Volume 48 (2015): Issue 1 (December 2015)

The abandonment of nuclear power and new focus on renewable energy sources represents a fundamental change in the structure of Germany’s electricity supply. In the wake of this change in energy policy (which is widely referred to as an energy turnaround), prices started to rise immediately and further increases are to be expected in the years ahead. For the manufacturing sector, this cost burden has been mitigated by exempting energy-intensive sectors from additional costs. However, this causes high levels of uncertainty for large electricity consumers as their current exceptional status may be called into question at some point in the future.

Moreover, the price and cost effects of the German energy policy are not only restricted to energy-intensive enterprises. The metal production, parts of the chemical industry and other industries closely linked to electricity consumers in a complex value chain face higher price and cost risks, as do large segments of the manufacturing sector, which work closely with energy-intensive companies. These dense networks are critical in the joint development of innovations, one of the German industry’s main competitive advantages.

This strength of the German economy may turn into a risk if the future of electricity-intensive industries is hampered by rising national energy prices. A potential relocation of energy-intensive companies to other countries would also weaken the competitiveness of other areas of German industry. Such risks need to be compared with new market opportunities provided by the energy turnaround. The industry seeks those opportunities especially in renewable energies and techniques for improving energy efficiency.

The German food retail market is considered to be one of the most competitive markets worldwide. A narrow oligopoly of domestic retail chains dominates competition at the national and regional levels, driven mostly by price competition and extensive market coverage. As a result, market entrance for potential newcomers is highly restricted, even for such global players like Wal-Mart, which retreated in 2006 after nine years of substantial financial losses in Germany. There have been discernable attempts by the domestic incumbents to rebalance the traditional “task division”, affecting the range of customers choices as well as retail brands. However, within ten years the share of large retailers brands earnings in the total food retail market increased from 21.8 percent to 38.8 percent in 2012, as “house brands” optimized their assortment, increased their independence from main suppliers and squeezed out competitors. The empirical analysis presented below describes the role played by different retail brands in German food retail market as measured by their market power, and considers its political implications.

Drawing on interviews conducted at five Hungarian high-growth firms (HGFs), this paper discusses how dynamic capabilities shape the outcome of HGFs’ efforts to meet the managerial challenges posed by rapid growth. HGFs are investigated in the context of a relatively under-researched country: Hungary. The research demonstrates that dynamic capabilities have strong explanatory power for the surveyed companies’ achievements, in a similar manner to what is established in the literature on HGFs in advanced economies.

The micro-mechanisms of DC’ deployment is explored by investigating the organizational solutions implemented at the surveyed firms in response to emerging growth-related problems. These responses were found to be similar across the sample. The recurrent growth-related reconfiguration of organizational structures and introduction of various organizational innovations were the result of systematically developed DC and non-abating organizational learning.

The introduction of mobile number portability (MNP) in the Nigerian telecommunications industry has brought a new challenge for mobile operators. This study investigates the use of Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) in customer retention decisions in the Nigerian telecommunication industry using a cross-sectional survey design. Primary data were obtained through questionnaires administered to 480 mobile telecommunications subscribers in six tertiary institutions located in Lagos State, Nigeria. These educational institutions were chosen using a multistage sampling technique. Of 438 questionnaires received from subscribers, 408 were valid. Based on this sample data an AHP model was built to assess the determinants of customer retention decisions. Next, eigen values, an eigen vector and maximum lambda (λ_Max) were obtained using the AHP analysis for the matrices. This analysis shows that customers considered call quality as the important in the retention decision. We conclude that AHP is a meaningful tool for determining what motivates retention decisions, that can help network operators formulate effective customer retention strategies.

This paper examines the relationship between tourism and economic growth, analyzing key factors affecting tourism income in Andalucía, Spain. Based on time series annual data for the period 2005 to 2012 and a multiple regression analysis we show that international tourism has made an important contribution to Andalucía’s economic growth. Some of the factors considered in the analysis include the number of luxury hotels, the hotel price index and the exchange rate, though the latter is outside of the control of local authorities under the European Monetary Union (EMU).

The systemic transformation of post-socialist countries from central planning to a market economy was a very complex and unprecedented undertaking. In this study we critically examine three influential classifications proposed by Coates [2000, 2006], Hall and Soskice [2001], and Amable [2003], within the “comparative capitalisms” literature stream, and argue that they are unsuitable for evaluating the progress made by transition economies since 1990. The basis of the criticism stems from timing: these theoretical frameworks were developed primarily to evaluate the growth of advanced and mature capitalist countries. Thus, they fail to capture the unique features of transition economies and the complexity of the transformation process that led to the emergence of different market-based systems. From this vantage point, we discusses and also critique a recent classification developed by Myant and Drahokoupil [2011, 2015], who distinguish five ideal models (i.e. “varieties of capitalism”) that have evolved within transition countries. In our conclusion we point to areas within the field that may be explored by future research.