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This chapter examines the main methodological issues involved in the comprehension of the cost structure of the airport industry and suggests considerations for future airport cost analyses. Such understanding has become a crucial concern for policy makers, regional planners, and managers in order to deal with optimal market design (e.g., regulation and market configuration) and airport strategies (e.g., pricing, investments, and alliances). An in-depth analysis of the economics of cost functions is presented, together with a description of the relevant multi-output cost economies measures (average incremental costs, scale and scope economies, and cost complementarities). We also discuss the assumptions underlying estimates of total versus variable cost functions and the importance of estimating a sufficiently flexible functional form. Moreover, we provide a critical survey of the international empirical literature on the cost structure of the airport industry, which highlights how econometric estimates strongly depend on the sample choice and the empirical model considered. Indeed, while econometric studies on international samples based on long-run cost function estimates show that long-run scale economies are never exhausted, single country studies mostly estimate variable cost functions and find lower values for scale economies at median sample points that tend to decrease with size. We discuss why we believe that studies based on the estimation of short-run variable cost functions offer more reliable results, given the reasonable assumption of airport overcapitalization in the short run. We conclude our work by noting that underlying policy issues related to planning and regulation, as well as to the optimal market structure of the airport sector, need to take into account the role played by vertical relationships between airports and airlines.

As businesses continue to globalize, attention has increasingly turned to logistics. Examines global logistics in depth, beginning with a brief overview, to provide a working context. Discusses the development of global logistics strategy, taking a bottom‐up approach. Assesses the effects of product‐market characteristics on strategy formulation and evaluates logistics strategy at business unit or company level. Considers the implications of global logistics strategies, detailing the critical success factors which apply and highlighting the need for organizational change.

Given the complexity of inclusive business (IB) to combine social contribution and business sustainability, companies make strategic choices. One multinational corporation (MNC) avoided interconnections with villagers and used only market-based relations with stimulants and incentives in the market. Another one delegated management completely to local partners, succeeding in stimulating the poor’s self-initiated economic activities. MNCs seem to have difficulties in handling institutional interconnections. In such cases, market-based relations or delegating management to the local partners were found to be highly effective for covering missing capabilities. One foreign NGO, despite its well-developed institutional interconnections with the locals, is struggling to develop markets for its social enterprises. In contrast, one local trust successfully cooperated with many local partners, appealing to local institutions (values and beliefs). Also, poor farmers felt the social contributions of two local companies by being incorporated into the companies’ supply chains backed by their corporate social responsibility (CSR) orientations and activities. Hence, both foreign and domestic organizations seem to succeed in IB by embedding their projects to their original institutions and developing diverse mechanisms to compensate for missing capabilities. One exception is a local company which successfully coordinated MNCs’ CSR activities, local communities, and governments. However, its success is owing to governmental regulation for CSR contribution. In general, though restricted by institutional backgrounds and business orientations, each case tried to create a fit between business models and its contingencies, achieve scale (at the level of communities, nations, or the global market) and business sustainability, and generate socioeconomic effects.

Looks at the 2000 Employment Research Unit Annual Conference held at the University of Cardiff in Wales on 6/7 September 2000. Spotlights the 76 or so presentations within and shows that these are in many, differing, areas across management research from: retail finance; precarious jobs and decisions; methodological lessons from feminism; call centre experience and disability discrimination. These and all points east and west are covered and laid out in a simple, abstract style, including, where applicable, references, endnotes and bibliography in an easy‐to‐follow manner. Summarizes each paper and also gives conclusions where needed, in a comfortable modern format.

International business

Undergraduate/graduate/executive education.

China has become the world's largest producer of automobiles, surpassing the USA and Japan. The Chinese auto industry differs quite significantly from those countries though. While the industry exhibits a substantial degree of concentration in the USA and Japan in early 2011, it remained highly fragmented in China. The Chinese Central Government had announced a desire for consolidation, yet it remained unclear whether a significant shakeout would occur in the near term.

