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The key objective of the European Union's environmental policy is to successfully combine environmental protection with sustainable economic growth in the long term. Nowadays, it is increasingly recognized that environmental policies, besides increasing production cost, may at the same time give incentives to firms for undertaking innovative actions and/or developing and exploiting differentiation opportunities. Both differentiation capacity and cost increase are strongly dependent on a multiplicity of internal and external factors, such as energy intensity, type of technology used, characteristics of the competitive environment etc. The present paper presents a multicriterion approach for classifying firms into discrete categories of possible impact, according to their sensitivity to cost increases and their differentiation potential. The resulting environment–competitiveness matrix can be exploited for establishing sustainability strategies and designing effective policies in the industrial sector. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how ownership type and institutional environment affect firm taxation. Using a sample of Chinese-listed firms from 1999 to 2006, we find that private firms enjoy a lower effective tax rate than local state-owned enterprises. In addition, the preferential taxation of private firms is associated with local government incentives to promote local economic growth. We find that private firms located in regions with a lower level of privatization receive preferential tax treatment. Our results also suggest that decentralization and interjurisdictional competition lead to financial interdependence between local governments and private firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This critical review focuses on the development of spatial competition models à la Hotelling in which the location choice of firms plays a major role. We start by quantifying the research in this field by using bibliometric tools. Thereafter, this study identifies the main research paths within spatial competition modelling. Specifically, the type of strategy (Bertrand vs. Cournot competition), the assumptions that are made in respect to the market (linear vs. circular), production costs, transportation costs, the number of firms and the type of information (complete vs. incomplete) and their effects on the location equilibria are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Creative industries are firms which are characterized largely by the labour inputs of creative individuals, and surrounded by a degree of rhetoric as to their significance, but are a comparatively under-researched sector. In this study we developed a research framework which integrated entrepreneurial cognition, entrepreneurial orientation and firm capabilities and explored the relationships between these variables, market conditions and the performance of small creative industry enterprises. The data suggest that high growth small firms are characterized by well-developed internal capabilities allied to an entrepreneurial orientation and that the combination of the various sub-attributes associated with each of these appear to be especially salient under conditions of intense competition. The policies, managerial and educational implications of the findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers the author's insights regarding the impact of ASEAN-China Free Trade Area (ACFTA) on insular Southeast Asia. He mentions that China proposed the ACFTA believing that it would promote its rise as an economic power. He notes that free trade agreements like ACFTA resulted to the removal of policy instruments by which nations have been able to buffer and control the impacts of external trade on their local economies and vulnerable to competition from overseas and exposure of local enterprises to competition from overseas. He adds that ACFTA has its own internet site, ASEAN-China Free Trade Area, which is in English and Chinese languages.

Consolidation of the defense industrial base has led to concerns about whether enough competition exists between remaining firms to maintain needed cost reduction and innovation. We examine competition in the U.S. defense industrial base by performing an in-depth case study of Lockheed Martin and the F-22 program that considers multiple tiers of the industrial base. We find that defense firm specialization has led to outsourcing practices and arguably a more robust U.S. defense industrial base. Implications for government policy are identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]