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Against the backcloth of a growing geopolitical and economic importance of emerging economies, this paper seeks to ask whether emerging economy firms are willing to match their increased economic weight with greater social responsibility. Given a relative scarcity of research into CSR in Russia, particular attention is to be given to firms from that country.

The research question is examined through an analysis of differences between firms from industrialized nations, transition economies, and newly industrialized countries in terms of the breadth and depth of their sustainability reporting. This three‐way comparison analyses corporate sustainability reporting according to the GRI G3 framework developed by the Global Reporting Initiative.

The firms in the sample display clear evidence of a divide between industrialized and emerging economies, with Russia occupying a middle position. Contrary to expectations, however, emerging economy firms outperform those from industrialized nations in their coverage of GRI indicators.

These findings leave open two possible conclusions: either emerging economy MNEs have leaped to the front in terms of addressing sustainability or they have been able to use GRI reporting as window‐dressing to hide a dirtier reality. From a different angle, the strong evidence of a North‐South divide in the sample also lends support to the national business systems approach to CSR.

The paper adds to a small but growing body of cross‐national studies into CSR that go beyond OECD member countries. In particular, it constitutes one of the first studies not only to tease out CSR priorities of large Russian firms but also to elucidate differences in terms of CSR priorities between newly industrialized countries and transition economies.

The purpose of this paper is to compare Chinese high-tech firms with other international firms in terms of quality capability and competence.

This study uses data from the GMRG fourth round survey and provides a method for differentiating and empirically measuring quality competence and capability using a sample of 343 plants in 17 countries in the high-tech manufacturing sector.

It is shown that the theory of performance frontiers can be used to explain differences in levels of investment in quality management, as well as competence and capability, in plants across regions with varying levels of economic development. Further, it is shown that plants in China provide an example of a special case in that they do not display the same characteristics as plants in other emerging economies.

The study is limited to the high-tech sector and is also constrained by the countries in which the GMRG data has been gathered.

Investment in quality management methods may not always result in discernible variance in quality indicators. In this study this has been shown to be the case in plants in the industrialized world, highlighting the importance of developing a requisite proficiency in innovation. For the plants in China leverage may lie in focussing on how and where resources are being invested, and how quality management is actually valued within a plant.

The study indicates that although some economies in the world may experience rapid growth this also needs to be tempered by a requisite investment in building human capability.

The evidence indicates that the plants in China in this study do not possess similar levels of quality competence and capability, and struggle to make investment in quality management alter outcomes.

The aim of this paper is to investigate bank choice/selection criteria in a range of cultural and country economic scenarios. More specifically, the purpose of this study is to understand international consumers' selection criteria of banks using the USA, Taiwan, and Ghana as illustrations.

Following a literature review, the paper adopts the classical multi‐step scale development process which demanded that thorough attention be paid to every step of the process. The study employed exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses to assess the reliability of the results.

The study reveals three key dimensions/factors/strategies that are consistent across all three economies. The paper concludes that open and liberalized business climate appear to explain consumers' decisions.

This research is based on the college student cohort and thus the results do not represent the public. This poses generalizability questions without further replications and validations. This study did not examine whether there were consumers' switching behaviors involving banks.

Insights derived from this study will provide bank managers and advertising executives with the building blocks for understanding consumers' choice criteria of banks in industrialized, newly industrialized and liberalized developing economies.

A comprehensive validated scale measuring international consumers' selection of banks is proposed. In view of the scarce stream of empirical studies dealing with consumers' selection of banks in liberalized developing nations, this research comes at an opportune time, as several governments in these economies are encouraging bank savings, channeling college students' loans through bank accounts and proactively attracting global banks to establish branches in their countries. This study complements the extant literature dealing with consumers' selection of banks. Finally, a cross‐national and cross‐cultural dataset of consumers' choice criteria of banks have been put forward that would enhance further appreciation of the subject of banks selection in varying economies.

The purpose of this study is to explore the strategic positioning and product portfolio diversification of Austrian manufacturing firms that face competition from emerging markets as opposed to firms that do not.

The research was conducted in two successive steps. Firstly, a literature review of dynamic capabilities was put into an international and import competition context, from which the domains studied empirically were derived. Secondly, a survey among the largest Austrian manufacturing firms was conducted to explore differences between firms that face competitors from emerging markets, and firms that do not. The questionnaire development was based on the strategic management literature. Even though the data are cross-sectional, backward- and forward-looking questions introduce a dynamic perspective. Both descriptive statistics and a regression analysis were used in the analysis.

The findings show that facing competitors from emerging markets is not always a force majeure, but the result of firms’ international activity. An analysis of the competitiveness profile reveals that existing strengths and weaknesses are more pronounced when firms face competitors from emerging markets. In addition, emerging market competition is associated with a broader product portfolio and triggers portfolio adjustments. Yet, a larger share of the companies facing emerging market competitors neither adjusts the product portfolio nor plans to develop new competences.

One limitation of this study is that it is confined to a survey among Austrian manufacturing firms. The findings may differ in other contexts, and thus, future research should be expanded to include firms from countries that are not from a small, open economy like Austria or from the service sector. The study uses cross-sectional data, and longitudinal/panel data would add causality.

