A piacorientáció hatása a vállalati versenyképességre = The Impact of Market Orientation on Competitiveness

A tanulmány a piacorientáció és a versenyképesség összefüggését elemzi egy átfogóbb koncepcionális modell keretében, amely a piacorientáció szervezeti előzményeire, a piacorientáció egyes dimenziói és a vállalati teljesítmény közötti kapcsolatra, valamint a környezetből származó bizonytalanság moderáló hatásaira fókuszál. Ahhoz, hogy növeljük a tanulmány érvényességét, az elemzés során olyan változókat kontrolláltunk, amelyekről úgy véltük, hogy a piacorientáció mellett szintén befolyásolhatják a vállalatok versenyképességét, mint például a vállalati stratégia, illetve néhány releváns vállalati jellemző. Az eredmények alapján megállapíthatjuk, hogy a piacorientáció pozitív vagy semleges hatással van a vállalati versenyképesség különböző indikátoraira. Kutatásunk tehát nem támasztotta alá egyes, a válságidőszakokban készült tanulmányok következtetéseit, amely szerint gazdasági válság időszakában a piacorientáció gátolja a vállalatokat abban, hogy megfelelően reagáljanak a környezetben bekövetkezett változásokra. A piacorientáció eltérő dimenzióinak szerepe ugyanakkor átértékelődik a környezetből fakadó bizonytalanság egyes típusainak eltérő mértékű erősödésével. ----- Abstract: The study investigates the association between market orientation and corporate competitiveness in frame of a wider conceptual model that focuses on the organisational antecedents of market orientation, the relationship between the dimensions of market orientation and corporate performance and the moderating role of environmental uncertainty. To increase the validity of our study, we controlled other variables that had also been expected to influence competitiveness such as corporate strategy and some relevant characteristics of companies. Based on the results we can conclude that the effects of market orientation on the different indicators of competitiveness are either positive or neutral. Our research did not support the conclusions of previous studies which stated that in times of economic crisis market orientation inhibits companies to react to the changes of the environment in an appropriate way. The importance of the dimensions of market orientation however can change due to the diverse extent to which the different kinds of environmental uncertainty intensify.

A versenyképesség aktuális kérdései a pénzügyekben - Összefoglaló a pénzügyi kutatócsoport munkájáról = Current issues of competitiveness - Summary on the work of the Finance research team

