Search

This study focuses on evaluating the technical efficiency (TE) of food and drink companies in the Czech Republic and on finding its determinants. The analysis is based on the data of 597 firms and uses the stochastic frontier method. We have identified the key players in the market and the less effective groups of processors. Foreign-owned companies have a strong position because of a better economy, but the results showed that their efficiency is comparable with that of Czech-owned companies. The results helped confirm that the size of the company influences its TE. The lowest efficiency was observed in small companies. TE also differed among branches of the food industry. The highest efficiency was in the bakery and milk industries, and the lowest efficiency was in fruit and vegetable processing. Subsidised firms reached a significantly higher efficiency. With respect to economic results, there is still a need to improve competitiveness through investments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This reflection paper aims to summarize some of the technology trends that companies can use in their business processes to increase productivity and improve the competitiveness of the sector and country. It is based mainly on an official documentation study of both national and international authorized entities. First, some characteristics of the ICT and its influence in companies over the last years are shown; and finally, the conceptualization and benefits that Internet, Telework, e-Learning and Cloud computing represent today to companies in the productive sector are analyzed. It is concluded that ICT, and trends based on them, can make simpler and more agile processes in companies, and also, strengthen their skills to face increasingly demanding markets, whenever globalization and Free Trade Agreements (FTA) call to companies from all sectors to be more effective and efficient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Logistics as a business term is explained as a competitive strategy that has been adopted by enterprises to meet the expectations or demands of current and future customers. The importance of logistics is that companies are confident that the application of logistics principles and methods can greatly reduce the cost, which means to increase profits. Economic Logistics has special significance, because a good deal of time and cost in the process of reproduction belonging to the logistics activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The inter-Korean economic cooperation materialized with the development of Kaesong Industrial Complex shows that the governments of South Korea and North Korea despite having unstable political relations need to agree to enhance trade and increase productivity of industries seeking thereby to have more competitive economies to detonate the creation of more infrastructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature identifies North-South disparities in Total Factor Productivity (TFP), which, in turn, justify the bulk of international income differences. By building a dynamic, general equilibrium model of North-South technological-knowledge diffusion with scale-invariant growth, we extend the literature in several directions: (i) growth is driven by Schumpeterian R&D and by high and low-skilled human-capital accumulation; (ii) three trade regimes are considered; (iii) sectoral and aggregate TFP measures are computed; (iv) the extent to which the North-South trade regime explains intra-country TFP and inter-country TFP differences is evaluated. In particular, the results suggest that intra-country TFP differences increase and inter-country TFP differences fall when countries are more interdependent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports developments related to metal industry and trade. Increase in financing aid offered by the MICE Small Enterprise Programme; Launch of innovative coating technology for golf clubs; Creation of Sandvik Nanoflex, a stainless steel with exceptional properties developed by Sandvik Materials Technology.

The article focuses on cultural boundary between Europe and Asia. Of course there were cultural differences of a graduated kind and important political-military ones with the western developments of ships and guns (using the Islamic compass and Chinese gunpowder), but especially with the development of industrial production. These were mostly of trade and visits by scholars but they included conquests. Trade developed by land via the Silk Road and by sea via Egypt. The importance of trade between Asia and Europe in earlier times is brought out in the manuscript material of the tenth to the thirteenth centuries.

This article examines shock persistence in agricultural and industrial output in India. Drawing on the dual economy literature, the linkages between the sectors through the terms of trade are emphasised. However, different dual economy models make differing assumptions regarding the categorisation of variables as being either endogenous or exogenous and this distinction is crucial in explaining the pattern of shock persistence. Using annual data for 1955-95, our results show that shocks to both output series are permanent while those to the terms of trade are transient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the growth of business services (SIC73) in Michigan and models the relationship between the industry and local economic conditions in metropolitan and nonmetropolitan counties. The research makes four conclusions. First, SIC73 measures explain variance in manufacturing productivity. Second, SIC73 indicators explain variation in manufacturing and overall wages. Third, these relationships vary between metropolitan and nonmetropolitan counties. Despite growth in rural regions, SIC73 indicators more effectively predict wages and productivity in metropolitan counties. Hence, the localized benefits associated with SIC73 industries are more strongly associated with metropolitan economies. Fourth, the interdependencies that have developed between SIC73 industries and the manufacturing sector decrease over time in both metropolitan and nonmetropolitan contexts. The article concludes with suggestions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the notion of entrepreneurial productivity from the perspective of economic method and anecdotal evidence. Entrepreneurship is being interpreted as an evolutionary value-creating activity, in which entrepreneurial agents are characterized by rational behavior, equating costs and benefits at the margin. There have been several literatures on the concept of rent seeking and the entrepreneurial role associated with it. The difference between productive and unproductive activities for the entrepreneur are purely mechanistic and wholly arbitrary from an evolutionary perspective. In an evolutionary context, rent seeking activities executed in either competitive and monopolistic conditions are not unproductive.