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The purposes of this paper are twofold: a presentation of the theoretical basis of benchmarking and a discussion on practical benchmarking applications. Benchmarking is also analyzed as a productivity accelerator. The authors study benchmarking usage in the private and public sectors with due consideration of the specificities of the two areas. Special attention is paid to the presentation of the current picture of higher education and conditions for the application of benchmarking. The chosen examples of benchmarking projects conducted in higher education illustrate the spectrum of benchmarking usage. The authors conclude the paper with a recommendation for the employment of benchmarking in the higher education environment, especially in the light of competition pressures and rapid economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper tests critical determinants of national economic performance over time and across different countries. The effects of countries' infrastructure, human capital, innovative ability and cost of capital on economic performance were studied. Countries were grouped into developed, developing and least developed economies. Results showed infrastructure positively related to national economic performance. Human skill was also positively related to economic performance but its effect was confined to least developed countries in recent years. Finally, innovative ability was positively related to economic performance of developed countries. The study showed that the importance of innovative ability as a determinant of national economic performance has increased over time. Implications are drawn for the different economies based on the findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Planning for economic development is one of the major preoccupations of governments as well as international agencies such as the United Nations and the World Bank. Construction and marketing are individually known to have an influence on the achievement of economic goals. Unfortunately, the combined effect of construction and marketing has never been explored explicitly before. Although the pursuit of economic development has been their common objective, both disciplines have always been examined in isolation. This paper does not, however, pretend that construction and marketing are the only two factors which influence economic growth. The purpose is to help bridge the gap between construction and marketing in world economic development. For this purpose, other factors which may have an equally important influence on economic growth would, of necessity, need to be isolated. The relationship construction and marketing have with world economic development is supported through a literature review. In adopting construction and marketing as the two primary thrusts for securing economic growth, four global perspectives have been identified: scenario A, a balanced view; scenario B, weighted towards construction; scenario C, weighted towards marketing; scenario D, a deficiency model. The balanced view in scenario A mirrors the characteristic feature typical of most developed countries where mature marketing practices and construction infrastructures can be found. Scenario B, where construction attracts more attention than marketing, models the emphasis given by the governments in most developing countries. Scenario C models an economy which lacks the construction facilities necessary for the effective conduct of marketing activities. Countries which have poor construction and marketing facilities can be categorized under the deficiency model in scenario D. Adequate construction works and marketing expertise are generally found to be lacking in these countries whi... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the study on the determinants of growth in small manufacturing firms in Kobe region, Japan. It is stressed that small manufacturing firms play a vital role in the growth of the economy. The result of the study suggests that the firm's size have a significant impact on its growth in small-scale manufacturing, with relatively bigger firms performing better than smaller ones. It was also found that firms with more skilled labor seem to have higher sales growth and indicated that sales growth of small-scale firms is, to some extent, industry- specific.

This article examines the relationship between financial development and economic growth in a sample of 69 countries. A regime switching panel vector autoregression model is specified to detect directional changes in finance-growth causality and potential time variation of such causality patterns. In addition, a clustering analysis is performed to identify the presence of convergence clubs based on data properties. The findings show that most countries have switching between two states: one way causality from growth to financial development but not the other way round, and coexistence of bi-directional causality. Poorer countries are represented by a system with stable steady state while the clusters of advanced economies tend to exhibit multiple steady states. The clustering results map closely the degree of financial openness, and the cultural and geographical proximities of member countries. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Policy makers have increasingly recognised the role which universities can play in economic growth in recent years. One consequence of this has been a dramatic growth in university research management systems in developed countries. The lack of such systems in African universities threatens to further widen their relative disadvantage in securing and managing external funding. Recent surveys demonstrate growing awareness of this among the universities themselves, and that support has been received from a range of international donors to address the problem. This, however, has not yet succeeded in the creation of sustainable long-term structures at institutional level. A more coherent approach to the problem will be required over the next decade, and a framework is suggested to guide this. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quality of governance has been found to be significant in economic growth. We investigate, using a threshold technique, whether the quality of governance matters equally across all levels of economic development. We find that the quality of governance is most significant for only a subset of relatively poor countries, while education is most significant for the poorest countries, and region is most significant for the wealthiest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses that franchising methods that emerged in the late years as significant strategy for business growth, job creation, and economic development both in the U.S. and the world markets. The franchisers are sorted as product-trademarked or as business format franchisers. The business format of franchising is anticipated to be dominant form of franchising internationally in the twenty-first century . However, the business format of franchising has been experiencing rapid growth in the U.S., the period of rapid international expansion of some U.S. franchisers increased their overseas units.

The article focuses on the possibility of four Southeast Asia countries and four countries of South Asia to emulate the economic success of newly industrialized countries (NICs) in East Asia. The author points out the aspects of NICs' performance that other Asian countries want to imitate. He mentions the NICs' sustained high real growth rates of gross domestic products as the most remarkable factors on the economic growth of the NICs. He also stresses the significance of economic growth brought about by the accumulation of industrial capital which involves the expansion of investment in productive activities. Furthermore, he emphasizes the negative effects of the error of policy voluntarism on growth of government in the economy.