A pénzügy kutatócsoport a TÁMOP-4.2.1.B-09/1/KMR-2010-0005 azonosítójú projektjében igen szerteágazó elemzési munkát végzett. Rámutattunk, hogy a különböző szintű gazdasági szereplők megnövekedett tőkeáttétele egyértelműen a rendszerkockázat növekedéséhez vezet, hiszen nő az egyes szereplők csődjének valószínűsége. Ha a tőkeáttételt eltérő mértékben és ütemben korlátozzák az egyes szektorokban, országokban akkor a korlátozást később bevezető szereplők egyértelműen versenyelőnyhöz jutnak. Az egyes pénzügyi intézmények tőkeallokációját vizsgálva kimutattuk, hogy a különféle divíziók közt mindig lehetséges a működés fedezetésül szolgáló tőkét (kockázatot) úgy felosztani, hogy a megállapodás felmondás egyik érintettnek se álljon érdekében. Ezt azonban nem lehet minden szempontból igazságosan megtenni, így egyes üzletágak versenyhátrányba kerülhetnek, ha a konkurens piaci szereplők az adott tevékenységet kevésbé igazságtalanul terhelték meg. Kimutattunk, hogy az egyes nyugdíjpénztárak befektetési tevékenységének eredményességére nagy hatással van a magánnyugdíjpénztárak tevékenységének szabályozása. Ezek a jogszabályok a társadalom hosszú távú versenyképességére vannak hatással. Rámutattunk arra is, hogy a gazdasági válság előtt a hazai bankok sem voltak képesek ügyfeleik kockázatviselő képességét helyesen megítélni, ráadásul jutalékrendszerük nem is tette ebben érdekelté azokat. Számos vizsgálatunk foglalkozott a magyar vállalatok versenyképességének alakulásával is. Megvizsgáltuk a különféle adónemek, árfolyamkockázatok és finanszírozási politikák versenyképességet befolyásoló hatását. Külön kutatás vizsgálta a kamatlábak ingadozásának és az hitelekhez kapcsolódó eszközfedezet meglétének vállalati értékre gyakorolt hatásait. Rámutattunk a nemfizetés növekvő kockázatára, és áttekintettük a lehetséges és a ténylegesen alkalmazott kezelési stratégiákat is. Megvizsgáltuk azt is, hogy a tőzsdei cégek tulajdonosai miként használják ki az osztalékfizetéshez kapcsolódó adóoptimalizálási lehetőségeket. Gyakorlati piaci tapasztalataik alapján az adóelkerülő kereskedést a befektetők a részvények egy jelentős részénél végrehajtják. Külön kutatás foglakozott a szellemi tőke hazai vállalatoknál játszott szerepéről. Ez alapján a cégek a problémát 2009-ben lényegesen magasabb szakértelemmel kezelték, mint öt esztendővel korábban. Rámutattunk arra is, hogy a tulajdonosi háttér lényeges hatást gyakorolhat arra, ahogyan a cégek célrendszerüket felépítik, illetve ahogy az intellektuális javakra tekintenek. _____ The Finance research team has covered a wide range of research fields while taking part at project TÁMOP-4.2.1.B-09/1/KMR-2010-0005. It has been shown that the increasing financial gearing at the different economic actors clearly leads to growth in systematic risk as the probability of bankruptcy climbs upwards. Once the leverage is limited at different levels and at different points in time for the different sectors, countries introducing the limitations later gain clearly a competitive advantage. When investigating the leverage at financial institutions we found that the capital requirement of the operation can always be divided among divisions so that none of them would be better of with cancelling the cooperation. But this cannot be always done fairly from all point of view meaning some of the divisions may face a competitive disadvantage if competitors charge their similar division less unfairly. Research has also shown that the regulation of private pension funds has vital effect on the profitability of the investment activity of the funds. These laws and regulations do not only affect the funds themselves but also the competitiveness of the whole society. We have also fund that Hungarian banks were unable to estimate correctly the risk taking ability of their clients before the economic crisis. On the top of that the bank were not even interested in that due to their commission based income model. We also carried out several research on the competitiveness of the Hungarian firms. The effect of taxes, currency rate risks, and financing policies on competitiveness has been analysed in detail. A separate research project was dedicated to the effect of the interest rate volatility and asset collaterals linked to debts on the value of the firm. The increasing risk of non-payment has been underlined and we also reviewed the adequate management strategies potentially available and used in real life. We also investigated how the shareholders of listed companies use the tax optimising possibilities linked to dividend payments. Based on our findings on the Hungarian markets the owners perform the tax evading trades in case of the most shares. A separate research has been carried out on the role played by intellectual capital. After that the Hungarian companies dealt with the problem in 2009 with far higher proficiency than five years earlier. We also pointed out that the ownership structure has a considerable influence on how firms structure their aims and view their intangible assets.

"Értelem és érzelem" A lakossági ügyfelek gazdasági magatartása és a bankokkal kapcsolatos attitűdjei ("Sense and sensibility" Retail customer behaviours and attitudes towards banks)

A globális pénzügyi és világgazdasági válság sok szempontból újszerű versenyhelyzetet teremtett a lakossági banki piacon az ügyfelek megtartása és az új ügyfelek megszerzése terén. A gazdasági és társadalmi környezetben bekövetkezett változásokhoz való alkalmazkodás sikeressége érdekében fontos a banki ügyfelek gazdasági viselkedésmódjának alaposabb és mélyrehatóbb megértése. Tanulmányunkban bemutatjuk azokat a főbb, releváns pszichológiai, szociológiai és gazdasági tényezőket, amelyek az ügyfelek bankokkal kapcsolatos magatartását és attitűdjeit befolyásolják. A vonatkozó elméleteket és kutatásokat egy konceptuális keretben foglaljuk össze; ennek az alappilléreit a bizalom, a pénzzel kapcsolatos attitűdök és az emocionális komponensek alkotják. _______ The global fi nancial and economic crisis created new competition in the market for retail banking, and in the areas of existing customer retention and new customers’ acquisition. The corresponding economic and social change called for new adaptive strategies on behalf of banks to better understand the economic behaviour of their customers. This paper focuses on certain relevant psychological, sociological and economic factors that tend to characterize customer behaviours and attitudes towards banks. With particular emphasis on highlighting the potential implications of relevant theories for the purposes of banks, our conceptual model incorporates elements of trust, monetary attitudes and underlying emotional components.

