Import-export Business Research Articles

J. A. Ajao and the real estate enterprise in 20th century Lagos

Abstract Scholarly studies of business enterprises in colonial Lagos have neglected Chief Joseph Adediran Ajao, a foremost investor in the real estate enterprise. Though there are sketchy details about him in social circles and passing but constant references to him typified by «Ajao Estate» and «Papa Ajao» communities, there is yet to be any thorough scholarly study of his enterprise. Using family records, archival documents, court records, newspaper reports, interviews, published works, and site visit, this study examines the entrepreneurship of Chief Joseph Adediran Ajao. It sheds light on Chief Ajao’s entrepreneurial exploit first in the import and export trade from which he earned substantial wealth, and ultimately on his investment in land and real estate, where he left an extant impression as one of the largest land-owning individuals in Lagos. On the premise that African culture had a significant impact on African businesses, this study is situated within the context of Yoruba philosophy of business and enterprise. The study concludes that: one, Chief J. A. Ajao was a forerunner of the emergence of real estate enterprise in Lagos; two, Chief J. A. Ajao’s import-export business, J. A. Ajao and Brothers, though eclipsed by his real estate enterprise, was no less significant; and three, J. A. Ajao’s enterprise ensured that his name achieved an eponym status in Lagos.

The Role of English in the Business World for Import-Export Entrepreneurs: Insight from the Indonesian Furniture Industry

<p>In the era of globalization, communication or relations between countries, commonly referred to as international communication, is progressing in all countries. The role of English in the relations of a country is essential, especially in the business world, for example, the Import Export business, whose activities include importing and exporting goods from one country to another. This study aims to describe the roles of English in the world of import-export business in Indonesia, especially the furniture industry in Jepara Regency. This study employed a qualitative method. Data were collected from semi-structured interviews with an owner from the furniture Industry in Jepara, Indonesia, and several literature sources, research institutes, and government agencies. The findings reveal that English has an important role as an international communication tool and as a main to reach marketing. In addition, it is useful for building communication with people from various countries. Based on the results of this study, it can be concluded that the role of English is very crucial for a successful business, especially in terms of export-import with other countries.</p>

Mediating effects of risk perception and management attitude toward the intention to implement trade remedies: A case study in Vietnam

Trade defense measures are tools that governments use to balance protecting domestic industries and ensuring that trade remains fair and open. Yet, their use requires careful consideration of their potential impacts on trade relations and the broader economy. Thus, this study aims to examine the impact of trade defense measures on the intentions of import-export businesses in Vietnam with the mediating effect of managers’ risk perceptions and management attitudes in the Vietnamese market. Data were collected from 793 managers representing import-export businesses through the Vietnam Customs Department. Using the PLS-SEM model, the study finds that trade defense measures, such as anti-dumping, anti-subsidy, and safeguard measures stipulated by foreign trade laws, influence the intention of businesses to implement them. This influence is mediated by risk perception and management attitude. Contrary to expectations, the content of trade defense measures has a reverse effect on businesses’ risk perception. This suggests that, from the perspective of import-export businesses, the perception of risk is not significantly affected by these measures in their transactions. This risk perception also has a reverse impact on the attitude of business managers. Furthermore, the study shows that the content of trade defense measures has an opposing effect on the risk perception of businesses. In other words, trade defense measures in business transactions do not significantly influence risk perception. These findings have important implications for policy development to enhance Vietnam’s foreign trade management system and valuable management suggestions for import-export business managers in the future. AcknowledgmentThe authors would like to thank the Editor-in-Chief and a reviewer for their helpful comments that, in our view, have helped significantly improve the quality of the manuscript.

