Although science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors remain male dominated, women's greater enrollment in STEM is one of the greatest transformations to occur in U.S. higher education in the past half century. But to what extent have women's gains in STEM enrollment translated to greater parity in labor market outcomes? Although the challenges women face in STEM have been well documented, questions about the influence of gender for STEM employment and earnings differences remain. In the present research, the authors use data from recent birth cohorts in the American Community Survey between 2009 and 2018 (starting with the first year college majors were available in the survey) and a reweighting technique from labor economics to track the evolution of gender inequalities in STEM employment and earnings inequality among STEM work at the onset of labor market entry. Even among a sample expected to produce highly conservative gender differences, sizable gender inequalities in STEM employment are observed. The authors show that despite women's gains in STEM education among recent cohorts, women with STEM degrees face employment prospects in STEM work that more closely resemble those of men without STEM degrees than men with STEM degrees. Moreover, although modest gender earnings gaps eventually emerge for those without STEM degrees, large gaps occur at the outset of employment for STEM workers. Thus, although STEM education provides important opportunities for women's earning potential, it may be less effective in itself to address significant gender inequalities among STEM employment.
JEL Classification: F23, M16 ; This work describes the development of the internationalization strategy of the Austrian sensors developer Senmicro GmbH. This company, which was founded in 2008, develops, produces and markets sensors to measure moisture during the production of paper in a very innovative way. In order to continue with their successful expansion, Senmicro's management is seeking for new markets in Asia. This project has the objective to find the most promising country for the Austrian company, give the management detailed information about the selected country and assist to develop an entry strategy. Therefore, it first depicts a comparison between the pre-selected Asian countries China, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam, based on various indicators available from official institutions. These economic, political, legal and market indicators allowed an objective comparison of the attractiveness of the six countries. From this comparison, China was selected as target market. Secondly, this thesis gives a detailed picture of China based on the PESTEL model. Political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal factors of China were analyzed taking into account the needs of Senmicro's management, in order to develop a strategy for the market entry. In the last part the different potential entry modes in China are explained and analyzed, again in respect to the needs of Senmicro. Furthermore it gives an idea about the next steps the company should make. ; O seguinte estudo descreve o desenvolvimento da estratégia de internacionalização da empresa Austriaca, Senmicro GmbH, que na sua actividade desenvolve sensores para diversos equipamentos. Fundada em 2008, esta empresa desenvolve, produz e comercializa sensores cuja função é medir a humidade durante o processo de produção de papel de uma forma inovadora. A fim de prosseguir a sua bem-sucedida expansão, a Senmicro procura agora novos mercados, com destaque para a Ásia. Este projeto tem como objetivo encontrar o país mais promissor, juntamente com a partilha de informação detalhada do mesmo, promovendo uma estratégia de entrada. Em primeiro lugar está uma comparação entre os países asiáticos pré-selecionados: China, Indonésia, Japão, Coreia do Sul, Taiwan e Vietnam. Com base em vários indicadores disponíveis por instituições oficiais, os indicadores econômicos, políticos, legais e de mercado permitiram uma comparação objectiva da atratividade dos seis países. A partir dessa comparação, a China foi escolhida como mercadoalvo. Em segundo lugar, este estudo dá uma imagem detalhada do País com base no modelo PESTEL. Factores políticos, econômicos, sociais, tecnológicos, ambientais e legais da China foram analisados tendo em conta as necessidades específicas da Senmicro, a fim de desenvolver uma estratégia de entrada no mercado. Finalmente de modo a complementar o estudo, foram revistos os diferentes modos de entrada no mercado Chinês. Onde são explicados e analisados, de novo no que diz respeito às necessidades de Senmicro. Adicionalmente, é dada uma ideia sobre os próximos passos a tomar pela empresa.
