Cross-border Process Research Articles

Optimized Border System for Land-Based Transport

Land-based transport corridors serving landlocked developing countries experience cargo delays that are much longer than global benchmarks, reducing the competitiveness of the affected countries within an increasingly globalized economy. Improving the efficiency of such corridors is complicated by the inefficient management of border crossings. Factors contributing to long border delays include the variability of vehicle processing times and lack of sufficient capacity at service desks during peak traffic periods. We use a simulation approach to investigate improvements to current border management systems by modeling each important aspect of the cross-border process. The simulator was calibrated against data collected during cross-border surveys. This article is the first to quantify the potential for reduction in border delays through the reduced variability of process times. A dynamic adjustment model was developed to enable an optimal compromise between the number of service desks for each process; utilization levels of the available capacity; and average delay time. The novelty of our approach lies in the fact that service capacity adjustments are based on data that are collected inside the border area, rather than data that are collected from traffic in transit to the border, which is much easier to implement in practice.

Путешествие как категория философии транспорта

This article deals with the challenge of travel as a category of the philosophy of transport in the unity of its ontological, epistemological, social and existential characteristics. Travel has its own ontology: this is a kind of beingness, defined as being-on-the-move. A trip becomes a travel through the reflection of an individual going on the trip. Travel has epistemological potential, it activates the cognitive activity of a person, creates new meanings and value paradigms. Travel is a social value as a means of transforming habitual social roles, destroying stereotypes, educating the ability to dialogue and tolerance towards the Otherness. The travel is not only a cross border process, but rather a transcultural one. The purpose, meaning, and result of a travel may be not just the change of a cultural picture, but of the entire cultural paradigm. Railways, being a purely technical phenomenon, have a well-known metaphysics which determines the existential transformations of the travelers. A railway line going beyond the horizon symbolizes a kind of existential infinity, limitlessness and vagueness. A travel is a kind of act of «communion» to this infiniteness, creates a sense of timelessness, while at the same time maintaining a sense of finitude, a blind end. The railway is a metaphor for a life’s journey, which has original and destination stations, and the train is an allegory of moving along it. A railway station is a metaphysical point of return/no return, separating life, people and actions. The railway and the travelling along it link together the beginning and the end, finitude and infiniteness, certainty and uncertainty, motion and immobility.

Smart Border for Disease Control

Border crossing poses various risks, such as national security risks, risk of terrorism, and human trafficking, as well as the risk of an epidemic. In the process of disease control, Thailand has a system and mechanism of control in accordance with the standards of the World Health Organization and is recognized for the precision and tightness of the process. However, the screening and control process at land and marine border checkpoints still face the risks associated with cross border disease control due to the lack of preliminary information from passengers before crossing the border similar to those at an air-border crossing. It was found that the agencies involved in the land cross-border process would only become aware of passenger information when the passenger arrived at the crossing point. Initial screening and preparation procedures for coping with the risks were not timely, including the various resources at the border checkpoints such as screening tools, personnel, and screening sites. This paper aims to develop a cross-border management model that can help screen for diseases and support national security through digital technology. Therefore, the hypothesis has been proposed through the form of electronic border checkpoints for prevention, control, and tracking of transnational epidemics by screening all cross-border travelers. The existing system will be studied. The principles of collaborative border management (CBM) are the basis for the design, linkage, and integration between relevant departments. Further, simulation is a proof of our concept. The results show that data linkage and coordination between organizations build confidence and safety, reduces the risk of infection to people traveling across border agencies, and is in accordance with the National Digital Policy.

Pre-Selection of the Optimal Sitting of Phase-Shifting Transformers Based on an Optimization Problem Solved within a Coordinated Cross-Border Congestion Management Process

The current European policy roadmap aims at forcing the TSOs to coordinate remedial actions used for relieving the congestions in the synchronous power system. In this paper, an optimization problem for coordinated congestion management is described and its results obtained for a real European use cases created in the H2020 EU-SysFlex project are presented. First of all, these results prove the feasibility of a central optimization problem for the coordination of the cross-border congestion management process. Next, the formulated optimization problem is used to tackle the issue of planning the investments in phase-shifting transformers (PSTs), for the purpose of increasing the efficiency/decreasing the cost of congestion management. Finally, this paper introduces two optimization-based indicators for pre-selecting the investment sites, which may be used to support the decision makers aiming at decreasing the costs of coordinated congestion management.

Institutional and Business Cross-border Cooperation in the Textile and Clothing Industry

In the European context, two cross-border regions, the North (Portugal) and Galicia (Spain), play a major role in the textile and clothing industry, although with significant differences in the business strategies they follow. These differences are essentially related to the specialization of North Portugal in small and medium-sized production activities, in opposition to the specialization of large Galician companies in more value-added activities, particularly in the retailing and marketing of their own brands. The goal of this study is to evaluate the results of both institutional and business cooperation efforts to bolster cross-border competitiveness in this sector of activity. Methodologically, a quantitative approach is employed, based on the statistical analysis of databases that characterize this business sector, as well as a qualitative approach, based on in-depth interviews, not only with business managers involved in cross-border production networks, but also with the sector’s most representative institutional actors. The results suggest there is an ongoing cross-border clustering process, derived particularly from more intense institutional cooperation. This process requires greater maturity in terms of business relations, as they still seem to be restricted by some cultural barriers associated to the border effect.

