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The international globalization of the World markets for manufactured goods, particularly consumer goods, has placed an emphasis on nations to improve manufacturing productivity. This need to improve productivity is further prompted by a potential loss of competitive edge in the global marketplace. The market competitiveness and e$ciency of any nation is primarily dependent upon the economy, reliability, quality, quickness, and ease of its manufacturing processes and the resulting quality of outcomes (products). To a major extent, the skills of the workforce determine the e!ectiveness and the e$ciency of the process of manufacturing and the quality of goods produced. And yet, there is a severe lack of standardized and consistent worker training programs for skills needed by workers in modern manufacturing organizations. This review paper shows that there is a dire need to train workers in manufacturing organizations and thereby improve the overall e!ectiveness and e$ciency of such organizations. Relevance to industry As technology changes, so do the skills workers need. In order to compete successfully in the global market, manufacturing organizations must aim at training workers in skills necessary to produce quality goods. ( 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Modern globalization leads companies into a changing environment with a highly uncertain future development of key drivers of change. Especially, global production networks are affected by uncertainty and dynamic changes. Reactiveness becomes of crucial importance, as the adaptation to environmental conditions is the key to maintain competitive advantages. This article presents an approach for flexible migration planning in global production networks. The focus is on the formulation of a Markovian Decision Process (MDP) that enables the identification of optimal reactions to stochastic changes of key drivers of change. The formulation includes the description of a multi-level modelling approach for global production networks. Furthermore the valuation model of the reward function of the MDP is discussed in detail. Finally, the paper provides a brief description of exemplary optimization results solving the MDP by backward induction.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been an increasingly important issue for private and non-government businesses to consider when investing in countries. The paper specifically addresses transnational corporations and how they can negatively affect the development of countries when socially irresponsible and notes the increasing consumer awareness of corporate irresponsibility. It argues that better relationships between governments and corporations need to be established to reduce low living standards, exploitation, poverty, and unemployment, which would contribute to overall sustainable development. The paper recommends having CSR indicators for measurement, addresses why CSR should matter to business corporations, and gives insight into how the ILO can act and relate to CSR. This paper was written as an insight into the work of the World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization 2004 that aims to provide a fairer globalization for all.

In a globalized marketplace, with dwindling transport costs and rising global sourcing, the volume of international trade has grown dramatically. Containerization has increasingly facilitated the transportation of goods. The annual growth rate of global container traffic has been around 10% in the last three decades. Operating in a global business environment, global manufacturers search for cheap manufacturing and assembling locations all over the world. The global production creates demand for container transport. For the container transport operator, delivering superior service value and strengthening ongoing relationships with customers and business partners are important goals to pursue. Container transport operators need to respond to evolving market changes in a timely manner. In the transportation economics’ literature, there has been growing interest over the last decade in exploring container transport operations. Since the introduction of container ships, container shipping has gone through successive high growth phases, almost independent of the development of the world economy. Due to globalization, all regions are competing in the global market. To meet market needs, there has been rationalization among container shipping firms in the form of alliances with the aim of enhancing their strengths in themarket in the hope of maximizing market share and minimizing running costs. On the other hand, globalization has resulted in increasingly large-scale operations and larger vessels needing more cargo to fill them. Furthermore, containerization contributes to the development of intermodal transport to combine the accessibility of inland transport modes with the economic line-haul capability of ocean shipping, leading to immense changes in the operation of global shipping operations. This volume of Research in Transportation Economics is devoted to publishing the latest and significant results of empirical research relating to operations management in the context of container transport. Papers are focused to address the following issues

Using a large panel for 95 countries and the 1972–2014 period, this paper analyses the interactions among globalization, political & civil rights and economic convergence, through a simultaneous estimation technique. We use a multi-dimensional, de facto, and continuous measures of Freedoms and Globalization. We find a two-way positive relationship between civil liberties & political rights and economic, political and social Globalization, as well as significant two-way relationships with the economic convergence (using as a proxy the ratio of GDP per capita to the US). In this way, we extend the test for the two-way relationship between Democracy and Globalization put forward by Eichengreen and Leblang (Econ Politics 20(3):289–334, 2008). Overall, we also find a virtuous cycle between Globalization, Freedoms and Economic convergence, except for non-OECD countries at early intermediate stages of development. This positive systemic effect can be put into question by the recent negative shocks on Globalization and Freedoms related to the Covid-19 pandemic.

I revisit the 1918–20 pandemic and ask whether it led to a reversal in the rise of trade and financial globalization that preceded it. Using annual data for 17 countries for the 1870–1928 period, a variety of tests and techniques are used to draw some robust conclusions. Overall, the pandemic a century ago interrupted, but did not put an end, to the first globalization of the twentieth century. However, two blocs consisting of combatant and non-combatant countries, experienced significantly different consequences. Globalization was sharply curtailed for the combatant countries while there were few, if any, consequences for globalization in the non-combatant group of countries. That said, there was considerable resilience especially in trade openness among several of the combatant economies. Perhaps changes in the make-up of economic blocs, post-pandemic, is a fallout from shocks of this kind. While there are lessons for the ongoing COVID pandemics differences between the 1920s and today also play a role. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10368-021-00526-1.

Global ICT programs are defined as new and universal modes of organizing mediated by technology and enacted through a novel mix of policy instruments, international institutions, business interests, and techno/managerial concepts. Largely unexplored in the various fields studying innovation and digital technologies, such programs are of interest, not least because of their projected ability to promote innovation and help achieve new mechanisms of governance at local, national, and global scale. Based on relevant information systems research, this paper argues that we need a new theoretical understanding for the study of such programs and in order to explore their potential as a means of technology transfer and innovation in the developed and developing world.

