Editorial:welcome to the LRN2004 annual conference special issue of the International journal of logistics: research and applications

It is a great pleasure to be Guest Editor for this issue – I hope that the papers which are included will be stimulating and support you in your ongoing research activities. A number of guiding principles were adopted in selecting the papers for inclusion in this issue. Firstly, the papers cover a wide range of logistics and supply chain management (SCM) topics. This is a reflection of the evolution of the field in recent years. In terms of the “buy-make-store-move-sell” model of SCM all the main constituent areas are addressed. Secondly, it is important that the conference issue of this Journal reflects the emphasis and content of the conference itself. I have tried to achieve this in terms of the papers included. One interesting point to note is that outsourcing is a theme which is a major issue in a number of papers. This reflects the increasing importance of this issue to organisations of all kinds and sizes. Economic globalisation and the trend towards vertical disintegration of supply chain architectures have sharpened the focus on outsourcing as a key element of supply chain strategy. The need to move beyond the notion that sourcing of certain activities can be some kind of panacea in evident from the relevant contributions. Thirdly, the LRN Annual Conference has become a more international event in recent years...the number of delegates and papers presented from outside the UK has continued to grow. The papers collected in this issue reflect this internationalization. Two papers are worthy of particular comment from an LRN perspective. The contribution by Jaafar and Rafiq has been developed from the submission which won the best paper prize at the LRN 2004 event. The paper by Pettit and Beresford is based on research which was supported by LRN seed corn funding. It was developed form the final report on this work submitted to CITL (UK) via the LRN. The seed corn funding is an important mechanism whereby the LRN supports research in innovative aspects of logistics in UK universities. In many ways, the LRN2004 event in Dublin seems like a long time ago. From my point of view it was one of the most professionally rewarding activities in which I have been involved in my career. It was a time to meet old friends and new and to keep abreast of the multitude of interesting projects being undertaken in over 20 countries. There are too many people to thank for the smooth running of the event. However, my colleague John Mee does warrant a special mention. His logistical skills were seriously put to the test in the weeks and months leading up to September 9th. 2004. I want to acknowledge his particular contribution to the success of the event. Since then we have had the 2005 event at the University of Plymouth. This was again a great opportunity to network with colleagues and many congratulations are due to John Dinwoodie and his team. We now look forward to LRN 2006 in Newcastle...form my part I hope and trust that this issue provides some useful perspectives and insights into the range of topics addressed.

The influence of culture and market orientation on services brands:insights from Irish banking and retail firms

Purpose: This paper aims to examine the influence of the culture of the service firm on its interpretation of the role of the brand and on the development and implementation of its brand values. Design/methodology/approach: A grounded theory approach was used. Interviews were conducted with 20 managers within two leading banking firms in Ireland and two leading grocery retailers in Ireland. Findings: The development of the brand, and its role within the firm, is closely related to the firm's culture. The research shows obstacles and opportunities created by the cultural context of firms wishing to disseminate and embed a set of brand values. The paper presents an "involvement model" of brand values implementation and outlines changes required to implement brand values. Research limitations/implications: The study was bound by access to firms, and managers' availability. The authors sought an insight into the relationship between each firm's culture and its brands. They advocate quantitative research to further investigate the findings within these service sectors and to test proposed antecedents (transformational leadership, employee involvement) and outcomes (employee-based brand equity and consumer-based brand equity) of values adoption. Practical implications: The paper identifies aspects of retail and banking cultures which support or detract from brand development. In particular, it presents the learnings from successful brand values implementation in a clan culture, aspects of which are applicable across other cultures. Originality/value: The paper provides valuable insights into the role of the brand within the service firm and the positive and negative influence of context on brand values and their development and implementation. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

A jelzálogpiaci válság és a Közép-Kelet-Európában aktív nagybankok részvényárfolyama (The impact of the subprime crisis on the banks being active in Central and Eastern Europe)

