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A deep dive into the internal and external environments in which a business operates today. The Business Environment: A Global Perspective, 9th Edition, by Thompson, Worthington and Britton offers a comprehensive and accessible introduction to how local and international business environments operate. Employing a PESTLE model which is relevant to all industries, this best-selling textbook takes you through contexts, types of organisation and markets, dealing with contemporary issues in socioeconomic, political and legal structures. The new edition offers a clear explanation of economics such as why the prices of the things you buy might go up or down, or why employment might be harder or easier to find at any given time. New chapters on the global Covid-19 pandemic and de-globalising factors, including Brexit, give an all-round perspective on how factors influence one another, and convey the complexity of the business environment. The wealth of contemporary case studies from local and international organisations, helps you put theory into practice.

This book addresses the challenging and exciting issues of the implementation of the European Union's grand strategies, with a particular interest in the implementation of the current Agenda 2030 and its Sustainable Development Goals. It provides insight into the impact of this strategic process on some of the current global issues relevant to the European Union, such as the European and global energy market, food supplies, industrial components etc. Some of the challenges have such a strong short-term impact, that already accepted strategic priorities and decisions are being questioned and re-examined. This is a particularly exciting subject, both as a research topic and as a policy issue.

This incisive book provides key interdisciplinary perspectives on the current challenges faced by EU policymakers in framing and implementing a coherent European industrial policy, employing specific case studies from the digital, automotive, steel and defence industries as well as concrete examples of EU policies. Comprehensive and analytical, the book investigates the long-term structural causes of the absence of a strong industrial policy at Union level. Examining the tensions that exist between member states and EU institutions regarding industrial and competition policies, expert contributions assess the conditions for an integrated EU industrial policy to emerge. A comparative analysis between the industrial policies of the EU, US and China is developed as chapters explore how the EU maintains its position in global value chains while other major partners are forced to pursue strategic trade and industrial policies to retain their dominant position. The book concludes with a presentation of prospective scenarios to assess the future technological evolution of the EU. EU Industrial Policy in the Multipolar Economy will be an essential resource for academics and practitioners concerned with EU current affairs, global governance, industrial economics and international trade. Its use of case studies and original data will allow governments, EU institutions, NGOs and EU public affairs consultants and analysts to assess their policymaking options in the fields of research, industrial policy and sustainable development.

This book comparatively examines the preferences of four key arms-producing states towards European joint armaments programmes.The European defence market is characterised by a mixture of inter-state competition and European cooperation, and this work assesses why countries sometimes decide to cooperate with their partners, while in other instances they refrain from doing so. In order to shed light on this empirical puzzle, the book focuses on state-defence industry relations in the four major European arms producers: France, Germany, Italy and the UK. The main argument is that the public or private governance of industrial suppliers and market size are the two decisive variables that explain the simultaneous presence of cooperation and competition in European defence procurement. Specifically, it argues that in public governance ecosystems, arms industries are able to'capture'the state's decision-making processes to their own advantage. In private governance ecosystems, the state is relatively autonomous from defence industry's influence and able to pursue larger macro-economic and military benefits. Moreover, the strategy pursued by governments and defence firms is decisively shaped by market size because of its importance in determining the relative costs and benefits of collaborative arrangements.This book will be of much interest to students of EU policy, defence studies, European politics and International Relations.

The main objective of this book has been to carry out research into the definition of industrial policy and its goals; to evaluate previously-introduced policies and instruments; and to identify the future challenges for and features of a modern EU industrial policy. A modern industrial policy is seen as a non-traditional policy towards the industrial sector, based not necessarily on only the elimination of market failures (within the sectoral and/or horizontal approaches), but rather on the expanding the scope of industrial economic activities within the framework of both the pre- and post-fabrication stages.The book targets three market segments: academics; policy and decision-makers at the EU, national and regional level, as well as business practitioners. It includes a wide-ranging analysis of different spheres of industrial policies conducted within the European Union, making it of interest to an international audience. Each chapter also offers detailed and valuable comments, as well as conclusions that can be generally applied, ensuring the book's universality. The book presents the results of a research project conducted in the Collegium of World Economy at the Warsaw School of Economics.