Pelatihan Vocational Ekspor Impor Produk UKM Bersama di Sentani, Jayapura

This article describes the implementation of vocational training in the export-import sector where the material is more focused on exports for small and medium-sized businesses who want to increase their practical knowledge in the fields mentioned above. The practical knowledge that will be given to participants is from how participants as potential exporters are given knowledge including how to start an import-export business, knowledge about products and finding markets for export destination countries, preparing export documents, and finally how to process for sending theirs export goods. For the learning is in the form of a seminar with direct face to face between the participants and the facilitator. As for the learning method, the emphasis is on practical knowledge rather than theoretical knowledge, as well as cases and providing many opportunities for participants to tell about the products to be exported, preparations and what obstacles were experienced by participants in starting their exports. That way participants will better understand the process and procedures directly. The expected result of this vocational training is that participants not only gain adequate knowledge of export and import but also directly practice it on the products they have produced in order to be able to export to the markets of the targeted countries. As for maximizing the achievement of these targets, the Ministry of Cooperatives must facilitate a process of mentoring participants either directly, for example by forming a group of similar business groups accompanied by a facilitator, or indirectly, namely by forming a whats-up group or providing zoom facilities in communicating and consulting. Key Words: Export import, Facilitator, learning methode, target achievment.

Long-term data prove useful to keep track of non-indigenous seaweed fate

The Mar Piccolo of Taranto (southern Italy, Mediterranean Sea), a site of the European LTER network, is a transitional water system, where a century-old intensive mussel farming activity has been carried out, together with an intense import-export business of bivalve mollusks. Previous studies showed that this basin is third for NIS seaweed introduction in the Mediterranean Sea, after the Thau Lagoon and the Venice Lagoon. The present paper deals with the results of 11-year monitoring activity on non-indigenous species (NIS) of seaweeds, which was performed in the Mar Piccolo. In the studied period (2011–2021), two different time frames (i.e., 2011–2015 and 2016–2021) were considered, since they were based on a different number of sampling sites. To investigate spatial and temporal differences in the seaweed assemblage, a multivariate analysis was performed considering the NIS and the most important native species in terms of temporal occurrence. Fourteen NIS were recorded in total in the Mar Piccolo of Taranto during this period, with variable abundances among sites and years: nine species in the first time period, and thirteen species in the second one. Caulerpa cylindracea, recorded with negligible biomass in the first period, was absent in the second-period samplings. Molecular analyses confirmed the taxonomy of three species (i.e., Grateloupia minima, Neopyropia koreana, and Polysiphonia morrowii), previously identified only through morphological features. The most abundant species was Hypnea corona, which almost doubled its biomass in the second time period compared to the first one. Three species (i.e., Caulacanthus okamurae, G. minima, and P. morrowii) increased their biomass by an order of magnitude in the second time period. No significant differences were found over years. Site 1 resulted in significant differences among the sites and different seasonal pattern occurred among the investigated sites. No significant long-term changes occurred in the seaweed assemblages, suggesting the absence of strong disturbances due to the settlement of NIS.

‘Splendid opportunities’: Women traders in postwar Hong Kong and Australia, 1946–1949

In late March 1946, University of Melbourne graduate and long-time Hong Kong resident Elma Mary Kelly (1895–1974) gave an interview to Melbourne’s Argus newspaper. Released from Stanley prison camp in August 1945, Kelly had recently landed in her hometown after a brief sojourn in London. It was her great desire, Kelly told the reporter, to ‘go back to the East’, where she thought there would be ‘splendid opportunities, especially for Australians’, who she believed flourished there because of their ‘poise’ and ‘liking for the life’.2 Kelly travelled on to Sydney to meet with old friends before returning to Hong Kong in May 1946. On her return, she embarked on an extraordinary venture. In partnership with her fellow Stanley internee Dorothy Gordon Jenner (the journalist ‘Andrea’ of Sydney’s Sun newspaper) and a Sydney friend, Isobel (Belle) Robilliard (1895–1975), Kelly set up the Austral-China Trading Company, an import–export business.

