In a market economy, each industrial enterprise aims to increase the economic efficiency of its activities. The aim of the study is to systematize the factors of increasing the economic efficiency of industrial enterprises. There are many classifications of factors that affect the efficiency of the enterprise. On the example of enterprises of the chemical industry of the Smolensk region, factors were considered and a model was proposed to increase the economic efficiency of their activities.

Introduction. The relevance of the topic of the article is conditioned, on the one hand, by the necessity to assess the effectiveness of using the managerial potential of the key employees at the coal industry enterprises in Russia, on the other hand, by the lack of a scientific and methodological basis for solving the problem. The gap will not allow Russian coal companies to master the trajectory of sustainable economic development in the near future. The purpose of the article is (...) to develop a methodological approach to assessing the effectiveness of using the managerial potential of key employees in the coal industry. Methods. The author uses the methods of systemic, semantic and retrospective analysis, as well as benchmarking. Scientific novelty of the research. The author proposes a methodological approach to assessing and forecasting the effectiveness of using the managerial potential of key employees, a distinctive feature of which is determining the congruence of the internal competitive environment of a coal mining enterprise to its external environment. Results. The outlined approach to assessing the effectiveness of using the managerial potential of key employees makes it possible to predict and plan the trajectory of its development, taking into account the congruence of the internal competitive environment of an enterprise to the external environment, an innovative market economy. Conclusions. On the basis of the obtained quantitative results of assessing the effectiveness of using the managerial potential of key employees, the author concludes that there are significant opportunities to increase the level of managers’ competitiveness and the sustainable operation of coal industry enterprises in Russia, the implementation of which is achieved by the balanced development of managerial potential and strengthening the congruence of the internal competitive environment of an enterprise. (shrink)

The article identifies real losses of foreign economic activity of industrial enterprises of Ukraine under the influence of modern challenges. The main purpose of the study is to implement a scientific and methodological approach to assess the impact of modern challenges on the development of foreign economic activity of enterprises. A critical analysis of the content of scientific publications on the studied issues revealed the lack of an integrated approach to establishing the real losses of foreign economic activity of (...) enterprises under the influence of modern challenges. The urgency of solving a certain problem is due to the scale of the impact of modern challenges on the dynamics of foreign economic activity of industrial enterprises, which requires an assessment of such an impact for the further development of measures that will be aimed at minimizing the negative impact of modern challenges. The methodological basis is the system of methods used to obtain the results of the study: theoretical generalization and analytical methods ‒ to clarify scientific approaches in determining the impact of modern challenges on the development of foreign economic activity of enterprises; generalization, grouping and integral evaluation ‒ to determine the level of influence of modern challenges on the development of foreign economic activity of industrial enterprises in 2013‒2021; relative and absolute deviations, coefficient analysis of changes in foreign trade turnover ‒ to establish the volume of losses of foreign economic activity of industrial enterprises of Ukraine under the influence of modern challenges; logical generalization ‒ to obtain conclusions and develop recommendations based on research results. The object of research in the work is the foreign economic activity of enterprises. The article presents the results of assessing the impact of modern challenges on the development of foreign economic activity of industrial enterprises, which became possible due to the developed and implemented author's scientific and methodological approach. Analysis and logical generalization of the results of assessing the impact of modern challenges on the development of foreign economic activity of industrial enterprises became the basis for determining the real volumes of losses of their foreign trade turnover. The results of the study have practical value for the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine and the Entrepreneurship and export promotion office, because they can serve as the basis for developing a program of recommendations for activating the export initiative of industrial enterprises under modern conditions. (shrink)

This research aims at establishing the impact of information and communication technologies (ICT) on e-commerce development of industrial enterprises by means of economic and mathematical modelling. The goal was achieved using the following methods: theoretical generalization, analysis and synthesis (to critically analyse the scientific approaches of scientists regarding the expediency of using mathematical models in the context of enterprises’ e-commerce development), target, comparison and grouping (to reveal innovative methodological approach to assessing ICT impact on e-commerce development of industrial (...) enterprises), tabular, analytical and integral method (for summarizing the analysis results of enterprises readiness to implement ICT, ICT use in the activities of industrial enterprises of Ukraine and the analysis of e-commerce development), mathematical modelling (to build a regression model determining impact of changes in ICT use on the market share occupied by industrial enterprises), generalization (to determine promising directions of e-commerce developing of industrial enterprises). The implementation of a comprehensive approach to understanding the importance of ICT influence on e-commerce development of industrial enterprises will ensure acceleration of the digitalization of business processes, will contribute to the speed increase of enterprises response to customer requests, and increase the market share occupied by enterprises. A new vision of directions for developing e-commerce of industrial enterprises is suggested, which are determined by the need for enterprise rebranding, the development of e-commerce tools and technologies, the importance of outsourcing service automation and promotion of subscription trade. ICT is considered as integration factor that determines prospects for e-commerce development of industrial enterprises and contributes to increasing efficiency of online business management. Research results demonstrate that the use of economic and mathematical modelling is an important tool for assessing ICT impact, and its absence can negatively affect the accuracy and validity of online business management. (shrink)

(1980). William Wollaston, John Johnson and Colombian alluvial platina: A study in restricted industrial enterprise. Annals of Science: Vol. 37, No. 3, pp. 253-268.

