents, materially influences the performance of SMEs in Tangier. Location was mentioned extensively in the interviews, in relation to the “free zones”. Findings showed that firms located within the free zones enjoyed favourable economic conditions, in particular those related to taxation and competition, compared to their counterparts located outside the free zones, which were excluded from these benefits. Furthermore, perceived unfair competition (financial and fiscal incentives in the free zones) damages the performance of the SMEs in Tangier. These findings suggest that the placement of the business in relation to the free zones and in respondents' perception thus became an important financial and emotionally significant perspective on equality in relation to success.

The findings of the study could encourage the government to adopt policies that will assist indigenous firms to benefit from advantages that are comparable to those that are available to those in the free zones. Greater attention to the perceptual effects of location would be advantageous. However, the exploratory nature of the study means that results cannot necessarily be generalised beyond the setting in which the data were collected. Future research should examine the impact of location for SMEs in a broader sample of countries.

This study is among those few studies located in the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region that explore the performance of SMEs from the perceptions of owner-managers themselves and not based on aggregate or economic data. It supports previous findings of several studies and contributes additional evidence that suggests the significance of levelling the playing field and its impact on SME performance in the contemporary African business context.

Since the reform and opening up, the economy of China has rapidly developed. The system, structure, mode, and pattern of the foreign trade in China must be adjusted accordingly to adapt to new economic normality. In this study, the main types of free trade areas worldwide were analyzed, and the necessary conditions for their successful development were examined on the basis of an ecological economic perspective. The Shanghai free trade area is a typical representative of a new type of Trade Zone in China. It introduces the principles of sustainable development, people oriented, green, low-carbon and other eco free trade zones. The planning characteristics of Shanghai free trade zone were studied from the point of view of planning economy and land use. Taking Shanghai Yangshan land free trade zone as an example, the planning research was carried out in terms of functional zoning, environment, transportation and facilities. In summary, this study provided theoretical and technical references for the construction of free trade areas and for the formulation of significant policies.

Advantage of its geologic location lying at the heart of Central Asia with a large internal market of 27 million people and easy access to CIS market of over 142 million people enables Uzbekistan to form the hub of the region. Its transport and communications networks are connected with the other Central Asian countries. FIEZ in Navoi would be the representative model in CIS and be built on the best practice of next generation model as special national economic zones. Considering that the most of modern business is made through the web connection basis even for the flight management, cargo trace and other controls and operations, the importance of web connection should be stable, reliable and affordable for tenants and business entities at the FIEZ in Navoi. In these regards, cooperation work of both countries to study more details mentioned in this paper as well as other applicable models from Korean Free Economic Zone cases for the full picture of execution and promotion of the FIEZ in Navoi, Uzbekistan is considered.

This paper analyzes the logistics patterns of Korea to elaborate the strategies of Korean Free Economic Zones (FEZs) in relation to Northeast Asian logistics hubs. As the surface transportation of Korea, China and Japan, is cut off by geographical factors and by political border lines, this paper confines the analysis scope to air and maritime transportation.

From the analysis of air and maritime transportation in Northeast Asian region, this paper tries to understand the cargo flow from and to Korean airports and ports by region and by commodity types, and thereby, to identify the main counterpart regions of trade by commodity types and by modes. The policy implications for the development strategy of Korean FEZs (Incheon, Busan, and Gwangyang) are described from those analyses.

This study deals with the examination, classification and ranking of the food industry supply chain in Mazandaran Free Economic Zone from a sustainability perspective and its effect on international entrepreneurship. The findings can help international decision-makers and entrepreneurs better understand their decision-making processes. Interpretive structural modelling (ISM) and Matrix-based Multiplication Applied to Classification (MICMAC) methods is an export-oriented method. The indicators are determined based on the definitive opinion of experts. Indicators in this research were selected using fuzzy Delphi with 99% accuracy. A combination of ISM–MICMAC methods were used based on sustainable facts in the food supply chain. The developed classify the factors practical on the sustainable supply chain. The findings showed that minimising the total cost, improvement of health and safety, environmentally friendly packaging, use of environmentally friendly materials and minimising the use of synthetic fertilisers were among the linkage factors. Factors that reduce energy costs, the possibility of immediate customer response and social services were among the dependent factors. Since free economic zones have been established to attract international investment, exploit new technologies, create new job opportunities and increase export capacity, the focus on reducing costs and the ability to respond immediately to customers and providing social services can result in the creation of a suitable business position for international investment and attracting international entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneurs’ decision-making for detecting, evaluating and utilising opportunities across international borders is one of the main subjects of international entrepreneurship research. This study aims to argue that recognising and classifying international entrepreneurship opportunities facilitate the decision-making process. To do such a thing, a multi-layer decision-making approach focusses on the industrial sector of the Kish free zone. In the first stage, the data will be collected by a questionnaire survey of entrepreneurial companies in the industry field and the main international entrepreneurship opportunities will be identified. In the second stage, the importance and relationship between the opportunities will be evaluated based on the identified opportunities. Eventually, in the last stage, the relationship and the importance of the opportunities will be determined by proposing and using a multi-layer decision-making approach. In conclusion, the prioritised international entrepreneurship opportunities will be presented.

