Competitive interactions represent one of the driving forces behind evolution and natural selection in biological and sociological systems1, 2. For example, animals in an ecosystem may vie for food ...or mates; in a market economy, firms may compete over the same group of customers; sensory stimuli may compete for limited neural resources to enter the focus of attention. Here, we derive rules based on the spectral properties of the network governing the competitive interactions between groups of agents organized in networks. In the scenario studied here the winner of the competition, and the time needed to prevail, essentially depend on the way a given network connects to its competitors and on its internal structure. Our results allow assessment of the extent to which real networks optimize the outcome of their interaction, but also provide strategies through which competing networks can improve on their situation. The proposed approach is applicable to a wide range of systems that can be modelled as networks3.
The mobilization economy should not be perceived as synonymous with improving governance efficiency. The mobilization of the economy and the relevant authorities is a temporary, specifically ...historical phenomenon. On the other hand, the desire to improve the efficiency of economic management is a task constantly facing any modern society.
This study argues that the Union maintains a double standard on working conditions in relation to the criteria established at international level, which allows to tolerate situations of labour ...exploitation as ‘unserious’, ‘proportionated’ or ‘normal’ phenomena. By analysing the gaps in the protection of the right to fair and just working conditions, the idea that an upward convergence of workers’ rights would be supported (and required) by the general duty to protect human dignity and to ensure fair competition in the Single Market is advanced. The relationship between these fundamental principles in the implementation of the right to fair and just working conditions is examined through the notion of ‘social market economy’. The aim is to illustrate what kind of measures could (or should) be taken to integrate the protection of human rights and market efficiency, and whether in practice there seems to be an articulation between these fundamental principles or, on the contrary, an insurmountable contradiction.
Coopetition (collaboration between competing firms) has been viewed as a potentially beneficial but also a risky relationship for a firm. Earlier literature provides inconclusive evidence in terms of ...the effects of a firm's coopetition strategy on innovation and market performance, suggesting both positive and negative implications. Some of this variation could be attributed to the fact that coopetition is successful only in certain types of business environment. In order to take the research further, this study examines the effect of a coopetition strategy on the firm's innovation and market performance, focusing on the moderating effects of market uncertainty, network externalities and competitive intensity. The results from a cross‐industry survey of 209 Finnish firms provide novel evidence on the conditions under which coopetition is successful and when it is not.
This study proposes and empirically tests a model delineating the relationship among environmental orientation, green supply chain management (GSCM) activities (green purchase, customer cooperation ...and investment recovery) and corporate performance. Based on responses from 194 foreign invested enterprises operating in China, this study has generated several important findings. First, it demonstrates that while both internal and external environmental orientations exert a positive and significant influence on the practice of green purchase and customer cooperation, internal environmental orientation further serves as a significant driver for the practice of investment recovery. Second, it shows that the practice of these three major GSCM activities, in turn, significantly enhances corporate performance. Last, the study reveals that competitive intensity strengthens the positive influence of customer cooperation on corporate performance. Overall, the findings explicate the importance for firms, in particular those operating in a highly competitive market condition, to nurture a pro-environmental corporate culture and improve their sensitivity to salient external stakeholders' environmental demands so as to pursue greener supply chain management.
► The relationship among environmental orientation, green supply chain management and corporate performance is examined. ► Internal and external environmental orientations positively influence green purchase and customer cooperation. ► Internal environmental orientation also positively affects investment recovery. ► Environmental orientation enhances corporate performance via green supply chain management practices. ► Competitive intensity further strengthens the positive influence of customer cooperation on corporate performance.
While the historical role played by Christian Democrats in the construction of the European Union (EU) is well-known and amply documented, the impact this has had on the EU as it exists today has ...received virtually no attention in the relevant academic literature. This paper addresses the question by examining the heuristic purchase offered by distinctively Christian Democratic categories in describing the EU's current institutional framework. It argues that, in at least three respects, such categories appear more adequate than the ones that are more commonly used in the literature. First, the EU is more adequately described as a polity based on the principle of 'subsidiarity' than either a federation or a set of intergovernmental treaties. Second, its political regime is better understood as 'consociative' than either demo(i)cratic or technocratic. Finally, its socio-economic policies are closer to a model of 'social market economy' than either social democracy or neoliberalism.