The article is focused on the investigation of the impact the corporate culture makes on industrial enterprise development. It demonstrates that the formation of the corporate culture principles contributes to raising the level of staff involvement, its labor activity performance, maintaining and reproduction of human capital assets of an enterprise. Investments in the development of corporate culture are considered as an alternative to traditional methods of increasing the efficiency of an enterprise in an uncertain economic environment. (...) Corporate culture development, which involves a commitment to raising the level of knowledge, innovativeness and organization, has a positive effect on the performance and efficiency of the entire company, and aids in the regulation of internal labor relations, preventing potential critical situations. The introduction and development of corporate culture, which includes a certain system of values and behaviors, in modern domestic industrial enterprises is becoming a necessity. The application of the principles and values of corporate culture leads to the long-term success of an industrial enterprise. (shrink)

The book focuses on two pillars of China's economic success: industrial enterprises and the national system of innovation. The first part investigates the nature and evolution of productive enterprises, concentrating on the rounds of transformation of their ownership structure. The second part analyses the structure of China's national innovation systems. The analysis is based on a thorough study of statistical data provided by the China Statistical Yearbook, the World Bank and other sources. Alberto Gabriele emphasizes two key points, which (...) constitute a partly novel interpretation of two aspects of China's unique development. The first point is the crucial role of public ownership of the country's core means of production, in the framework of a harmonious market where different types of property coexist. China, the author argues, gradually abandoned old-fashioned administrative command tools and is relying more and more on indirect and value-based forms of strategic control of productive assets. The second point is China's strategic emphasis on technological progress and innovation, accompanied by an effort to develop national capacity and reduce its dependence on other countries. China's drive to become a first-class technological power revolves around the enhancement of its national innovation system, the author says. Big private high-tech companies play a crucial role; however, the main engines of progress are state-controlled enterprises, universities and research centres. (shrink)

This article examines the problems of forming a strategy for enterprise development in a post-industrial society. A characteristic feature of the contemporary post-industrial society is the constantly evolving new knowledge. Globalization processes and comprehensive digitalization affect the economic behavior of all economic entities and should be taken into account in the formation of strategies for their development. The driving force of progress in Contemporary conditions is closely related to the development of the abilities of a person, whose (...) interests and needs are becoming one level higher. New transformation processes require enterprises to carry out balanced investment activities, research markets, competitors, suppliers, and conduct an effective marketing policy. Businesses need to implement planning taking into account the prospects for its development. The enterprise development strategy should be long-term and contain a flexible plan of action in the direction of innovation based on a detailed analysis of the internal and external environment of the enterprise, available resources and potential of the enterprise. For the successful functioning of the enterprise, the objective necessity is the assessment of its competitiveness, which is based on identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the enterprise for its maximum improvement and finding hidden opportunities for development. The implementation of the development strategy requires efficient investments and optimal use of available resources to achieve the planned results. In the process of creating a development strategy, companies need to take into account the various characteristics that affect it. (shrink)

This paper addresses the question of how Robertson's History of America depicts the transition of world history from pre-modern disorder to a recognisably modern commercial order. It argues that in his narrative of action he moves beyond the limitations imposed by stadial forms of history, with which America is usually associated, and displays the importance of disordered forms of activity as a creative force in shaping the modern world. It concludes by suggesting that a close reading of his history does (...) not support Robertson's assumptions concerning the formation of a stable, ordered and industrious ‘commercial character’ out of this process, but rather establishes a more complex and less teleological path to modernity. ☆ This paper was presented in abbreviated form at the conference on ‘Political Economy and 18th Century Scottish Culture’ at George Mason University, June 2001. The author wishes to thank all those who contributed to the panel on William Robertson, especially Ingrid Merikoski and Jan Cleaver. (shrink)

Bank competition promotes enterprises to obtain credit funds through market mechanisms, and a combination of industry and finance has an important influence on establishing bank-enterprise relationship. Based on data of 2,245 manufacturing enterprises and branches of commercial banks in China from 2007 to 2019, this research establishes a moderated mediation model to verify whether CIF has a moderating effect on bank competition on enterprise innovation. The results are as follows. First, bank competition can both directly and indirectly promote (...) enterprise innovation by alleviating financing constraints. Second, CIF has no moderating effect on the direct effect of bank competition on enterprise innovation but has a negative moderating effect on the first half of mediating effect. (shrink)