The third edition of European Business is published at a time of turbulence in Europe. This uncertainty puts Europe's unique business environment at risk.Key features of the new edition include: assessments of how individual member states affect the integration process and bring diversity to European business; new material on the links between Europe and the World's other main regions, including emerging economies; new case studies on topics such as the rise of the BRICs, the energy crisis, enlargement and the Euro. The book retains popular pedagogical features to help students make sense of a confusing and complex environment. A unique and accessible text, the book is ideal reading for students of European and International Business and important additional reading for those interested in European politics and economics.

To what extent is business activity governed at a European scale? Since the advent of the recent economic crisis, the EU's choices about the euro, debt ratios and interest rates have caught the headlines and highlighted the importance of EU decision-making arenas. However, these macro-economic events actually tell us only part of the story about the extent to which business activity is now governed at a European scale. Based upon original research on four manufactured or processed goods industries (cars, wine, pharmaceuticals and aquaculture), and driven by theory that is constructivist, institutionalist and sociological, this book sets out to analyse just what Europe governs, by whom and why. In doing so, it reveals three recurrent features of the European government of industries: its omnipresence, its incompleteness and its de-politicization. The authors show that the many gaps in the EU's mode of governing industries stem from struggles over economic doctrine as well as the continued unwillingness of many actors to accord the EU a legitimacy to act politically in the name of industrial government.This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of European Studies and Political Economy as well as those studying Political Science, Economics, Sociology and Business Studies.

In a fast-paced and constantly changing world, it is more important than ever to have a sound appreciation of the context in which business organisations exist and operate. Now in its 7th edition, this best-selling textbook offers a comprehensive, yet accessible, introduction to the wide range of external influences that affect business operations and decisions in today's increasingly globalised world. How do changing, and often unpredictable, economic or political conditions impact on business? How are business organisations affected by globalisation? What role do environmental responsibility and ethics have to play in business decisions? Using well-known examples and case studies from a broad range of international organisations, this 7th edition of The Business Environment addresses these key questions and many more. It includes a chapter on the global context of business together with International Business in Action case studies, both of which clearly illustrate the global nature of today's world of business. With this book you can: Explore all the issues which are critical to understanding the business environment and learn how these impact on organisations of all types and sizes. Benefit from up-to-date information and accessible analysis of both the macro- and micro-environmental influences that affect business organisations today. Put theory into practice, using a wide range of contemporary mini cases and case studies on (1) organisations including Microsoft, Facebook, Gazprom and Serco (2) issues such as foreign direct investment, fracking, the Eurozone crisis and Quantitative Easing.Ian Worthington is Emeritus Professor of Corporate Sustainability and Chris Britton was formerly Principal Lecturer in the Leicester Business School, De Montfort University, Leicester, UK.

Prominent economists present the pros and cons of government's subsidizing or protecting firms that are “national champions.”Governments around the world are deeply divided about the proper role of industrial policy, with some politicians arguing for hands-off governance and others supporting government intervention to promote “national champions”—firms that receive government support for both political and economic reasons. In this volume, prominent economists present the pros and cons of government support for national champions. The contributors use the rigor of economic models in their studies, offering a quantitative perspective that complements and extends existing qualitative studies, and focus on issues emerging from the European Union's substantial degree of market integration.Many arguments in favor of champions-promoting policies are made in a dynamic context, so the book first presents chapters that take a dynamic economy view, then presents chapters that examine the political economy of the decision process, and finally, offers “classical” static equilibrium arguments. The richness of the different models provides a deeper understanding of industrial policy than could any model alone. What becomes clear from these different perspectives nevertheless is that it is difficult to make a general case in favor of policies promoting national champions on purely economic grounds and that these policies are best understood in political terms.

Business, Government, and EU Accession is a detailed study of how EU accession impacts the relationship between business and government in the acceding country. Iankova identifies three major mechanisms by which the EU has affected business-government interactions: first, the legal conditionalities and harmonization efforts for EU entry; second, the pre-accession and anticipated postaccession financial assistance with its specific priorities and requirements; and third, the capacity building and learning that arises from efforts to adapt to the EU conditionalities of membership. Through addressing the question of EU influence on in-country institutional relationships, Iankova is able to highlight patterns of Europeanization that develop in those relationships a result of the adaptational pressures of EU accession, and to trace the effectiveness of these adaptive relationship in facilitating the preparedness of an EU-acceding country for EU entry Using Bulgaria as a case study, she examines the mechanisms of these interactions and interrogates the effectiveness of existing models in facilitating national goals of EU accession, revealing difficulties with and resistances to applying an EU-designed model of institutional change in postcommunist regions.