Tourism is an important business of contemporary society and is emerging as a major economic activity globally. Technological expansion and economic divergence has created tourism friendly environment in the present age of globalization. India has a great geographical, historical and cultural heritage that drives tourism in the country. Varkala cliff is popular tourist destination in Kerala where inhabitants earn a means of living by involving them in medical, pilgrim, beaches and backwater tourism. The number of tourist inflow to Varkala has increased tremendously over the period of time. This paper aims at investigating impact of tourism on local community and alternative strategies of livelihood for local community in Varkala. The aims and objectives of the research are achieved through the use of mixed a method (Qualitative and Quantitative). Semi-structured questionnaires were prepared for 100 households and detailed face to face interview were conducted with the chief informers. The correlation, regression analysis and ANOVA test was calculated to check the statistical significance between tourism and income level of local community. The major findings of the paper show that tourism is the major source of livelihood for the local communities in Varkala. While the tourism activities in the study area provides an meaningful source of livelihood but it is imperative to find the alternative strategies of producing income, due to instability and seasonality of the tourism industry. The investigation suggests managers of the study area to formulate plans, policies and strategies that will improvise the tourism industry and involving local community members in the decision making process and management of tourism activities in the study area.

Dairy farming is physically hard, with limited freedom due to twice-daily milking duties and low revenues. Moreover, globalization, deregulation and trade liberalization have significantly changed the conditions of dairy farming. How can dairy farmers in this context maintain good quality of life? What makes a life one of good quality? This paper uses a qualitative bottom-up approach to understand Swiss dairy farmers' and their families' individual criteria of quality of life, aiming to reconsider and complement the often used, standardized criteria of quality of life surveys. The analysis of the qualitative interview data reveals the importance of objective non-material as well as subjective components of quality of life. The paper shows that, contrary to what could be expected based on the farmer's ethic of being hardworking over long hours, farmers emphasize ‘time’ as an important criterion of quality of life, referring not only to leisure time, time with the family or time to lie in, but also time to think and plan. The paper further stresses the importance of eudaimonic wellbeing, which is largely missing in standardized quality of life studies on farming families and also some general quality of life concepts. In this regard, the paper highlights the lack of social recognition of farmers and the extent to which pressure and criticism from the non-farming population negatively influences farmers' quality of life. The paper concludes that to fully understand farming families' quality of life and thus the social sustainability of family farming, the subjective dimension of quality of life, especially eudaimonic wellbeing, needs to be fully incorporated in future studies, regardless of their methodological approach. Moreover, alluding to resilience research, the paper urges researchers to include ‘time to think and plan’ into future investigations, assuming that more time for self-reflection increases not only the subjective but also the objective dimension of quality of life.

This paper explores how the smart city phenomenon becomes nearly ubiquitous in countries and cities around the world. Drawing on policy mobility studies and cosmopolitisation – defined as globalization from within – it focuses on the roll-out and take-up of smart city narratives and interventions in South Africa since 2005. Based on a media analysis on national and local scales, the paper shows that the smart city effect is an entangled phenomenon. Generally speaking, it consists of a lexical glue that holds together processes of data-driven neoliberalisation of urban governance. However, at municipal level we observe more variegated effects of reverse-scale policymaking, labelling and territorialisation where the smart city appears as a more-than-mobile but also as a more-than-local urban policy.

Twenty-five years after the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) came into force, what impact has it had on the US-Mexico border environment? This paper asks what lessons NAFTA offers to contemporary debates about trade and environmental governance through analysis of time series data and expert perceptions on the environment of the US-Mexico borderlands. In the early 1990s, scholars and activists argued that NAFTA would have mostly negative impacts on the US-Mexico border, creating water scarcity and increasing air, land and water pollution; degrading ecosystems; and causing health problems. The debate over NAFTA was part of the larger discussion on the environmental impacts of trade and globalization. In response to these concerns, several governance institutions were created to monitor the environment (the Commission for Environmental Cooperation) and to certify and fund improvements to environmental infrastructure along the US-Mexico border (the Border Environment Cooperation Commission and North American Development Bank). NAFTA was recently replaced with a new trade deal (the USMCA). In this paper we review trends in environmental conditions over the past 25 years, mostly on the Mexican side of the border where greater impacts were anticipated, through datasets, institutional reports and scholarly literature. We also present and discuss the results of semi-structured interviews and surveys with 49 experts (researchers, activists, government personnel, and other border institutional actors) to understand the varied legacy of NAFTA on the border environment at 25 years. Although missing data and challenges in attribution complicated our analysis, we found both positive and negative trends in environmental indicators and the literature.

International audience; Over the last 15 years, and in a context of globalisation competence management has become an essential lever of competitiveness in companies, and an essential factor in industrial processes' performance. However, competences management requires relevant modelling of competence, given its complex nature and the evolution of the company's activities. In this paper, we propose an activity-based model of competence to represent competences mobilized during an activity. A specification of terminology is first defined around the concept of competence, and then we define its different characteristics. Finally, after a study of the main models proposed in the field of industrial engineering, we present an activity-based model of competence.

The area of ​​digital transformation in the airport operation environment represents the implementation of new technological solutions, which leads to a reduction in operating costs and maximizing the efficiency of all processes. Due to globalization, there is a growing interest in air transport, so individual airports and airlines are forced to use their capacities as much as possible, which can be significantly lightened by the use of the latest technological solutions. The most developed countries have already introduced digital innovations at their airports, and this step has proved to be extremely beneficial for all stakeholders. The aim of the paper is to point out the integration of digital technology into the field of airport transport within Slovak airports. For the efficient operation of airlines, increased competitiveness and passenger satisfaction, it will be necessary to introduce digital innovations at Slovak airports in the future. The paper focuses on the comparison of selected Slovak airports with leaders in the field of digitalization, determined on the basis of the analysis of selected digitalization indices.

This paper investigates the persistent impact of financial crises on economic growth in different regimes of globalization. Relying on a nonlinear dynamic panel representation, this paper explains why the effects of globalization on growth weave into a tale of two opposite narratives. On average, a country experiences higher growth, the more open and integrated it is into the world. However, countries can also experience persistently lower medium-term output growth after a financial crisis, once globalization reaches a certain threshold. The benefits, as well as vulnerabilities, accrue earlier in the globalization process for low-income countries. © 2019 CEPII (Centre d'Etudes Prospectives et d'Informations Internationales), a center for research and expertise on the world economy

Advance Teaching pedagogy is one of the innovative approaches to enhance teaching learning process. Due to the development of new technologies and development of many globalization, teaching learning process plays a vital role among students where the education has been expanded to macro level. Hybrid teaching includes e learning in addition to the face to face teaching. In this paper, various innovative learning strategies for modern technology are discussed in details. Use of smart gadgets for different tasks like teaching, designing question papers, assessment of student, feedback and research methodology are discussed.