This thesis is an approach to the study of politics from Science and Technology Studies (STS); I present a literature review to make the study of politics a case for STS. Then, I make an analysis of the legislative process in the Congress of Colombia taking as entry point the approval of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Korea in 2014. This analysis is divided into two parts: first it is analyzed the way the FTA is translated into a matter of public interest in order to be an object of debate and its journey in the legislative process, here rhetoric, quantification and mechanisms of closure are used to understand the path of a bill in the legislative process. Second, it is analyzed how the production of law in the Congress is also producing a boundary that tries to create the separation between society and the state. At this point were relevant three topics: the enrolment of interests in order to gain access for studying the Congress, the study of documents and its performativity to establish who can be part of the legislative process and the assemblage that produces the Congress through its architecture. Finally I make an overview of the possible research directions that this thesis have opened for anyone interested in the studying of politics from a STS informed perspective. ; Resumen: Esta tesis es una aproximación al estudio de la política desde el campo de los Estudios de la Ciencia y la Tecnología (STS). Presento un resumen de literatura para hacer del estudio de la política un caso de estudio para los STS. Luego hago un análisis del trámite legislativo en el Congreso de Colombia tomando como punto de entrada la aprobación del Tratado de Libre Comercio (TLC) con la República de Corea en 2014. Este análisis se divide en dos partes: primero se analiza la forma en que el TLC es traducido como un asunto de interés público para convertirlo en un objeto de debate y su trayectoria en el trámite legislativo, aquí la retórica, cuantificación y mecanismos de cierre se usan para entender el paso de un proyecto de ley por el trámite legislativo. Segundo, se analiza como la producción de ley en el Congreso está también produciendo una frontera que intenta crear la separación entre la sociedad y el estado. En este punto fueron relevantes tres temas: el enrolamiento de intereses para obtener acceso al Congreso, el estudio de los documentos y su performatividad para establecer quien puede ser parte del trámite legislativo y el ensamblado que produce el Congreso a través de su arquitectura. Finalmente hago una aproximación a las posibles líneas de investigación que esta tesis ha abierto para quien tenga interés en estudiar la política desde una perspectiva informada por los STS. ; Maestría
The success of the car is largely explained by its autonomy, which itself has several dimensions. The first is the ability to produce mobility oneself, without being dependent on the transport services offered by the community or transport undertakings. The second is the flexibility offered by the personal vehicle as regards the choice of timetables, destinations, accompanying persons and the possibility of changing their itinerary at any time. The third aspect of autonomy is control over the driving of the vehicle. The desire for autonomy also makes it possible to explain the increase in the number of households' motor vehicles over several decades, and the resulting increase in traffic, mainly as a result of the spread of multi-equipment, which has enabled women to gain access to autonomous mobility, linked to the increase in female activity. The car is particularly popular by women in the middle of their life cycle, at a time when the combination of work and family constraints leads to increased mobility, due to the possibility of easily connecting journeys for various reasons, including work and school coaching, by limiting the time spent in transport. However, car ownership and use have shown signs of slowing down in France and most developed countries over the last few years, such as the stabilisation of multi-equipment, the reduction in car mobility in large urban areas and the capping of traffic at national level. This change is due in particular to the increase in the general cost of mobility, in view of the increase in fuel prices and the deterioration in transport times, as a result of travel policies (speed moderation, green lanes, parking restrictions and charges, etc.) which reduce real speeds and make car use more difficult. Attitudes towards cars also tend to be rationalised in the new generations, for which car is becoming a mere means of transport among others, fuelling new mobility services (car sharing, carpooling, car rental between private individuals, etc.) based on the use rather than ...
Multimarket (or multipoint) contact has been shown to deter aggressive actions by rivals toward each other, producing a situation of mutual forbearance among firms. To create this deterrent capability, however, firms must enter each others' markets, which is just the kind of action that the deterrent is supposed to limit. This study explores the questions: Under what conditions are firms likely to behave aggressively toward their multimarket rivals by entering their markets and when will they engage in mutual forbearance? We describe how the effect of multimarket contact on the market-entry moves of a firm changes as the level of contact a firm has with its rivals increases. We draw on competitive intelligence and decision-making theory to argue that the competitive advantages associated with multimarket contact are supplemented by the fact that a firm's multimarket competitors serve as a readily available model to reduce the uncertainty associated with market-entry decisions. We hypothesize that these factors lead firms to prefer, up to the point where forbearance concerns become paramount, to enter the markets in which their multipoint rivals already compete. We also argue that once multimarket contact levels reach the point where forbearance begins to operate, these levels also serve to stabilize the structure through better competitive intelligence, with the result that the propensity of a firm to enter into additional markets of its multimarket rivals declines. We then extend multimarket theory by focusing on the role of the CEO. Specifically, we argue that newer and longer-tenured CEOs are likely to face different influences on their preferences for particular competitive actions. We test hypotheses that link the likelihood that CEOs will abide by the mutual interdependencies that their firm's multimarket ties represent to their tenure in the CEO position. Our findings produce support for an inverted-U-shaped relationship between multipoint contact and market entry. We also find evidence that longer-tenured CEOs are guided by their firm's multimarket relationships. Newer CEOs, however, do not seem to adopt a forbearance approach toward their firm's multimarket competitors. Our findings have important implications for multimarket theory. This study is among the first to examine the role of managers within a multimarket context. We show that it is not enough for a firm to be embedded within a multimarket structure, but that for a firm to benefit from its multimarket position, its managers must be aware of this positioning and free of other influences that could cause them to behave in ways that are inconsistent with it. Because our findings show that newer CEOs can direct their firms to act in ways that are inconsistent with their firm's multimarket position, we identify an area of potential competitive vulnerability for the firm.