Inland waterway ports selection and evaluation using stochastic analytical hierarchy process

ABSTRACT Inland waterway ports are an integral part of a country’s transportation system and the overall economy it supports. Though these ports support and contribute to a country’s import-export business and transportation economy, little attention is paid, primarily on the characterisation of these inland waterway ports. In this paper, we develop a systematic, multi-criteria, multi-personnel decision making approach, referred to as stochastic Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), that can be used to characterise inland waterway ports and to identify the factors that contribute most towards a port’s performance and overall utilisation. This robust method can successfully handle judgment errors, biases, and inconsistencies, while reducing the uncertainty associated with decision-making. We use the state of Mississippi’s inland waterways system as a testbed to visualise and validate the modelling results. Results indicate that the Mississippi River ports demonstrate less capability over the ports located along the Tennessee-Tombigbee waterway, based on the criteria used as a part of this study. A number of sensitivity analyses were performed, including additional investments, augmenting dredging capabilities, and introducing new businesses, to reveal managerial insights about the selection of inland waterway ports in Mississippi.

Factors affecting capital size of enterprises in Dak Nong Province

The research focused on analyzing factors affecting capital size of enterprises in Dak Nong Province using multivariate regression model. Results show that business sector, import-export business, type of business registration, production and business location, age and share by other organizations in the capital structure of enterprises are determinants of capital size of enterprises in Dak Nong Province. Accordingly, the study proposes recommendations to local government so as to support enterprises, including: (i) promulgating and implementing priority policies for the development of agricultural sector and import-export business; (ii) encouraging private and one-member limited liability companies to expand their capital to gain the economics of scale; (iii) promoting investment in transport development, rural infrastructure to support enterprises; (iv) speeding up the implementation of the investment process and licensing progress for enterprises; and (v) calling for investment from the large organizations, enterprises and investors.

A Brief Historical, Political and Social Reconstruction of Albania in the Early Twentieth Century

The purpose of this article is to bring to the attention of researchers the fundamental aspects of the history of the Albanian people after the First World War and especially the 20s. After the independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1913, Albania began the challenges of building a nation from all points of view, political, economic, social, cultural etc. This article describes and analyzes these issues from a brief historical reconstruction from the ancient Illyrians to King Ahmet Zog. The methodology used in this article is qualitative and analytical, with various researches in the Archives of the Italian Army and the Central State in Albania. As a result of this research emerges how fundamental was the role of Italy in those years both from the political and especially economic point of view. Italy had the primacy of the import-export business with the small Balkan state. This primacy Italy still holds today by being the first trade partner.

Revolution from Above

Revolution from Above Martin Joseph Ponce (bio) Gun Dealers’ Daughter. Gina Apostol. W.W. Norton. http://books.wwnorton.com. 304 pages; cloth, $24.95. “If you knew that your parents sold arms that prop up your country’s military dictatorship, what would you do?” Twelve-year-old Sol (Soledad Soliman) overhears her American School teacher pose the central question of Gina Apostol’s novel Gun Dealers’ Daughter to his colleague after dinner at the Soliman home in Manila. But it is Mr. Fermi’s emphatic disgust at the Solimans’s shady transactions and tacky extravagance that implants “a dart, a punctuated clarity” about the dubious origins of the family’s affluence into Sol’s pubescent body, afflicting her like “something ingrown, an infected thing.” The memory of it presages Sol’s intermittent feeling of “nausea, an elemental eruption: this split in my soul,” a divisive dis-ease about her and her family’s place in Philippine society. Though Sol eventually comes into political consciousness—acquiring knowledge about her parents’ import-export business, the prosperity it generates, and its complicity with both Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos’s “conjugal dictatorship” and U.S. backing of the authoritarian regime—and though she acts decisively on that knowledge, her disoriented and disorienting, self-consciously faulty recounting of martial law in the Philippines (1972–1986) is far from triumphant: more an indictment than a vindication of her youthful deeds. Published by Anvil in the Philippines in 2010 and by Norton in the United States in 2012, Gun Dealers’ Daughter marks Apostol’s U.S. debut and carries forward the combination of literary play (punning and allusion, metafictional reflexivity and humor) with historical reconstruction and political irreverence featured in her previous novels, Bibliolepsy (1997) and The Revolution According to Raymundo Mata (2009). The novel opens with the psychically and bodily wounded protagonist arriving in Nice, France, then being shipped to her family’s mansion in New York to resume her convalescence. Repeating several times the phrase “repetition is the site of trauma,” the novel gradually unfolds the causes of Sol’s dizzying derangement. She is diagnosed with anterograde amnesia, a condition in which her memory stalls at the traumatic experience, and compulsively returns to her single semester at the University of the Philippines-Diliman, circa 1980. Writing years later in a room overlooking the Hudson, Sol wonders whether words can make her whole, if language can save her, if “[t]his work I am doing right now could become a hesitant, crepitating—talambuhay [life story]? A reckoning. A confession.” Addressing would-be well-off radicals, on the one hand, and readers ignorant of U.S.-Philippine history, on the other, the novel presents Sol’s rueful confession of her brief, explosive flirtation with activism some thirty years ago and her part in the assassination of Colonel Grier, as well as a critical reckoning of U.S. colonialism in the Philippines and neocolonial support for Marcos’s dictatorship. While commentators since at least the Reagan era have asked why working-class constituents vote against their economic self-interests, the question is rarely asked of the other side. What would provoke the progeny of moneyed parents surrounded by seductive, sedative comforts—servant-filled mansions in Manila and New York, summer vacations in Europe and the U.S., casual, competitive mingling with Manila’s upper echelon—to act against her family’s investments? The puncturing sense of malaise Sol suffered when she overheard Mr. Fermi’s disgust intensifies when she leaves the familiar luxuries of her home and enters college. Breaking through her class and cultural obliviousness and countering the socialization she received as “a member of the damned burgis…, the comprador bourgeoisie,” Sol’s politicization takes place under the tutelage of her university peers: Soli (Solidaridad Soledad), a tried-and-true organizer and demonstrator, and Sol’s tokayo (name-twin); Jed De Rivera Morga, Soli’s daytime golden-boy lover whose pedigree and fortune are even more estimable and execrated than Sol’s; Edwin Cordoza, the humorless fellow bookworm; and Ka Noli, the elder lecturer on the tactics of people’s war. More inclined toward Evelyn Waugh, Henry James, James Joyce, and Gustave Flaubert, Sol is instructed to...

