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This paper estimates the effect of religious labor market concentration on clergy wages. Using data on the state-level Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI) from the Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA), and data on individual clergy wages from the Census/American Community Survey (ACS), I estimate the effect of monopsony in the market for religion on clergy wages for the years 1980 to 2020. Ordinary least squares (OLS) estimates suggest the elasticity of individual clergy wages to the state-level HHI ranges between -0.05 and -0.17. These results are robust to the inclusion of controls for individual clergy characteristics, state-level religious tradition adherent shares, state-level labor market concentration, state- and year-fixed effects, and religious group-specific time trends. Application of the Oster (2019) test for selection on unobservables suggests that OLS understates the negative effect of concentration on clergy wages. The OLS results are supported by an instrumental variables (IV) specification exploiting a Bartik-style instrument interacting historic concentration with national concentration growth. The IV estimates suggest elasticities between -0.11 and -0.19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reorganization of the global production network and the increased mobility of urban-rural elements have accelerated the differentiation of rural spaces, resulting in a trend towards specialization in rural areas. This paper focuses on the concept of specialization, and takes a renowned bonsai specialized village in Guangzhou City, China as a typical case to explore its transformation and development process, action logic and coupling mechanism with the social governance. The results show that: 1) the development of rural specialization in Ruiling Village is shaped by several key actors, such as local governments, grassroots organizations, villagers, social organizations, policies, markets and infrastructure. The transfer of these key actors and the reconstruction of actor-networks in different stages have an important influence on the transformation and realization of rural development goals. 2) Through subjects-driven, organization management and resource connection, social governance supports the specialization of rural industrial organization, operation, technology and mode. The governance structure shifts from decentralization to networking, refinement and integration. A coupling community of social governance and specialization is created by the social governance system of 'local government-grassroots organizations-economic cooperatives-villagers', which links industries, industrial chains and cooperatives. 3) Social governance integrates into the value chain extension process of rural specialized development with a central, multi-level organizational structure. It promotes the construction of the whole value chain through organizational planning, resource integration and image shaping, thus realizing the value, branding and organization of the industry, as well as the integration of rural sustainable development and governance mechanism. Social governance has a profound impact on the development of rural specialization in terms of subject, structure and mode, and participates in the construction of the whole value chain of rural areas. This paper provides a new perspective for understanding the coupling effect of social governance in the rural development transformation, and promotes the rural sustainable development and governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to bring to the attention of regulatory economists and policymakers the existence of some approaches to utility regulation that have hitherto received little or no attention in the economics literature. It begins by noting that regulatory actions have discouraged certain kinds of retail contracts in the UK that are offered in Nordic countries, almost extinguished retail competition in Ohio, and distorted the market for merchant interconnectors in Australia. In contrast, Argentina secured an efficient appraisal and implementation of transmission expansions by empowering users and severely limiting the role for regulation. Some US and Canadian jurisdictions have fostered the emergence of negotiated settlements that exhibit considerable innovation, and greater benefits for all parties than would have been possible with the conventional regulatory approach. These examples of the actual regulatory world can inform the work of theorists and policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To study the impact of the digital economy on industrial structure upgrading, this paper constructs the dynamic spatial Durbin model, dynamic spatial intermediary model, and spatial threshold model based on the panel data of 155 prefecturelevel cities in China from 2011 to 2021. It is found that: (a) the improvement of the digital economy in the region can directly promote the upgrading of local industrial structure, but there is a significant "siphon effect," which makes the spatial spillover effect negative and significant. (b) The digital transformation of enterprises plays a mediating role in the path of digital economy-driven industrial structure upgrading, with a short-term mediating effect size of about 17.18%. (c) The digital economy has a threshold effect on the path of enterprise digital transformation for industrial structure upgrading. These findings provide suggestions for policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between industry structure, aggregate R&D activity, and the pace and quality of the resulting innovation process is currently the subject of a lively debate across NATO in general and even more so among its European members. This paper tackles this issue from a standpoint belonging to the tradition of industrial economics, adapting it to the specific context of the defence sector. This is done with a view to stressing the need of increasing the degree of concentration in order to increase