Tanulmányunkban azt vizsgáljuk, hogy a jelzálogpiaci válsághoz köthető hírek milyen hatással vannak a Közép-Kelet-Európában aktív nagybankokra. A vizsgálathoz tíz Közép-Kelet-Európában aktív, tőzsdei nagybankot választottunk ki, amelyek közül hat nyugat-európai, míg négy közép-kelet-európai székhelyű bank volt. A tíz pénzintézettel kapcsolatosan 128 hírt gyűjtöttünk össze a 2007. június 1. és 2009. december 31. közötti időszakból. A híreket öt kategóriába csoportosítottuk, és az egyes kategóriáknak a részvényárfolyamokra gyakorolt, rövid távú hatását külön vizsgáltuk. Számításaink alapján a jelzálogpiaci válság során a befektetők pozitívan fogadták az állami feltőkésítéssel kapcsolatos bejelentéseket és a kielégítő védelmet nyújtó, átfogó kormányzati bankmentő csomagokat. A veszteségekkel, a leminősítéssel és az ECB intézkedéseivel kapcsolatos hírek esetén rövid távon nem tudtunk szignifikáns hatást kimutatni. A kutatás során a hírek számosságában igen, de a hírek által kiváltott hatás nagyságrendjében nem észleltünk jelentős különbséget a nyugat-európai és a középkelet- európai bankok között. ______ The research measures the impact of the subprime crisis on the shareholders of the banks being active in Central and Eastern Europe. The analysis focuses on the ten largest banks of the region measured by the asset size. The authors address the question whether the crisis affected more signifi cantly the large banks headquartered in Western Europe or the banks domiciled in Central and Eastern Europe. With the aim of capturing the short-term impact of various news on the shareholders of the banks, the popular event-study methodology with a one-day event window is employed. Within the period of 1 June 2007 and 31 December 2009, altogether 128 news were collected and grouped into fi ve categories (downgrades, loss, capital strengthening, governmental rescue packages, interventions of the ECB). Among others, the authors found empirical evidence that the shareholders appreciated the interventions of the governments: their capital injections resulted in signifi cant positive abnormal returns. Governmental rescue packages also resulted in signifi cant abnormal returns in the share price, however, the sign of the returns was unambiguous. No empirical evidence was found that in the short run the news in connection with loss announcements, downgrades and ECB interventions resulted in signifi cant abnormal returns. We concluded that although Western European banks and banks domiciled in Central and Eastern Europe differed in the number of news announced, the crisis affected the banks in both regions in a similar manner.

International Sales of UK Television Content: Change and Continuity in ‘the space in between’ Production and Consumption

Focusing on the UK, this article addresses key issues facing the international distribution industry arising from over-the-top digital distribution and the fragmentation of audiences and revenues. Building on the identification of these issues, it investigates the extent to which UK distribution has altered over a ten-year period, pinpointing continuities in the destination and type of sales alongside changes in the role and structure of the industry as UK-based distributors adapt to a changing UK broadcasting landscape and global production environment. At one level increasing US ownership of UK-based distributors and the arrival of OTT players like Netflix, highlight the tensions between the national orientations of UK broadcasters and the global aspirations of independent producers and distributors. At another level VOD has boosted international sales of UK drama. Although the full impact of SVOD on content and rights has yet to materialise, significant changes in the industry predate the arrival of SVOD.

Language standardization in sociolinguistics and international business: Theory and practice across the table

This chapter addresses the issue of language standardization from two perspectives, bringing together a theoretical perspective offered by the discipline of sociolinguistics with a practical example from international business. We introduce the broad concept of standardization and embed the study of language standardization in the wider discussion of standards as a means of control across society. We analyse the language policy and practice of the Danish multinational, Grundfos, and use it as a “sociolinguistic laboratory” to “test” the theory of language standardization initially elaborated by Einar Haugen to explain the history of modern Norwegian. The table is then turned and a model from International Business by Piekkari, Welch and Welch is used to illuminate recent Norwegian language planning. It is found that the Grundfos case works well with the Haugen model, and the International Business model provides a valuable practical lesson for national language planners, both showing that a “comparative standardology” is a valuable undertaking. More voices “at the table” will allow both theory and practice to be further refined and for the role of standards across society to be better understood.