In industries populated by small and medium enterprises, managers' good intentions frequently incur barriers to superior environmental performance (Tilley, Bus Strategy Environ 8:238-248, 1999). During the period when the U.S. wine industry was beginning to promote voluntary adoption of sound environmental practices, we examined managers' attitudes, norms, and perceptions of stakeholder pressures to assess their intentions to implement environmental management programs (EMP). We found that managers within the simple structures of these small and medium firms are responsive to attitudes, norms, (...) and pressures from internal stakeholders and that voluntarily established EMP increased the success of firms' implementation of energy conservation and recycling practices. Applications of our findings to future research on small and medium enterprises as well as direct practical applications of our results are discussed. (shrink)

This article address the issue of employee safety and the social responsibility of multinational apparel retailers who contract with Bangladesh manufacturers in their global supply chain. Both the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety and the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh have been identified as the two primary facilitators for global apparel industry efforts to actively address this serious human rights issue; thus, they have the potential to help drive the success of the industry's corporate citizenship efforts to (...) successfully manage the issue of fire and building safety in Bangladesh. The article further explores these relationships within the context of the “global corporate citizenship” concept, and develops a rationale for the limits of a socially responsible supply chain. In the context of global corporate citizenship, the article describes the existing state of these two industry organizations remediation efforts to ensure a stable supply chain in Bangladesh, and offers an analysis of existing industry nonmarket strategy approaches to improving contractor's factory fire and building safety environments for their employees. Lastly, a comprehensive set of nonmarket strategies for multinational apparel retailers is recommended when addressing their global corporate citizenship commitments to a safe working environment for Bangladesh garment manufacturing employees. (shrink)

The fourth industrial revolution, characterized by the development of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things and automation, is radically changing the context of functioning of modern enterprises. In this environment, innovation is a key element of competitive advantage, and organizational culture is one of the fundamental factors enabling effective implementation of innovations. The aim of this article is to analyze the role of organizational culture as a catalyst for innovation in enterprises in the era of (...) Industry 4.0. The paper discusses the basic elements of organizational culture, such as openness to change, cooperation between teams and organizational flexibility, which are of key importance in innovation processes. On this basis, conclusions are formulated regarding the impact of organizational culture on the ability of enterprises to compete and develop in a dynamically changing economic environment. The study has a theoretical and empirical character. For the research, the authors used the descriptive method with elements of statistical data analysis. The analysis was based on reports of such institutions as the World Economic Forum, McKinsey and secondary data regarding Polish enterprises. (shrink)

This paper analyzes how national institutions impact corporate social responsibility practices for small- and medium-sized enterprises in the food-processing industries of France and Morocco. In this study, CSR practices are defined around two main dimensions: corporate performance and the CSR approach. Qualitative data were collected during semi-structured interviews with SME managers in charge of CSR issues. We then performed a content analysis. Our study shows that there is a distinct difference between the CSR practices adopted by SMEs in France and (...) Morocco. Indeed, the findings suggest that under the rule-based governance system of France, most SMEs view CSR as an economic tool and it is adopted as an opportunity-seeking perspective anchored in the search for global performance. The findings also show that under the relationship-based governance system of Morocco, SMEs mainly see CSR from a constraint-reducing perspective. However, some Moroccan SMEs have begun to see the economic opportunities of CSR, especially in accessing foreign markets. (shrink)

Due to the limited work safety resources and the poor awareness of work safety from business owners with absolute decision-making power, safety accidents frequently occur in Chinese micro and small enterprises in high-risk industries. This study identifies the influencing factors of work safety behavior from MSEs, government safety supervision departments, and work safety service agencies. Based on the theory of planned behavior, the mechanism model of work safety behavior is built from the aspects of behavior attitude, subjective norms, behavior control (...) cognition, past behaviors, and risk awareness of the enterprise. Based on the interview with nearly 600 MSEs in the east of China over 6 months, the results show that the work safety awareness of the business owner determines the work safety lever of the enterprise, and the work safety behavior of MSEs is a passive restraint behavior. Our findings provide a new perspective on the formation of MSEs’ work safety behavior in high-risk industries. (shrink)

This article deals with the marketing strategies of halal certified products by Small and Micro Enterprises amid the rising middle-class Muslims in contemporary Java, Indonesia. These SMEs’ entrepreneurs compromise of the middle-class Muslims who are particularly concerned with fashion industries, snacks, and beverages with halal-certified label. Taking into account Benefit Opportunities Cost Risk -Analytic Network Process as an approach, this article tries to identify both the proliferation of halal-certified products and the dominant mixed-factors in marketisation of halal products, including the (...) marketing strategies used by SMEs. This article concludes that promotion—both conventional and digital—is widely essential, besides the product, price, and place aspects. Along with the rise of the middle-class Muslim in contemporary Indonesia, the commodification of religious symbols through halal-certification is one important factor that encourages the production of Muslim middle-class economy in contemporary Indonesia. (shrink)

