Will Sustainable Development Stay With Us? Wise up to Water Risks at the 2013 World Water Week in Stockholm Environmental Governance for Sustainable Development: An East Asian Perspective Global Economy Capital Flight and Global Crisis: In Search of a Barometer of Country Risk World Politics Can Think Tanks Influence Public Opinion and Improve Policy? Eastern and Western Ideas for African Growth: Diversity and EY’s 2013 Africa Attractiveness Survey: Getting Down to Business Dubai Investments Park: The One-Stop Multi-Purpose Destination Business Smaller Cities Embrace Smart Specialisation – The Exeter Success Story Can Social Media Help Business-to-Business Companies to Learn from their Customers?
Fast Fashion, Luxury Brands, and Sustainability
Annamma Joy
Kees Zoeteman
Josh Weinberg & Maya Rebermark, Communications, SIWI
Akihisa Mori
Eternal Economic Return: The Global Economic Crisis through the Lens of History
Larry Allen
Michel Henry Bouchet
America’s Iran Policy and the Undermining of International Order
Flynt Leverett & Hillary Mann Leverett
Andrew Selee
Synergising Western and Eastern Approaches: Facilitating Economic Development in Africa
Snowy Khoza
Complementarity in Development Aid
Izumi Ohno & Kenichi Ohno
Michael Lalor
Middle East
Entry Strategies for Middle Eastern Markets
Tim Rogmans
A Radically Different Innovation: Developing a Unique Business Model
Rick Molz
Richard Ball
Hannu Kärkkäinen & Jari J. Jussila
July – August 2013
Smaller Cities Embrace Smart Specialisation – The Exeter Success Story
By Richard Ball
Governments have recognised that cities are engines of growth critical to economic performance and national recovery in the current climate. The large conurbations naturally make the headlines as the “core” cities receiving support towards economic development, but there are smaller cities, which are comparatively and proportionately for their size, punching “well above their weight” where people work, trade and innovate in exciting organisations directly driving significant economic growth. Some have seen very impressive employment growth over the last decade and have bucked the trend in terms of recession forecasts with a credible track record of job creation, business formation and survival.
Can Social Media Help Business-to-Business Companies to Learn from their Customers?
By Hannu Kärkkäinen & Jari J. Jussila
Organisations have to learn about market needs and technological solutions increasingly quickly if they want to respond to the rapid and often unpredictable changes in their business environment. Various types of collaborative web tools and approaches, such as social media, can enable and significantly increase the collaboration and learning of business-to-business companies from their customers in various novel ways. Importantly, social media can provide quite innovative community-oriented and social ways of providing and receiving feedback from new products and concepts. Some forms of social media, such as virtual worlds, can also enable customers and companies to receive a lifelike experience from products, as well as experiment with novel concepts.
Eastern and Western Ideas for African Growth: Diversity and Complementarity in Development Aid
By Izumi Ohno & Kenichi Ohno
The West and the East approach economic development differently. The Europeans and Americans stress free and fair business climate, promoting private activities generally without picking winners, and improving governance. East Asia is more interested in achieving concrete results rather than formal correctness, prioritising a small number of sectors for industrialisation, and eventual graduation from aid.
A Radically Different Innovation: Developing a Unique Business Model
‘Innovate!’ has become the global mantra against a backdrop of intensified competitive environment. But focusing on product innovation alone is no guarantee of success; neither is bundling products with services in order to offer meaningful differentiation. Below, Michael Yaziji considers another approach – creating a radically unique business model to drive growth and market share.
Dubai Investments Park: The One-Stop Multi-Purpose Destination
Dubai Investments Park (DIP), the largest integrated business and residential community in the Middle East, was set up in 1997 with a mission to create a self-contained and master-planned business complex, and to provide investors with facilities and professional services that set new standards in the region.
EDITOR'S PICK OF THE WEEK