The paper tries to evaluate the optimal entry mode of a Multinational Company that is choosing among export, fragmented production structure with assembly-line FDI in LDC or complete production in LDC with FDI. The results show that if the plant installation cost is sufficiently high then the firm will find it profitable to export the finished product to the LDC market and the Government will not exercise any IPR restriction. If plant installation cost is below a certain critical level the MNC chooses complete LDC production with FDI over assembly-line FDI if the IPR restriction is strong, where the model assumes that a fake producer can copy the product if complete production takes place in LDC. In such a situation government will choose to protect IPR if government earning exceeds the cost of IPR protection, otherwise no monitoring is the optimal strategy of the government and MNC will choose the strategy of fragmented production structure and assembly-line FDI will take place in LDC.
This essay is based on a case study of international medical graduates (IMGs) in Canada who migrated from sub-Saharan Africa. The chapter examines how narratives of race are situated and deployed in the field of medicine and can produce some aversive social–psychological landscapes in the credentialing and the professional-entry process as it relates to persons of African descent. It will show that, often without predetermination or intent, professionals of African descent in Canada are highly susceptible to implicit racial associations and implicit racial stereotyping in relation to evaluations of character, credentials, and culture. The article exposes some of the critical intersections of common experience, such as: (a) cultural deficit bias—Whiteness as an institutionalized cultural capital attribute; (b) confirmation bias—reaching a negative conclusion and working backwards to find evidence to support it; (c) repurposed sub-Saharan Blackness stereotypes—binary forms of techno-scamming and fraud; and (d) biased deception judgement—where the accuracy of deception judgements deteriorates when made across cultures. These social psychological phenomena result in significantly disproportionate returns on their foreign education and labour market experience for Black medical professionals that require decisive efforts in changing the narratives.
Half the people in the world require a refractive eyesight correction and sixty million are blind. Over eighty percent of eye problems occur in the rapidly increasing older population, magnifying the demands for eye care as an increasing priority for health systems. The global value of the direct imposts of visual impairment and losses of quality of life together are many hundreds of billions of dollars. Sadly, over seventy-five percent of impairment could be successfully treated with cost effective, readily available techniques and better service delivery systems. This thesis examines the eye care system in a middle income country, Thailand, to determine what could be an appropriate training and service delivery model. The contention is that the key to improving the existing system is the provision of sufficient eye personnel with carefully defined but limited training who can produce satisfactory outcomes and who have targeted roles within the general health system. The search for a remodelled system was through the examination of four propositions: 1. That the present pattern of eye care service provision is an inappropriate model for Thailand 2. That a competencies-based multi entry/multi exit training scheme can provide an appropriate eye care workforce in Thailand 3. That the structuring of national health and eye care services to employ the output from a multi entry/multi exit training system would result in a widely available, equitable and cost effective utilisation of resources 4. That the structuring human resources within eye care services in Thailand along the lines suggested in Proposition 3 is acceptable to the major stakeholders The first finding of the thesis was that present government policies, staffing levels, training and deployment systems were inadequate to cover Thailand's predicted needs; that within fifteen years the number of required eye services would be at least double the present planned capacity for refractions and quadruple for cataract removal, these being the two main vision ...