Emerging markets play an increasing role in international business and there is a fierce debate about the strategic reactions of firms that face such competitors, especially from China. The findings provide guidance to managers who adjust their business strategies in a dynamically evolving competitive environment. The results also provide evidence relevant for strategic industrial policies aiming to reduce pressures from low-cost emerging market competitors while maintaining a free trade regime.

Import competition from China (and other emerging economies) has been argued to contribute to the decline of the manufacturing industry, especially from the USA. The findings provide a building block of the efforts that aim to alleviate competitive pressures.

Even though researchers increasingly debate the effects of competition from emerging markets, research about incumbents’ responses focuses on broadly defined product diversification or patent analyses. This study aims to fill this gap by providing comprehensive evidence about the strategic positioning of firms, thereby adding to theory. This paper also adds methodologically by offering a comprehensive picture that allows researchers to paint a nuanced picture of firms’ competitiveness.

The technological revolution is creating new goods and services and altering how and where they are produced. One of the principal issues for all countries is how these new technologies will affect employment and the composition of skills demand. Surveys the literature to attempt to answer three main questions: to what degree are the new technologies becoming diffused around the world? How much do they reduce, or increase employment? And do they reduce, or increase, the skills required in the labour force? Touches briefly on implications for educational policy. The survey suggests that because of new technologies, new organizations of production, changing employment conditions and the development of new sectors of production, the complementarity of general, formal schooling, in‐plant training and learning‐by‐doing to capital investment are increasing over time and that general schooling plus on‐the‐job training is more complementary to new technologies than is vocational schooling. The former combination is more likely to give workers the flexibility they need in such changing conditions.

China’s unprecedented emergence as an economic and political power has created a new geopolitical economy for semi-industrialised and developing economies in Southeast Asia. This paper examines China’s trade relationships with Thailand and Indonesia using the concepts of uneven and combined development (UCD) and unequal exchange. The mass of surplus value obtained through China’s trade with the developed economies has flowed into the considerable expansion in China’s imports from developing countries since 2000. China has maintained a consistent trade deficit with the latter. While the developing countries concerned have benefitted from this set of relationships, the extent to which they have done so has been determined by national strategies. In countries like Thailand – where manufacturing capital and a significant working class has emerged – exports expanded on the basis of mutually advantageous technologically and skills intensive goods. These are produced with a similar organic composition of capital as in China. The result has been a further consolidation of the hegemony of manufacturing capital. Indonesia, however, has a political system and economy long dominated by resource exploitation linked fractions of capital. The result has been a surge in primary goods exports. The current commodity price cycle has meant these goods exchange at prices above their value. The current looming price correction, however, may have negative repercussions. In the meantime, the concentration in raw materials exports is helping to prevent the emergence of a circuit of productive capital in manufacturing. The evidence from these contrasting cases suggests that the degree to which developing economies can benefit from China’s own historically unparalleled combined development remains highly contingent on the strength of the combined development possibilities and efforts within these other national social formations. Above all, there is the degree to which manufacturing sectors of capital can obtain hegemony.

Historically, Asia was known for its history of ancient civilizations, philosophies and religions, performing arts and exotic lifestyles, and of course, spicy culinary specialties. The rest of the world made tremendous efforts to discover this land of charm and mysticism. Asia, however, was not known for its economic scores. In general, the Asian economies were preindustrialized, traditional, and agricultural. The share of gross domestic product (GDP) from the agricultural sector was relatively large as the industrial revolution had yet to reach Asia. People farmed with primitive indigenous tools and the marginal productivity of labor was low. Hence, the income of the individual farmer, man or woman, remained insignificant and poverty was the overall end product. As late as the 1970s, ranking economists questioned if Asia beyond Japan could ever industrialize (Krugman, 1994; Lau and Kim, 1994). The doubt is no more. The historic success of the import–export-led growth model in the context of Asia has been robustly explained (Klein, 1990). The world now marvels at the success of Asia's industrial revolution.

This paper deals with globalisation and the productive relocation of cooperative firms. The relocation phenomenon is defined, and its dimensions, causes and consequences in the context of globalisation are analysed. A case study of the international expansion of Fagor Electrodomésticos S. Coop. is presented next. During the last decade, Fagor, a member of MCC, pursued a strategy of international growth that transformed it from the local cooperative into a multinational group of firms with many affiliated companies abroad. We examine the business, economic, social and cooperative implications of this strategy. The paper concludes with a suggestion of strategies for the cooperative multinational firms in dealing with the challenge of globalisation and relocation, while maintaining their cooperative identity.

Allied forces commanded by the American five star General Dwight D. Eisenhower won the War in Europe on May 8, 1945, and Western Europe was liberated. Immediately thereafter, in 1947, President Truman signed the Marshall Plan to make funds available for the economic reconstruction of war-ravaged Europe. To the applause of thousands of Europeans, President Kennedy stood at the high podium facing the Berlin Wall and proclaimed, “I am a Berliner.” President Reagan called for the end of the Cold War and the Berlin Wall came down in 1989. During the conflicts in Southeastern Europe in the 1990s, President Clinton led the war under North Atlantic Treat Organization (NATO) command, with full support of European allies, and stopped the massacre of innocent peoples in the region. Since WWII, the core of America's European policy has been one of participation and cooperation.