standardization and interoperability of defence systems and facilitate the exploitation of scale economies. In the traditional jargon of industrial organization theory, this amounts to vindicating the Schumpeterian view according to which increasing concentration (eventually all the way up to pure monopoly) monotonically fosters innovation incentives, while mitigating effort duplications affecting large and long-lasting R&D projects. One additional implication, equally relevant, is that the concentration process can indeed be facilitated, in the short to medium term, by systematically resorting to the creation of research joint ventures and/or R&D cartels so as to boost spillover effects and reduce excess investments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Artificial intelligence (AI) has become an input to the production of goods and services. Therefore, a general question is there that "How the labor hour/human resource will be replaced by the artificial intelligence?" To answer this question, the paper considers that both AI and the human resources (HR) are the inputs to the firm and explains the choice between the two with reference to the customer relationship management. The paper derives the individual firms and the industry demand functions of the AI and the HR when both are present in the production of the identical or closely related goods and services. Moreover, the paper also shows the strategic behavior of an individual firm with the industry in selecting the AI and the HR. It has been shown that the individual firm's choice in the industry depends on the choice of the industry leader. The paper explains the supermodular game between the firms in an industry. Design/methodology/approach: Game theory, industrial organization and non-convexity theories have been used in this paper to identify the choice between the HR and the AI in the customer relationship management. Findings: The paper explains analytically the preference and demand for AI in the industry. Individual firm's strategic behavior and decision on choosing AI and the industry equilibrium have been studied logically. Moreover, the paper gives some light on the question of employment in presence of AI. The paper proves that in the presence of AI, labor demand will not be reduced but both will be used. Originality/value: This work proves for the first time using some logical derivation that AI will not crowd out labor from the market. Moreover, to run AI, labor should also be used. It has been proved that to complete a job with speed and quality, both AI and HR are to be used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the survey data of 45 tea enterprises in Fujian Province, China, this paper adopted fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to study the adoption of the sustainable production technologies by tea enterprises. The results show that there are two configurations for the path to achieve the adoption of high sustainable production technologies. The core condition combination of the first configuration is the existence of sustainable development capabilities, the degree of government support, and the resource and environmental endowment, while that of the second configuration is the existence of enterprise expected value, industrial organization mode and the resource and environmental endowment. Moreover, the path achieving non-highly sustainable production technologies adoption mainly summarized as a configuration. Specifically, the core condition is the absence of sustainable development capabilities, enterprise development strategies, and the resource and environmental endowments. Furthermore, some practical policy recommendations were put forward based on the above conclusions in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid development of tourism in China has also caused a lot of energy consumption and serious environmental problems. In the context of sustainable development, low-carbon tourism has become the consensus of management departments, relevant industries, and academia. In environmental-related fields, DEA is considered as an excellent efficiency analysis tool because of its powerful optimization ability. The final variable of DEA method is weight. In order to avoid the influence of human factors with predetermined weights in tourism analysis, this paper studies the evaluation of tourism ecological efficiency based on DEA model. China's overall tourism ecological efficiency showed a fluctuating upward trend, rising from 0.853 in 2018 to 0.906 in 2021. The national average efficiency over the past four years is 0.855, which is at a low level, indicating that the construction of tourism ecology is still in its infancy, and there is still much room for improvement in the future. As the tourism industry system involves many aspects, such as natural ecology, humanities, economy, and so on, it is an extremely complex system. The research on the ecological efficiency of tourism cannot simply rely on the knowledge system and thinking of a single discipline. Therefore, combined with the relevant theories and knowledge of tourism, management, industrial economics, regional economics, industrial ecology, and other disciplines, this paper makes a systematic study on the problems and countermeasures of Qiaozhai. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fourth industrial revolution, represented by intelligence, networking and greening, is breeding and breaking through, and China is increasingly Focus on green development, public awareness of environmental protection, and small changes are able to fundamentally change our industrial organization. The equipment manufacturing industry is an industry to which our country attaches great importance, and equipment manufacturing enterprises, as microscopic subjects, want to contribute to the "13th Five-Year Plan". Equipment manufacturing industry is a highly valued industry in China, equipment manufacturing enterprises as a microscopic subject, in order to the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan" equipment manufacturing industry rose to inject a strong impetus, must make essential changes, embrace the green economy, green development, and enhance the green competitiveness of enterprises. The green competitiveness evaluation of equipment manufacturing enterprises is the classical multiple criterion group decision making (MCGDM). In this paper, depending on the Taxonomy method, Taxonomy method will be extended to picture 2-tuple linguistic sets (P2TLSs) to address some MCGDM issues. Some essential concepts of picture 2-tuple linguistic sets (P2TLSs) are briefly reviewed. In addition, integrating the Taxonomy method with P2TLSs, the Taxonomy method with P2TLNs is constructed and all calculating procedures are simply depicted. Eventually, an empirical application for green competitiveness evaluation of equipment manufacturing enterprises has been offered to demonstrate this novel method and some comparative analysis are also made to confirm the merits of developed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Setting an industry-wide standard is crucial for the interoperability, compatibility, and efficiency of information and communication technologies. To minimize holdup problems, patent holders are often required to ex-ante commit to licensing their technologies under Fair, Reasonable, and Non-Discriminatory (FRAND) terms. Yet, there is little consensus, in both courtrooms and industries, on the exact meaning of FRAND. We propose a new framework that enables a precise distinction: fairness in the distribution of royalty payments among patent users, and reasonableness in setting the size of the compensation to the patent holder, where both the size and the distribution of payments are determined in a non-discriminatory way that ensures similar firms are treated similarly. • The paper presents a conceptual model for FRAND royalty setting. • The model builds on well-known properties from the theory of fair allocation. • A specific royalty rule is characterized by normatively appealing properties. • Royalties are determined relative to a firm specific liability index. • The model is applied in a few standard settings from Industrial Organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper investigates the relationship between the State and big capital (chaebols) in the South Korea in three periods: the phase of constitution of the heavy industry between the 1960s and 1980s, the period of institutional transformation characteristic of neoliberal financialization in the 1990s, and the limited reversal of liberalizing reforms after the 1997 crisis. For this, we reject forms of evaluation of economic policies that assume universally correct models to identify errors and successes in the cases analyzed. On the contrary, we emphasize the class character of the Korean state and its role in coordinating the more general interests of capitalist accumulation rather than serving the particularistic interests of corporations. Therefore, we emphasize not only the State's capabilities, but its partnership with the chaebols for the definition and execution of common objectives in each period. We conclude that, like economism, political voluntarism should be rejected as a model of comparative analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The assignment problem (AP) is a decision-making problem that is used in production planning, industrial organizations, the economy and so on. As the single objective AP is no longer sufficient to handle today's optimization problems, bi-objective AP (BOAP) is considered. This research article introduces BOAP in neutrosophic environment. The neutrosophic BOAP (NBOAP) is formulated by adding the elements of cost matrices with single-valued trapezoidal neutrosophic numbers (SVTrNNs). A new method namely, fixing point approach (FPA) is proposed in this paper. The aim of this study is not only to determine the set of efficient solutions but also to find the optimal compromise solution for NBOAP using FPA. The proposed approach is elucidated with a numerical example and its solutions are plotted in a graph using MATLAB, which demonstrates its efficiency and optimality in practical aspects. This approach is more profitable for decision makers (DMs) and more efficient than other existing approaches because it provides the best optimal compromise solution in a neutrosophic environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The economic reactivation has taken on great importance in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic throughout the world, as it is paralyzed by its rapid spread. The objective of this paper is to analyze from different theoretical positions the issue of economic reactivation of the industrial sector, and how it can be influenced from different ideals. This is due to the main implications that have arisen, affecting work stoppages and accelerated infections. Therefore, a theoretical approach will be considered, with the support of the literature, so that this research has the characteristics of a documentary, exploratory and descriptive analysis. Subsequently, it was possible to detect that the use of postures contributes to adopting behaviors that improve the industry, allowing them to remain active and competitive in the market, concluding that the functionality of the theories is essential when described about economic reactivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Corporate dynamics may be explained in terms of mutual synchronization and chaos regularization of bursts in a group of chaotically bursting cells modelled by a particular specification of the Rulkov map. • The proposed framework can accommodate dynamic changes between multiple equilibria, model skewness, and idiosyncrasy even in the case of homogeneous firms. This is checked against real-world data. • These features allow the link with empirical findings in labour and industrial economics and reveal the hidden role of effort in determining profitability. This work deals with corporate dynamics as they emerge from mutual interaction between firms competing on the market. As