In this paper, we review applications of dynamic optimization for design, control, and operation. This paper presents a review of approaches toward the analysis of the interaction between design and dynamic performance, focusing in particular on dynamic optimization as an overarching framework. In addition to operation around a steady-state point, we consider two additional classes of application: intentionally dynamic, and intrinsically dynamic processes. The intentionally dynamic processes exploit transition dynamics in response to variation brought about by trends of increased globalization, market volatility, and fluctuations in electricity prices. The second category, intrinsically dynamic processes, does not allow design based on steady-state mass and energy balances, but the intra-cycle and inter-cycle dynamics should be taken into account when optimizing the design, control, and operation. Our study includes a description and discussion of advances in these areas.

In many countries, national governments deploy city-regionalism not simply as a domestic policy tool but also as a geopolitical device enabling the internationalization of state territory and economy. Focusing upon the evolution of Yangtze River Delta (YRD) region in China, this paper offers new insights into the close associations between Chinese city-regionalism and the geopolitical orchestration of national development. Rather than conceived as an inevitable outcome of contemporary globalization processes, the development of YRD region is instead examined against the changing geopolitical dynamics and national objectives of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1949 to the present day. In the early phase of CCP rule, the development of regional urban centres, such as Shanghai in YRD region, was an instrument of national territorial integration and class unity. Following economic reforms in the 1980s, the formal designation of YRD as a city-region reflected the Chinese state's aspiration for accelerated economic growth and the internationalization of the domestic economy. Now confronted with widening regional inequalities, the Chinese state has greatly expanded YRD region to incorporate peripheral cities and provinces for the sake of regionally coordinated development. Even as YRD transforms into a global city-region, Shanghai seemingly separates itself functionally and discursively from the rest of the region. In departing from contemporary post-Westphalian or hyper-globalist perspectives on the rise of global city-regions in a stateless world, the paper provides a new interpretation of Chinese city-regionalism as a case of countervailing geopolitical processes at work within and beyond national state borders.

With globalization, logistics has assumed a key role in the planning, organizing and controlling of movement of products around the world. This has caused significant impacts on sustainability, especially with operations involving road freight transport. In order to measure the real impacts of this activity and make decisions aligned with sustainability, logistics planners must use methods that consider the economic, environmental and social dimensions. Existing methods for assessing the impacts do not consider these dimensions together, which precludes a complete view of the effects of road freight transport on sustainability. The objective of this paper is to propose a method for assessing the impacts of road freight transport on all three dimensions of sustainability. For this purpose, the main quantitative indicators were identified, a scale was established to classify the impact intensity and the form of the results presentation was defined. Finally, a case study was carried out in a large Brazilian sugar-energy company to verify the method’s applicability. The results showed that the evaluated truck fleets had significant impacts on all dimensions. The proposed method allows companies to have an overall vision of the impacts on sustainability, enabling the identification of impacts with higher intensity and consequently contributing to decision-making processes to mitigate them. This paper also advances sustainable logistics theory by encouraging the development of new research involving logistics and the three dimensions of sustainability.

Under the influence of the idea of globalization and modernism planning, in the process of urban development, inefficient use of land, supremacy of functionalism and traffic congestion have become important problems in Chinese cities because of the expansion of land scale, the transformation of urban functions and the leading of maneuverable traffic. As the component unit of the city, urban block is also faced with the problems of unordered environment and the loss of culture. To realize the comprehensive and sustainable development of economy, society and ecological environment in the city, it is of great significance to study the corresponding urban block patterns suitable for the city. This paper starts from the perspective of local culture and conducts in-depth discussion on the internal causes of the current problems of urban blocks in China. On this basis, the paper puts forward the countermeasures of the sustainability of urban block patterns from three aspects of society, technology and management and attempts to explore the construction path of sustainable development for urban blocks in the future.

Globalization introduces incertitude for the future of companies. They could disappear more quickly for economic reasons or increase exponentially their position on the market (profit, turnover). Indeed, Logistics and task force costs are important for implementing a new factory in a country. Then, the concurrence is unequal for European and developed countries. Industry of the future appears in this context as a new method based on new technologies deployment (and organization) for improving company performance. Many concepts are being developed in the frame of “factory of the future”. Most of them, insist only on new technology integration everywhere in manufacturing processes or on company supply chains. Thus, industrial problems could be solved very quickly by using machines, robots, cobots, RFID, but also internet of thing (IoT), decision aided tools, etc. Some of them integrate social aspects in their framework. But, none of them are based on sustainability in future changes. The main objective of this new framework is to put this sustainability as the kernel of future company evolutions in the frame of ‘Industry 4.0’. This paper will focus on concepts of this new factory framework for defining changes and steps in the frame of factory of the future. Based on sustainability (social, societal and environmental dimensions), and in addition to new technologies and organization, flexibility in company position would be added as one of main development factors. After presenting concepts and formalisms of this new framework and how they could be used on a company, a detailed illustration example will be shown for validating concepts elaborated. In this paper, artificial intelligence (machine learning, expert systems, multi-agent systems) will also be used for defining the structure of a decision aided tool in order to optimize company dispatching flows.

As the world is smoothing the transition towards a low-carbon energy structure, natural gas has occupied a critical position in global energy supply. Also, globalization has catalyzed ever-increasing indirect energy flows in international trade. In order to present a comprehensive overview of natural gas use in globalized economy, this paper applies the systems multi-regional input-output (MRIO) analysis to track natural gas use from primary suppliers to final consumers via the links by producers in the world economy, supported by typical statistics for the year of 2011. Natural gas embodied in international trade is revealed amounting to 2722.1 bcm, in magnitude up to 90% of total gas extraction for energy use, indicating the intensive relocation of gas use by trade. 83% of traded embodied natural gas is associated with intermediate trade, mainly from leading primary suppliers, including Russia, USA and Western Asia, to dominant final consumers, like USA, EU27 and East Asia. Significant differences are found between direct and embodied natural gas flows. Consumption-based resource efficiency can break the illusion of efficiency improvements, and trade imbalance in terms of gas use can be opposite to the trade imbalance in conventional monetary terms. This paper has constructed a comprehensive analytical framework to trace natural gas flows in globalized economy for the first time, aiming to provide new insights for policy making.