In Thought and Action: The Enigmatic Life of S. I. Hayakawa

In December 1968 S. I. Hayakawa, the interim president of San Francisco State College, gained fame when he pulled the wires from the loudspeakers on a protester's truck during a student strike. Television cameras caught the moment on tape. The president's action stunned the demonstrators, who expected administrators to be timid. To understand Hayakawa's bold move, it is worth knowing that his hobby was fencing. He never walked away from a fight, and to conservatives, the feisty president became a folk hero. Hayakawa had an improbable life. Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1906, he was the son of Japanese immigrants. His father founded a successful import-export business, and the family eventually settled in Winnipeg, Manitoba, where young Hayakawa attended college. In 1924 his father returned to Japan. His mother and two young sisters also departed, while Hayakawa and a brother remained in Canada. After receiving an M.A. in English literature from McGill University, Hayakawa obtained his Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin. He married Marge Peters, a striking blonde and the daughter of a crusading newspaper editor. Hayakawa taught at Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, frequented jazz clubs, and became the first nonblack columnist for the Chicago Defender. He attacked racism and defended assimilation, positions he held throughout his adult life. Hayakawa promoted the cause of general semantics in Language in Action (1941). This best seller, adopted by the Book-of-the-Month Club and widely used to teach composition in colleges, enabled Hayakawa to become a full-time writer and public lecturer. Because he lived in the Midwest, he was not interned during World War II.

Mobility and social capital among Lebanese and Beninese entrepreneurs engaged in transnational trade