it is commonly observed, corporate dynamics may oscillate between periods of fierce competition and calmer periods when companies settle in their niche. This is much like mutual synchronization and chaos regularization of bursts in a group of chaotically bursting cells modelled by the Rulkov map. We find that our framework can accommodate dynamic changes between multiple equilibria, model skewness, and idiosyncrasy even in the case of homogeneous firms. These features allow the link with empirical findings in labour and industrial economics. This paper supports the idea that nature is governed by simple laws from physics to engineering, from biology to economics, etc. For this reason, a low-dimensional deterministic model like the Rulkov map may be applied to economics and game theory for describing corporate dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rising profits of oil companies in the refined oil sector, the optimization of the refined oil supply chain network has received more and more attention. In most supply chains (SCs), transaction relationships between suppliers and customers are commonly considered to be an extrapolation from a linear perspective. However, this traditional linear concept of an SC is egotistic and oversimplified and does not sufficiently reflect the complex and structure of supplier–customer relationships in current economic and industrial situations. But key global knowledge can be obtained from complex network characteristics analysis of the net form sales system. For two-level network like refine oil supply network, this paper proposed an integrated framework to explore its characteristics. Through various analyses of this complex network, including visual, network scale, network agglomeration, network community and geographic information analyses, we could found the characteristics of regular network node relations and regional location characteristics, as well as a strongly correlation between correlation coefficient thresholds and the network interdependence, and also moderated the correlation between SN efficiency and SN resilience. In order to testify this supply network analysis method, we conducted a real-world SN analyses based on a Chinese province diesel supply network and describe an advanced investigation of SN theory. This method enrich the SN theory, which can benefit SN management, community economics and industrial resilience. Also the basic understanding of the diesel sales network system obtained in this paper provides guidance for further research on this network structure, which can also provide a reference for regional sales supervision and resource distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Higher education is an important base for scientific research and personnel training, and the upgrading of industrial structure is inseparable from advanced technology and high-quality talents. Based on the research on the correlation between education input and the upgrading of industrial structure under the background of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei coordinated development, this paper analyzes the present situation of higher education input-output and the upgrading of industrial structure in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region by means of statistical analysis. By introducing the method of regression analysis, this paper makes an empirical analysis of the correlation between the input-output of education and the optimization and upgrading of industrial structure. The results show that the input of education can support and lead the upgrading of industrial structure. The upgrading of industrial structure has feedback and promotion effect on educational investment. This research has certain guiding significance to promote the positive interaction between education input and upgrading of industrial structure in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, and to realize the coordinated development in Beijing- Tianjin-Hebei region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Departments of Labour Economics and Industrial Relations in Turkey have their roots in social policy education in the Turkish university system dating back to a pre-republican (1923) period. The social policy discipline, which was influenced by the German and in part by the French approaches during its establishment, has over time been exposed to intense Americanization efforts, which led to the creation of departments of Labour Economics and Industrial Relations. The paper analyses this transformation in two dimensions. The first dimension is related to the historical development of the institutionalization process. The second is that under whose influence was this institutionalization process shaped? It argues that Labour Economics and Industrial Relations as an academic discipline has come to be represented by two different traditions involving four generations of academics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some sympathetic critics have recently found trouble with the latest iteration of the global production networks theory (GPN 2.0) developed in economic geography. I term these immanent critiques "GPN trouble" and address them in this Exchanges paper in relation to GPN 2.0's conceptualization of value and risk and its perceived "missing" elements of the state, labour, and so on. Reiterating briefly its core tenet, I first demonstrate GPN 2.0's modest role as a meso theory of industrial organization and economic development in an interconnected world economy. I argue that empirical analysis based on GPN 2.0 must open up the "black box" of production networks in order to evaluate the causal links between network dynamics and uneven development outcomes. Second, I show how understanding these causal links can provide better answers to the crucial question of "in what sense a GPN problem?" Addressing both issues appropriately will likely reduce the sort of "GPN trouble" one might encounter in future research on global economic restructuring during and after the Covid-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to