Globalization increasingly brings businesses and legal providers together. With the help of lawyers, savvy businesspeople can complete complicated international transactions or create multinational networks of related corporations. This isolates risk, facilitates local business transactions, and carefully tailors localized ownership structures. However, these globalization activities can also facilitate activities such as international jurisdiction shopping, tax evasion, money laundering, and even terrorist financing. The resultant challenges undermine the ability of all parties to both compete and pursue ethical behavior across national markets. This article develops a framework for analyzing international business and legal ethics. Specifically, we focus on four key topics: (1) how globalization impacts both business and legal ethics; (2) the special role played by national interests in shaping the applicable ethics and legal standards; (3) a framework to explain how the configuration of international business networks and related legal services can have dramatic ethical implications; and (4) applicable issues identified in the Panama Papers and the Paradise Papers.

The intensification of global mobility has introduced international migration to rural areas and small towns with little or no significant recent history of immigration. Drawing on an emergent literature in rural studies, this paper seeks to consolidate the concept of ‘rural cosmopolitanism’ both as a political or ethical project, and in relation to the ‘actual-existing cosmopolitanism’ of inter-cultural mobility, conviviality and openness to difference in rural communities. The framework is then tested through case studies of two rural small towns in Ireland – Gort, which was home to over 1000 Brazilian migrants in a population of less than 3000 in the late 2000s; and Ballyhaunis, Ireland's most diverse town with 42 different nationalities in a population of around 2300 – to examine the dynamics and relationships that have brought migrants to these towns and shaped their engagement with long-term residents. The paper contends that the emergent cosmopolitanism in the towns is defined by precarity, experienced at different scales from the individual to the community, and informed by broader economic and political trends. The paper argues that the rural context of the towns can serve both to facilitate cosmopolitan relations and to extenuate the precarity of this emerging cosmopolitanism.

The remarkable growth of new towns in China in the past two decades has amazed the world. How shall we make sense of these mushrooming megaprojects, which profoundly reshape the social and economic landscape not only within China but also globally? Successive reports of epic failures – with many projects evolving into ghost towns – further obscure the picture. Existing literature has been useful in highlighting the political-economic logic behind China’s new town frenzy, attributing the latter to China’s marketization, decentralization, and globalization. These accounts, however, focus mostly on the recent past. Lacking a truly longitudinal approach, they tend to lose sight of the underlying links between the socialist past and the postsocialist present. This paper offers a relatively holistic historical review of China’s three new town movements since 1949. While problematizing these historical processes, the paper draws insights from the theory of new state spaces, viewing new town development as a distinctive spatial strategy and project of the state to facilitate accumulation, social regulation, and state-building during specific historical periods. Based on such theoretical constructs, the paper reveals the historical trajectory and patterns of China’s new town movements in the past seven decades.

This paper discusses epistemic aspects of populism – especially its link with radical uncertainty and the tribal construction of facts – that have so far received relatively little attention. We argue that populism is less a backward-looking phenomenon feeding off existing grievances than a narrative-based reaction to an increasingly unsettled future. Many economic factors isolated as causes of populism – especially rapid technological innovation, deregulation, and the globalisation of networks – entail a high degree of indeterminacy in social systems; and the corresponding uncertainty facing voters is a catalyst for many of the pathologies of populism isolated in the literature. In particular, uncertainty undermines the credibility of experts, while the disorientation and anxiety it induces increase reliance on simple narratives to structure expectations. The paper explores the role of narrative entrepreneurs, the relationship between narratives and power, and the dynamics of narrative coups designed to create alternative facts and perform a new reality.

The globalization of COVID-19 pandemic and its economic impacts is set to run havoc across all economies in the world, throwing many into recession and possibly economic depression. As the numbers of infected and death cases rise sharply and recovery from the pandemic remains uncertain even in developed countries, evidence of shocks across economies including China, the Europe, and the US are already emerging. The aim of this paper is to provide an overall understanding of the likely macroeconomic shocks of the pandemic, covering economic activities or areas including demand, supply, supply chain, trade, investment, price level, exchange rates, and financial stability and risk, economic growth, and international cooperation. The paper first presents a general and theoretical mapping of the likely macroeconomic impacts of the pandemic on an affected economy and then reviews the emerging evidence in relation to the impact mapping to understand the nature of the impacts. The paper then illustrates the likely impacts using a standard macroeconomic AD-AS model and outlines some necessary features that needs to be considered while designing policy responses by governments and international institutions in mitigating the economic shocks. Assessments of this paper are broadly in line with the limited studies available on the economics of COVID-19.

The rise of an extreme movement, which has consistently produced violence and hatred in Kosovar society for more than fifteen years, undoubtedly increases the curiosity of any researcher of social problems to deal with the study of this issue. Of course, the study of social problems is extremely complex, especially in this time of globalization and extraordinary social mobility, therefore, each time, the opportunities for debate remained open. The paper addresses a very problematic topic, but that belongs to the social topicality, and not only in Kosovar society as one of the societies in transition, but also quite prominent in the most developed countries, and with a long democratic tradition. It should be noted that Kosovo is not only going through an economic transition, but more than that, the political and cultural transition has taken a special place. It should be noted that society's approach to the state and politics is crucial and has a tremendous impact on the process of economic transition. The paper deals precisely with the tools and methods that Kosovar political parties have used and are using to seize power, where the focus is on populism and the spirit of hatred created during the two decades after the war in Kosovo.

