The tasks large corporations must master to achieve competitive advantage today— developing new products on accelerated schedules (Stalk 1988), providing tailored solutions to customers (Hax and Wilde 1999, Galbraith 2000, Foote et al. 2001), implementing nextgeneration information technologies (Clark et al. 1997)—require deploying groups of workers with a broad range of skills for short period...

Electronic business (e-business) presents several new opportunities and challenges to business organizations through the expansion and enhancements of their markets. However, competing in global electronic markets (e-markets) has forced organizations to continually invest in information technology (IT). Although IT can provide a competitive advantage, its edge is only temporary and lost as comp...

This paper studies the strategic and welfare effects of the “failing firm defense” in declining markets with differentiated products. All solvent firms prefer a clearing of the rescue merger to the failing firm exiting the market. The failing firm defense increases consumer surplus, since the benefit from maintained product variety outweighs the cost of higher prices that result from the merger...

Current global economic trends in both developed and developing countries, including unregulated labor markets, trade competition and technological change, have greatly expanded a complex labor market situation characterised by many employees working under temporary work status, job insecurity, low social protection and low income level. Although the health of women is disproportionately affect...

Economic organisations are facing new challenges due to the proliferation of Electronic Markets where competition and responsiveness are issues that will determine organisation’s economic survival. A Virtual Enterprise is a temporary network of individual enterprises, which, due to its higher flexibility and agility is capable of effectively responding to those challenging requirements. This pa...

Pistachio is one of the most important agricultural crops of Iran. It is a nut from Anacardiacea family and its domesticated species is called Pistacia vera L. Regarding to pistachio importance and usage and by the expanding of pistachio cultivate, it is necessary to improve agricultural situation and by establishing well equipped processing and packaging units near the farms, it is possible to...

Extensive research in Vietnam and elsewhere has shown that live bird markets (LBMs) play a significant role in the ecology and zoonotic transmission of avian influenzas (AIs) including H5N1 and H7N9. Vietnam has a large number of LBMs reflecting the consumer preferences for live poultry. Under pressure to mitigate risks for H7N9 and other zoonotic AIs, Vietnam is considering, among other mitiga...

With the growth of electronic markets, designing double auction mechanisms that are applicable to emerging market structures has become an important research topic. In this paper, we investigate two truthful double auction design approaches, the Trade Reduction Approach and the Multi-Stage Design Approach, and compare their resulting mechanisms in various exchange environments. We find that com...

A temporary-equilibrium model replicating institutional features of low-income agricultural economies is developed. In this model, food is held as an asset; because food production is relatively volatile, those with negative temporary income are net buyers of food. When food is the only asset, asset effects are likely to reduce the price-elasticity of the demand for food and can make it tatonne...