Industrial investment funds are a new financing innovation mode that can build an effective financing channel for enterprises.Based on the panel data of Chinese Listed Companies in 2008–2017, this manuscript constructed a static panel model between industrial investment funds, government R&D subsidies, and technological innovation to empirically analyze the effects of industrial investment fund involvement and government R&D subsidies on companies’ technological innovation. The research shows that industrial investment fund involvement can increase the company’s R&D investment (...) by providing financial funds for the company, which can effectively solve the company’s lack of funds in the process of technological innovation and guarantee the smooth running of the company’s innovation activities. Secondly, government R&D subsidies can alleviate the pressure of R&D investment to a certain extent, which is conducive to promote a higher level of technological innovation in the company. Thirdly, for companies with industrial investment fund involvement, government R&D subsidies are conducive to promote technological innovation. In contrast, for companies without industrial investment fund involvement, government R&D subsidies have no significant impact on technological innovation to a certain extent or even have a “crowding out effect.”. (shrink)

This paper analyzes how national institutions impact corporate social responsibility practices for small- and medium-sized enterprises in the food-processing industries of France and Morocco. In this study, CSR practices are defined around two main dimensions: corporate performance and the CSR approach. Qualitative data were collected during semi-structured interviews with SME managers in charge of CSR issues. We then performed a content analysis. Our study shows that there is a distinct difference between the CSR practices adopted by SMEs in France and (...) Morocco. Indeed, the findings suggest that under the rule-based governance system of France, most SMEs view CSR as an economic tool and it is adopted as an opportunity-seeking perspective anchored in the search for global performance. The findings also show that under the relationship-based governance system of Morocco, SMEs mainly see CSR from a constraint-reducing perspective. However, some Moroccan SMEs have begun to see the economic opportunities of CSR, especially in accessing foreign markets. (shrink)

Launched in 1982, the so-calledBerliner Wissenschaftsladen e. V.(WILAB) belonged to the scattered West-German ventures in “counter-science”. This article situates the origins of the “Laden” (~ workshop)—an “alternative” spin-off of sorts, spawned from the Technical University of Berlin—in the context of contemporary advances in regional science policy. In this connection, the ailing, de-industrializing “island city” arguably even played a certain pioneering role: elements of its multipronged “innovation offensive”, which peaked in the early-to-mid 1980s, were visible beyond city limits, including the trade (...) showBIG TECHand, notably, theBerlin Center for Innovation and New Enterprises(BIG), the FRG’s first start-up “incubator”, which opened in 1983.In other words, politically-minded scientists in tendency now had to deal with conditions that were less and less conducive to dreams of a “socially engaged” and “non-alienated” (counter-)science. Indeed, while hardly opposed to the new gospel of innovation, it’s not surprising that ventures such as WILAB, committed as they were to the production of “socially useful” science, found themselves increasingly marginalized. It’s as such a marginal venture, my argument goes, that WILAB’s prima facie hopeless attempt to initiate a different, more “humane” information technology sheds an instructive light on the emergence of “entrepreneurial” science in the FRG during the 1970s and 1980s. (shrink)

This paper examines the growing number of publications on multinational enterprise management of sustainability issues. Based on an integrative literature review and thematic analysis, the paper analyses and synthesises the current state of knowledge about main issues arising. Key issues identified include the following: choice of sustainability strategies; management of the views of headquarters towards sustainability; local cultural sustainability perspectives in developed and developing host countries; MNEs with home in developing/emerging countries; and resource availability for implementing sustainability initiatives. Findings (...) indicate that although the literature is tending towards growing acceptance about sustainability and its challenges most researchers have focused on corporate social responsibility and investigate their own niche problem, industry, and country, using their own chosen theory and do not consider the need for consolidation and integration of social, environmental and economic performance. Avenues for future research are identified which will provide a means for the ethical foundations of theory and practice to be improved. (shrink)

Is capitalism morally justifiable? Is free enterprise compatible with social justice? Does government have a proper role in a free-enterprise system? This volume provides students with eighteen original answers to these and other compelling questions in business ethics. The contributors include philosophers, business educators, and industrial and labor leaders who together provide a basis for informed discussion of contemporary ethics and public policy issues.