The rapidly expanding corona pandemic in 2020 has largely brought the world to an economic stagnation. The impact on the environment, especially on air quality, from almost suspended air traffic, idle industry and economic lockdown is enormous, but also the economic and social consequences of the crisis. This state of stagnation hardly appears to be economically and socially sustainable. However, we should ask ourselves right now what we can learn from the situation in order to question globalization, better intercept future comparable crisis situations and take the step towards more sustainable development on an ecological, economic and social basis. The paper identifies the areas of externality management to improve environmental quality, digitalization and network expansion as well as basic income as central concepts that need to be addressed in and after the crisis. Concrete concepts are suggested and discussed at the end of the paper.

The globalization of COVID-19 pandemic is en route to produce a chain of economic impacts worldwide through distortions in global trade and supply chain. The globalization of production and trade shocks in relation to China generate substantial threat to world trade. The aim of this paper is to provide a preliminary and broad-based understanding of likely trade implications of the pandemic. Beginning with an assessment on likely implications for trade between China and the rest of the world, the paper uses a standard trade analysis framework to explain the implications for world trade. The paper then presents a theoretical mapping that shows likely progression and span of trade implications and reviews emerging evidence to identify if real-life outcomes follow the map. The paper concludes that the pandemic is likely to not only introduce new patterns of world trade but also affect trade relations and globalization, making some economies winners and some losers. Given the scarcity of scholarly work on COVID-19’s trade implications, the paper contributes by offering a novel broad-based understanding, which could serve as a basis for advanced analysis. Assessments of the paper could help policy-makers in preparing for a new world order of international trade.

This paper addresses the question why socio-technical transitions follow similar trajectories in various parts of the world, even though the relevant material preconditions and institutional contexts vary greatly between different countries. It takes a critical stance on the implicit methodological nationalism in transition studies’ socio-technical regime concept and proposes an alternative ‘global’ regime perspective that embraces the increasingly multi-scalar actor networks and institutional rationalities which influence transition dynamics beyond national or regional borders. By drawing on globalization theories from sociology and human geography we show that socio-technical systems often develop institutional rationalities that are diffused via international networks and thus become influential in various places around the world. In so doing, we shed light on the multi-scalar interrelatedness of institutional structures and actors in socio-technical systems and elaborate on the implications for the conceptualization of transition dynamics. The paper illustrates this with the case study of an unsuccessful transition in the Chinese water sector. Recent studies indicate that key decisions on wastewater infrastructure build-up were not only influenced by path-dependencies stemming from China’s national context, but equally (or even more critically) by an import of the dominant rationality of the water sector’s global socio-technical regime. We conclude by discussing the contours of a new research agenda around the notion of global socio-technical regimes.

The growth of the knowledge economy has led to new forms of business networks linking cities and towns across different spatial scales. Various attempts have been made to analyse these networks empirically using the interlocking network model of the Globalization and World Cities (GaWC) research network. Two approaches can be distinguished from a spatial perspective: a global ‘top-down’ approach that studies the world city network from the perspective of the largest advanced producer service firms, and a macro-regional ‘bottom-up’ approach that starts with the most important knowledge-intensive firms located within specific territorial boundaries. This paper compares and critically assesses the methodological implications and empirical outcomes of both approaches with reference to case studies of the German space economy. Both approaches pursue similar objectives: to investigate external relations of cities, both transnationally and on the national scale. Differences exist in the theoretical argumentation: the top-down approach is grounded in world city research; the bottom-up approach is anchored in debates in regional science and economic geography. In this paper, we argue for the need of scale-sensitive interpretations of connectivity patterns resulting from different approaches to the interlocking network model and conclude with some tentative recommendations for the methodological direction of future research in world city network studies.

The growth of manufacturing small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) is vital as they have a significant amount of share in total manufacturing output. In this era of globalization, SMEs are compelled to ensure sustainable profitability through cost savings, while being environmentally conscious at the same time. It has been reported in the prior investigations that lean and green practices can achieve excellent results if they are implemented simultaneously. Hence, SMEs need to adopt integrated lean and green manufacturing as this can address economic and environmental concerns together. The drivers for implementation of integrated lean and green manufacturing in SMEs have not been thoroughly explored in the past studies. This sets the motivation for the present research. Thus, in this paper drivers for integrated lean and green manufacturing are identified from the combined support of existing literature and experts' opinions in the relevant field. The drivers are ranked using multi-criteria decision making methods such as technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) and simple additive weighting (SAW) in fuzzy environment using environmental, social and economic perspectives, however, consolidated ranking is obtained by borda method. The results reveal that top management commitment, technology up-gradation, current legislation, green brand image and future legislation are five most important drivers for the implementation of integrated lean and green manufacturing in Indian manufacturing SMEs. The research counters the uncertainties in importance of criteria weights using sensitivity analysis which determines the influence of criteria weights on the prioritization. Finally, the paper concludes with some managerial implications which will help the policy makers in government and industry to focus on few important drivers to facilitate the integrated lean and green manufacturing implementation in SMEs with limited resources.

Risk management has become a critical issue as a result of globalisation and the continued quest for greater returns. Construction organisations most especially in developing countries, approach risk management in building construction projects by using a set of practices that are normally insufficient, produce poor results often, and turn profitable building construction projects into loosing ventures. An integrated risk management approach allows construction organisations to consistently deliver superior performance while proactively managing risk. To address this gap, this paper offers a consolidated risk management system for building projects and provides project managers with guidelines for its proper implementation. In addition to helping project managers in improving risk management capability in building projects, the guideline profiled in this paper may also be of use to practitioners in other project risk management settings.

Cities are human creations where many of the emissions causing climate change originate. Every aspect of daily life in cities, which spans buildings, transit, food, energy, and water, relies on fossil fuels that materially contribute to climate change. This paper explores the need for research to better uncover the processes driving urbanization in order to develop novel ways to mitigate climate impacts on Earth. Areas of fruitful research include better quantification of teleconnections between cities and their hinterlands and coupling those to the socio-economic drivers and organization of those relationships; the financialization of much urban policy; understanding where cities fit in the global economic order and their role in generating economic growth, and the ways in which they are also seen as leaders of sustainability and climate actions, but constrained in so-doing by the nested and tiered layers of institutions they operate within. This paper concludes by outlining ways for cities to transition toward nurturing human well-being and reducing their impacts on planetary processes resulting in the proposed new Earth epoch – the Anthropocene.