propose an innovation ecosystem, in accordance with the characteristics of the dairy chain in the Latin American context. This research is based on a descriptive study through the analysis of literature on research trends in the dairy chain, the analysis of some sources and barriers to innovation, and the identification of the activities, indicators and agents that support the ecosystem proposal. As a result, an innovation ecosystem is presented for the dairy chain that contemplates the interaction between different internal and external organizations, and that facilitates the diffusion and adoption of innovations throughout the chain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The existing systems, applied and validated on occupational safety and health management in electrical organizations, seem to focus on management functions, national and international guidelines, quality standards and principles, to define, describe and ensure conditions for the implementation of occupational safety and health management systems. In this paper, the systemic approach has been adopted to develop a systemic model of occupational safety and health management. The purpose of the model is to maintain the electrical risk in an acceptable range in the operations of an organization whose object of activity is the supply and distribution of electricity, regardless of the internal, external and risk management context in which it is located. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze empirically if financial crises have decreased potential output for a selected group of economies.Design/methodology/approach The authors estimate different country-specific stylized Phillips curves to verify if inflationary pressures were stronger on the recovery periods after financial crises, relative to the recovery periods after recessions.Findings The results, in general, do not show any clear empirical evidence that financial crises erode potential output. Moreover, there are no apparent differences in terms of the effects of financial crises over potential output between emerging and industrial economies.Research limitations/implications This paper sheds light on the widely debated issue of whether financial crises constitute adverse supply shocks that lead to impairment in an economy’s productive potential. In interpreting the results, the authors must first recognize that all of them are based on the reduced-form relationships. Thus, they are about correlations and not necessarily about true structural relationships.Practical implications The study is very important for policy makers and specially Central Banks worldwide.Social implications The loss of potential output is a very serious economic and social phenomenon. This paper sheds light on the debate if financial crisis lead to losses of potential output.Originality/value The paper is original in using more Phillips curves and because it studies also the behavior of emerging economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To analyze how small and medium enterprises (SMEs) coordinate collaborative research and development (R&D) projects through an open innovation strategy. Originality/value: This research was motivated by a theoretical gap in the management of collaborative R&D projects in open innovation strategies. The originality of the paper is to advance the understanding of coordination mechanisms that SMEs can use to manage open innovation and obtain more effective results. Design/methodology/approach: The research followed a qualitative approach, through three case studies of collaborative projects. Data were collected by means of in-depth interviews with eleven managers directly involved in collaborative R&D projects. Findings: Results demonstrate that the use of coordination mechanisms depends on the applicability of each project's results, i.e., the higher the chances of a certain R&D project becoming a real product, the higher the importance given to the coordination mechanisms. On the cases observed, the coordination mechanisms were defined by the enterprise, not by external partners. In addition, it was observed that open innovation projects that the enterprise seeks for external knowledge to complement internal resources (outside-in) were considered more important than transferring internal knowledge to external partners (inside-out). The paper contributes to organizational theory by highlighting the relation between the characteristics of collaborative R&D projects and the coordination mechanisms used. Regarding the managerial contribution, results serve as a guide for entrepreneurs and managers of SMEs interested in coordinating collaborative projects based on open innovation processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate warming has triggered a series of external uneconomic problems that have had a tremendous impact on human production and life. At the same time, the current intelligent models for low-carbon economic research have some drawbacks. Therefore, in order to explore a more scientific low-carbon development model, based on the analysis of low-carbon development at home and abroad, this study combines particle swarm optimization and neural network to analyze China's carbon productivity through multidimensional analysis, determine multiple factors and select more important data as factor analysis objects.In this paper, the authors analyze the neural network model for new energy industry economy based on particle swarm optimization. The result shows that the particle swarm algorithm has a very fast convergence rate and can avoid falling into local minimum values in the later stage and finally achieve higher solution precision. The development of new energy industry is an important strategy and means for implementing sustainable development and adjusting the industrial structure. This article, from the perspective of industrial economics, uses genetic neural networks and fuzzy uncertainty to explore how to effectively combine the capital market with the development of new energy