Over the past 25 years, the USA has pioneered a new technological revolution, based on large numbers of new small enterprises, financed by a dynamic venture (risk) capital market. The European Union, meanwhile, has lagged behind in this sector of economic activity, and compared to the US...

Contract service firms in local authorities: evolving geographies of activity, Reg. Studies 33 , 121-130. The introduction of compulsory competitive tendering has significantly reshaped the nature of manual service provision in local authorities. Since 1989, private firms have won an increasing...

In the context of a wave of retail foreign direct investment and increasing recognition acrossmany disciplines of the profound developmental implications of transnational retail within the globaleconomy, this paper examines the institutional and economic factors determining the performance...

A number of studies have tested whether, globally, per capita incomes are converging over time. To date, the majority of studies find no evidence of absolute convergence, but many find evidence of conditional convergence, i.e. convergence having controlled for differences in technological and...

The diffusion of modern, efficient technology has far-reaching consequences for the geography of economic activity, inequality and environmental quality. This article examines two popular yet highly controversial claims about the conditions most favorable to the rapid spread of new technology....

This article examines what explains the relative attractiveness of Western European countries as a destination for asylum seekers. Individuals coming to Western Europe in order to lodge an asylum application are modelled as utility maximisers who choose the destination country that offers the...

Different from the existing literature who focusing on macro-geographical scale (regional or national level), this book investigates the causes and socio-economic effects of foreign direct investment in the Dongguan municipality of southern China during the 1990s. As the first comprehensive...

Based on 26 case studies, this paper investigates the socio-economic causes of the inflow of FDI and its policy implications in Dongguan. The favourable factors for foreign investors in Dongguan can be categorised under the Dunning's OLI (ownership, locational and internalisation advantages)...

This paper investigates the changing competitiveness of foreign-financed manufacturing firms and its implications for regional development in Guangdong province of southern China in the run-up to World Trade Organization (WTO) accession. It is argued that transnational corporations (TNCs) and...

Based on the proposed ‘PIE’ analytical framework, this paper argues that the preparation, implementation and evaluation of international standards (ISOs) affect the competitiveness of (foreign-financed) export-oriented manufacturing industry in southern and southeastern China, both in the...