This chapter reviews the role of industrial parks (IP) as drivers of export-led industrialisation in Ethiopia. For several decades, IPs or special economic zones have been promoted as policy instruments to attract investment, create jobs and promote exports of manufactured goods. However, their popularity as policy instruments has been mainly associated with the successful export-led industrialisation of emerging economies in East Asia where IPs have played a critical role not only in attracting investment and promoting export-led growth but also transferring technology, promoting technological learning and industrial development and jump-starting the process of economic diversification and structural transformation. Ethiopia, along with other African countries, is among the latest to introduce IPs as major drivers of economic diversification and export-led industrialisation. As a newcomer, Ethiopia can learn many valuable lessons from more successful cases. This chapter explores some of the lessons that Ethiopia can draw from other countries’ experience as it continues to build additional parks to attract investment and push its industrialisation agenda.

China has established 14 marine economic development demonstration zones in 2018, which has become an important step in exploring the high-quality development of the marine economy. The paper statistically analyzes the documents related to the field of marine economy and special economic zones (SEZs) and strives to find out the hot spots, intersections and related development contexts of the two in the research direction, so as to provide some ideas for later research.

By taking the bibliographic information data of “Marine Economy” and “Special Economic Zone” in the Web of Science database as a sample, the paper applies the Citespace bibliometric tool to analyze the evolution of disciplinary distribution, research country, author collaboration and research hotspot trends in the two fields.

It can be found from the paper results that the current research on marine economy and SEZs involves the intersection of many disciplines. China and the United States are the leaders in this field. However, there is more extensive cooperation between authors from different countries, but the cooperation depth needs to be strengthened. At the same time, compared with the terrestrial economy, the trend of its research hotspots is lagging to a certain extent. Moreover, there is still no systematic and professional research paradigm on marine economy.

At present, there are a few research studies on marine economic development demonstration areas or marine SEZs, and related bibliographical references are incomplete, which leads to insufficient samples, and bibliometric methods cannot fully reveal the general research rules and development trends in this field.

The research on the marine economic development demonstration area is still in its infancy. The paper jointly analyzes the literature in the two fields of marine economy and SEZs, aims to find the intersection and related research hotspots of the two, and provides references for the future research of marine development demonstration areas, which is of certain practical significance.

The leaders of the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) announced to negotiate a Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RECP) in November 2012, which is comprised of 10 ASEAN Member States (Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar) and its six FTA partner countries (China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, and India). Embedded in the ASEAN Charter and implemented in all existing ASEAN + 1 FTAs, the ASEAN Centrality has been a corner stone principle in ASEAN-centric economic initiatives. Emerging discord in the region, complicated security climate and the rise of China, among others, have put the ASEAN Centrality under challenge. The development of the RCEP provides a timely case to assess ASEAN’s leadership role in creating the world’s most populous Free Trade Area. The RCEP may enhance ASEAN’s central role, but ASEAN needs to address challenges facing the regional integration now and beyond 2015. On the country/economy level, the chapter reviews some ASEAN Member States and their FTA Partners how they practice their ASEAN policy and seek leadership role in ASEAN. The three major players in ASEAN-Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia have reiterated the importance of the ASEAN Centrality in their foreign policy in the past, but debates emerge whether, such as in Indonesia, ASEAN Centrality best suits the national interests. The chapter also explores how the major powers, including China and the United States, respond to and collaborate with the group of smaller developing country players.

This paper analyses the current and potential impact of Southeast Asia’s regionalism on the European Union. It begins by giving an overview of the different manifestations that this regionalism takes (ASEAN and AFTA, sub‐regional economic zones, APEC) and comments on the overlapping linkages between them. The EU’s stake in Southeast Asia is then discussed in the context of broadening the EU’s interregional relations with East Asia. A detailed evaluation of the opportunities and threats that regionalist developments in Southeast Asia pose to the EU is presented thereafter. It is argued that the balance of effects will vary less for “insider” EU firms, which have established operations within ASEAN, and more for “outsider” EU firms. The potential benefits the former anticipate from Southeast Asian regionalism are considerable.