Land grabbing. Podstawowe zagadnienia prawne

The present analysis focuses on the characteristics of the phenomenon of “land grabbing” which refers to the cross-border process of acquiring effective control over significant areas of agricultural land. Due to the extent and scale of the process, the issue of agricultural property trading leads to new challenges in the form of legal analysis, in particular with regard to the perspective of sustainable management of natural resources and food security. The assessment of the phenomenon is also important for the existing model of the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy.

Cross-Border Process Innovations: Improving the Fit Between Information Processing Needs and Capabilities

There is little guidance as to what general information processing capabilities are required to support organizations' cross-border business initiatives. We draw on the organizational information processing view to identify ways to enhance fit between information processing capabilities and needs, thereby reducing uncertainties. Using a multiple case study method, we examine four projects in an effort to uncover how organizations can innovate across borders to reduce these uncertainties.

Rethinking the cross-border acquisition process in terms of territorial social responsibility

Mergers and acquisitions are usually analysed as an outcome of the buyer's strategic decision-making process, while the position of the target company and its stakeholders is often under-researched. Thus this paper aims to analyse acquisitions from the point of view of the selling firm's stakeholders and understand their role in these operations. An in-depth examination of a case study reveals that stakeholders' needs can be at the forefront of the operation and that deep involvement in a local community can affect the decision of the owner to sell his/her company to foreign investors perceived as a potential threat to the local environment. Results confirm that in Italy there is the presence of a collective desire for social responsibility within the territory.

Managing Crises without Government Guarantees

Experience illustrates that, for successful crisis management, there is no substitute for early intervention and, if possible, a private sector solution in preserving value in the firm and limiting externalities. Early intervention, in turn, calls for strong supervision. Even with a much stronger cross-border resolution process, some type of contingent arrangements in reserve will continue to be necessary. Despite their associated problems, guarantees and market backstops have been an important element in preserving liquidity and restoring market functionality and it would be difficult to manage financial crises without them. Other forms of intervention are likely to be more intrusive.

"Patriarchy is So Third World": Korean Immigrant Women and "Migrating" White Western Masculinity

Previous studies have found that immigrant women prefer and fight to maintain gains in gender status brought by migration. However, few studies address how hegemonic ideals of white Western masculinity (e.g., as gender progressive, heroic) may also be an influence. In addition, women from U.S.-dominated countries engage masculinity ideologies both before and after they immigrate in a cross-border process. Using a case study of Korean immigrant women, this article addresses both the influence, and the women's transnational engagement, of hegemonic ideologies of white American masculinity. The author conducted 26 in-depth interviews with first generation Korean immigrant women in Los Angeles and 22 supplementary interviews with women in Seoul, South Korea. This study finds that the women used hegemonic notions of white American masculinity to resist Korean patriarchy, especially co-ethnic men's resistance to their gender empowerment in the United States. To be certain, the women's subordination by racial/national inequalities fostered their derision of white American men, such as soldiers, in South Korea. Yet, the women's racialized lens on gender relations tended to affirm their use of one form of hegemony—white American masculinity—to challenge another—Korean patriarchy. In light of these findings, future research on gender and immigrant women of color might consider analyzing racialized hierarchies of masculinity and their global-local and transnational contexts.

Cross-border regional enlargement in Øresund

Cross-border regional enlargement entails complex dynamics. The integration process at the maritime border between Sweden and Denmark illustrates this. Physical infrastructure has been improved by national governments and intranational and supranational institutions have added to the instrumentation as a precondition for social interaction and integration. The outcome of these efforts is here tested under a hypothesis that in spite of this forceful cocktail of policy instruments, the cross-border regionalization process is at best a long-run phenomenon in the Oresund Region. The point of departure is the stepwise procedure for the formation of binational cities suggested in Ehlers (2001, GeoJournal 54: 21–32). Social interaction is identified as the pivotal factor in the present state of integration of the Oresund Region using Bucken-Knapp (2001, GeoJournal 54: 51–60). A benchmarking method is proposed for testing social interaction in the labour market, where cross-border dynamics are benchmarked against national dynamics. The cross-border regional enlargement process is still in its very infancy and a continued focus on policies to promote cross-border social interaction is required. The present governance without government approach to cross-border cooperation in the Oresund Region is in that respect challenged by a reform of the Danish geo-administrative system.

L'eurorégion Aquitaine Euskadi Navarre, un espace transfrontalier émergent ?

Aquitaine/Euskai/ Navarre a euro-region, a rising cross-border space ?. The European Community, having decided to build a large and henceforward continuous space, acted at two levels. At the juridical, compulsory and institutional one, the borders between the member countries were deleted. On the other hand, these countries were financially encouraged to cooperate by means of a crossborder cooperation program (INTERREG). In this context, this paper deals with the building of the « eurorégion Aquitaine Euskadi Navarre » and the collaboration resulting from this european policy : what are the limits, the polarization, the extent and the hardcore of this new crossborder space ? In other words, we propose geography of a crossborder process.