Financial media, globalisation, and China’s economic integration: comparing narrative construction of the Economist and Caijing

In June 2015, legal frameworks of the Asian Infrastructural Investment Bank were signed by its 57 founding members. Proposed and initiated by China, this multilateral development bank is considered to be an Asian counterpart to break the monopoly of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. In October 2015, China’s Central Bank announced a benchmark interest rate cut to combat the economic slowdown. The easing policy coincides with the European Central Bank’s announcement of doubts over US Fed’s commitment to raise interest rates. Global stock markets responded positively to China’s move, with the exception of the indexes from Wall Street (Bland, 2015; Elliott, 2015). In the meantime, China’s ‘One Belt, One Road’ (or New Silk Road Economic Belt) became atopic of discourse in relation to its growing global economy, as China pledged $40 billion to trade and infrastructure projects (Bermingham, 2015). The foreign policy aims to reinforce the economic belt from western China through Central Asia towards Europe, as well as to construct maritime trading routes from coastal China through the South China Sea (Summers, 2015). In 2012, The Economist launched a new China section, to reveal the complexity of the‘meteoric rise’ of China. John Micklethwait, who was then the chief editor of the magazine, said that China’s emergence as a global power justified giving it a section of its own(Roush, 2012). In July 2015, Hu Shuli, the former chief editor of Caijing, announced the launch of a think tank and financial data service division called Caixin Insight Group, which encompasses the new Caixin China Purchasing Managers Index (PMI). Incooperation with with Markit Group, a principal global provider of PMI, the index soon became a widely cited economic indicator. One anecdote from November’s Caixin shows how much has changed: in a high-profile dialogue between Hu Shuli and Kevin Rudd, Hu insisted on asking questions in English; interestingly, the former Prime Minister of Australia insisted on replying in Chinese. These recent developments point to one thing: the economic ascent of China and its increasing influence on the power play between economics and politics in world markets. China has begun to take a more active role in rule making and enforcement under neoliberal frameworks. However, due to the country’s size and the scale of its economy in comparison to other countries, China’s version of globalisation has unique characteristics. The ‘Capitalist-socialist’ paradox is vital to China’s market-oriented transformation. In order to comprehend how such unique features are articulated and understood, there are several questions worth investigating in the realms of media and communication studies,such as how China’s neoliberal restructuring is portrayed and perceived by different types of interested parties, and how these portrayals are de-contextualised and re-contextualised in global or Anglo-American narratives. Therefore, based on a combination of the themes of globalisation, financial media and China’s economic integration, this thesis attempts to explore how financial media construct the narratives of China’s economic globalisation through the deployment of comparative and multi-disciplinary approaches. Two outstanding elite financial magazines, Britain’s The Economist, which has a global readership and influence, and Caijing, China’s leading financial magazine, are chosen as case studies to exemplify differing media discourses, representing, respectively, Anglo-American and Chinese socio-economic and political backgrounds, as well as their own journalistic cultures. This thesis tries to answer the questions of how and why China’s neoliberal restructuring is constructed from a globally-oriented perspective. The construction primarily involves people who are influential in business and policymaking. Hence, the analysis falls into the paradigm of elite-elite communication, which is an important but relatively less developed perspective in studying China and its globalisation. The comparing of characteristics of narrative construction are the result of the textual analysis of articles published over a ten-year period (mid-1998 to mid-2008). The corpus of samples come from the two media outlets’ coverage of three selected events:China becoming a member of the World Trade Organization, its outward direct investment, and the listing of stocks of Chinese companies in overseas exchanges, which are mutually exclusive in sample collection and collectively exhaustive in the inclusion of articles regarding China’s economic globalisation. The findings help to understand that, despite language, socio-economic and political differences, elite financial media with globally-oriented readerships share similar methods of and approaches to agenda setting, the evaluation of news prominence, the selection of frame, and the advocacy of deeply rooted neoliberal ideas. The comparison of their distinctive features reflects the different phases of building up the sense of identity in their readers as global elites, as well as the different economic interests that are aligned with the corresponding readerships. However, textual analysis is only relevant in terms of exploring how the narratives are constructed and the elements they include; textual analysis alone prevents us from seeing the obstacles and the constrains of the journalistic practices of construction. Therefore, this thesis provides a brief discussion of interviews with practitioners from the two media, in order to understand how similar or different narratives are manifested and perceived, how the concept of neoliberalism deviates from and is justified in the Chinese context, and how and for what purpose deviations arise from Western to Chinese contexts. The thesis also contributes to defining financial media in the domain of elite communication. The relevant and closely interlocking concepts of globalisation, elitism and neoliberalism are discussed, and are used as a theoretical bedrock in the analysis of texts and contexts. It is important to address the agenda-setting and ideological role of elite financial media, because of its narrative formula of infusing business facts with opinions,which is important in constructing the global elite identity as well as influencing neoliberal policy-making. On the other hand, ‘journalistic professionalism’ has been redefined, in that the elite identity is shared by the content producer, reader and the actors in the news stories emerging from the much-compressed news cycle. The professionalism of elite financial media requires a dual definition, that of being professional in the understanding of business facts and statistics, and that of being professional in the making sense of stories by deploying economic logic.