There is an alarming trend in the field of medicine, whose portents are ominous but do not seem to shake the complacency and merry making doing the rounds. The wants of the medical man have multiplied beyond imagination. The cost of organizing conferences is no longer possible on delegate fees. The bottom-line is: Crores for a Conference, Millions for a Mid-Term. However, the problem is that sponsors keep a discreet but careful tab on docs. All in all, costs of medicines (...) escalate, and quality medical care becomes a luxury. The whole brunt of this movement is borne by the patient. Companies like GlaxoSmithKline, Bayer, Pfizer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, AstraZeneca, Schering-Plough, Abbott Labs, TAP Pharmaceuticals, Wyeth and Merck have paid millions of dollars each as compensation in the last few years. The financial condition of many pharmaceutical majors is not buoyant either. Price deflation, increased Rand D spending, and litigation costs are the main reasons. In the future, the messy lawsuits situation would no longer be restricted to industry. It would involve academia and practising doctors as well. Indian pharma industry captains, who were busy raking in the profits at present, would also come under the scanner. If nothing else, it means industry and docs will have to sit down and do some soul searching. Both short and long-term measures will have to be put into place. Short-term measures involve reduction in i) pharma spending over junkets and trinkets; ii) hype over 'me too' drugs; iii) manipulation of drug trials; iv) getting pliant researchers into drug trials; iv) manipulation of Journal Editors to publish positive findings about their drug trials and launches; v) and for Indian Pharma, to conduct their own unbiased clinical trial of the latest drug projected as a blockbuster in the West, before pumping in their millions. The long-term measures are related to the way biomedical advance is to be charted. We have to decide whether medicine is to become a corporate enterprise or remain a patient welfare centered profession. A third approach involves an eclectic resolution of the two. Such amount of patient welfare as also ensures profit, and such amount of profit as also ensures patient welfare is to be forwarded. For, profit, without patient welfare, is blind. And patient welfare, without profit, is lame. According to this approach, medicine becomes a patient welfare centered professional enterprise. The various ramifications of each of these approaches are discussed in this monograph. (shrink)

This paper explores labour negotiations between nurses and government in the public health sector in Australia between 1996 and 2005. During this period, industrial negotiations between nurses and government in the public health sector moved from centralized wage determinations to agreements made at the level of the enterprise through the Workplace Relations Act 1996. Simultaneously, public sector nurses reported increased work intensification, a result of new public management strategies. This led to the Australian Nursing Federation negotiating enterprise (...) agreements that included the introduction of highly specified workload algorithms in an attempt to de‐intensify nurses’ labour. The irony of this strategy is that these calculations and tools operate as both a human resource mechanism for maximizing productivity as well as an industrial relations tool for reducing work intensification. (shrink)

Based on the data of Chinese industrial enterprises from 2004 to 2009, a fixed-effect model is adopted in this paper to analyze the effect and the mechanism of the enterprises using the Internet on tax avoidance. The result shows that using the Internet will produce the peer effect, which enables enterprises to learn tax avoidance strategies on the Internet and makes the degree of tax avoidance between enterprises and other enterprises in the same industry converge. At the same time, (...) using the Internet has a network effect, and the more the enterprises access the Internet, the higher the degree of tax avoidance for enterprises is. In addition, the effect of the Internet on tax avoidance is influenced by the intensity of tax collection and the nature of enterprises. With a further examination, it has been found that enterprises not only acquire the two tax avoidance strategies of underreporting profits and underpaying taxes through the Internet but also master the planning strategy. (shrink)

Recently, researchers on organization theory and behavior were challenged by the introduction of cognitive machines in the list of the organization’s participants. Researchers in this field advocated that cognitive machines contribute to improve cognitive abilities in the organization by extending people’s rationality and decision-making capacity and by reducing intra-individual and group dysfunctional conflicts. This paper supports these findings and extends their results to upper layers at managerial and organizational levels of application by proposing the concept of new industrial organizations (...) with structure and processes of Computational Organization Management Networks. In such a new organization type, cognitive machines and cognitive information systems are prominent actors of governance, automation, and control of the whole enterprise. (shrink)

The neo-classical economics paradigm postulates a hypothetical model of perfect competition as the ideal environment for business success. Yet the model has great difficulty in apprehending the day-to-day operations of actual business organisations. This paper explores some of the apparent inadequacies of the neo-classical paradigm, drawing on business strategy theory to suggest a potentially more fruitful mode of analysis. It is argued that conventional business strategy theory not only can provide a better framework than neo-classical economics for explaining and informing (...) public policy on utilities, but that it also can provide an additional dimension to critical management theory. The process of public sector ‘reform’ that gained momentum in the late 1970s was driven largely by neo-classical economic assumptions. While there has been a plethora of literature published on the need to ‘reform’ various public enterprises, there has been little analysis of the strategic behaviour of enterprises and industries that have been privatised or targeted for this change. Whereas neo-classical economics has been chiefly concerned with the performance of markets in the allocation and coordination of resources, business strategy is primarily about coordination and resource allocation within the firm. In contrast to neo-classical economics, business strategy theory is inherently interdisciplinary, integrating the social sciences: it is not applied microeconomics. (shrink)