The delegation of policy-competencies to the European Union has changed the context in which national actors form their interests and represent them. Shaping European markets and societies, EU regulation has important effects in the member states. This book analyses how business interest organizations respond to this challenge and what strategies they develop to cope with European integration. Starting from the idea that institutional contexts, resource dependencies, and organizational characteristics explain, to a considerable degree, how interest groups adapt to EU policy-making, this study delivers important insights into EU governance. The empirical analysis draws on a comprehensive data set of German, British, French, and EU business associations and large firms. Divided into three parts, it moves from the study of domestic contexts to the analysis of multilevel-governance in the EU before finally scrutinizing in greater detail the factors that shape the access of interest groups to the EU institutions. Making an important contribution to the development of institutional and organizational accounts of interest groups in the EU, this book will be of interest to political scientists, economists, and sociologists working in the areas of European integration, comparative European politics, political economy, interest groups and civil society.

Competition Policy in the European Union provides a comprehensive introduction to the European Union's policies on restrictive practices, mergers monopolies and state aid. The authors offer a wide ranging analysis of the evolution, operation and regulation of one of the EU's most important policies in a clear and accessible format.

Competition policy is an integral and prominent part of economic policy-making in the European Union. The EU Treaty prescribes its member states to conduct economic policy ‘in accordance with the principle of an open market economy with free competition'. More precisely, the goal of EU competition policy is “to defend and develop effective competition in the common market” (European Commission, 2000: 7). Under its Commissioners van Miert, Monti and, most - cently, Kroes the EU Commission has stepped up its effort to pursue and achieve the aforementioned goal. A number of so-called hard-core cartels, such as the - torious “vitamin cartel” led by Roche, have been detected, tried in violation of Art. 81 of the Maastricht Accord and punished with severe fines. Also Microsoft was hit hard by the strong hand of the Commission having been severely fined for - ploiting a dominant market position. Economic analysis has been playing an increasingly significant role in the Commission's examination of competition law cases. This holds true in particular for merger control. Here, however, the Commission has had to accept some poi- ant defeats in court, such as the Court's reversals of Airtours-First Choice or GE- Honeywell. Among other things, the European Court of Justice found the e- nomic analysis as conducted by the EU's Directorate General for Competition to be flawed and the conclusions drawn not to be convincing. These rejections by the courts have stirred up the scholarly debate on the conceptual foundations of Eu- pean competition policy.

Europeanization has often been conceived as a top-down process, necessitating implementation and adjustment at the national level. However, Europeanization can also be conditioned by bottom-up national initiatives. While recent endeavors in comparative political economy have emphasized the resilience of coordinated market economies, few detailed empirical studies have examined to date exactly how different European systems of political-economic governance cope with and respond to an European impetus for liberalization. This original study of the impact of the EU-induced liberalization of service provision on member states argues that innovative national re-regulatory strategies may be implemented in response to Europeanization. In permitting any company registered in an EU member state to provide services throughout Europe, new possibilities were created for the transnational posting of workers from low-wage to high-wage countries. However, high-wage countries could re-regulate the wage levels applicable to such employees. The exact nature of such response strategy is coloured by the respective institutional power that labour market interest associations like trade unions and employer associations command. Therefore, different institutionalised varieties of capitalism generate distinct re-regulations of the Single European Market. Drawing on detailed case studies of ten European countries, this volume bridges the gap between the rapidly unfolding scholarly debate on Europeanization and varieties of capitalism. It argues that both strongly neocorporatist systems of political-economic governance and statist systems are capable of creating swift, comprehensive and thorough national re-regulations. This applies to Austria and France, but also Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Belgium, and Luxembourg. By contrast, countries with less strongly embedded neocorporatist structures, in which due to organizational deficiencies trade unions face difficulties blocking employer demands, create liberal response strategies, permitting a stratification of wage levels. Hence, both Germany and the Netherlands implemented liberal business-friendly re-regulations. The volume makes the case for important amendments to existing accounts of Europeanization and varieties of capitalism. Scholars of Europeanization need to incorporate bottom-up re-regulation into their conceptual framework, particularly in response to'negative integration'. Recent strides in comparative political economy have placed great emphasis on continued divergence, yet this study suggests that even within the presumably unified group of'non-liberal'coordinated market economies important institutional differences produce very distinct responses in the face of European liberalization.