Like many Chinese automakers, Chang'an partnered with well-known global auto makers to develop, produce, and distribute its products. In the coming years, Chang'an hoped to develop more independence from its foreign partners, including the production and distribution of self-branded cars. However, the company grappled with how it could strive for independence while managing its existing joint ventures. Executives worried too about how to compete with foreign automakers who had achieved global economies of scale.

The case provides a rich description of the evolution of the Chinese auto industry, and it documents how the Chinese industry differs from other global markets. Readers can analyze the extent to which they believe scale economies provide foreign firms an advantage over smaller Chinese rivals, and they can evaluate the conventional wisdom regarding the industry's minimum efficient scale. The case also provides a detailed account of Chang'an's rise to prominence. The case concludes by offering an in-depth description of the firm's key rivals, and it presents the key questions being considered by Chang'an executives in 2011.

Enables students to examine how and why an industry's structure can differ substantially across geographic markets.

Enables students to examine whether the need to achieve economies of scale may cause substantial consolidation in the Chinese auto industry.

Provides an opportunity to evaluate the pros and cons of the joint venture strategies employed in China.

Provides an opportunity to examine how a relatively small firm can position itself against large multinationals in a high-growth emerging market.

Teaching notes.

Most of the research studies on entry mode have been done through the lens of manufacturing firms from mature economic countries entering the Global South countries, and most of the related frameworks and theories have been developed to explain this perspective. This paper presents an understanding of entry mode strategies of services firms from the Global South countries entering into countries with mature economies by considering six software services firms in India entering the US market. The study develops a framework that incorporates multiple theories – both from an emerging economy perspective as well as a services perspective.

This study is exploratory in nature and focuses on the how and why aspects of strategic decisions. Qualitative research has traditionally been chosen when the main research objective is to improve understanding of a phenomenon. A multiple case study approach was used in this research. One of the key aspects of this study is the impact of different theories (institutional, network and other theories) on enterprises of different sizes. Therefore six cases – two each on small, medium and large enterprises – were selected.

Results identify addressable market size, cultural aspects, firm size, resource and service characteristics as dominating factors that influenced choice of entry modes. From a theoretical perspective, the author finds that theories such as transaction cost theory, eclectic paradigm and other popular theories associated with entry mode do not successfully explain the entry mode strategies for firms from the Global South. Strategic theory, such as resource-based view, motivation of a firm, have some application but do not explain, in isolation, all aspects of the entry mode choices.

The study is an exploratory study and needs more data to validate the themes expressed in its conclusions. The study also focused on one industry and one country. Different industries within the same country may have different characteristics and may not follow the observations found in this study. Similarly, firms from other countries with similar economic characteristics may exhibit very different behavior. As a result, the themes that were expressed for software companies in India may not be generalizable across other industries and countries.

This study is significant for both academics and managers. For academics, the study addresses a significant gap in the literature. For managers, this study provides a framework for managers to evaluate and select the entry mode strategy that would be most effective in a successful expansion into foreign countries.

The growth of the middle class has become a subject of growing fascination for scholars as of late, not just because the numbers are so astonishing but also because the patterns suggest a shift in both global demographics and the regional geographies of development. Recent estimates from the World Bank indicate that the world's middle class is expected “to grow from 430 million in 2000 to 1.15 billion in 2030”;¹ and that the greatest growth will occur in the developing world. While in 2000, only 56% of the world's middle classes lived in the developing world, this figure is expected to reach 93% by the year 2030 – with China and India alone expected to account for two-thirds of all this expansion.² What may be most striking about the middle classes are not merely their mind-boggling numbers, or their location in the developing world, or the fact that these particular class actors have been ignored for years in studies of late industrializers, or even the fact that the newfound interest in the middle classes comes on the heels of a controversy about the relevance of class in the contemporary era more generally (see Portes, 2000). Indeed, what may be most noteworthy is the set of adjectives that come attached to the study of middle classes, as well as the fact that these qualifiers are different than those employed in prior periods.

A crystalization of the author's 20 years of corporate planning experience, this is a “how to” book for line managers with planning responsibility and for CEOs who want to establish a planning culture in their firm.

In global businesses there's often a question about what you can plan for on a worldwide basis and what needs to be managed on a local basis. How does a company know it has an equity or an economy of scale that is truly global?