Increase in the number of satellites and the utilization of digital cameras in the aerial photography has spread the use of satellite image and oriented aerial photograph as real or near-real time resolution, accessible, cost effective spatial data. Co-registered images or aerial photos corrected for the height variations and orthogonality (scale) have become an essential input for geographical information systems and spatial decision making due to their integration with the other spatial data. Beyond that, images and photographs compose infrastructure for the other information in usage of spatial data with the help of the access and query facility web providing. Although the issue of the aerial photo ortho-rectification has been solved long ago, the problems related with the storage of huge amount of photos and images, their management, processes, and user accesses have been raised. These subjects concern the multitudinous private and governmental institutes. Some governmental organizations and private companies have gained the technical ability to perform these works in recent times. This situation has lead to significant increase in the amount of aerial photograph taking and processing in one year for whole country. General Command of Mapping has been using digital aerial camera since 2008 for the photograph taking. The total area covered by the satellite images, purchased for different purposes, and the aerial photographs, taken for some revision purposes or demands of governmental and private institutes, has reached up to 200.000 km². It is considered that, colored and high resolution orthophotos of the whole country can be achieved within four years; provided that the annual production would continue similarly without any increase in amount. From the numbers given above, it is clear and inevitable that the orthophoto production procedure must be improved in order to produce orthophotos in the same year just after the photograph takings. Necessary studies about the storage, management and presentation of the huge amounts of orthophoto images to the users must be started immediately. In this study; metadata components of the produced orthophotos compatible with the international standards have been defined, a relational database has been created to keep complete and accurate metadata, and a user interface has been developed to insert the metadata into the database. Through the developed software, some extra time has been saved while creating and querying the metadata.
Increase in the number of satellites and the utilization of digital cameras in the aerial photography has spread the use of satellite image and oriented aerial photograph as real or near-real time resolution, accessible, cost effective spatial data. Co-registered images or aerial photos corrected for the height variations and orthogonality (scale) have become an essential input for geographical information systems and spatial decision making due to their integration with the other spatial data. Beyond that, images and photographs compose infrastructure for the other information in usage of spatial data with the help of the access and query facility web providing. Although the issue of the aerial photo ortho-rectification has been solved long ago, the problems related with the storage of huge amount of photos and images, their management, processes, and user accesses have been raised. These subjects concern the multitudinous private and governmental institutes. Some governmental organizations and private companies have gained the technical ability to perform these works in recent times. This situation has lead to significant increase in the amount of aerial photograph taking and processing in one year for whole country. General Command of Mapping has been using digital aerial camera since 2008 for the photograph taking. The total area covered by the satellite images, purchased for different purposes, and the aerial photographs, taken for some revision purposes or demands of governmental and private institutes, has reached up to 200.000 km². It is considered that, colored and high resolution orthophotos of the whole country can be achieved within four years; provided that the annual production would continue similarly without any increase in amount. From the numbers given above, it is clear and inevitable that the orthophoto production procedure must be improved in order to produce orthophotos in the same year just after the photograph takings. Necessary studies about the storage, management and presentation of the huge amounts of orthophoto images to the users must be started immediately. In this study; metadata components of the produced orthophotos compatible with the international standards have been defined, a relational database has been created to keep complete and accurate metadata, and a user interface has been developed to insert the metadata into the database. Through the developed software, some extra time has been saved while creating and querying the metadata.
From the introduction: 'Brazil is rich: rich in natural resources, rich in fertile soil, and rich in people". Although the country still shows deficits in different areas, the Brazilian market has attracted large investors and companies especially in the past decade. The country's potential has been the focus of many analysts and researchers by renowned economic institutes. After years of high inflation and slow growth – especially in the eighties and early nineties – Brazil was able to recover and get back into game with the other global players. From a historic perspective it is to say that the country has gone through large transition periods in the last century. Emerging from being a major coffee exporter until the early 20th century, Brazil now belongs to one of the most industrialized countries in Latin America. Although it is the largest country in the region in terms of population figures and geographical size, its GDP share in Latin America or annual