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This paper aims to develop an uncertain global supply chain network design (GSCND) model with rules of origin (RoOs) and limited import quotas, and to discuss the international factors’ effects on location decisions.

The authors establish an uncertain GSCND model with the international factors. The transportation costs and customers’ demands are characterized as random variables. To deal with the risk of uncertainty, the authors introduce the customers’ demand service level. A sample approximation approach (SAA) is used to deal with the service level constraint and turn the proposed model into a mixed integer programming. On the basis of the properties of the proposed model, a hybrid memetic algorithm (MA) is designed to solve it.

The authors find that the proposed MA is efficient to the real supply chain network design problem. Besides, the RoOs and limited import quotas can affect the optimal choices of plant and distribution center locations.

The authors propose an uncertain GSCND model with RoOs and limited import quotas. An MA with SAA is designed to solve the proposed model. The authors apply the proposed model into a real global supply chain of an apparel corporation in East Asia, and give some managerial insights.

Research on country‐specific import quotas (CSQs), whereby an aggregate quota quantity is allocated to specific exporting nations, has been overlooked despite the fact that they are empirically relevant. This article demonstrates that the economic effects of CSQs may differ markedly from those of voluntary export restraints (VERs) and aggregate import quotas (AQs). For example, CSQs may result in higher domestic prices and lower import quantities than AQs. Moreover, profits of foreign exporters under CSQs may actually increase relative to free trade. Recognition of these differences by policy makers is of particular importance in the light of the fact that these particular quantitative restrictions are viewed as policy substitutes.

This paper extends the concept of market orientation from the firm to the value chain level and seeks to develop empirically founded propositions on determinants of different levels of market orientation of value chains.

Four case studies on value chains within the areas of agribusiness and fisheries are conducted. For each value chain, desk research is combined with interviews with decision‐makers of all types of value chain members. Interview guidelines were derived from a conceptual model of potential determinants of value chain market orientation.

Degree of market orientation of value chains is found to be related to degree of heterogeneity and dynamism of end‐users served, nature of chain relationships, regulations and prevailing mental models of decision‐makers. Short and balanced chains are believed to further upstream market orientation.

The results point at two areas, where additional research on market orientation is called for: a better conceptualization of market intelligence and theorizing on most cost effective ways of being market oriented, including implications for the distribution of market oriented activities among value chain members.

The paper underlines the importance of managing channel relationships, up to and including vertical integration, when serving markets with high degrees of end‐user volatility.

This paper is the first empirical contribution to the market orientation literature employing a perspective encompassing the whole value chain.

This paper furthers the analysis of patterns regulating capitalist accumulation based on a historical anthropology of economic activities revolving around and within the Mauritian Export Processing Zone (EPZ).

This paper uses fieldwork in Mauritius to interrogate and critique two important concepts in contemporary social theory – “embeddedness” and “the informal economy.” These are viewed in the wider frame of social anthropology’s engagement with (neoliberal) capitalism.

A process-oriented revision of Polanyi’s work on embeddedness and the “double movement” is proposed to help us situate EPZs within ongoing power struggles found throughout the history of capitalism. This helps us to challenge the notion of economic informality as supplied by Hart and others.

Scholars and policymakers have tended to see economic informality as a force from below, able to disrupt the legal-rational nature of capitalism as practiced from on high. Similarly, there is a view that a precapitalist embeddedness, a “human economy,” has many good things to offer. However, this paper shows that the practices of the state and multinational capitalism, in EPZs and elsewhere, exactly match the practices that are envisioned as the cure to the pitfalls of capitalism.

Setting aside the formal-informal distinction in favor of a process-oriented analysis of embeddedness allows us better to understand the shifting struggles among the state, capital, and labor.

The intent of EC 92 (European Community, 1992) is to unite Europe into a gigantic trading block and turn it into the dominant world trading partner. Presumably European corporations will then be able to compete head to head with Japanese and American firms. We predict, however, that instead of being a boon to European competitiveness EC 92 will have the opposite effect. Our prediction is based on three assertions: (1) a unified Europe will become protectionist, thereby encouraging foreign direct investment and increased competition in its home markets; (2) a new, unified Europe is a far more favorable business environment for American and Japanese multinational corporations (MNCs) than for European companies; and (3) most European firms are not strategically or operationally equipped to compete in the new EC environment.

The concept of channels has long been used to analyse and understand the functions of domestic marketing and distribution. The concept is carried further and used as an aid in understanding international logistics. Three channels are discussed: the international transaction and payment channel; the international distribution channel (through which the goods physically move); and the documentation/communications channel. Third parties or middlemen frequently appear in channels to facilitate their operations; they are mentioned briefly as are constraints on the smooth, uninterrupted flows through channels.

The purpose of this paper is to examine empirically whether economic freedom affects entrepreneurial activity in three groups of countries, classified according to economic development.

Data on the index of entrepreneurial activity cover the period between 2002 and 2009, and are taken from the annual GEM (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor) reports and from the Index of Economic Freedom published by The Heritage Foundation from 1995 to 2009. The same analysis is carried out, grouping the countries by development level, following the classification included in the Global Competitiveness Report 2009‐2010. A Ridge regression analysis is performed to measure the model's goodness‐of‐fit and to determine equations that can be used for future predictions.

The results obtained in the correlation analysis show that economic freedom is closely related to entrepreneurial activity. The results suggest that TEA rates, opportunity‐TEA rates and necessity‐TEA rates decrease when there is an increase in economic freedom in a country, as just two of the areas analyzed – i.e. “government size” and “fiscal freedom” – appear to foster the emergence of new entrepreneurs. When countries are grouped by level of economic development, the results for countries belonging to the “Innovation‐Driven Economies” group show that the opportunity‐TEA rates increase as the economic freedom index grows.

The study indicates that entrepreneurship by opportunity increases in the group of Innovation‐Driven Economies with smaller “government size” and more “fiscal freedom”.

There is an ambivalence in many people’s attitudes to Japanese business techniques in the West. An admiration for their management styles and ability to penetrate Western markets is occasionally tempered by an ill‐informed suspicion that in some way the Japanese have created – or been allowed to operate in – a less than level playing field.

A strategic response to crisis research is a critical and growing area of study in management and business literature. Consequently, the sudden rise of COVID-19, that has a substantial adverse impact on the global economy in a relatively short period of time, brings into sharp focus on the possible and most effective types of strategic responses adopted by firms. In this context, this study aims to shed light on the types of strategic responses adopted by firms and the possible outcomes.

To contribute to the advancement of knowledge around strategic responses in general for business, this study conducted a keyword bibliometric analysis reviewing 66 articles from highly ranked journals according to ABS list of journals published between the period 2006–2020 and synthesize the existing research on strategic responses.

This research enabled the identification of the novel typology of strategic responses to the crisis, such as revived stakeholders’ relationships, revived pricing mechanisms and revived organizational compliance, and their outcomes. Additionally, the analysis established many research areas for scholars who will deal with this topic in the future.

The literature review contributes to the management and business literature by providing a novel and comprehensive classification of crisis responses and synthesizing all new knowledge gained within a new conceptual framework.