Recent international climate agreements ask for an acceleration of innovation in climate change mitigation technologies (CCMTs). To design and plan efficient and effective actions, evidence is needed on what has been achieved up to now in terms of technological development. This paper provides an objective and evidence-based overview of the status of global inventiveness in CCMTs. Thanks to a detailed methodological approach, able to capture and exploit the information potential of patent data, this paper proposes a comprehensive analysis to evaluate the global inventive activity. Several indicators are defined and used to measure trajectories of technology development, globalisation of inventions, and networks of collaborations. The study focuses on four major international economies: Europe, China, Japan and USA. Findings show that these major economies have substantially advanced their inventive activity, but continuous and common effort is needed to combat climate change. In particular, the emergence of China as a major economy has been very relevant, since it has opened important market opportunities for incumbent players, but has also introduced competitive restrictions. The degree of internationalisation of CCMT-related activity has increased, as well as the number of collaborations among countries. The comparative analysis of two renewable technologies, solar PV and wind, shows that international inventiveness is technology-dependent and reflects country specialisation. Based on this evidence, international climate agreements need to be further supported to foster clean energy innovation, thereby shaping international collaboration and boosting positive competition.

Climate change is the most threating environmental issue and the biggest challenge that humanity has ever faced. While acting as the key nodes of globalisation and international business, seaports are exposed to the vulnerability of climate impacts, mainly because of their locations, including low-lying areas, coastal zones, and deltas. The paper is to develop a Climate Change Risk Indicator (CCRI) framework for climate risk assessment of seaports, enabling research-informed policymaking on such a demanding topic. Due to the increasing number of extreme weather events (EWEs), climate change adaptation is becoming an essential and necessary issue to be addressed by seaport stakeholders. Climate risk analysis aids rational adaptation planning. Many climate assessments have been done for measuring climate vulnerabilities, and various climate adaptation measures have been proposed for reducing climate risks. However, few of them used quantitative approaches for climate risk evaluations in seaports and fewer on the provisions of CCRIs for comparing climate risks of different locations and timeframes to guide rational policy making. Furthermore , climate change is a dynamic issue, requiring big objective data to support the analysis (e.g. monthly climate data on CCRIs) of climate threats and vulnerabilities. In this paper, Evidence Reasoning (ER) is employed to evaluate the climate risks in seaports by tackling the incomplete data. The findings reveal the quantitative measures of climate change risks in different locations and in different months. Furthermore, the risk levels of seaports in the future are assessed for observing the changes and informing policy making. The main contributions of this study include the visualisation of the comprehensive climate risk levels and provision of a new climate risk analysis framework through the comparison of climate change risks with respect to different locations and timeframes. Suitable climate adaptation measures can be chosen to implement, and seaports can cooperate on climate resilience issues (e.g. seaport network service and pre-disaster relief logistics).

Globalization and greening are two major trends manufacturing. Each trend has increased organizational and supply chain risk and uncertainty. Advanced manufacturing technology (AMT) are resources that can competitively aid modern industry in this volatile and complex environment. Thus, the evaluation, selection and implementation of more environmentally conscious AMT is important for meeting global requirements, especially with respect to environmental sustainability. Although a wide variety of methods to support AMT selection and evaluation processes exist, important aspects including green flexibility performance and psychological characteristics of decision makers under risk and uncertainty are missing. This paper presents a novel method for general investment appraisal of AMT, but especially introducing the context of green flexibility within manufacturing organizations. This paper aims to (1) develop effective green flexibility measures for manufacturing firms, incorporating various economic and environmental flexibility types, (2) introduce a hybrid possibility multiple criteria decision model for AMT evaluation and ranking integrating neighborhood rough set theory and cumulative prospect theory based on the three-parameter interval grey number, and (3) investigate the application of the proposed method in an illustrative case example to help manufacturing practitioner and researchers understand how to investigate various AMTs in this decision environment. Various advantages and disadvantages of the methodology are introduced. The results are evaluated with theoretical, methodological and managerial implications identified. This paper sets the foundation for significant future research in green manufacturing flexibility in an AMT environment.

In globalization era, many people interested to learn Chinese language. It caused by potential of China’s economic growth in the world. Chinese language has introduced to children in early age in Indonesia. But sometimes learn Chinese language was difficult to them, which will make them feel boring. This paper has purpose to help children learn Chinese language using gamification and mnemonic method into game content. Briefly, gamification is process that adopt game elements to apply into non-game context and mnemonic is strategy to increase memory with various ways. Both in gamification and mnemonic method have applied in previous paper which the conclusion showed positive result in learning environment. This game refers to primary school, which students in 6-12 years old. The conclusion in this paper show that the developed game by authors can interest children to learn Chinese language based by pre-test and post-test result.

In the growing trend of globalization, the logistics and transportation play the key role in many industries. Products are shipped from one country to another. The heart of this transportation is the port, where large quantities of goods are imported and exported on daily bases. Applying Internet of Things (IoT) technologies to port warehouses is the main area of this work. Centralized warehouse management systems are prone to a single point of failure problem and are not fault tolerant. They have also limited scalability. Another issue is that the port warehouses may run by different companies and the privacy of the detailed product information must be preserved. In this paper, we design an IoT based architecture for warehouse management, according to the facts gathered from the Khorramshahr port. The main issues that this paper tries to address are: scalability, fault tolerance, and privacy. The devised architecture is named Khorramshahr (named after the name of the port). The tailored version of Chord architecture is exploited for a Distributed Hash Table (DHT), which inherits the required scalability and fault tolerance. According to the devised architecture, each company can solely manage its dedicated nodes and preserve the privacy. To boost the lookup process the design is enhanced by Bloom filter and Quotient filter. Moreover, to gain performance the architecture uses a hybrid approach, which combines both the client server and the peer to peer paradigms. To evaluate the performance, the DHT of the architecture is simulated by OMNet++ and OverSim. The simulation results show that by the scaling the number of terminals from 25 to 250 the access time for an item increases only 38%. Besides, the increase in the number of requests from 10,000 to 50,000 depicts 5% and 10% improvement respectively for the lookup message latency compared to the ODSA. The simulation results also exhibit lower false positive rate for the Quotient filter approach, which makes it the first implementation candidate. Only in cases with strict constraints on memory consumption the Bloom filter approach is favored.