The channels and mechanisms of knowledge flows define the links that make up production and innovation systems. As such, they relate directly or indirectly to all policies that affect such systems. Knowledge flows are also directly related to intellectual property protection policies and competition policies that create the infrastructure supporting various forms of formal interaction among economic agents in production and innovation systems. Knowledge Flows in European Industry presents the results of an extensive research programme funded by the European Commission to empirically appraise the dissemination of knowledge relevant to the innovative activities of European manufacturing and service sectors. It explores the extent, density, and mechanism of innovation-related knowledge flows affecting the innovative capacity of European industry and the mechanisms that support such flows, as well as examining incentives to access and transmit results and the determinants of knowledge transmission. Featuring contributions from leading international scholars including Anthony Arundel and Bent Dalum, this interdisciplinary volume focuses on questions of interest to regional, national, and pan-European science, technology and innovation policy, and will be an important read for those involved in business and management as well as those in the field of economics.

This textbook examines the increasing impact of the European Union on the European business environment, addressing the core challenges facing enterprises in the formative years of the new millennium.

Drawing on detailed case studies of ten European countries, this volume argues that both strongly neocorporatist systems of political-economic governance and statist systems are capable of creating swift, comprehensive and thorough national re-regulations. This applies to Austria and France, but also Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Belgium, and Luxembourg. By contrast, countries with less strongly embedded neocorporatist structures, in which due to organizational deficiencies trade unions face difficulties blocking employer demands, create liberal response strategies, permitting a stratification of wage levels. Hence, both Germany and the Netherlands implemented liberal business-friendly re-regulations.

The Enlargement of the European Union: A Guide for the Entrepreneur is a practical reference book for business and financial investors looking at changes and opportunities arising from the expansion of Europe. It provides coverage of all the important issues for business and financial communities, setting out a framework for senior management to checklist their own situations and take advantage of a market that contains 450 million customers.

The latest wave of European Union expansion has brought many central and Eastern European countries into the fold. Unlike previous enlargements however, the latest new members are also undergoing radical economic reform as they reintegrate into international economy.This book reviews the changing industrial architecture of the new wider Europe from

Corporate moves towards focused production and outsourcing, governmental reforms involving privatization and deregulation and the globalization of trade and investments promise large efficiency gains. However, the necessary coordination mechanisms call for regulatory approval and policy guidelines to safeguard these undertakings against abuse, whic

Although the implications of EU membership have been the subject of intense political debate and academic enquiry throughout the member states, the actual impact of EU action on those states remains under-researched. The lack of empirical investigation has meant that it has not been possible to arrive at any informed judgement about how the EU has affected traditional policy making in the member states or to evaluate competing claims. The European Union and National Industrial Policy investigates the extent to which action at the EU level in a range of industrial, financial and service sectors has affected the substance of national policy and the behaiviour of, and relationships between, national actors. It looks at the policies pursued by the four larger member states in these areas, discussing the initiatives launched by the EU and assessing the Union's impact on national policy, compared with other internal and external factors. The European Union and National Industrial Policy offers a unique investigation of the relationship between the Union and member states that is empirically-based and theoretically reflective. In an attempt to overcome the boundaries that have traditionally seperated international relations, political science, public policy and other social sciences, it uses insights from a number of perspectives to assess the impact of the EU on the ability of member states to chose and implement their goals.

This volume examines what industrial policies are, and what role they play in the context of European integration. It provides a clear analysis of the process of integration from the Treaty of Rome to the Maastricht Treaty and beyond. Key issues covered include: • the theory of economic integration • policies to create a single market • the role of European Community institutions • policies to guarantee and promote market competition • policies of industrial development and innovationIndustrial Policies of Economic Integration develops a new range of policies, aimed at allowing a new common market to enter the global marketplace effectively.This volume will be essential reading for students of European economics and policy makers interested in economic integration.

This book deals with competition policy from the standpoint of a business executive. It enables a busy reader to go straight to the business practice with which he is concerned and from there to a summary of the authorities'treatment of that practice. At the same time, it provides the reader who wishes to add an appreciation of anti-trust compliance to his professional portfolio with a comprehensive overview of the subject, together with a guide to useful sources of further information.