This contribution focuses on importers of second-hand cars operating between Brussels, Belgium and Cotonou, Benin. Intensive multi-sited field-work reveals important differences in the way Lebanese and Beninese car importers operate in this import–export business and how they circulate between Europe and West Africa. This paper, through a comparative approach, describes and explains those differences. A first level of explanation is linked to the fact that car importers working in Cotonou come primarily from two different communities. On the one hand, Lebanese car importers operate inside a trade diaspora, never needing to travel because they are able to rely on other Lebanese to send them second-hand cars from Brussels and to collaborate at different levels of the trade chain. On the other hand, native Beninese car importers have the status of cross-border entrepreneurs working in a territory of movement. They must themselves travel to Europe to obtain their second-hand cars, thereby maintaining a double involvement in Europe and West Africa. A second level of explanation can be found in the evolution of the Euro-African second-hard car import–export business, a trade pioneered by Lebanese entrepreneurs. What began as a fragmented activity became formalised in business hubs, such as Brussels. This centralisation allowed the arrival of new types of car importers, like the Beninese, on the market. However, unlike the Lebanese, these newcomers could not rely on settlements of fellow-countrymen located in multiple business markets and had low levels of trust between each other. To this day, they have failed to mobilise the capital necessary to work in the same conditions as the Lebanese. What distinguishes Lebanese and Beninese second-hand car importers? The analysis shows that it is their ability to recreate trust in a context of high uncertainty. This issue of trust has a direct impact on the way both types of importers organise their spatial mobility and operate their business activities.

The people’s food: the ingredients of “ethnic” hierarchies and the development of Chinese restaurants in Rome

In the last 20 years, the growth of Chinese immigration in Italy has increased, being characterized by multiple migration strategies linked to transnational economic activities. This has been particularly the case with the Chinese immigrant community in Rome, where many of these immigrants are involved in the restaurant or import–export business. In this context, the Chinese immigrant presence in the restaurant sector will be analysed in detail within a multimethod approach developed to explore the number, location and characteristics of all Chinese restaurants that were opened and closed since the 1970s. This exercise in economic geography is linked to other questions such as power and cultural relations, urban planning practices and the discourses of racism. The development and the geography of the Chinese restaurants allow us to understand not only how far or close they are to the mainstream Italian restaurant sector, but also the spatial trajectories of Roman Chinese in general within the urban landscape. As Chinese restaurants outside China have become a symbol of transnational Chinese identity, it is worth considering the real spatial practices attached to the construction and negotiation of this transnationality.

Une dimension ignorée des relations économiques franco-japonaises : Mitsubishi en France après 1945

Abstract Created in 1878 by Iwasaki Yataro, Mitsubishi soon emerged as the first of the Zaibatsu. Present in every field (navigation, trade, import-export business, banking, chemical industry and heavy industry...) Mitsubishi sat up in France in 1924 as "Société Anonyme Française Mitsubishi". They first took an interest in aircraft s between 1924 and 1927, especially in the Dewoitine company. It was a failure, because of the bankruptcy of this last firm. From 1928 to 1932, the SAFM invested in import-export business, but the economic crisis forced them to reduce the capital by its half. The rationalisation of the 1932-1938 years then the War allowed them to subsist until its liquidation on July 24th 1944.

Migration and Native Place:Qiaokanand the Imagined Community of Taishan County, Guangdong, 1893–1993

An the spring of 1984, officials of Taishan County, Guangdong, erected a statue in the central square of the county seat to commemorate the man whose life represented the highest attainment of ambition, idealism, and patriotism in recent local history. The man so honored was neither a conquering general nor a communist zealot. Taishan's chosen hero was a master of commerce and industry, who overcame the early disadvantages of birth to an impoverished family to become a wealthy and successful businessman, a powerful labor contractor, a railroad engineer, and the owner of a thriving import-export business based in the American city of Seattle. Chen Yixi (1844–1928) was not distinguished by financial success alone, for many other Taishanese men went to America, where, by dint of hard work, determination, and luck, they also became wealthy men.

Immigrant Small Business and International Economic Linkage: A Case of the Korean Wig Business in Los Angeles, 1968–1977

This article investigates factors that have contributed to the growth of the import-export business among Asian immigrants. The central argument is that the development of Asian immigrants’ import-export business has been closely related to the increasing economic linkages between Asian countries and their countrymen in the United States. Such economic linkages are a product of the global economic restructuring whereby some developing countries of Asia have become major exporters of low cost/low price consumer goods to the United States. The Korean immigrants’ wig business in Los Angeles is studied as a case of contemporary import-export trade among Asian immigrants, with major findings summarized as follows: first, the increased reliance of the United States on imported goods by the 1970s led to a rapid growth of the export-oriented industry in South Korea; second, wigs became the major export item of South Korea due to its cheap labor force and government-aid loans to the wig industry, third, a strong vertical integration developed between Korean wig manufacturers in South Korea and Korean importers, wholesalers, and retailers in the United States – that integration provided Korean immigrants with initial business opportunities in the U.S. economy, particularly in the low-income minority areas.