industries. Bring into play the role of the capital market in supporting the development of new energy industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The vulnerability of the world economy to financial and economic crises, the growth of global instability and uncertainty increase the need for long-term national planning and effective anti-crisis measures. Their development based on the analysis of foreign experience allows one to use achievements of specific government programs and strategies, as well as to take into account mistakes of predecessors in the development and implementation of their own smart strategies for industrial development without unnecessary costs and increased risks. This paper is a continuation of the area of scientific research, conducted in the Institute of Industrial Economics of the NAS of Ukraine, and takes into account the country's European integration priorities and the type of national innovation system. It is aimed at searching and summarizing the best practices of smart transformation of the industrial sector of the European Union, suitable for implementation in the institutional conditions of Ukraine. In the process of analysing the European experience in the development of the smart industry, main initiatives (European and national levels) in the field of cooperation between government institutions, research institutions, the business environment and the population, aimed at developing smart technologies and stimulating investment activity of the private sector, were considered: applied programs of Public-Private Partnerships "Factory of the Future", "Sustainable Processing Industry through Resource and Energy Efficiency", "ICT Innovations for Small and Medium Enterprises of the Manufacturing Industry", "Smart Anything Everywhere", "Public- Private Partnerships in the Field of Information and Communication Technology and Vanguard Initiative for New Growth through Smart Specialization". On the example of individual smart strategies, the activity and current progress of the economic and technological leaders of the European Union (including Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Spain, France, Sweden, etc.) were evaluated in terms of the practical implementation of the stated strategic goals. The main similarities and differences between the priorities, target audience, models and funding volumes of EU smart strategies are identified, depending on the starting institutional conditions and current challenges of specific national economies. Possibilities of using the best European practices for the development of smart industry in Ukraine and the need to establish clear quantitatively measurable national goals in this area, as well as the creation of effective mechanisms for monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of innovative projects, are identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last 15 years, the government of Ontario, Canada began seeking ways to deliver and expand higher education in a more cost effective and sustainable manner through the introduction of two major policy goals: greater institutional differentiation and the expansion of student pathways. This paper will attempt to determine the compatibility of these two policy goals through a review of the relevant literature to determine if the policies are aligned from an efficiency and effectiveness, and public policy perspective. It will also identify a number of policy levers used in Ontario that may affect the extent of diversity and student pathways through document analysis, to assess their compatibility by making a limited use of the field of organisational theory as a lens to place the policies into context. It will also examine the extent to which various institutional types in Ontario have been engaged in student mobility and will compare and contrast the various strategies used to satisfy these public policy goals through textual analysis to highlight current successful institutional strategies that can be used by other jurisdictions. It will conclude with some key observations that the authors feel are necessary for either policy goal to succeed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increased engagement of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) with Australian industry from the early 1980s to the late 1990s marks it as an unusual era for CSIRO. The reasons lie in CSIRO's response to the economic and political background of the time and to government moves to reinvigorate the industrial sector. By the end of the century, external pressures for industry engagement had receded as macroeconomic conditions improved and Australian industry diversified. The engagement can be seen in the growth of direct contacts between CSIRO and research users and Australian companies that occurred across the organisation. This paper analyses CSIRO's technology transfer policies and practices within an economic and political context and addresses two questions: why did the organisation's approach to technology transfer change and how? We look at three mini-eras in the 1980s and 1990s and draw out major changes in technology transfer during these two decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The merger paradox is a classic, counter-intuitive result from the literature of Industrial Organization saying that merging firms typically experience a decline in their overall profit compared to their total pre-merger profit. This phenomenon is more striking in small oligopolistic markets, where mergers increase market concentration and may hence trigger a substantial increase in prices. In this paper, we investigate the severity of the merger paradox in Cournot oligopoly markets. Namely, we study the worst-case magnitude of this profit loss in quantity-setting market games. We consider convex, asymmetric production costs for the firms, and we show that the profit loss can be substantial even in small markets. That is, two merging firms can lose half of their pre-merger profit, but no more than half in markets with concave demand functions. On the