growth rate offer a different conclusion. Nevertheless, the consulting market in Brazil has been growing, in particular during the last ten years. Many European and North American consulting companies have invested into the country, built branch offices and bought local firms. Although the market is still very young, its future potential has clearly been discovered. When thinking of Brazil, the words that tend to enter people's minds are positive sounding ones such as Samba, Carneval and beautiful beaches which radiate joy and energy. On the other side issues like criminality, poverty and high social inequality are often associated with Brazil as well. Either way, it is almost certain that one will have heard of Brazil. The country manifested itself in the mind of people and has made front page news more than once. Objective, relevance and research questions: The objective of the thesis is neither to conduct a market evaluation nor to point out the importance and future relevance of Brazil in the world economy. In fact this work is an empirical study on a market entry strategy which can serve as a reference for management consulting companies that want to enter the Brazilian consulting market. Furthermore, the work attempts to deliver a comprehensive picture of this market, with the intention of elaborating on whether it is wise to invest in Brazil, or whether there may be another – more suitable – Latin American country. Yet, the focus lies on the framework for strategy formulation and the proposals that will be made thereupon. In order to accomplish this, both a classical and an empirical approach were chosen whose outcomes will be compared to one another in the last chapter. LEAN Management is a booming term in the consulting business. Everybody wants to learn the 'LEAN-Thinking" and apply the method to his/her own company. Since the late 1990s LEAN Management is experiencing an upward trend and the word has spread all over the globe to reach Brazil. Consequently, there is a growing demand for LEAN in this country, as evidenced by the number of consulting companies already present in the market and the excellent prospects it shows. The aim of the thesis is to propose which geographical regions and economic sectors in Brazil may yield attractive prospects for management consulting companies. The information is then used to formulate a market entry strategy for LEAN Consulting in the Brazilian market. In addition, proposals will be made and future scenarios presented to the reader which are augmented by emprircal findings. Based on the introduction and the objective of the topic – giving a perspective of the situation in Brazil – the following two research questions are being raised. Is the LEAN market in Brazil a suitable market for a LEAN consulting company to invest in? Which recommendations for an entry strategy can be given when entering the Brazilian LEAN market? Out of these research questions, a sub-question is derived. Can Brazil serve as an entry port to Latin America for LEAN consulting businesses? The analysis of these questions will be conducted through a theoretical as well as an empirical approach. Structure of the topic: After having presented the objective and relevance of the topic as well as the research questions, the author will introduce the structure of the thesis. Accordingly, to strengthen the arguments that will be highlighted in the conclusion, the thesis is divided into three parts. The first part consists of theoretical results selected from secondary research. Based on the theory, an empirical study is conducted, involving a group of experts who will elaborate on their personal experiences and opinions with regards to the topic. The empirical findings deduced from the study are compared with the theoretical results in order to verify, if there exist a consensus among theory and empiricism. This comparison is then used to build up the third part of the thesis – the conclusion. Methodology: In order to create a solid basis for the strategy formulation chapters two and three provide a brief overview of the economic situation in Brazil – in a Latin American context – from the earliest settlement in the 14th century until today. Furthermore, an evaluation of the market, its productivity and its growth potential, completes the picture. Recent political changes have brought an upwind into the descending system. Since the implementation of the Real Plan in 1994 the country has experienced low inflation, trade liberalization, substantial privatization, increases in import penetration and the expansion of FDI. Thus, Brazil has reason to hope for future in prosperity. The information drawn for this section consists of secondary research, covering literature as well as various online resources and online libraries, to provide an adequate framework. The literature is primarily in English and partly in German or Portuguese language. The term LEAN Consulting is explained in detail in chapter four, in order to understand the impact and relevance of the term in this context. The literature for this part is provided by a consulting company that is working according to the LEAN principles. It consists entirely of secondary research with books and magazines as main sources. The LEAN Consulting market in Brazil has a special importance for the topic and the sources are given by the same consulting company. After having applied the theoretical framework of the thesis, chapter five provides the framework for the strategy formulation. The basis to this approach is the Five-Forces-Model by Michael E. Porter. Since the topic – market entry strategy – is a rather practical issue, the main part consists of empirical findings deducted from a Delphi Study. It is based on expert interviews that were held with a group of initially nine experts from the consulting business in two stages. In the first stage, these experts were confronted with two questionnaires – consisting of open and closed questions – which they had to answer based on their personal experience and opinion. The questionnaire in the second round was based on the summarized answers of the first one, raising new thoughts to the topic. The questionnaires were submitted in German, since all of the participants were either native German speakers or had sufficient knowledge of the German language to understand the questions. The aim of this Delphi Study was to gain opinions and experiences that can neither be found in books nor in any other relevant literature. Usually, Delphi Studies are used for business forecasting. The author receives new viewpoints that are based on personal experience of the experts by living in Brazil and working in the consulting business during the last decades. The last part of the thesis draws the conclusion, comparing the classical market entry approach to the empirical findings of the Delphi Study. This then gives a profound basis for constructing strategic recommendations and provides a future outlook. It is interesting to see how the experts of the Delphi Study view the future prospect of the consulting business in the country and what should be done to boost economic growth in this area. The thesis concludes by summarizing all important findings under consideration of the background layed out in the first part of the thesis.Inhaltsverzeichnis:Table of Contents: ABSTRACT IN ENGLISH LANGUAGEIII ABSTRACT AUF DEUTSCHIV 1.INTRODUCTION1 1.1OBJECTIVE, RELEVANCE AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS1 1.2STRUCTURE OF THE TOPIC2 1.3METHODOLOGY5 2.ECONOMIC OVERVIEW AND BACKGROUND OF BRAZIL7 2.1MERCOSUR7 2.1.1History8 2.1.2Foundation8 2.1.3Economic role of the Mercosur9 2.2THE COUNTRY BRAZIL10 2.2.1Political and economic history11 2.2.2Economic environment13 2.2.3Political environment14 2.2.4Macroeconomic data15 2.2.5Social inequality17 2.2.6Level of corruption and governance indicators19 3.MARKET EVALUATION22 3.1THE 'THREE-SECTOR-THEORY' OF BRAZIL22 3.2PRODUCTIVITY24 3.3POTENTIAL MARKETS FOR MANAGEMENT CONSULTING COMPANIES25 3.3.1Major Brazilian companies26 3.3.2Strongest regions in Brazil31 3.3.3Most promising branches34 3.4CONCLUSION35 4.LEAN CONSULTING37 4.1DEFINITION AND PHILOSOPHY OF LEAN37 4.2TYPICAL PRACTICES APPLIED39 4.3DIFFERENCES OF LEAN MANAGEMENT TOWARDS OTHER METHODS42 4.4MANAGEMENT CONSULTING COMPANIES IN BRAZIL44 4.4.1LEAN consulting companies in Brazil45 4.4.2The IBCO47 4.5REASONS TO CHOOSE AN EXTERNAL CONSULTANCY47 4.5.1Criteria to choose consulting services48 4.5.2Average consulting fees48 4.6CONCLUSION49 5.MARKET ENTRY STRATEGY51 5.1OVERVIEW OF THE CLASSICAL MARKET ENTRY STRATEGY51 5.1.1Methods for market entry52 5.1.1.1Contractual agreements53 5.1.1.2Sole Venture54 5.1.2Influencing factors for the entry mode decision55 5.1.3Special characteristics of services56 5.2MARKET ENTRY STRATEGY INTO THE LEAN CONSULTING MARKET57 5.2.1Competition57 5.2.2Opportunities and threats62 5.2.3Framework for strategy formulation64 5.2.3.1Business communication65 5.2.3.2Starting the business66 5.2.3.3Employing foreign workers67 5.2.3.4Obtaining a credit69 5.2.3.5Legal constraints70 5.2.4The Delphi Study71 5.2.4.1Reasons to choose the Delphi method73 5.2.4.2Limits to the Delphi method74 5.2.4.3Experts75 5.2.4.4First round76 5.2.4.5Second round78 5.2.4.6Short summary of most important findings81 6.CONCLUSION83 6.1FINAL RESULTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS83 6.2DIRECT COMPARISON OF THEORY AND EMPIRICISM86 6.3FUTURE OUTLOOK88 6.4PROSPECT FOR FURTHER RESEARCH90 7.BIBLIOGRAPHY91 7.1BOOKS91 7.2ARTICLES/PUBLICATIONS92 7.3WEBSOURCES94 7.4FURTHER READING AND EXPERTS97 8.APPENDIX98 8.1DELPHI STUDY - SUMMARY OF FIRST ROUND98 8.2DELPHI STUDY - SUMMARY OF SECOND ROUND101 8.3CONCRETE STEPS FOR STARTING A BUSINESS IN BRAZIL105 8.4PAYING TAXES IN BRAZIL107Textprobe:Text Sample: Chapter 3, Market Evaluation: Today's marketplace is very competitive. In order to successfully place a company or a product in a new market its potential needs to be assessed first. The market evaluation uses information given about the market and helps to determine feasibility of a potential market and the competitive landscape. The aim is to compare different regions and sectors to find the strongest opportunities. This will reveal a strategic roadmap to the market entry. The Brazilian market has an enormous potential and growth is foreseen in the country for the next years. This chapter will provide an overview of the regions and branches in Brazil, pointing out the ones with the highest capability to be the future market for a management consulting company. The industrial sector is the most important one in this country and the focus of the strategy will lie on the branches present in this sector. A market segmentation presenting the biggest companies – measured by revenue – will provide the benchmark for potential growth and allows us to focus on prospective customers. The 'three-sector-theory" of Brazil: According to the 'three-sector-theory", developed by Jean Fourastié, the economy can be categorised into three different sectors of economic activity: the agricultural sector – the primary sector (commodity producing sector), the industry sector – the secondary sector (or goods-producing sector), and the service sector – the tertiary sector (or non-goods producing sector). The aim of this theory was to explain the transition from the agricultural to the industrial society and later on to the post-industrial service society in the 20th century. It is assumed that the three sectors have different opportunities to adapt to technological progress. Through the application of new technical procedures, the productivity in the primary and secondary sector increases while, at the same time, less manpower is needed and also the demand for these goods decreases with increased productivity. The excess manpower and demand, in turn, will be absorbed by the tertiary sector. The problem is that this theory assumes no