economics

Strong market segmentation and rapidly changing diverse technologies, combined with increased competitive intensity, are forcing global manufacturing companies to reconsider their product development strategy. Modularization in product development is essential for these companies to compete sustainably in such an international and dynamic environment. However, companies face major challenges in the modularization of product development. This dissertation empirically analyzes the modularization of product development in global manufacturing companies with special regard given to the interrelations between product architecture and product development...

Market Economy is a comprehensive business English coursebook which has been specifically written for intermediate and advanced speakers of English. It provides a lively and accessible resource for all students, and primarily aims to meet the needs of students taking examinations in English for economics. In this publication, facts have been brought up-to-date and the text refined to cover the developments in economic policy and institutional changes over the last few years. This book is made up of 15 units...

content The so called “European Migrant Crisis” of 2015 has renewed the attention of European leaders, and especially the German government, for Africa. The ambitious goal of Germany's "Marshall Plan for Africa" ​​is to support private sector activity on the continent and ultimately reduce unwanted migration to Europe. This book offers a review of the “economic development against migration” narrative with a focus on Germany. Starting out from a macro-perspective it first looks at the general relationship between foreign direct...

It has only been more than a decade since the online games and tourism began to be popular in Europe and America and embarked on the path of industrialization in the 1990s. So far, this industry is flourishing at an alarming rate. However, this is mostly attributed to spontaneous explorations of enterprises rather than the academia, which remains basically blank in this field. Even though there are sporadic research fruits, they are just academic papers. A fairly unified theoretical framework...

Russia is one of the fastest-growing and major markets in the world and it is even one of the most popular countries for foreign entrants interested in business. There are plenty of options to conduct business in Russia in general and especially in the area of ​​acrylic glass or polycarbonate. Despite this, no concrete study has been conducted so far to determine the most feasible entry mode into the Russian market for a German company producing the aforesaid materials. Using...

The cluster concept is associated with great hopes for growth and the resulting positive employment and income effects at regional level. Due to a concentration of companies and organizations in the same industry, competitive advantages can arise for the local companies, but these do not necessarily have to be permanent. Nevertheless, in anticipation of positive regional development, cluster funding has established itself as a central component of economic policy in recent years. Based on three case studies of the packaging...

Migration and its positive implications for social and economic development have increased in recognition and importance in the context of regional and national development. In addition, while international migration in the wake of globalization has received most academic attention, the World Development Report 2009 points out that the largest flows of people take place within nations. This internal migration can be an important driver of urbanization, which in turn facilitates economic growth by giving rise to agglomeration economies within cities...

This book is a collection of three essays contributing to the empirical literature on inequality and female labor force participation in developing countries. The first essay is an extension to the analysis of benefit incidence of public expenditures. Using data for Kenya it shows how different household needs for government services ought to be incorporated into the analysis to get an improved understanding of the distributional implications of public spending. The second essay revisits the hypothesis that female labor force...

Nowadays it is vital for companies to offer their products all over the world in order to be successful. The economic rise of emerging markets such as China, India or the Middle East increases the importance of those new customer segments, as their contribution towards the companies profits continuously grow. To further exploit the potential of emerging markets, it is important to understand how to acquire and retain those culturally different customers. Existing but scarce academic literature in Variety Seeking...

The lack of improved water and sanitary infrastructure still kills many people in developing countries each year. This book gives useful insights into how development projects have an impact in practice and why there is a possibility that projects fail to have positive outcomes. In this book, the national water and sanitation program in rural Benin is analyzed. A difference-in-difference analysis is combined with a phasing-in approach to a sample of 200 villages in the departments of Mono, Couffo and...

For families in poor countries, risk and shocks such as storms and floods, illness and accidents, unemployment and civil conflict are often part of everyday life. This book provides comprehensive empirical evidence of risk management strategies in developing countries and how they impact on the lives of the poor. Possible strategies include (i) reducing risk factors, (ii) mitigating the impact of risks through formal insurance and insurance substitutes, and (iii) seeking support to better cope with negative shocks. The chapters...

The World Bank put the concept of vulnerability in the spotlight of poverty research by presenting it in the World Development Report 2000/01 as an important component of combating poverty. The reason for assigning such a prominent position to vulnerability is threefold: It decreases current well-being, it determines future levels of poverty and it may be at the root of long-term hardship. Building on panel data from rural households in Thailand and Vietnam this book contributes to our knowledge and...