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The research measures the diffusion of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and changes in skills in the UK during the 1980s. Using input‐output data and the Census of Population, the indicators are constructed according to 25 reclassified industrial divisions for the whole economy. These indicators show that accompanying the diffusion of ICTs there was a shift from motor skills (relatively decreasing) to cognitive skills (relatively increasing). Diffusion of ICT during the 1980s is captured through the amount of computer equipment usage. The skill changes are examined through multi‐faceted aspects: occupational change; educational improvement; increased female participation; and employment change by industry. The research sheds light on two issues analysed in relation to technological change and skills change: measurement of technological change should be considered as a complex pattern rather than a monotonically increasing pattern; and skill changes should be examined through multi‐faceted aspects rather than any single aspect.

This is a large and complex subject and one which cannot be treated comprehensively and in depth in the course of a short lecture such as this. However, an attempt will be made to acquaint you with the main series of specifications and standards which are employed in the UK to shape and govern the design of aerospace vehicles and to say something about their purpose, broad classification and genesis.

Economic structural complementarity between country A and country B, or the way the two countries specialize in different industries is a useful tool for the analysis of the likely impact of trade liberalization. Although implicit in earlier work on economic integration, this concept has been overshadowed subsequently, probably because of the “econometrization” of the studies on trade liberalization. This paper aims to discuss first the relevance of the concept of structural complementarity between two economies in the context of regional integration. Second, since the EU and Korea are on the verge of signing a free trade agreement (FTA), it aims to show that measuring economic structural complementarity in the case of these two countries is all the more desirable.

The paper applies a number of indices such as the trade complementarity index and the Kreinin‐Finger similarity of export index to the manufacturing sector.

On the whole the EU and Korea are structurally complementary, implying large potential gains from the FTA. However, the existence of two critical industries, namely road vehicles and electrical machinery are revealed.

The FTA poses some sectoral challenges to the industries, in particular for the EU, and it calls for appropriate strategies in these areas.

This article both clarifies and measures economic structural complementarity, a concept connected with, but not reduced to that of competitiveness. By using several indicators, the present study shows that the manufacturing sectors of the EU and of Korea are on the whole complementary.

Purpose – Flexible system management has brought a concept of flexibility in all spheres including maintenance management. Considerable literature is available on various facets of flexibility management, namely, production, supply chain, day‐to‐day activities, etc.; however, not much literature on flexibility in maintenance is reported. The purpose of this paper is to bridge this gap highlighting various issues involved in flexibility on maintenance. Design/methodology/approach – A situation‐actors‐process (SAP)‐learning‐action‐performance (LAP) model has been applied to understand and analyze the concept of flexibility in maintenance. The paper analyses a case study of ABC, a Government maintenance organization for repair of automobiles in India, to discuss the various issues arising out of maintenance flexibility. Findings – Various issues concerning flexibility in maintenance are: business or corporate philosophy, systems and processes, inventory, manpower, performance measurements and information systems. Research limitations/implications – The concept of flexibility in maintenance has been demonstrated using only two facets of maintenance, i.e. manpower and the repair scope in the case study. Practical implications – The SAP‐LAP model presents the concept of flexibility in maintenance adequately. The concept can be implemented while planning the maintenance in any organization for various issues like inventory stock levels, manpower, repair scope, etc. The technicians may be trained on more than one specialty so that they can easily re‐muster into other streams in case of flexible maintenance environment. Originality/value – This is an original approach to apply the concept of flexibility in the area of maintenance management. The issues affecting maintenance flexibility are identified and future researchers may find these gaps interesting.

This paper aims to investigate China’s policy on digital trade with the objective to highlight the rationales behind such policy.

China’s policy on digital trade is assessed by analysing the main regulations imposed in the country in the period from 1985 to 2016 that have an impact on digital trade.

It was found that there are more than 70 measures imposed today that have a negative impact on digital trade. The measures are diverse and can be justified with several policy objectives, namely, industrial policy, public order and national security, and these support China’s fiscal and state-owned enterprise structure.