The paper asks whether Walter Eucken, the founder of German ordoliberalism, should be considered to be a proponent of authoritarian liberalism. That term originally refers to a proposal for economic ...liberalization advanced by Carl Schmitt in 1932. Authoritarian liberalism also could be taken to mean that Eucken favors the rule of law and economic freedoms, but rejects democratic decision making. Both possible meanings are considered. We show that Eucken is not a representative of authoritarian liberalism in either sense of the term. While Eucken and Schmitt offer similar descriptions of the entanglement of state and economy in Weimar Germany, their proposed solutions are rather different. With regard to the second meaning, we argue that Eucken’s critique of democracy refers to two universally recognized problems of democratic decision making, namely interest group influence and the tyranny of the majority.
The economic reform started in 1986 has transformed Vietnam from one of the world’s poorest countries 35 years ago to a lower middle-income country (MIC) in 2010. Poverty rates dropped from 70% in ...1986 to below 2% in 2021. The transition from a central planning system to a socialist market economy is the fundamental underlying factor of Vietnam's success. Using the historical institutional framework that Lee (2018) 1 developed, this study aims to explore the country’s transition from a central planning system to a socialist market economy over the past three decades. The findings demonstrate that the country’s transition to a socialist market economy has been taking a gradualism and dualism path like China. In addition, the study also illustrates how the economic reform and globalization processes pushed the institutional transformation in Vietnam to meet the demands of multiple economic sectors and ownerships as well as accommodate international commitments that the country entered. Finally, Vietnam has been cautious in its political reform over the past few decades. Yet, this is inevitable as a result of the country’s socio-economic development process as well as the global and regional rapid changing context. The implications for Vietnam include: (i) Vietnam needs to transform its growth model toward a knowledge-based, higher-added-value, and more environmentally-friendly pattern; (ii) while there is significant progress in institutional transformation, bottlenecks and challenges remain. This should be addressed effectively to unlock the country’s potential; (iii) political system reform is inevitable as conditions are mature. Domestic demands and international requirements are putting increasing pressure on the changes. However, this process will likely move forward and take place within the political system rather than by civil society or outsiders. Doi: 10.28991/ESJ-2022-06-05-03 Full Text: PDF
This case study of the Peruvian altiplano, the vast high-altitude
plains surrounding Lake Titicaca, combines economic and social
analysis with cultural and institutional history. Nils Jacobsen
...challenges the prevailing view that the rural Andes underwent a
successful transition to capitalism between the mid-nineteenth and
early twentieth centuries. He argues that although the political,
economic, and administrative structures of colonialism were
gradually dismantled by the region's advancing market economy,
colonial modes of constructing power and social identity have
lingered on even to this day. The result of painstaking research in
remote rural archives, some of them now made inaccessible by the
Shining Path, Mirages of Transition will become the
definitive work on the Peruvian highlands.
This paper explores how ‘social market economy’ became a quasi‐constitutional principle of the EU, highlighting the crucial role played in this process by the European Parliament. Based on multiple ...archival sources, we show that social market economy came to function as a limited repertoire: While it was advocated for various reasons by different actors, increasingly including social‐democrats, it nevertheless also solidified certain ways of conceiving the EU and its economic model. So doing, this article not only illuminates the role of the EP in the definition of a constitutionalized economic model for the EU; it also challenges the view of Europeanization as the progressive convergence around national preexisting models. Finally, two paradoxes emerge from the analysis: while supporters of the discourse of social market economy aimed at promoting the European social dimension and at addressing the EU democratic deficit, the adoption of this principle may have actually contributed to the subordination of both the ‘social’ and the ‘political’ to the ‘economic’.
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