influence by outside factors and therefore cannot be applied to any economy without precaution. In 2006, the agricultural sector accounted for 36% of the GDP worldwide, the industry sector for 22% and the service sector for 42%. In Brazil the distribution in the same year is considerably different, with the agricultural sector accounting for 5.5%, yielding coffee, soybeans, wheat and rice as the main products. The industry accounts for 28.7%, with its main products being textiles, shoes, chemicals, cement and iron ore. The services sector makes up 65.8% of total output. The GDP growth rate by sector in the years from 1997 to 2007 has been subject to fluctuation especially in the agricultural but also in the industry sector. The service sector has been rather stable during this period. The three-sector-theory is based on the assumption of above-average growth of demand and below-average growing productivity in the tertiary sector. The current situation in Brazil and in the global context shows a strong tertiary sector, followed by the secondary and the primary sector. This supports the three-sector-theory of the shift: agriculture > industry > service sector. Although the service sector is the strongest sector in the economy, both by total GDP and by year-over-year growth rate, it is a non-good producing sector, which makes it uninteresting for a management consulting company as they are concentrating on the industrial sector where production takes place. The theory does not explicitly state the distribution of the different branches among the three sectors. Therefore it can be assumed that some branches that are interesting for the strategy could be assigned to the service sector, although in the following this sector will not be elaborated on. The importance of the industrial sector has been fully recognized by the development studies all over the world. The industrial sector – through its linkages with other sectors – plays a very important role in achieving rapid growth and development. Most modern and rich countries have a well developed industrial sector through their early industrial revolution. It is the most important driver of the economy and apart from the service sector – the non-goods producing industry – it constitutes the biggest sector and generates the largest profit share out of all. During the last years the industrial production in Brazil was subject to many changes due to the slow growth of the economy. The country has set up an agenda to become a competitive economy that is able to provide qualified goods in sufficient quantity and to create a greater number of high skilled jobs. Brazil is on its way to transform into an economy that is included in the knowledge society and recognized as one of the main platforms for the industry worldwide. Productivity: The level of productivity is a crucial part in the context of this thesis. It indicates the general market growth and its potential for the future. Since management consulting companies will focus on the industry it is important to know, if there is a need to enhance productivity. If so, then this need would likely translate into higher investments in this area and a greater demand for support services from the consulting industry. The level of labour productivity is the primary determinant on the nation's GDP per capita growth. Brazil's weak economic growth is due to the relatively slow increase of labour productivity. The latest performance study, conducted by the Conference Board, shows a labour productivity growth rate of 1.9% in 2007. Compared to the other BRIC countries, this is the poorest rate. Russia, India and China showed a much better performance with 6.3%, 6.7% and 9.8%, respectively. This can be ascribed to transitional reallocations of employees by large companies into emerging markets that consequently foster productivity growth in the respective country. Especially India and China play a determining role in this context, since wages in these countries are notably lower than in Brazil and also in Russia, hence companies are more likely to turn to the Asian countries to make new investments that lead to job creation. According to a study on barriers to growth in the Brazilian economy, conducted by McKinsey's São Paulo office in 2005, there are two major root causes that lead to the relatively slower productivity growth. The first one refers to the modest per capita income, which promotes consumption of the lower-priced products and services. An example is the automotive industry, which produces primarily small and inexpensive cars. For the higher-priced vehicle section it relies on imports from other countries. The second cause is related to the first one – labour is cheaper than capital – which inhibits investment in new machinery that, in turn, would improve productivity levels. These barriers, however, will naturally fade once the government is able to resolve the social and economic problems by a policy shift. Labour and tax laws, price controls, product regulations, trade barriers and subsidies, among others, are present obstacles that limit productivity. Also, the unemployment rate, the level of inequality, the state of the educational system, are all factors that influence productivity levels and play a role in the performance studies. Potential markets for management consulting companies: After having identified the target sector and the level of productivity in the country, the next important step to defining a suitable market entry strategy is to determine specific markets in Brazil that yield the best prospects. Three different variables will influence the decision-making. These are the major Brazilian companies, the strongest regions and the most promising branches that are interesting for a management consulting company. Consequently, this will then lead to the establishment of the target branches as well as companies for LEAN business in Brazil and serve as a basis to formulate the entry strategy.