This paper analyses China’s policy on digital trade from a new perspective and provides insights on the rationales behind this policy.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of increasing trade and investment relations between China and Latin American economies. The paper focuses on the threats and opportunities that permeate this relationship.

The paper surveys existing literature and secondary data in Spanish, Portuguese, and in English to investigate the different ramifications of this dynamic relationship between China and Latin American economies.

After analyzing trade and investment trends and data, it is clear that Latin American economies must make changes to increase their participation in the Chinese market. Direct involvement with China is inherently risky, however, the opportunities obviously make the alliance necessary. Latin American economies are under increasing pressure to revamp their business environments and to implement long‐term strategies in order to compete more efficiently with China, domestically and in third‐markets. China has showed Latin American economies that investments in education, R&D, innovation, infrastructure, and friendly business policies, both facilitate and foster the creation of new competitive advantages.

This paper highlights and contributes to a better understanding of the ongoing challenges and opportunities permeating the Chinese Latin America's trade and investment relationship, as well as a indicating a number of areas for further study.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the consequences of two strategies of coordinating the online procurement capability and the online channel management capability on competitive performance.

A research model is presented to examine the performance impacts of these two coordination strategies, namely the balancing strategy (achieving a close match relationship) and the complementing strategy (maintaining the synergy effect), and tested using firm-level data collected from 196 manufacturing firms in China. Garen's two-stage econometric technique was used to identify the impacts of two coordination strategies on competitive performance.

Our study discusses and compares two different coordination strategies of mitigating the operational tensions across processes and deploying resource configurations for improving competitive performance. Our results show that while the balancing strategy can mitigate the risks resulted, the complementing strategy does not create synergistic effects on the focal firms' competitive performance.

The results extend our understanding of the nature of B2B digital process coordination both in IS management and supply chain operations.

According to the conventional wisdom, trade is not a zero-sum game, but a positive-sum game. By allowing countries to focus on producing the goods that they can produce relatively efficiently, free trade is largely beneficial for everyone involved. Then, why are the world’s two largest economies (i.e. the USA and China) currently engaged in a trade war, which is likely to hurt their own economies? What is the driving force for the trade war between the two economic giants? The purpose of this paper is to offer an explanation of the underlying cause of the US–China trade war.

In an effort to make sense of the trade war between the USA and China, the paper draws the insights from the two international relations theories – i.e. hegemonic stability theory and power transition theory.

As China continues to threaten US hegemony in the world in general and East Asia in particular, the Sino–US competition for hegemony will intensify over time. As a result, the trade war between the two countries may persist longer than many anticipate. Further, even if the trade war between the two superpowers ends soon, a similar type of conflict is likely to occur later as long as the Sino–US hegemonic rivalry continues.

The central thesis of this paper is that “US fear” about its declining hegemony and China’s rapid rise as a challenger of US hegemony is driving a US-launched trade war with China. Since the underlying cause of the trade war between the world’s two largest economies is political (i.e. the Sino–US hegemonic rivalry) rather than economic (e.g. US attempts to improve the trade balance with China by imposing tariffs on Chinese goods), the paper contends that the full understanding of the trade war requires close attention to the importance of power competition between the two superpowers.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how a B2B firm can improve its value appropriation from industrial buyer–seller relationships by leveraging its network capability, as well as the curvilinear moderating role of the firm’s network embeddedness.

This paper empirically examines seven research hypotheses about the relationship between network capability and value appropriation and the curvilinear moderating effect of network embeddedness based on a questionnaire survey among 232 Chinese B2B firms.

It is found that network capability helps sellers appropriate value from industrial buyer–seller relationships via information acquisition, network resources and power. The mediating effect of network resources is the highest, followed by power and information acquisition. In addition, a seller’s embeddedness in a business network positively moderates the network capability and value appropriation link in an inverted U-shaped way.

The study makes significant contributions to the literature on value appropriation and also provides insightful implications for B2B firms to capture value from industrial buyer–seller relationships by leveraging network capability and network embeddedness.