positive side, we show that in markets with affine demand two firms can never lose more than 1/9 of their profit when merging, and this bound is tight. We also study the asymptotic loss in larger markets, where it is easy to show that the profit loss can be arbitrarily large when multiple firms merge; we give bounds that characterize the profit loss from a merger as a function of the market size and the number of merging firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Scandinavian industrial democracy experiments (IDEs) contained elements of organization theories, based particularly on sociotechnical systems theory (STS). In this paper, we provide an introduction to some main points of these theories and their aftermath, as a context for the six papers of the special issue on the relevance of the organization theories of the IDE for contemporary organizational realities. The six papers are also summarized and positioned in relation to the theoretical insights from the IDE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last decade, Malaysia has experienced exceptional growth, progressing from primarily agriculture-based to a more developed manufacturing-based industrial economy. The natural rubber industry has been an important sector for Malaysia's economic development, contributing RM33.7 billion (USD101.1billion) or 4.69% of the country's Gross Domestic Profit (GDP) in 2013. This paper aims to apply the industrial symbiosis (IS) concept to the proposed Rubber City bilateral industrial development in Kedah, Malaysia. The concept of IS can be considered a strategic tool to enhance environmental and socio-economic sustainability of rubber industry. This paper involves stakeholder analysis of IS to identify strategic priorities and opportunities for the Rubber City initiative. The IS framework focuses on three main natural rubber downstream products: natural rubber blocks, tyres, and gloves; and identifies synergies in resource cycles and waste management using Materials Flow Analysis (MFA) and the Input-Output (IO) data based on previous Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) data for each of the three natural rubber products. Based on this case study, we identified ten principal synergies which include five potential IS industries integrated within the RC conceptual framework. Stakeholder surveys of natural rubber processors and other actors (such as government agencies) were conducted in Malaysia to identify barriers and enabling factors for IS implementation in the Rubber City. The outcomes of this study will be used as basis for integrated strategic development plan and implementation approach towards a sustainable Rubber City development in Malaysia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last two decades, scholars, practitioners and governments have underlined the relevance of reporting intellectual capital (IC). Analysing the evolution of IC research (Guthrie et al., 2012, Petty and Guthrie, 2000) and considering the fact that some 'IC pioneer' companies, like Skandia, have abandoned IC reporting, a recent stream has pointed out the need to investigate the use of IC reports 'in practice' (Dumay, 2013, Guthrie et al., 2012, Mouritsen, 2006) in order to understand whether IC reporting is something relevant or just a managerial "fashion" (Dumay, 2012, Mouritsen and Roslender, 2009, Fincham and Roslender, 2003). Moving from these considerations, the aim of our study is to explore if, how, and why IC reports are used by companies and if, how, and why IC measurement and reporting practices do (or do not) stabilise. In order to achieve this aim, a field study approach was adopted (Lillis and Mundy, 2005, Roslender and Hart, 2003). More specifically, the paper highlights the fact that the IC report is frequently a 'personal business' and discusses the determining role of some 'key' actors (i.e. project sponsors and project leaders) in affecting if, how, and what kind of evolution IC reports and measurements may undergo. Further, the paper sheds light on how the IC 'lock-in' phenomenon may occur not only in the accounting domain but also in others. Finally, it contributes to confirming the fragility of IC indicators. Differently from the majority of extant studies, this one focuses not only on the production of IC measurements and reports or on their peculiarities, but also on their use. Moreover, it adopts a longitudinal perspective as opposed to focusing on a specific moment in time. Lastly, in order to gain a broader view of IC in practice, this paper offers insights collected from several organizations, rather than from a single case study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper asserts that industrial systems are a kind of complex system and that their evolvement mechanism fits a dissipative structure well. By applying complex system theory, this paper explores the role of technology standards in industrial systems from the perspective of order parameters. In addition, by adopting a low concentration trimolecular model to study how technologies transfer and diffuse, this paper illuminates the formation mechanism of technology standards and their dynamic mechanisms of action. Furthermore, this paper provides scales for the evolvement of industrial structures and attributes from the perspective of entropy theory. It also discusses organization formats and principles for promoting technology standardization in industrial systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Against the background of current discussions on the conceptual framework of institutional researches, the topic on the necessity of significant changes in the approach itself is becoming increasingly relevant. In this regard, it may be useful to refer to the world-system analysis, but accustomed to the industrial economics. As in the case of the world-system analysis, which implies that national states are not societies with separate, parallel histories, but represent parts of a whole, reflecting this whole, it is also appropriate to consider elements of the microeconomics in