Suchergebnisse

A succession of disruptions to world trade have put the reorganisation of inter­national supply chains high on the political agenda. The difficulties began with the trade war between the United States and China, deepened with the Covid-19 pan­demic and culminated in the sanctions and export controls imposed by Western countries after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The increased risk of interruption of supplies forces businesses today to price in political factors and respond to political demands. However, realistic timeframes for reconfiguring supply chains are largely incompatible with the rapid responses expected by political decision-makers, espe­cially where chains are long and complex. A process needs to be developed for dealing more effectively with political supply chains risks. It should be transparent for all involved. (author's abstract)

Purpose
Due to today's volatile business environment companies have started to establish a better understanding of the total risk/benefit-balance concerning manufacturing location decisions of their component supply. The focus is now much more on comprehensive and strategic supply chain issues rather than simply relying on piece-part cost analysis. This has led to an emerging trend called re-shoring. The purpose of this paper is to understand the primary motivation behind the re-shoring strategy in the UK and investigate the factors that influence this decision from Indian industries perspectives.


Design/methodology/approach
The analysis of the paper is based on interviews conducted in the UK and India (state of Tamil Nadu) in various industries including automotive, industrial goods, textile, and marine. For this purpose an interview framework based on key enablers identified from the literature, being information technology solutions, manufacturing equipment and human factors. This provided an assessment of the capability of the companies for being responsive to western demand.


Findings
The findings indicate that re-shoring to the UK is the result of inadequacy in responsiveness and long production lead times of the Indian suppliers. The outcome of this paper indicates that the top factors behind this inadequacy in responsiveness are logistics and transportation, electricity shortage, excessive paperwork and working attitude.


Originality/value
This paper aims to fill the gap in the re-shoring literature by providing a clear picture behind the reason for re-shoring in the UK and identify the drivers behind this shortcoming in the component supply from India.

How do autocrats build support? This study argues that autocrats create and maintain participatory technologies—elite-mass communication strategies that promote two-way interaction between citizens and leaders—to foster support. Participatory technologies provide citizens with the opportunity to have a limited voice in otherwise closed political systems. I test this theory through a series of two nationally-representative survey experiments in Russia. Results suggest that awareness of participatory technologies increases approval of President Putin and improves perceptions that there are opportunities for voice in politics. This finding departs from previous research that suggests public opinion is influenced primarily by participation. Furthermore, I demonstrate that these effects can be directly attributed to the communicative format of these strategies, not to issue resolution or leadership effects. Finally, I demonstrate that effects are dependent upon individuals' political sophistication and political priors, contributing to political polarization and opening up the potential for backlash against the regime.

Abstract
Ecuador became the third largest receiver of the 4.3 million Venezuelans who left their country in the last five years, hosting around 10 per cent of them. Little is known about the characteristics of these migrants and their labor market outcomes. This article fills this gap by analyzing a new large survey (EPEC). On average, Venezuelan workers are highly skilled and have high rates of employment, compared with Ecuadorans. However, their employment is of much lower quality, characterized by low wages, and high rates of informality and temporality. Venezuelans have experienced significant occupational downgrading, relative to their employment prior to emigration. As a result, despite their high educational attainment, Venezuelans primarily compete for jobs with the least skilled and more economically vulnerable Ecuadoran workers. Our simulations suggest that measures that allow Venezuelans to obtain employment that matches their skills, such as facilitating the conversion of education credentials, would increase Ecuador's GDP between 1.6 and 1.9 per cent and alleviate the pressure on disadvantaged native workers. We also show that providing work permits to Venezuelan workers would substantially reduce their rates of informality and increase their average earnings.