In the last decade, the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) has grown in both popularity and influence. The ascendance of EITI is surprising because traditionally, leaders of resource-rich states prefer to tightly control their extractive industries. This paper investigates the underlying causes of EITI membership in order to understand its acceptance, even among some of the most authoritarian regimes. The paper argues that leaders of resource-rich countries use the EITI to consolidate their international prestige as eager reformers, which serves to both maintain and lure foreign investment. The cross-national and interrupted time series analyses reveal that EITI members not only have higher FDI levels compared to non-members, but these investments increase once countries join the initiative.

De-globalization, now a distinct possibility, would induce a significant qualitative shift in strategies, structures, and behaviors observable in international business (IB). Coming to terms with this qualitative shift would require IB research to develop a much deeper integration of politics, the key driver of de-globalization. To support such integration, this paper introduces two relevant theories of (de-)globalization from political science, liberalism and realism. Both predict de-globalization under current conditions but lead to different expectations about the future world economy: liberalism suggests a patchwork of economic linkages, while realism predicts the emergence of economic blocs around major countries. This paper discusses the resulting opportunities in three areas of IB research: political strategies and roles of multinational enterprises (MNEs), global value chains, and the role of the national context. For political strategies and roles, there is a need to explore how regular business activities and deliberate political agency of MNEs affect the political sustainability of globalization. For value chains, questions include their future reach and specialization, changes in organizational forms, and the impact of political considerations on location decisions. Research opportunities on national contexts relate to their ability to sustain globalization and their connection with economic and military power.

This paper argues that megaprojects are inherently tied to the logic of growth, development, urban qualitative transformation, wealth creation, competitiveness and prosperity. Megaprojects constitute the infrastructure of globalization and neoliberalism and they actively contribute to a situation of increased planetary urbanization. The causal context of megaprojects – the logic of development and competitiveness – has consequences for their planning, design and management. In order to meet the goal of contributing to urban and national growth and development, megaprojects are usually shaped as public-private institutional arrangements participated by elites and pro-growth coalitions at various spatial scales that are able to gather the necessary political support, funding and expert knowledge to implement these complex structures. The close links between megaprojects, development and competitiveness, and the increasing role of megaprojects in the configuration of megaregions worldwide, have an architectural reflection in the prominent importance of iconicity in megaproject design and construction. Thus, the paper analyzes megaprojects in a dual, interconnected way: as spatial settings and infrastructure units that obey specific planning, design and management priorities, and also as reflections or expressions – as consequences or crystallizations – of larger socio-economic forces. Megaprojects have multiplied around the world as an urban response to pressures for development, competitiveness and innovation in a context of globalization and neoliberalism.

In this paper, we investigate how corporate social responsibility (hereafter CSR) practices of domestic Croatian mid and large size firms differentiate them on foreign markets. Still, in order for export organizations to realize benefits offered by CSR, export organizations need to identify their main stakeholder groups and interests, and adequately design their CSR activities. This paper provides an overview of the main CSR activities of export organizations in foreign markets and analyses their stakeholder’s management as well as the quality of relationships with their primary and secondary stakeholders on foreign markets. Results of empirical research on a sample of 78 medium and large Croatian export companies show that these export organizations invest significant efforts in implementation of different CSR activities, and into relationships with their primary stakeholders.

The rise of global cities has raised multiple questions regarding the governance of diversity. While they are often portrayed as spaces of ungovernable global flows and as catalysts of the disappearance of national identities, this paper aims to analyse these cities’ actions and strategies to govern their cultural diversity and defend a renewed conception of the national. I combine an analysis of outward-looking strategies that promote their cultural diversity on the global cultural field, and of inward-looking strategies that attempt to project their plural identity in the urban space. I compare two cities, Doha and Singapore, which have emerged as major centres of the global economy and offer a perspective that differs from the large Western cities where the notion of global city was initially coined. The affirmation of Doha and Singapore as global cities does not go along with a process of weakening of the nation-state, but on the contrary takes part in a logic of nation building and nation branding. The paper analyses how local actors negotiate this dialectic between the global and the national. Firstly, I show that they have put transnational regional networks and identities at the centre of the promotion of these cities as cultural hub. Secondly, I show that the recognition of these cities’ diverse heritage and its display in the urban landscape, go in parallel with an increasing spatial exclusion of recent migrants.

The growing requirement of India getting more integrated with the worldwide economy is pushing India’s engagement in International trade. India’s external sector continued to be buoyant and robust in 2017-18, as witnessed in the Economic Survey 2017-18. The cross border uncertainty in the financial markets has transmitted through the various channels such as trade, finance, and confidence. Due to globalization, the developing countries like India experiences detrimental pressure on its Balance of Payment (BoP). India’s balance of payments situation, which has been relaxed since 2013-14, sustained to be so in the first half of 2017-18, in spite of some growth in the Current Account Deficit (CAD) in the first quarter, with a relatively lower CAD in the second quarter. India’s CAD stood at US$7.2 billion (1.2 percent of GDP) in Q2 of 2017-18, narrowing sharply from US$ 15.0 billion (2.5 percent of GDP) in the preceding quarter. The objective of this study is to identify and analyze the factors that influence the country’s Current Account Deficit. Research Methodology - This paper is based on secondary data, which is collected through various sources like report of RBI, IMF, and Economic Survey etc. This paper also explains the link between trade imbalances factors and its effect on current and capital accounts of Indian Balance of Payment.