Aszimmetriák az Európai Unión belül (Assimetries within the European Union)

A centrum-periféria kapcsolatok elemzése az Európai Unióra is kiterjeszthető. Az integrációs folyamatban jól elemezhetőek a bourdeiu-i tőkeformák, ezek egymásra történő átváltása, a gazdasági és politikai aszimmetriák kölcsönhatása. E kölcsönös kapcsolatokban továbbra is a gazdasági viszonyok meghatározottsága érvényesül. A világgazdasági válság felszínre hozta a történelmi aszimmetriákat, amelyeket a korábbi neoliberális politikák tovább mélyítettek. Az Unión belüli periferális térségekre a válság különbözőképpen hatott. E hatások semlegesítésére többnyire a megszorító gazdaságpolitikákat alkalmazzák. Továbbra is hiányzik azonban egy, a minőségi s nem mennyiségi szempontokat hangsúlyozó fejlesztési politika. Egy ilyen megközelítés a strukturális, intézményi vonatkozásokat erősítené, s ezzel járulna hozzá a periféria termelési, forgalmi, elosztási képességeinek fokozásához. _____ Analysis of centre-periphery relations can be extended to the European Union as well. The capital forms by Bourdieu, their inter-changeability, mutual effects of economic and political asymmetries could be analysed well in the integration process. In these mutual relations economic relations still play the dominant role. The global economic crisis has brought to the surface historical asymmetries, further aggravated by earlier neo-liberal economic policies. Peripheral regions within the Union have been affected in different ways. In order to neutralise these effects austerity measure have been implemented. However, a development policy, emphasising quality and not only quantitative aspects, is still missing. Such an approach would strengthen structural and institutional elements, further enhancing production, trade, and distribution capabilities of the periphery.

What is the Future of Strategic Management?

The history of planning and creating strategies has a past of over half a century. Throughout this lifetime period we have witnessed both the evolution of theory and practice. The MBA study books in the last-third of the 20th century have with predilection exhibited this very process as a complex of monetary centered budget planning, forecast-based planning, strategic planning and strategic management. There might be a controversy existing about the naming, characteristics and timing of these different sections but there is an accordance that the changes that we have taken place in the last decade as a whole without a doubt can be derived from these very changes in the business environment or in some outstanding cases (like 9/11) they can be acknowledged as the ability of corporate foreseeing and the ability to adapt to the vision of the future. The main purposes of the research is to provide a summarized picture about the changing process of this procedure during last decades as far as the planning and creating strategies are concerned and also their milestones and periods. Try to explore and systemize the very aspects of these changes. The happenings of the first decade of the new millennium are outstandingly interesting if we consider their real effect on the theory and practice of strategic management. Let us remember the euphoria around the year 2000, the predictions of „new technologies”, „new economy”, „new organization” and „new leadership”. We have implied before on the destruction of the twin towers of the World Trade Center which meant a new era, a new quality of international terrorism and its consequences (Afghanistan, Iraq). But the „product” of this decade is the strategic aim that companies focus on, which is the social responsibility regarding the unavoidance of the effects of climate change on the long run. During the research the big question has risen concerning how did the science of strategic management do as far as the predictions of the global monetary and economic crisis are concerned? And also its solutions this very science has to offer in order to handle and get over the crisis. Does it conclude from the answers given to the questions that a change in paradigms are necessary, a new quality is needed or may be we have come to a new crossroad of the development process that will take over strategic management? (...)

Az európai uniós tagság mint modernizációs hajtóerő. Gondolatok a kelet-közép-európai országok EU-tagságának 10. évfordulóján = EU membership as a driving force of modernization. Ideas on the 10th anniversary of EU membership of East Central European countries