Basic tendencies of enterprises' innovative development management have been considered from the perspective of postfordist tranformations. It has been determined that mobility is a specificity of postfordist industrial management. Mobility provides dispersion of structural subdivisions all over the world, it doesn't need any governmental support and strict control. Total diversification of the kind allows to implement «high» technologies through global data revolution practically into all spheres of social life. The evolution of social relations types from feudalism up to Post-Fordism (...) has been provided and their specifics defined. Analytical studies carried out have enabled to discover formed world innovative centres and – from global economic perspective – those of half-peripheral countries with low level of innovative development. The directions of China management of innovative development, whose combined innovation level steadily increases, have been described. It has been determined that a great many of world countries is not currently being on the postfordist stage, since an industrial labour is characteristic for them which defines their type as traditional or early industrial pre-modern. We've also found that innovation development governance at the global level through the prism of postfordist transformations manifests itself in looking for niche, strict subordination to global market mechanisms, decentralization under control of transnational corporations; at the national level: in decentration of social space and thinking, marginalization of urban population, migration; at the meso level: in orientation on consumer needs, considerable mobility of production, individualization under global standardization; at the micro level: in project approach, faster time to market, cost minimization. It has been determined that technological breakthrough evokes such social concerns as total control, alienation, job and security loss. (shrink)

This article contributes to literature on corporate social responsibility exhibited by industrial clusters in developing countries. The authors conceptualize and empirically investigate the role of donor-funded CSR initiatives aimed at promoting collective action by cluster-based small- and medium-sized enterprises. A case study of the Sialkot football-manufacturing cluster in Pakistan indicates that donor-funded support of CSR initiatives in industrial clusters in developing countries may be short-lived, due to the political economy of aid, the national context of CSR implementation, tensions (...) within SME networks, and negative perceptions of CSR by the cluster-based SMEs themselves. The findings and implications of this analysis can inform both research and policy making in this area. (shrink)

This Article explores the success of the new science of statistics in establishing order within the pandemonium of industrial revolution in the nineteenth century. This success was based on the fact that the expanding circulation of both men and goods that characterized capitalism constituted the ontological foundation of statistics as well. In this respect, one can say that statistics turned variety and multiplicity into the basis of system, if not of uniformity. The study focuses on the 1850 federal census (...) of the United States and, more specifically, on the new taxonomy adopted in the census’s manufacturing schedule for enumerating industrial activity. This taxonomy was organized around a single, universal threshold of capital investment applied to each enterprise, a criterion that replaced various systems applied in previous censuses, all of which were based on an a priori definition of what actually constituted production. The innovation of 1850 resulted in a far more extensive account of manufacturing and was consequently perceived to be a most effective means of measuring the dramatic expansion of the economy. In fact, this was accomplished by making money the rule of measure, and so redefining the essence of industry to be financial rather than material. Profit-making consequently achieved a scientific, and even neutral, status. As such, statistics can be said to have made an epistemological contribution to the legitimization of the new capitalist order. (shrink)

The role of small business enterprise in a mature market economy is one of the major issues in contemporary industrial organization, and is the focus of this book. _Small Business Enterprise_ brings new standards of rigour and insight into the study of small firms by importing contemporary ideas from industrial economics and by using up-to-date statistical and econometric techniques. Based on a uniquely rich set of data, _Small Business Enterprise_ focuses on the early period after start-up of (...) the small firm. It investigates competitive niches and how they are established, determinants of growth and profitability, the factors fostering survivial, and many other central issues. This core of economic analysis is complemented by an innovative case profile approach, which considers the real behaviour of small firms in a competitive environment; and a section on the political economy of small firms, which looks at the ethics of competition and the enterprise culture. (shrink)

_The medical profession is set for a change. It is being redesigned as a corporate enterprise. The health-care industry has proved to be lucrative and therefore has seen the entry of newer players from the corporate field into the market. The "Medical-Industrial complex" has led to the commercialization of health care well beyond what traditional practitioners would consider ideal. Medicine is being treated as a business, with cost curtailment measures and profit margins often dictating physicians' choices. A number (...) of factors decide working environment in a corporate setup, all of which may affect the sacrosanct physician-doctor relationship and "physician" ethics. On the other side, the ability of the corporate sector to bring about a welcome change in the health-care sector in terms of availability of newer modalities of management, implementation of preventive and personalized health-care programme and, at the same time, adding to the comfort of the treating physician cannot be ignored._. (shrink)

