Home Blog Page 1130

What is Global Leadership?

By B. Sebastian Reiche, Mark E. Mendenhall, Allan Bird, & Joyce S. Osland

While it has become common to call for global leaders to address the many challenges that internationally operating organizations face, it is much less clear what we actually mean when referring to global leaders or what the scope of global leadership entails. This article elaborates a framework for understanding the globality in leadership, focusing on three distinct yet interrelated conditions of global leadership: contextual, relational and spatial-temporal. We also highlight the critical elements of leadership in a global environment and discuss implications for the design of global leadership development activities.1

Mortgage Lending Solutions for Troubled Markets

By Anna DeSimone

Creation of wealth began with farmers who planted something into the land and earned income from harvesting food. Others created wealth from something taken from the ground, such as oil, coal and other minerals. In many countries around the world, an employed individual or family with modest income could embark on the creation of wealth simply by purchasing a home.

Can Financial Innovations Mitigate Civil and Ethnic Conflict?

By Saumitra Jha

The failure to align the incentives of self-interested groups in favor of beneficial reform is often considered a major cause of civil conflict and persistent underdevelopment around the world. However, much less is known about strategies that have been successful at overcoming such challenges. This article discusses the role of financial instruments as a means for fostering broad political coalitions that favor beneficial reform and mitigate social conflict, drawing on historical cases in which innovative financial assets, often introduced by technocratic reformers, have succeeded at making politics less conflictual over time.

Law and the Technologies of the Twenty-First Century

By Roger Brownsword & Morag Goodwin

The authors of Law and the Technologies of the Twenty-First Century (Cambridge University Press, 2012) examine both the challenges and opportunities that are arising regarding regulatory frameworks and emerging technologies, looking specifically at: prudence, legitimacy, effectiveness and connection.

Oil For Food: Big Business in The Middle East

By Eckart Woertz

Middle Eastern countries are highly dependent on food imports. They have reacted to the global food crisis of 2008 with various measures to guarantee food security. The main concern of the oil rich Gulf countries is not so much high food prices, but a repetition of export restrictions that food exporters like Argentina, India and Vietnam enacted in 2008. To address this risk, they have increased subsidies and strategic storage, tried to make domestic agriculture more water-efficient and have announced ago-investments abroad. The article takes a look at these measures as the challenges and pitfalls of chosen strategies have become more discernible. The Gulf countries’ ability to adapt to food security challenges will play a major role in the social and economic stability of their states and in the direction of their investment policies both at home and abroad.

Sistema, Power Networks and Informal Governance in Putin’s Russia

By Alena Ledeneva

In her new monograph Can Russia Modernise? Sistema, Power Networks and Informal Governance, Alena Ledeneva seeks to decode and reveal how informal power operates. Concentrating on Vladimir Putin’s system of governance – referred to as Putin’s sistema – she identifies four key types of networks: his inner circle, useful friends, core contacts and mediated connections. These networks serve sistema but also serve themselves. Reliance on networks enables leaders to mobilise and to control, yet they also lock them into informal deals, mediated interests and personalised loyalties. Ledeneva’s perspective on informal power is based on in-depth interviews with sistema insiders and enhanced by evidence of its workings brought to light in court cases, enabling her to draw broad conclusions about the prospects for Russia’s political institutions. The book is available from Cambridge University Press from February 2013.

Macro-Prudential Supervision in Europe’s Banking Union

By Dirk Schoenmaker

Eurozone banking union discussions are full of questions about the scope of Eurozone micro-prudential bank supervision. Yet, this article argues that there is surprisingly little debate on the macro-prudential supervision that is necessary to safeguard the wider European financial system. After all it is macro developments, such as rapidly rising housing prices, that lie at the heart of the ongoing crisis in Europe. To safeguard the financial system, Eurozone macro-prudential tools should be under the ECB, separate from micro-prudential functions, with input from national central banks when differentiation is necessary.

January – February 2013


Middle East
Oil for Food: Big Business in the Middle East
Eckart Woertz

 

Asia
Transport and the Environment in Asian Megacities

Shinya Hanaoka

 

Canada
Calgary, Canada: A Global Energy and Financial Centre

Paul Paynter & Rachel Yin

Innovation in Canadian Natural Resource Industries: A System-Based Analysis of Performance, Policy and Emerging Challenges 
Andrew Sharpe

 

Europe
Macro-Prudential Supervision in Europe’s Banking Union
Dirk Schoenmaker

 

Russia
Sistema, Power Networks and Informal Governance in Putin’s

Russia
Alena Ledeneva

 

Latin America
The Silicon Valleys of Latin America – Searching For “Shared Value” Development Models
Luciano Ciravegna


Transport And The Environment in Asian Megacities

By Shinya Hanaoka

This article has addressed two environmental problems whose origins lie in the transport sector: local air pollution and CO2 emissions. Globally, the contribution of these impacts in Asian megacities shows an increasing trend, and therefore calls for serious mitigation efforts mainly regulation measures and ways to improve emission intensity. There are good prospects for policy measures to deliver CO2 reduction in Asian developing countries as co-benefits rather than as primary benefits and that are politically acceptable, such as mass rapid transit and compact city design, among others.

The Oreo Story: How Kraft Turned America’s Favorite Cookie into a Chinese Classic

By Michael J. Silverstein, Abheek Singhi, Carol Liao & David Michael

When Irene Rosenfeld became CEO of Kraft Foods in June 2006, she became the leader of a company organized in two divisions: North America and International. The international business was a low-growth and Europe-heavy counterpart of the core U.S. business. Most of the international business consisted of German coffee, European cheese, and Milka brand chocolate. In addition, there were numerous orphan businesses – small, one-off country positions. Advertising support was in the low single digits and declining. Profits were erratic, as the commodity-driven portfolio lacked pricing power. Consumer market research was a stepchild.

EDITOR'S PICK OF THE WEEK

China economic growth

China’s Challenging Search for a New Model of Economic Growth

By Danny Leipziger China cannot continue to rely on exports to drive its growth, but what are the alternatives? China ran a $1.2 trillion trade surplus last year, and despite admonitions from the IMF to rely...

WISE DECISION MAKER GUIDE

POWER INFLUENCERS

Emerging Trends

The Future of Global Trade