A szerző az Európai Unióhoz az elmúlt évtizedben csatlakozott országok felzárkózásának összefüggéseit vizsgálja, rámutatva arra, hogy a kelet-közép-európai térség országainak természetes modernizációs központja az Európai Unió. Az európai integrációba történő szerves beépülésnek nem volt és a jövőben sincs reális alternatívája. Annak ellenére, hogy a nemzetközi pénzügyi és gazdasági válság rendkívül kedvezőtlen fordulatot hozott, az új tagországok többségében jelentős ütemű felzárkózási folyamat indult el: egy évtizeden belül relatív pozíciójuk az uniós átlaghoz képest átlagosan 15 százalékpont javult a vásárlóerő-paritáson mért egy főre jutó GDP-t tekintve. A tagság számos előnye közül ki kell emelni, hogy az uniós költségvetésből származó közvetlen transzferek hatására az új tagállamok számottevő külső forráshoz jutottak, aminek révén hosszú távú fejlődésüket és versenyképességüket befolyásoló területeken jelentős beruházásokat hajthattak végre. E transzferek kapcsán a szerző felhívja a figyelmet arra, hogy a szűk látókörűen számított nettó haszonélvezői pozíció valójában kölcsönös előnyöket rejt: az EU fejlettebb országai számára is komoly előnyök származnak a megnövekedett importkeresletből és általában a bővülés kereskedelemteremtő hatásaiból. _____ The author analyses some catch-up aspects of countries joining the EU in 2004 and 2007, pointing out that the EU is an obvious centre of modernization for the countries in East Central Europe. There was no realistic alternative to participating in the European integration process and this applies also to the future. Contrary to the extremely bad general environment caused by the international financial and economic crisis, most new member-states were able to converge on the EU average quite fast: within a decade the relative regional level of development measured in GDP per capita terms and compared with the EU average increased by 15 per cent. It should be stressed that among several advantages of EU membership, direct transfers from the EU-level budget played a crucial role in improving competitiveness through investment. Looking beyond narrow-minded net budgetary positions, the author sees mutual comprehensive benefits: the more developed member-states can enjoy additional demand for their products, and in general benefit from the trade-creating effects of enlargement.

Keresleti-kínálati diszharmónia a szervezeti kultúra tükrében (Demand–supply disharmony in the organizational culture)

A szerzők kutatásának célja ráirányítani a figyelmet arra a tényre, hogy a tényleges és potenciális munkavállalók szervezeti kultúrára vonatkozó vágyai és a valóság között jelentős eltérés tapasztalható. Napjaink pénzpiaci és reálgazdasági válságának hatásaként még fokozottabban jelentkezik az igény a változásra, változtatásra nemcsak a szervezetek, de az egyén szintjén is. Ahhoz azonban, hogy a változtatás lehetséges útjai, módjai közül megalapozottan lehessen választani, nemcsak a kívánatos cél kitűzésére, de a kiinduló állapot minél precízebb meghatározására is szükség van. Jelen cikkükben a szerzők egyrészt azokról az eredményekről számolnak be, amelyek az egyetemi hallgatók „vágyott” munkahelyének szervezeti kultúráját, és ennek kapcsolatát a tényleges piaci kínálattal mutatják be. Másrészt egy közszolgáltató cég példáján a munkavállalók szervezeti kultúrára vonatkozó vágyai és a valóság kapcsolatával foglalkoznak. _____ The aim of the authors is to review and examine the gap between the aspirations and reality regarding organizational culture of those already employed and those seeking employment. These days the financial and real economic crisis generated an increased demand for change on the part of organizations as well as individuals. However, in order to map the possibilities for change and formulate a well-founded decision on which alternative to adopt it is essential to define the starting point and to set clear aims. Present article outlines the research results of the aspirations of university students regarding the organizational culture of their possible future workplaces and how they can be related to the reality of labor market supply. Furthermore, by providing the case of a public utility company, the aspirations of employees regarding organizational culture and the way it relates to reality is also presented.

eBEST platform a KKV-klaszterek operatív és együttműködési folyamatainak támogatására (eBEST platform for supporting operational and cooperative processes of SME's clusters)

Az Európai Bizottság jelentése szerint a magyar kis- és középvállalkozások helyzete 2005 óta stagnál. Bár ezek a vállalkozások adják a magyar vállalkozások 99%-át, mégis a közbeszerzési, valamint a növekvő piacokhoz való hozzáférés terén számos akadállyal kerülnek szembe. Az eBEST projekten (Empowering Business Ecosystems of Small Service Enterprises to Face the Economic Crisis) belül kialakított platform olyan funkcionalitással bír, ami mindamellett, hogy lehetővé teszi a vállalkozások szervezett csoportokba, azaz ökoszisztémákba rendeződését, hozzá tud járulni a fogyasztói igények kielégítése érdekében létrejövő ellátási lánc, illetve egyedi folyamatok mentén fellépő információszerzési, kommunikációs vagy együttműködési akadályok lebontásához. ____ It is widely recognised that the most important factor for increasing the productivity of small companies is a deep adoption of computer-based applications and services. The FP7 SME eBEST project proposed a new operational environment specifically conceived for net worked small companies, supported by an advanced suite of ICT services, the eBEST platform. The paper aims at presenting the projects achievements that are validated by a number of company clusters of different EU countries and industry sectors. The general objectives of the eBEST project are attracting customers to work with the clustered companies, facilitating companies to collaborate with each other, and enabling associations to foster the devised innovation.