During the last two decades, the intra-industry trade between western companies and former socialist enterprises in Central and Eastern Europe gradually shifted from the subcontracting of marginal operations such as final assembly to the outsourcing of products and intermediate inputs. To further enhance their competitiveness, firms in Central and Eastern Europe have yet to take one more step forward: integrate services with manufacturing. Developing such capabilities hinges, aside from intensive training and learning on the existence of functional interactive knowledgebased innovation (...) systems. Whereas Central and East European economies exhibit conspicuous weaknesses in this last respect, they still possess a countervailing advantage that is apt to lure foreign investors into the region: lower wage rates relative to western countries across all industries and skill levels. Offshoring therefore seems to be the most appropriate means to reconcile the two sides of the coin. (shrink)

Using the theoretical perspective of market stakeholders, we analyze the impact of external innovations from upstream enterprises, downstream enterprises, and competitors on the exports of private enterprises. By using data from the China Industrial Enterprises Database, we find that external innovations from upstream suppliers, downstream customers and horizontal competitors show positive impacts on the export propensity, intensity and scale for private enterprises. The results of a heterogeneity analysis indicate that the positive relationships between the external innovations of stakeholders and (...) the exports of private enterprises are stable in different factor-intensive industries. In addition, while the exports of private enterprises are positively correlated with their external innovations in the eastern and central regions, this relationship is not significant in the western region. Further, the mechanism analysis confirms that enterprise innovation played an important mediating role for the external innovations of stakeholders to promote the exports of private enterprises. This study provides useful policy implications for enhancing the export competitiveness of private enterprises. (shrink)

In recent years, the public sector in many countries has had difficulty keeping abreast of social problems due to restricted financial resources and limited organizational capacities. As a consequence, entrepreneurs have started to address social welfare issues that the public sector has been unable to tackle with an innovative approach called social enterprise. The authors present research on the future prospects of social enterprise as a sustainable business model for industrialized countries. As there is a lack of historical (...) and current data, the authors aim to contribute to and structure the debate about the potential of the concept. Therefore, the authors provide initial data from a Delphi survey on the future development of social enterprise in a multistakeholder environment. Experts from academia, business, nongovernmental and governmental organizations, social enterprise investors, and social entrepreneurs evaluated 16 projections for the year 2030. Based on these results, the authors present comprehensive scenarios of four different possible developments of the future of social enterprise in Germany. (shrink)

The article deals with the principle of choosing of a crisis management strategy using the matrix for enterprise crisis state management. The basic types of crisis management strategies are given, and the opportunities for their use at industrial enterprises in Ukraine are analyzed. Preconditions facilitating the optimization of crisis management strategies at enterprises are determined.

We live in a 'bimoral' society, in which people govern their lives by two contrasting sets of principles. On the one hand there are the principles associated with traditional morality. Although these allow a modicum of self-interest, their emphasis is on our duties and obligations to others: to treat people honestly and with respect, to treat them fairly and without prejudice, to help and are for them when needed, and ultimately, to put their needs above their own. On the other (...) hand there are the principles associated with the entrepreneurial self-interest. These also impose obligations, but of a much more limited kind. Their emphasis is competitive rather than cooperative: to advance our own interests rather than to meet the needs of others. Both sets of principles have always been present in society but in recent years, traditional moral authorities have lost much of their force and the morality of self-interest has acquired a much greater social legitimacy, over a much wider field of behavior, than ever before. The result of this is that in many situations it is no longer at all apparent which set of principles should take precedence. In this book, John Hendry traces the cultural and historical origins of the 'bimoral' society have also led to new, more flexible forms of organizing, which have released people's entrepreneurial energies and significantly enhanced the creative capacities of business. Working within these organizations, however is fraught with moral tensions as obligations and self-interest conflict and managers are pulled in all sorts of different directions. Managing them successfully poses major new challenges of leadership, and 'moral' management, as the technical problem-solving that previously characterized managerial work is increasingly accomplished by technology and market mechanisms. The key role of management becomes the political and moral one of determining purposes and priorities, reconciling divergent interests, and nurturing trust in interpersonal relationships. Exploring these tensions and challenges, Hendry identifies new issues of contemporary management and puts recognized issues into context. He also explores the challenges posed for a post-traditional society as it seeks to regulate and govern an increasingly powerful and global business sector. (shrink)

Social enterprises that operate in business-to-business contexts, often out of emerging economies, typically face high expectations from business clients, mainstream competition, and the challenge of operating across distances. In these contexts, social enterprises need to carefully choose which market segments to serve and how to organize their social mission accordingly. Based on the case of impact sourcing—hiring and training of disadvantaged staff for global business services—we seek to better understand this interplay. In general, we find that social enterprises in this (...) context focus on serving either domestic clients with an implicit social mission and an integrated social enterprise model or international clients with a more explicit social mission and a decoupled model. We discuss why both main configurations represent viable social enterprise models in the outsourcing industry, and why, in particular, the professional background of founders plays a key role in these strategic choices. Our findings contribute to a more nuanced and context-sensitive understanding of social enterprise model adoption in emerging economies. (shrink)