their economic and historical interaction and interdependence in the framework of industrial economics. Due to the abovementioned, the objective of the paper is to summarize the development of business structures of industrial economics in the light of the world-system analysis' ideas. To achieve this goal, next tools and methods were used: microcosm-system analysis. Results and conclusions. The analysis of the historical development of business structures in the international coal industry and the coal engineering sector as mini-systems, microcosm-economies and microcosm-empires is carried out. The effects of interaction between coal mining structures and enterprises, supplying equipment to them in countries with unprofitable and cost-effective coal mining, are shown. The tendency of multinational microcosmempires' expansion and the spread of alliances of microcosm-economies (microcosmempires) were revealed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 2010s, major US initiatives framed urban retrofitting as a decarbonization solution. These programs address an obtrusive legacy of industrial capitalism: its built environments shed energy and emissions when they fall into disrepair. Political ecology and economy have been slow to engage retrofitting, an absence that is conspicuous as these fields take on planetary repair as a conceptual provocation and turn in mainstream conservation. This paper explores US retrofitting as a distinctive material repair practice, one born as an energy poverty program amid the scarcity fears of the 1970s Energy Crisis but seeing a renaissance today as a program for green capitalist growth. I interrogate two economies of repair now emerging around retrofitting, energy market and cleantech aspirations to make energy efficiency a resource and articulated efforts to sell retrofits as new green value for real estate development and investment. Such urban revaluation efforts join an expanding array of green gentrification schemes today. Paradoxically, even as would-be green entrepreneurs are drawn to these seemingly intangible and "clean" forms of waste and value-in-waiting, retrofitting presents intransigent materialities. Its decarbonization ambitions demand not just profit-generating urban repair today but large-scale urban maintenance into the future. This need confronts longstanding efforts to render US cities and built environments flexible to recurrent creative destruction in service of ongoing economic growth. Such logics of de/revaluation and essential disposability permit concurrent US programs for gentrification and urban abandonment today. However, decarbonization requires a more substantial confrontation with capitalist ruination-as-usual. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of the European nobility and their ability to retain their political and economic power are part of the debate on the modernization of Europe's economy. This paper contributes to the literature by exploring the wealth of the Swedish nobility as the country evolved from an agrarian to an industrial economy. We use a sample of 200+ probate inventories of nobles for each of the benchmark years 1750, 1800, 1850 and 1900. We show that the nobility, less than 0.5 per cent of the population, was markedly dominant in 1750: the average noble was 60 times richer than the average person, and the nobles held 29 per cent of all private wealth. 90 per cent of the nobles were richer than the average person. By 1900 the advantage of the nobles' wealth had declined; the group held only 5 per cent of total private wealth. At the same time, stratification within the nobility had increased dramatically. One group of super-rich Swedish nobles, often large land owners from the high nobility, possessed the biggest fortunes, but a large minority of nobles were no richer than the average Swede. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent and continuous transformation efforts at South African universities and the varied challenges facing higher education make it increasingly important to undertake an examination of student experiences that extend beyond the academic realm. This paper presents findings on non-academic support services, as experienced by students. The study was conducted at two South African universities and is grounded within an organizational theory perspective. The data indicate that students’ interactions with those charged with providing non-academic services are characterized by substandard services. Participants’ reports are analyzed and the findings indicate that participants critically construct explanations for the substandard services received. Three overarching themes are considered in accounting for substandard non-academic support services: (1) personal, (2) institutional, and (3) interpersonal. The findings are discussed with respect to implications and recommendations for university management and administration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the modularity literature, an architectural decomposition and ‘mirroring’ between task boundaries, knowledge boundaries, and firm boundaries has been suggested as a way to enhance managerial efficiency and as a source of potential strategic advantage. Despite its intuitive appeal, empirical support for ‘mirroring’ is significant but mixed. In this paper, we utilise an industrial economics and knowledge-based perspective to hypothesise how the combined effects of product architecture type, product complexity and the rate of product component change may influence task, knowledge and firm boundaries and hence be associated with either phases of mirroring or non-mirroring (‘misting’). We suggest that whether mirroring or misting is an efficient strategic choice is influenced by the characteristics of both the product architecture and the rate of technological change at the product component level, and changes across time as products evolve. Our framework helps to reconcile existing mixed evidence and provides the foundation for further empirical research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]