Latin America and the Caribbean in 2011 and Beyond: A conversation among Latin America and Caribbean Specialists.

For the first time in more than fifty years, the domestic and external conflicts in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) are not primarily ideological in nature. Democracy continues to thrive and its promise still inspires hope. In contrast, the illegal production, consumption, and trading of drugs – and its links to criminal gangs and organizations – represent major challenges to the region, undermining several States’ already weak capacity to govern. While LAC macroeconomic stability has remained resilient, illegal economies fill the region, often offering what some States have not historically been able to provide – elements of human security, opportunities for social mobility, and basic survival. Areas controlled by drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) are now found in Central America, Mexico, and the favelas of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, reflecting their competition for land routes and production areas. Cartels such as La Familia, Los Zetas, and Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC-Brazil), among others, operate like trade and financial enterprises that manage millions of dollars and resources, demonstrating significant business skills in adapting to changing circumstances. They are also merciless in their application of violence to preserve their lucrative enterprises. The El Salvador-Guatemala-Honduras triangle in Central America is now the most violent region in the world, surpassing regions in Africa that have been torn by civil strife for years. In Brazil’s favelas and Guatemala’s Petén region, the military is leaving the barracks again; not to rule, however, but to supplement and even replace the law enforcement capacity of weak and discredited police forces. This will challenge the military to apply lessons learned during the course of their experience in government, or from the civil wars that plagued the region for nearly 50 years during the Cold War. Will they be able to conduct themselves according to the professional ethics that have been inculcated over the past 20 years without incurring violations of human rights? Belief in their potential to do good is high according to many polls as the Armed Forces still enjoy a favorable perception in most societies, despite frequent involvement in corruption. Calling them to fight DTOs, however, may bring them too close to the illegal activities they are being asked to resist, or even rekindle the view that only a “strong hand” can resolve national troubles. The challenge of governance is occurring as contrasts within the region are becoming sharper. There is an increasing gap between nations positioned to surpass their “developing nation” status and those that are practically imploding as the judicial, political and enforcement institutions fall further into the quagmire of illicit activities. Several South American nations are advancing their political and economic development. Brazil in particular has realized macro-economic stability, made impressive gains in poverty reduction, and is on track to potentially become a significant oil producer. It is also an increasingly influential power, much closer to the heralded “emerging power” category that it aspired to for most of the 20th century. In contrast, several Central American States have become so structurally deficient, and have garnered such limited legitimacy, that their countries have devolved into patches of State controlled and non-State-controlled territory, becoming increasingly vulnerable to DTO entrenchment. In the Caribbean, the drug and human trafficking business also thrives. Small and larger countries are experiencing the growing impact of illicit economies and accompanying crime and violence. Among these, Guyana and Suriname face greater uncertainty, as they juggle both their internal affairs and their relations with Brazil and Venezuela. Cuba also faces new challenges as it continues focusing on internal rather than external affairs and attempts to ensure a stable leadership succession while simultaneously trying to reform its economy. Loosening the regime’s tight grip on the economy while continuing to curtail citizen’s civil rights will test the leadership’s ability to manage change and prevent a potential socio-economic crisis from turning into an existential threat. Cuba’s past ideological zest is now in the hands of Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez, who continues his attempts to bring the region together under Venezuelan leadership ideologically based on a “Bolivarian” anti-U.S. banner, without much success. The environment and natural disasters will merit more attention in the coming years. Natural events will produce increasing scales of destruction as the States in the region fail to maintain and expand existing infrastructure to withstand such calamities and respond to their effects. Prospects for earthquakes, tsunamis, and hurricanes are high, particularly in the Caribbean. In addition, there are growing rates of deforestation in nearly every country, along with a potential increase in cross-sector competition for resources. The losers might be small farmers, due to their inability to produce quantities commensurate to larger conglomerates. Regulations that could mitigate these types of situations are lacking or openly violated with near impunity. Indigenous and other vulnerable populations, including African descendants, in several Andean countries, are particularly affected by the increasing extraction of natural resources taking place amongst their terrain. This has led to protests against extraction activities that negatively affect their livelihoods, and in the process, these historically underprivileged groups have transitioned from agenda-based organization to one that is bringing its claims and grievances to the national political agenda, becoming more politically engaged. Symptomatic of these social issues is the region’s chronically poor quality of education that has consistently failed to reduce inequality and prepare new generations for jobs in the competitive global economy, particularly the more vulnerable populations. Simultaneously, the educational deficit is also exacerbated by the erosion of access to information and freedom of the press. The international panorama is also in flux. New security entities are challenging the old establishment. The Union of South American Nations, The South American Defense Council, the socialist Bolivarian Alliance, and other entities seem to be defying the Organization of American States and its own defense mechanisms, and excluding the U.S. And the U.S.’s attention to areas in conflict, namely Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan – rather than to the more stable Latin America and Caribbean – has left ample room for other actors to elbow in. China is now the top trading partner for Brazil. Russian and Iran are also finding new partnerships in the region, yet their links appear more politically inclined than those of China. Finally, the aforementioned increasing commercial ties by LAC States with China have accelerated a return to the preponderance of commodities as sources of income for their economies. The increased extraction of raw material for export will produce greater concern over the environmental impact that is created by the exploitation of natural resources. These expanded trade opportunities may prove counterproductive economically for countries in the region, particularly for Brazil and Chile, two countries whose economic policies have long sought diversification from dependence on commodities to the development of service and technology based industries.