This article analyzes the past, the present, and the future of business institution in society in terms of its management approaches by using the framework of human evolution, and discovers a trend that explains three paradigms in business management that have been witnessed so far. Extending the trend, it projects another two paradigm shifts to take place in future, and establishes that the business management practice is going to evolve further where it will turn from its present status of ‘result-oriented (...) management’to ‘process-oriented management’ in terms of its focus, or in other words, it will evolve from ‘professional management’ to ‘ethical management’ in terms of its underlying philosophy. As a result, the business enterprise will evolve from its present form of economic organization to a humane organization, and further up to a divine organization. Expressed the other way round, the business institution that had kicked off as an industrial organization has got transformed to a human organization by now; however, in the future, it will further evolve to its final level of a divine organization. (shrink)

This article provides a review of what we know, what we do not know, and what we need to know about the relationship between industrial clusters and corporate social responsibility in developing countries. In addition to the drivers of and barriers to the adoption of CSR initiatives, this study highlights key lessons learned from empirical studies of CSR initiatives that aimed to improve environmental management and work conditions and reduce poverty in local industrial districts. Academic work in this (...) area remains embryonic, lacking in empirical evidence about the effects of CSR interventions on the profitability on local enterprises, workers, and the environment. Nor do theoretical frameworks offer clear explanations of the institutionalization and effects of CSR in local industrial districts in the developing world. Other key limitations in this research stream include an excessive focus on export-oriented industrial clusters, the risk that CSR becomes a form of economic and cultural imperialism, and the potential for joint-action CSR initiatives in clusters of small and medium-sized enterprises to offer a new form of greenwashing. From this review, the authors develop a theoretical model to explain why CSR has not become institutionalized in many developing country clusters, which in turn suggests that the vast majority of industrial clusters in developing countries are likely to engage in socially irresponsible behavior. (shrink)

This paper raises a challenge for those who assume that corporate social responsibility and good corporate governance naturally go hand-in-hand. The recent spate of corporate scandals in the United States and elsewhere has dramatized, once again, the severity of the agency problems that may arise between managers and shareholders. These scandals remind us that even if we adopt an extremely narrow concept of managerial responsibility – such that we recognize no social responsibility beyond the obligation to maximize shareholder value – (...) there may still be very serious difficulties associated with the effective institutionalization of this obligation. It also suggests that if we broaden managerial responsibility, in order to include extensive responsibilities to various other stakeholder groups, we may seriously exacerbate these agency problems, making it even more difficult to impose effective discipline upon managers. Hence, our central question: is a strong commitment to corporate social responsibility institutionally feasible? In searching for an answer, we revisit the history of public management, and in particular, the experience of social-democratic governments during the 1960s and 1970s, and their attempts to impose social responsibility upon the managers of nationalized industries. The results of this inquiry are less than encouraging for proponents of corporate social.. (shrink)

ABSTRACT The just distribution of benefits and burdens of healthcare, at least in the contemporary Philippine context, is an issue that gravitates towards two opposing doctrines of welfarism and ‘free enterprise.’ Supported largely by popular opinion, welfarism maintains that social welfare and healthcare are primarily the responsibility of the government. Free enterprise (FE) doctrine, on the other hand, maintains that social welfare is basically a market function and that healthcare should be a private industry that operates under competitive (...) conditions with minimal government control. I will examine the ethical implications of these two doctrines as they inform healthcare programmes by business and government, namely: (a) the Devolution of Health Services and (b) the Philippine Health Maintenance Organization (HMO). I will argue that these doctrines and the health programmes they inform are deficient in following respects: (1) equitable access to healthcare, (2) individual needs for premium healthcare, (3) optimal utilisation of health resources, and (4) the equitable assignment of burdens that healthcare entails. These respects, as considerations of justice, are consistent with an operational definition of ‘power’ proposed here as ‘access to and control of resources.’. (shrink)

Social enterprises in the microfinance industry need to adhere to both financial and social demands. Critics argue that there is a mission drift away from the social mission, and this has motivated the introduction of social rating agencies to strengthen the business ethics of microfinance institutions. Using a global dataset of 204 socially rated MFIs from 58 countries, we assess the factors that drive the social performance ratings of MFIs. Overall our results show that social ratings of MFIs are significantly (...) related to financial performance, greater outreach especially in rural areas, well-defined social objectives, staff commitment, service quality and an enhanced customer service. We observe that various rating agencies attach different importance to each of the social indicators. The public policy implication is that social rating agencies need to become more transparent, to reduce the information asymmetries between heterogenous socially motivated investors and the focal MFI. (shrink)