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In the light of Europe’s experience of its Directive on mutual recognition of professional qualifications and the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) intention to achieve a global marketplace for professional services by identifying “disciplines” which can be applied to all professions, this paper considers a potential methodology for achieving a global system for the free movement of professionals. The paper explains the process of mutual recognition as implemented within the European Union and discusses the approach which the WTO is likely to adopt towards the globalisation of services. The problems which face the surveying profession (including the problem of identifying the various surveying professions which exist in different countries), the role of professional organisations, the nature of “professional competence” and the threshold standards applied to professional competence as a vital component of any mutual recognition process are also discussed.

This paper aims to examine the rationale for the establishment of a depositary passport as the next logical step in building an internal market for investment funds in the European Union (EU). It makes the point that the de facto prohibition of depositary passporting poses risks to financial stability and has an adverse impact on investor protection in EU member states, which do not have a fully developed funds industry.

This paper analyses both the arguments in favour and against the adoption of a depositary passport. Moreover, it examines this proposal in the context of different approaches to fostering the internal market such as mutual recognition, harmonisation of regulation, reflexive governance of financial supervision and centralised supervision.

Based on the review of the current EU legal framework, this paper, subsequently, puts forward possible solutions for the establishment of an internal market for depositary business, which solutions have been discussed with various experts in the field to assess their feasibility in practice.

The paper contributes to the debate on the EU internal market in the field of asset management, which is topical in view of the upcoming review of the EU’s Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive.

Nation states’ neoliberal policies do not regard asylum seekers and undocumented migrants as deserving of a good life. Social work in welfare states is highly connected to the policies of nation states. There is a need to address theories in social work that have a transnational focus at the local level. Axel Honneth’s recognition theory enables an approach to forced migration from the direction of personal relations and personhood itself. The core idea is that if people cannot gain recognition, this causes harm to their self-realisation. The purpose of this paper is discuss how the recognition theory overcomes a national focus in social work.

This paper is theoretical. The relations of recognition are discussed in the context of transnational social work in welfare states with forced migrants.

The theory of recognition in social work practice with people who do not have a residence permit is best articulated by an understanding of rights concerning all the attributes of the person, i.e. as a needy being, autonomous and particular in a community.

Forced migrants’ backgrounds provide a specific backdrop for misrecognition, which may harm self-relations. The relations of recognition contribute to social work by providing the sensitivity required to evaluate the complexity of views and attitudes that affect the way we encounter service users. The relations of recognition (care, respect and esteem) give normative criteria for communication in order to take another person as a person, which, in turn, contributes to healthy self-relations of forced migrants.

This paper seeks to critically review developments in the literature spanning personnel management, HRM, learning organization and intellectual capital approaches to employee utilization and development. The purpose being to identify the benefits, limitations and lessons for the management of people in the co‐operative and mutual sectors.

The problem of inadequate Personnel or HRM systems in the majority of co‐operatives has been established by the author over a period of seven years, field work with co‐operative organizations including the international co‐operative alliance (ICA), asian confederation of credit unions (ACCU), and the British society for co‐operative studies. Direct interviews and a sample of HRM and Membership Relations audit forms developed as part of the ongoing field research and special project work have been applied to various co‐operative contexts in all the regions of the ICA.

The findings are that co‐operatives generally are lagging behind the private sector in their application of all four approaches. Mostly smaller co‐operatives lack effective basic personnel systems and few of the larger co‐operatives go beyond HRM. This failure to develop clear programs for the utilization and development of their people is a missed opportunity.

The membership base and its roots in a community of shared interests means that, whilst co‐operatives have lessons to learn from all four approaches, they can and must go beyond them if they are to optimize their people‐centered business advantage in the marketplace.

The paper suggests a new strategy for co‐operatives of Co‐operative Social Capital Management to help them compete, whilst retaining their co‐operative difference.

Amy Allen's book, The Politics of Our Selves, advances feminists beyond current stalemates that insist that to acknowledge the importance of Habermas's normative insights, is to deny the significance of Foucault's description of the impact that power has on subject formation. In this article I describe Allen's position and suggest its strengths and importance, criticize some of Allen's arguments and offer suggestions for advancing the direction of Allen's argument.

This paper aims to investigate the practice of conviviality as the right setting to explore how social capital interacts with business relationships and in particular how resources impacting business relationships take shape in social relations.

This paper has adopted the single case study method combining in-depth interviews, participant observations and focus groups. The investigated case is an Italian business community located in Hangzhou (China), recognized as one of the most active foreign communities in organizing convivial activities.

The study shows that conviviality contributes to generating resources thereby creating interactions in business relationships via social relations through self-narrative, community feeling and empathy. These resources bear distinguishing features. Based on relationships of trust, they are fitting and mutual knowledge-based resources and they are resources performing a sense of inner time.

The paper contributes to the interpretation of the interplay between business relationships and social capital through conviviality and is in line with a direction of research, which is increasingly involving industrial marketing and purchasing (IMP) researchers, which is the analysis of social capital in business networks.

An increasing number of Chinese enterprises are involved in cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As). However, few Chinese enterprises have achieved successful integration, which plays a critical role in enhancing performance. The important field of cultural integration is currently facing major challenges. To identify the reasons for these challenges, studies have analyzed why cultural integration succeeds or fails and have suggested that cultural differences between acquiring and acquired enterprises are the primary obstacles to cultural integration. However, it is unclear how success can be achieved. The paper aims to focus on cultural integration from the perspective of acculturation to describe the penetration of cultural elements in M&As.

In adopting acculturation as our theoretical lens, the authors use the case study method to answer the following research question: “how can the cultural integration of Chinese enterprises be successfully achieved?” Two typical cases are examined: Lenovo’s cultural integration with IBM’s personal computer (PC) division and Haier’s cultural integration with Sanyo home appliance. First, using the exploratory case study method, the Lenovo–IBM PC division case is analyzed. The characteristics and relationships between cultural environments, employee adoption methods and acculturation patterns are summarized to reveal a cultural integration path. Second, the Haier–Sanyo home appliance case is analyzed using the confirmative case study method to test the findings of the Lenovo–IBM PC division case.

The results indicate that it is critical to achieve a dynamic fit between cultural environments, employee adoption methods and acculturation patterns during each stage of cultural integration (exploration, experimentation, reinforcement and fixing). The three constructs of these stages reflect the following evolutionary paths: “isolate-introduce-learning-chance taking”, “detecting-icebreaking-interacting-remodeling” and “specialized sections-senior managers-managers-employees”.

These findings contribute to the development of cultural integration and acculturation theories and serve as a reference for Chinese enterprises wishing to implement cultural integration strategies.