Democratization, stabilization and social movements : the Bolivian case

In this thesis I assessed the state responses to social movements and in turn the impact of these movements on state policy within the context of the democratization occurring in Bolivia. The democratization process is affected by the conflict between political and economic goals. Politically the governments are faced with the demands from social groups. At the same time, the Bolivian government faces an economic crisis which requires stabilization, impairing the same individuals needed for legitimacy and political support. Two cases which depicted the key issues of this thesis are: the indigenous groups in the Bolivian Beni region and the coca growers, mainly of the Chapare area in the Cochabamba department of Bolivia. To achieve support and legitimacy, the new civilian administrations had no choice but to listen to the requests of the social mobilizations. Because of the economic crisis, conflicting domestic pressures and international influence, however, the government could not accede to all their demands.

AUTOMÓVEIS CHINESES CHERY NO MERCADO BRASILEIRO (2010-2014) – UM ESTUDO DE CASO

A globalização possibilitou aos países buscarem seus consumidores em qualquer parte, sendo o Brasil o quarto mercado consumidor de automóveis do mundo, e praticamente todos os fabricantes globais buscaram estar presentes neste mercado. Com os chineses, detentores do título de maiores produtores mundiais de automóveis, não seria diferente. Contudo, ao contrário do crescimento constante de sua produção mundial, viram suas vendas estagnarem em baixos níveis no Brasil nos últimos anos. O objetivo deste estudo é compreender o mau desempenho de vendas da marca Chery no Brasil, sob a óptica dos gerentes de vendas das agências de carros usados e dos ex-proprietários. Para tentar responder a esta questão, optou-se por um estudo de caráter exploratório, por meio de uma revisão bibliográfica e uma pesquisa qualitativa, com entrevistas abertas em profundidade com base em um roteiro preestabelecido e um recorte na cidade de São Paulo – SP. Utilizou-se também uma pesquisa secundária em meios eletrônicos, que confirmou as informações obtidas na pesquisa de campo. Conforme apresentado no trabalho, todas as marcas tiveram redução em suas vendas, porém, as marcas chinesas sofreram maiores reduções que às marcas ditas nacionais. Na pesquisa, observa-se que três fatores foram decisivos para o mau desempenho das marcas chinesas e, consequentemente, da marca Chery também. O primeiro foi o aumento do Imposto sobre Produtos Industrializados (IPI), o segundo foi a crise econômica que o Brasil atravessa e o terceiro foi a rejeição aos carros da Chery. Essa rejeição deveu-se a vários fatores, somados às experiências negativas que consumidores tiveram com marcas de veículos importados que deixaram o país, a imagem de que produtos chineses são cópias e ao hipotético preconceito que produtos chineses são de baixa qualidade. Portanto, ouvindo os entrevistados e por meio dos comentários sobre a marca Chery nos meios eletrônicos, pode-se deduzir que somente a crise econômica e o aumento de impostos não justificam totalmente o mau desempenho de vendas da marca Chery. Essa análise indica que os fatores de rejeição aos veículos da marca Chery tiveram participação decisiva nesta queda significativa de suas vendas no período de 2010 a 2014.