Late-career international migration and reproductive work. A comparison between Peruvian and Ukrainian women in the Southern Europe

Research on the relationship between reproductive work and women´s life trajectories including the experience of labour migration has mainly focused on the case of relatively young mothers who leave behind, or later re-join, their children. While it is true that most women migrate at a younger age, there are a significant number of cases of men and women who move abroad for labour purposes at a more advanced stage, undertaking a late-career migration. This is still an under-estimated and under-researched sub-field that uncovers a varied range of issues, including the global organization of reproductive work and the employment of migrant women as domestic workers late in their lives. By pooling the findings of two qualitative studies, this article focuses on Peruvian and Ukrainian women who seek employment in Spain and Italy when they are well into their forties, or older. A commonality the two groups of women share is that, independently of their level of education and professional experience, more often than not they end up as domestic and care workers. The article initially discusses the reasons for late-career female migration, taking into consideration the structural and personal determinants that have affected Peruvian and Ukrainian women’s careers in their countries of origin and settlement. After this, the focus is set on the characteristics of domestic employment at later life, on the impact on their current lives, including the transnational family organization, and on future labour and retirement prospects. Apart from an evaluation of objective working and living conditions, we discuss women’s personal impressions of being domestic workers in the context of their occupational experiences and family commitments. In this regard, women report varying levels of personal and professional satisfaction, as well as different patterns of continuity-discontinuity in their work and family lives, and of optimism towards the future. Divergences could be, to some extent, explained by the effect of migrants´ transnational social practices and policies of states.

