Industrial International Competitiveness Research Articles

Learning in the Village Economy of Denmark. The Role of Institutions and Policy in Sustaining Competitiveness

The benefits of an international division of labour is never illustrated more clearly than in small developed nations like Denmark. Without many natural resources such countries can never be self sufficient and they need access to foreign markets in order for their firms to specialise and utilize economics of scale. The specialisation chosen is mainly in low-tech goods, where the risk of sudden domestically damaging changes in technology or demand are relatively small. Besides such general features of small developed nations, the Danish case has some special characteristics, which distinguishes it from many other nations and regions. One important feature is the century-old, deep-rooted egalitarian beliefs of the society which during the last century has intermixed with the growth of the public sector in shaping not only the welfare state, but also a strongly consensus-seeking political system - the negotiated economy - incorporating all major groups in the economy. Recently, the development towards a knowledge based world economy has increased the importance of another feature with an small egalitarian country: the kind of trust-relations, that come into existence, when everyone in an industry has known everybody else through many years. The international industrial competitiveness of the country's vast majority of small, export oriented firms are not only favoured by a reasonable adequate macro-economic policy but further enhanced by the ease in the exchange of information resulting from established trust-relations.

Evaluating the International Competitiveness of Vietnam Wood Processing Industry by Combining the Variation Coefficient and the Entropy Method

Indicators measuring industrial international competitiveness are being continuously improved. However, so far, there is no unified perfect indicator to measure the level of international competitiveness of the industry. Based on the market share index (MS), trade competitiveness index (TC), revealed comparative advantage index (RCA), and relative trade advantage index (RTA), we constructed a comprehensive international competitiveness index by combining the variation coefficient and the entropy method. This study aims to compare and evaluate the international competitiveness of the wood processing industry (ICWPI) in Vietnam using a comprehensive international competitiveness index. The data is collected from the top 22 countries and the total import and export volume of the wood processing industry from the repository of official international trade statistics (UN Comtrade) database for 2001–2017. The results found that it is more accurate to use the combined variation coefficient and the entropy method to evaluate the international competitiveness of the wood processing industry, compared to using only a single index. The growth rate of international competitiveness of Vietnam increased rapidly from 2001 to 2007 but slowed from 2008 to 2017. Vietnam has the advantages of natural resources, low labor costs and favorable geographical location. However, the low productivity gains and added industry value have led to a gradual decline in the international competitiveness growth rate of Vietnam’s wood processing industry.

세계 주요국가 보험산업의 국제경쟁력 비교연구

본 논문은 세계 주요국가 보험산업의 국제경쟁력을 분석하는데 중점을 두고 있다. OECD 36개 회원국과 중국 및 싱가포르를 포함하여 분석하였다. OECD의 통계데이터와 중국의 보험통계연감을 이용하여 산업내 무역지수 및 현시비교우위지수로 경쟁력을 분석하였다. 생명보험시장에서는 네덜란드, 아일랜드, 스위스의 산업내 무역지수가 높은 것으로, 손해보험시장에서는 라트비아, 에스토니아, 네덜란드 등 국가의 산업내 무역지수가 높은 것으로 나타났다. 대외경쟁력지수로는 캐나다와 에스토니아의 생명보험산업이 경쟁력이 있는 것으로, 룩셈부르크, 아일랜드, 스위스 등의 국가는 손해보험분야에서 국제경쟁력을 갖고 있는 것으로 나타났다.

Does the position in the inter-sectoral knowledge space affect the international competitiveness of industries?

ABSTRACT This paper empirically investigates how the inter-sectoral knowledge flows affect the international competitiveness of industries, once controlling for both cost and other technological factors. Using patent data on 14 manufacturing industries in 16 OECD countries over the period 1995–2009, we apply a network-based approach to capture the effect of industries' position in the flows of technical knowledge across industries, which we label inter-sectoral knowledge space. We find that (i) centrality and local clustering in the inter-sectoral knowledge space positively affect the export market shares of an industry, (ii) such two effects are rather redundant and (iii) national-level knowledge flows' impacts on international competitiveness are way stronger than international ones. Network measures of position in the knowledge space are found to be more relevant than standard technological indicators such as patent counts. Our results point to the importance of industries being well located in the stream of knowledge flows, rather than being innovative per se, and offer a novel yet robust proxy to measure technological factors affecting trade performances. In addition, we find evidence of geographical boundaries of knowledge flows.