Les coalitions politiques et l'orientation du changement économique et politique aux États-Unis : la Grande Dépression et la Grande Récession comparées

Ce mémoire s’intéresse au concept de crise, économique et politique, comme source de changement idéologique et politique. Au travers de l’étude de l’austérité économique, il sera possible d’identifier des différences majeures entre deux épisodes de troubles économiques importants, la Grande Dépression et la Grande Récession. Alors que la Grande Dépression est caractérisée par une double crise, économique et politique, la Grande Récession, elle, demeure un choc essentiellement économique. L’absence de contagion dans le système politique explique la ténacité d’une idée comme l’austérité, de retour depuis la révolution néolibérale des années 80. L’austérité économique s’est adaptée et s’aligne maintenant aux intérêts d’une frange importante de la coalition démocrate. La persistance de l’allure des coalitions politiques depuis le dernier grand réalignement témoigne de l’absence de transformation majeure du mode d’action étatique, ce qui constitue une différence importante entre les deux crises.

Measuring Tail Risks at High Frequency

I develop a new methodology for measuring tail risks using the cross section of bid-ask spreads. Market makers embed tail risk information into spreads because (1) they lose to arbitrageurs when changes to asset values exceed the cost of liquidity and (2) underlying price movements and potential costs are linear in factor loadings. Using this insight, simple cross-sectional regressions relating spreads and trading volume to factor betas can recover tail risks in real time for priced or non-priced return factors. The methodology disentangles financial and aggregate market risks during the 2007-2008 Financial Crisis; anticipates jump risks associated with Federal Open Market Committee announcements; and quantifies a sharp, temporary increase in market tail risk before and throughout the 2010 Flash Crash. The recovered time series of implied market risks also aligns closely with both realized market jumps and the VIX.

Queering Apartheid: The National Party’s 1987 ‘Gay Rights’ Election Campaign in Hillbrow

This article investigates the anomaly in apartheid history of the ruling National Party's (NP) fielding a ‘pro-gay rights’ candidate in the Hillbrow constituency during the 1987 whites-only election in South Africa. The NP was aided in its Hillbrow campaign by the gay magazine Exit, which encouraged its readership to ‘vote gay’ in the election and published a list of candidates who were favourable to gay rights in South Africa. The Hillbrow campaign is intelligible when the intersections between race and sexuality are analysed and the discourses wielded by the NP and Exit are spatially and historically situated. The Hillbrow/Exit gay rights campaign articulated discourses about the reform of apartheid in white self-interest and conflated white minority and gay minority rights, thereby contributing to the NP's justification for apartheid. The NP candidate's defeat of the incumbent Progressive Federal Party (PFP) MP for Hillbrow, Alf Widman, was trumpeted by Exit as a powerful victory and advance for gay rights in South Africa, but the result provoked a sharp backlash among many white gay men and lesbian women who organised to openly identify with the liberation movement. The Exit/Hillbrow campaign problematises the singular assumptions that are often made about race and sexuality in apartheid South Africa, and illustrates how political, social and economic crisis can provoke reconfigurations of identities vis-à-vis the status quo.

Perspectives on gender, migration and transnational work: joint work of social reproduction and care in Southern Europe

This paper presents the "state of the art" and some of the main issues discussed in relation to the topic of transnational migration and reproductive work in southern Europe. We start doing a genealogy of the complex theoretical development leading to the consolidation of the research program, linking consideration of gender with transnational migration and transformation of work and ways of survival, thus making the production aspects as reproductive, in a context of globalization. The analysis of the process of multiscale reconfiguration of social reproduction and care, with particular attention to its present global dimension is presented, pointing to the turning point of this line of research that would have taken place with the beginning of this century, with the rise notions such as "global care chains" (Hochschild, 2001), or "care drain" (Ehrenreich and Hochschild, 2013). Also, the role of this new agency, now composed in many cases women who migrate to other countries or continents, precisely to address these reproductive activities, is recognized. Finally, reference is made to some of the new conceptual and theoretical developments in this area.