Governments face pressure to act when coordination and learning externalities block development of otherwise-profitable industries that would produce merit goods for the domestic market. A short-term subsidy that offsets these externalities could potentially jump-start a multi-firm industry, if the subsidy induces a pioneer firm to enter and then the pioneer's first-period output generates coordination and learning externalities. These externalities could induce subsequent entry by input suppliers and/or competitors. However, empirical evidence raises questions about the ability of governments to use short-term subsidies to jump-start new industries. We explore one explanation for the difficulty of jump-starting new industries: the subsidy could generate counter-productive incentives for the pioneer firm to prevent entry of additional firms. We model the jump-start strategy and examine whether coupling a short-term fixed subsidy with a per-unit subsidy can achieve the objective of creating a multi-firm industry.
Significant attention has been drawn to the adventitious and technically unavoidable presence of genetically modified (GM) organisms in the food and feed imported into the European Union (EU), while the potential presence of GM seeds in material for cultivation is less studied. Here we report a study from an EU member state, Latvia, during years 2017–2018 regarding monitoring for the presence of GM seeds in certified seed and animal feed material. Eighty-two and 28 samples of seeds intended for cultivation were analyzed in 2017 and 2018, respectively. One soybean sample contained MON40-3-2 soybean seeds (0.09 ± 0.01%) and one maize sample contained MON810 maize seeds (0.08 ± 0.01%). In addition, 102 samples of feed imported from outside of the EU or produced locally were also analyzed for the presence of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and viability of grains. One oilseed rape cake sample contained GT73 (1.04 ± 0.01%) and one soybean cake sample contained MON40-3-2 (<0.045%). One sample of declared MON40-3-2 GM soybean cake was confirmed to be positive, with MON40-3-2 content of 94.78 ± 10.01%. One soybean sample submitted by feed producer and originating from Argentina contained 54.9 ± 1.1% of MON40-3-2 and one rapeseed sample originating from Ukraine contained 5.30 ± 3.95% of GT73. Although only two seed samples contained low levels of GMOs authorized in the EU for food and feed uses, this study reinforced the need to maintain regular monitoring programs that assist farmers in their efforts to comply with the current EU GMO legislation.
"The Handbook of Global Agricultural Markets is a one-stop reference for practitioners and academics in finance, business, and economics, providing a holistic reference to the international agriculture business. The book takes a multidisciplinary approach to the topic, looking at the issues, opportunities, and investible themes in the global agricultural space, combining both research and practical tools for analyzing topics and assessing risks. A central theme of the book is the role of the agriculture industry as an emerging market, how the industry has developed and grown to date, and prospects for the future. Readers will gain an understanding of the industry from the perspectives of producers, consumers, and catalysts. The book provides coverage of the following key commodity industries: wheat, soybean, corn, coffee, cotton, rice, ethanol, oats, lumber, cacao, orange juice, soy oil, live cattle, live hogs and feed cattle, water. This book will appeal to a range of readers, from the institutional investor who wants to invest in commodities; businesses, angels, and private equity houses who want to invest in agriculture projects; businesses looking for market entry; and academics who are researching the global agriculture industry. "--
The continuous entry of new firms and exit of old ones might have substantial effects on productivity of energy supply. Since China is the world&rsquo ; s largest energy producer, productivity of energy supply in China is a significant issue, which affects sustainability. As a technical application, this paper investigates the productivity and dynamic changes of Chinese coal mining firms. We find that the total factor productivity (TFP) growth of coal supply in China is largely lagging behind the growth rate of coal production. The entry and exit of non-state-owned enterprise (non-SOE) partially provide explanation for the dynamic change of aggregate TFP. Specifically, non-state owned entrants induced by the coal price boom after 2003, which had negative effects on TFP of energy supply, while the exit of non-SOEs had positive effects. Furthermore, there is regional heterogeneity concerning the effects of entry and exit on energy supply productivity. More entrants induced by coal price boom are concentrated in non-main production region (non-MPR), while more exits are located in MPR due to the government&rsquo ; s enforcement. This provides explanation for the phenomena that productivity of energy supply in MPR gradually surpasses that in non-MPR. We also anticipate our paper to enhance understanding on the energy supply-side, which might further help us make informed decisions on energy planning and environmental policies.