The introduction of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in our contemporary society imposes historically unique challenges for humankind. The emerging autonomy of AI holds unique potentials of eternal life of robots, AI and algorithms alongside unprecedented economic superiority, data storage and computational advantages. Yet to this day, it remains unclear what impact AI taking over the workforce will have on economic growth. This paper therefore first establishes what AI is and provides a theoretical background on standard neoclassical and heterodox economics growth theories with particular attention to the Cambridge Capital Controversy’s argument to divide capital components into fluid, hence more flexible (e.g., petty cash, checking account), and more clay, hence more inflexible (e.g., factories and intransferable means of production), components. The contemporary trend of slowbalisation is described, as the slowing down of conventional globalization of goods, services and Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) flows; yet at the same time, we still see human migration and air travel as well as data transfer continuing to rise. These market trends of conventional globalization slowing and rising AI-related industries are proposed as first market disruption in the wake of the large-scale entrance of AI into our contemporary economy. Growth in the artificial age is then proposed to be measured based on two AI entrance proxies of Global Connectivity Index and The State of the Mobile Internet Connectivity 2018 Index, which is found to be highly significantly positively correlated with the total inflow of migrants and FDI inflow – serving as evidence that the still globalizing rising industries in the age of slowbalisation are connected to AI. Both indices are positively correlated with GDP output in cross-sectional studies over the world. In order to clarify if the found effect is a sign of industrialization, time series of worldwide data reveal that internet connectivity around the world is associated with lower economic growth from around 2000 on until 2017. A regression plotting Internet Connectivity and GDP per capita as independent variables to explain the dependent variable GDP growth outlines that the effect for AI is a significant determinant of negative GDP growth prospects for the years from 2000 until 2017. A panel regression plotting GDP per capita and internet connectivity from the year 2000 to explain economic growth consolidates the finding that AI-internet connectivity is a significant determinant of negative growth over time for 161 countries of the world. Internet connectivity is associated with economic growth decline whereas GDP per capita has no significant relation with GDP growth. To cross-validate both findings hold for two different global connectivity measurements. The paper then discusses a theoretical argument of dividing labor components into fluid, hence more flexible (e.g., AI), and more clay, hence more inflexible (e.g., human labor), components. The paper ends on a call for revising growth theories and integrating AI components into growth theory. AI entrance into economic markets is modeled into the standard neoclassical growth theory by creating a novel index for representing growth in the artificial age comprised of GDP per capita and AI entrance measured by the proxy of Internet Access percent per country. Maps reveal the parts of the world that feature high GDP per capita and AI-connectivity. The discussion closes with a future outlook on the law and economics of AI entrance into our contemporary economies and society in order to aid a successful and humane introduction of AI into our world.

International audience; In this paper, we investigate the effects of trade in foods on obesity in Mexico. To do so, we match data on Mexican food imports from the U.S. with anthropometric and food expenditure data. Our findings suggest that exposure to food imports from the U.S. can explain up to 20% of the rise in obesity prevalence among Mexican women between 1988 and 2012. Pro-obesity effects are driven by areas more exposed to unhealthy food imports. We also find evidence in favour of a price mechanism. By linking trade flows to obesity, the paper sheds light on an important channel through which globalisation may affect health. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The aim of this paper is to investigate the process of politicization of the highest levels of the global commercial connectivity network, during its formative decades. The paper highlights the role played by the differences among the national approaches, along with some of the key mechanisms driving the development of the maritime sector during the considered period. As the preferred instrument for the development of the national system of long-range maritime connectivity, the shipping subsidies were diffused almost everywhere. However, the interactions with the institutional, sociotechnical and commercial national environments produced very dissimilar outcomes in different countries, with direct reflections in the construction of the commercial connectivity conditions, acting indirectly also over the evolution of the geopolitical scenario.

The phenomenon of regional and global integration has resulted in the natural hazards and climate change impacts in one country affecting people and countries far away. This phenomenon of globalization of local risks has long been known but has not received much attention. With greater regional integration and greater impacts of climate change, these considerations are more important today and in the future. This paper presents results from a regional survey conducted on globalization of local risks through investments in the vulnerable regions of Asia. The study indicated that countries that have been successful in attracting global investments in manufacturing and service industries are highly vulnerable to natural hazard risks raising an important issue of globalization of local risks. The paper reviews the current understanding on the globalization of local risks and presents the statistically analysed survey findings. The paper also presents a climate fragility risk index developed using multiple indicators that helps to identify countries predisposition to the globalization of local risks. The paper concludes by stating that the risk communication plays an important role in mitigating the globalization of local risks.

The forest history in India is fraught with struggles between the forest dwelling communities and the state. While the state usurped power over forests, excluding the communities and privileging commercial interests; the alienation of communities from their own land and homes resulted in mobilization across different sites. The movement for protection of forest commons assumed significance through the decade of 1970s that saw the famous Chipko movement in Uttarakhand and other forms of resistance across the country. The demand upon the forests that had intensified with subsistence, commercial and urbanization pressures, further enhanced with pressures of globalization. The consequent environmental degradation and dispossession of the communities of their resources resulted in varieties of environmentalism. In the arena of environmental conflict, Central India has been a hotbed of contest with forcible evictions, increasing base of extractive industries and steady militarization. The tribal communities in Central India faced serious threat from a monolithic state as it prioritized ‘national development’ goals over social equity and environmental justice. Rooted in this inequity was widespread discontent and social mobilization across the forested landscape. The local mobilization in Baiga Chak area of Central India clearly marked recognition of their socio-cultural embeddedness in their natural setting, particularly forest. What was unique in this movement was the uprising of Baiga women to assert their rights over the forest contrary to their traditionally defined role. It gradually led to collectivization of demand for recognition of Baiga communities’ historical relationship and claims over forest resource. Using the framework of Feminist Political Ecology, this paper examines Baiga women’s movement against Forest Department’s unlawful practices in Baiga Chak region of Central India. Using a case-based approach, the paper addresses the following questions: What factors led to the feminized grassroots environmental movement? How have women’s bargaining power and gender relations evolved at the local level consequently? What effect does women’s resistance have on community governed forest systems? In response to state usurpation that threatened the livelihood and household well-being, Baiga women collectively struggled to regain control over local forest resources. The analysis of this gendered environmental movement establishes an intersection between local structural, economic and ecological concerns and signals possibility of several gendered social movements in contested resource geographies.