Ernest Mercier, le pétrole et la France

Ernest Mercier est l’un des patrons les plus influents de l'entre-deux-guerres en France. Ses différentes activités industrielles l'ont conduit à siéger sur de vastes pans de l’économie française, notamment du secteur énergétique. La thèse retrace la carrière pétrolière d'un homme qui a joué un rôle central pour le développement d'une industrie devenue stratégique, mais qui est embryonnaire lorsqu'il rejoint ce secteur après la Première Guerre mondiale. Mercier assiste et assure la création d'une industrie pétrolière nationale. Les obstacles se font légion contre les ambitions pétrolières de la France. Elle se présente bien tard sur un marché étroitement contrôlé par de puissants trusts. La recherche et l'exploitation pétrolière demandent d'importantes ressources, et aucune société française n'a les moyens d'une politique indépendante. Certaines banques se lancent alors dans les affaires de pétrole en s'alliant aux grands trusts internationaux. C'est le cas de Paribas; la gestion de ses avoirs roumains représente la première expérience de Mercier dans ce secteur. L'État s'intéresse aussi au pétrole, il devient un acteur incontournable. Le gouvernement français n'a pourtant pas les moyens de ses ambitions dans le domaine pétrolier. La politique nationale mise en place durant l'entre-deux-guerres doit faire appel à l'épargne privée française. La création d'une compagnie nationale, la Compagnie française des pétroles, en 1924 regroupe ainsi les différentes banques et sociétés intéressées au pétrole. Mercier est personnellement choisi par le président Raymond Poincaré pour mener à bien cette mission. Cette carrière s'articule donc autour d'un fragile équilibre entre milieux privés et gouvernement. Mercier devient rapidement l'intermédiaire incontournable qui régit ces relations. La thèse s'appuie sur les archives bancaires et industrielles, mais aussi sur celles du gouvernement français et de ses différents ministères. Cette analyse de la carrière d'Ernest Mercier permet de retracer les origines du secteur pétrolier français et l'action déterminante d'un homme. Elle expose les mécanismes d'influence d'une puissante banque d'affaires et les conflits d'intérêts qu'engendre l'exploitation pétrolière.

Post-Crisis Belarus: Marxism and the Lender of Last Resort

Existing literature has examined the predictions and proscriptions of Karl Marx in response to the 2008 global financial crisis. However, the suggestions put forth by the Marxist-leaning literature never took hold and state-level banking and finance policies have remained largely unchanged. While many criticisms of Marxism exist, this paper examines Belarus, a ‘neo-communist’ or ‘market-socialist’ state, to provide a new perspective on the continuation of capitalism in the United States and Europe. In the case of Belarus, the International Monetary Fund and the Eurasian Economic Community's Anti-Crisis Fund provided both the critical liquidity needed to temporarily quell the effects of the financial crisis. Their demands meant that Belarus agreed to speed its move away from the Soviet-era finance and banking policies and more towards its western capitalist neighbors. Its failure to implement these policies further hurt its recovery. Examining Belarus' path to and out of its financial crisis makes apparent that the role of the international lender of last resort (LOLR). The LOLR acts as a key element in protecting states embroiled in the financial crisis from facing the possibility of making the difficult policy changes put forth by the Marxist literature. By ignoring its promises under the loan conditions from its LOLRs, Belarus moved further from the recovery promised by the Marxist suggestions.

International molders' and foundry workers' journal.

Mode of access: Internet.

Ernest Mercier, le pétrole et la France

Ernest Mercier est l’un des patrons les plus influents de l'entre-deux-guerres en France. Ses différentes activités industrielles l'ont conduit à siéger sur de vastes pans de l’économie française, notamment du secteur énergétique. La thèse retrace la carrière pétrolière d'un homme qui a joué un rôle central pour le développement d'une industrie devenue stratégique, mais qui est embryonnaire lorsqu'il rejoint ce secteur après la Première Guerre mondiale. Mercier assiste et assure la création d'une industrie pétrolière nationale. Les obstacles se font légion contre les ambitions pétrolières de la France. Elle se présente bien tard sur un marché étroitement contrôlé par de puissants trusts. La recherche et l'exploitation pétrolière demandent d'importantes ressources, et aucune société française n'a les moyens d'une politique indépendante. Certaines banques se lancent alors dans les affaires de pétrole en s'alliant aux grands trusts internationaux. C'est le cas de Paribas; la gestion de ses avoirs roumains représente la première expérience de Mercier dans ce secteur. L'État s'intéresse aussi au pétrole, il devient un acteur incontournable. Le gouvernement français n'a pourtant pas les moyens de ses ambitions dans le domaine pétrolier. La politique nationale mise en place durant l'entre-deux-guerres doit faire appel à l'épargne privée française. La création d'une compagnie nationale, la Compagnie française des pétroles, en 1924 regroupe ainsi les différentes banques et sociétés intéressées au pétrole. Mercier est personnellement choisi par le président Raymond Poincaré pour mener à bien cette mission. Cette carrière s'articule donc autour d'un fragile équilibre entre milieux privés et gouvernement. Mercier devient rapidement l'intermédiaire incontournable qui régit ces relations. La thèse s'appuie sur les archives bancaires et industrielles, mais aussi sur celles du gouvernement français et de ses différents ministères. Cette analyse de la carrière d'Ernest Mercier permet de retracer les origines du secteur pétrolier français et l'action déterminante d'un homme. Elle expose les mécanismes d'influence d'une puissante banque d'affaires et les conflits d'intérêts qu'engendre l'exploitation pétrolière.