Lithuania's first independence battle: A PR footnote

Tiny Lithuania's heroic effort to gain its independence from the once-powerful Soviet Union is a reprise of an earlier and successful public relations effort to win recognition of its independence after World War I. Lithuania's 1919–1921 public relations campaign to win United States' recognition of its independence brought together two of the pioneering giants of public relations in a short-lived relationship: Carl Byoir and Edward L. Bernays. Carl Byoir was the associate chairman and effective manager of the Creel Committee on Public Information, which directed a brilliant propaganda campaign to sell America's war aims at home and abroad. Bernays had a lesser position in CPI in 1918. Lithuania declared its independence on February 1918 and sought world recognition. The Lithuania National Council, which Byoir had created as part of his CPI work, retained him after the war to wage a public relations campaign to win U.S. recognition. Byoir, who had come to know Bernays in the CPI, hired him at $150 a week to handle the publicity. This successful campaign persuaded Bernays that there was a vocation in publicity and led him to open his shop in 1919 in partnership with his future wife, Doris Fleischman. Byoir lacked the same vision and set out to make millions in the import-export business and lost his shirt. He woundn't make his millions until he opened his own public relations firm in 1930.

CHANGES IN LOCATIONS OF IMPORT-EXPORT FIRMS AND THEIR RELEVANCE TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CORE AREA OF KOBE CITY

The purposes of his ar idle are o inves iga e he changes in geographical dis ribu ion of the impor -expor_??_ firms during the last one hundred years, and to relate these changes to the process of development of the central business district (CBD) in Kobe. During the period from 1868 to 1899 the residential quarter for foreigners, which later became a foreign trade district, had been divided into 126 lots delineated on the basis of the European-style planning. Trading firms, financial and insurance businesses, information and transportation services, and a self-governing institution, were closely located each other, and they formed special business district isolated from the main built-up area of Kobe city. Therefore, Kobe city had had two core areas specialized in administration and retail trade in the west and in wholesale and import-export business in the east until World War II (Fig. 1). In 1919, 70% of the import-export firms located in the former foreigners' quarter were owned by aliens. Thereafter, a mixed land use district with factories, import-export firms and workers' housing were developed on the east of the foreigners' quarter. A trade business district with a large number of import-export firms, financial and insurance businesses, and transportation facilities was formed on the west of the quarter (Fig. 2). The locations of import-export firms at the time of 1936 were on the southern side of the National Railway line extending from the Kobe station to the Shin-Ikuta River, where a number of tall buildings had been built; and this district almost coincides with the boundary of the CBD in 1970 delineated by Komori, et al. (1970) (Fig. 3). In 1977, import-export firms extended to the east and north compared with their distribution before the War. The CBD delineated by Komori et al. (1979) also showed its extention to the east and north. Therefore, it can be said that the location of import-export firms has played an important role in the formation of the CBD (Fig. 4). After World War II, the western core has gradully declined in consequence of the fact that the administrative organizations such as City Hall had moved to the former foreigners' quarter. The factor that changed the structure of Kobe city from two-cored to one-cored city, was the large-scaled redevelopment program of the CBD carried out, to a large extent, by the governmental investiment. Chronological changes in total floor space of banks, offices, retail and department stores, and warehouses are investigated for the seven districts of the CBD (Fig. 5), and the seven districts are classified into the following five specialized areas (Fig. 6): (1) the old international trade area (districts A and B), (2) the retail business area (districts C and D), (3) the new international trade area (district E), (4) the restaurant and amusement area (district F), and (5) the administrative and retail area (district G). From these examinations, it can be concluded that the nucleus of the present CBD is the former foreigners' quarter and the import-export firms have played an important role in the formation of the foreign trade districts within the CBD.