Reputational risk of banks : a study on the effects of regulatory sanctions for major european banks

Mestrado em Finanças

Governed by the cycle : direct and inverted interest-rate sensitivity of emerging market corporate debt

An innovative approach to quantify interest rate sensitivities of emerging market corporates is proposed. Our focus is centered at price sensitivity of modeled investment grade and high yield portfolios to changes in the present value of modeled portfolios composed of safe-haven assets, which define risk-free interest rates. Our methodology is based on blended yield indexes. Modeled investment horizons are always kept above one year thus allowing to derive empirical implications for practical strategies of interest rate risk management in the banking book. As our study spans over the period 2002 – 2015, it covers interest rate sensitivity of assets under the pre-crisis, crisis, and post-crisis phases of the economic cycles. We demonstrate that the emerging market corporate bonds both, investment grade and high yield types, depending on the phase of a business cycle exhibit diverse regimes of sensitivity to interest rate changes. We observe switching from a direct positive sensitivity under the normal pre-crisis market conditions to an inverted negative sensitivity during distressed turmoil of the recent financial crisis, and than back to direct positive but weaker sensitivity under new normal post-crisis conjuncture. Our unusual blended yield-based approach allows us to present theoretical explanations of such phenomena from economics point of view and helps us to solve an old controversy regarding positive or negative responses of credit spreads to interest rates. We present numerical quantification of sensitivities, which corroborate with our conclusion that hedging of interest rate risk ought to be a dynamic process linked to the phases of business cycles as we evidence a binary-like behavior of interest rate sensitivities along the economic time. Our findings allow banks and financial institutions for approaching downside risk management and optimizing economic capital under Basel III regulatory capital rules.

The real effects of banking supervision:evidence from enforcement actions

We present a novel way to examine macro-financial linkages by focusing on the real effects of bank supervisors’ enforcement actions. Exploiting plausibly exogenous variation in supervisory monitoring intensity, we show that enforcement actions in single-market banks trigger temporarily large adverse effects for the macroeconomy by reducing personal income growth, the number of establishments, and increasing unemployment. These effects are related to contractions in bank lending and liquidity creation, and are more pronounced when we consider enforcement actions on both single-market and multi-market banks, and in counties with fewer banks and greater external financial dependence.

Ciclos económicos, capital bancario y nuevas opciones de política económica

El objetivo de este trabajo es utilizar algunos hechos estilizados de la "Gran recesión", específicamente la drástica caída en el nivel de capitalización bancario, para analizar la relación entre los ciclos financieros y los ciclos reales, así como la efectividad de la política monetaria no convencional y las políticas macroprudenciales. Para esto, en el primer capítulo se desarrolla una microfundamentación de la banca a partir de un modelo de Costly State Verification, que es incluido posteriomente en distintas especificaciones de modelos DSGE. Los resultados muestran que: (i) los ciclos financieros y los ciclos económicos pueden relacionarse a partir del deterioro del capital bancario; (ii) Las políticas macroprudenciales y no convencionales son efectivas para moderar los ciclos económicos, pero son costosas en términos de recursos e inflación.