Analysis of characteristics and problems of international trade of wolfberry in China

Wolfberry has important unique medical values as well as edible and commerce values. In this paper,we analyze the characteristics and problems of international trade of wolfberry based on the customs data between 2008 and 2017. During periods of these ten years,the wolfberry was mainly exported with a small proportions of imports. The total export volume increased steadily,reached 82 182. 08 tons and 696. 622 million dollars respectively. Wolfberry came from 31 provinces/autonomous regions and exported to 105 countries and regions through 21 ports. Most of the total exports of wolfberry flew to markets of Asia and Europe,the Ningxia autonomous region was the major export province. Large amount of wolfberry exported through Tianjin port. Compared with the export volume,the import is almost negligible,mainly coming from North Korea,almost all through Changchun port,Jilin province to enter the domestic market. There is a situation of"import of domestic goods". To enhance the international competitiveness of wolf berry industry,we must rely on the fundamental research of wolfberry,speed up the standardization process,strengthen the scientific and technological innovation in wolfberry products,improve the added value and profit of wolfberry.

Present situation and analysis of deer industry standardization at home and abroad

Deer is valuable all over the body,which is rich in nutritional value and medicinal value. Deer breeding and processing are very advanced in North America and New Zealand where many related standards have been published. The development of Chinese deer industry lack standard and normal management,neither standards' number nor coverage area formed complete frame structure. The international standards like Panax ginseng and P. notoginseng were more lacked. This paper makes a classification statistics on standardization organizations at home and abroad,foreign standards,Chinese national standards,industry standards,local standards and enterprise standards. The classes,contents,ages,implementation and promotion and demonstration area construction of standards were compared and analyzed. We found Chinese deer industry standards were deficient in coverage,uniformity,innovation,repeatability and support. And we give advises for the construction of industry quality standard system,organizational mobility and ideology of consumers,hoping to boost the standard construction and promote international competitiveness of Chinese deer industry.

On the Construction of China’s Environmental Tax Revenue Use System

Environmental governance and protection is an important task for governments all over the world. Among them, environmental tax is the most important means for countries to protect the environment by system. However, the Levy of environmental tax often has a direct negative impact on the international competitiveness of pollution-intensive industries and export-oriented enterprises. Meanwhile, it also causes the problem of income redistribution, such as raising the living cost of low-income groups. It may be a good idea to build an environmental tax revenue use system so as to lower or eliminate these negative externalities. The construction of the environmental tax revenue use system is the core of the overall construction of the environmental tax legal system from the perspective of fiscal and taxation integration, which not only meets the basic requirements of the principles of tax law, but also has the value of law enforcement. As for China, it also has the promotion function of structural tax cuts. At present, China has not yet established a special system for the use of environmental tax revenue. Instead, environmental protection tax revenue is regarded as local tax revenue, which is included in the general public budget and used by local governments. However, the specific construction of a country’s environmental tax revenue use system should not be limited to the existing environmental tax laws and regulations in a country, but should conform to the trend of expanding the scope of environmental tax collection and make predictive research. Therefore, how to construct a systematic system for the use of environmental tax revenue in line with China’s actual needs is an urgent task for China to implement the foreseeability of environmental tax legislation. In theory, the basic ways of using environmental tax revenue include general fiscal revenue to make up fiscal deficits, special funds to solve environmental problems, revenue recycling to reduce the tax burden of other distorted taxes, etc. The implementation effect of the foreign environmental tax revenue use system verifies the necessity of constructing an environmental tax revenue use system. Its basic experience is to take fiscal neutrality” as the orientation of legislative reform, mostly adopt mixed income use system, special funds are still prevalent, and income recycling mechanism is increasingly favored. There are two enlightenments to our country: first, the system of using environmental tax revenue should become the basic supporting system of environmental tax reform in our country; second, the mechanism of income recycling should become an important part of the environmental tax revenue use system in our country. The construction of China’s environmental tax revenue use system should adhere to the three principles of synchronization of income use and environmental tax reform, including top-level design principle, fiscal balance and income neutrality principle guided by the overall interests of the society, and tax legality and public participation principle. Under the guidance of the above principles, the specific system under the combined mode of classification and mixed use is constructed: resource environmental tax revenue is regarded as general fiscal revenue; environment pollution and destruction income is treated as a special-purpose mode; carbon tax/energy tax revenue is introduced into the revenue recycling mechanism.

What Determine the International Competitiveness of Chinese Publishing Industry?

Recent years have witnessed a higher involvement of China’s publishing sector in international market. For the purpose of revealing the dominant factors influencing the international competitiveness of Chinese publishing industry, this paper conducts Gray Relational Analysis to identify certain factors that affect the international competitiveness of China’s publishing industry based on the comparison series and the reference series. The results of empirical analysis indicate that human capital as an advanced factor plays a leading role in the international competitiveness of Chinese publishing industry. Industrial competition obviously affects the scale of China’s publishing industry and its competitiveness. The demand for cultural consumption drives the upgrading of China’s publishing industry, and enhances its international competitiveness. The government’s support facilitates the enhancement of the international competitiveness of Chinese publishing industry. Finally, the author gives some policy suggestions from the perspective of cultural resources, broadening industry chain and governmental conducts.

Strategic Environmental Policy and the Mobility of Firms

The loss of international competitiveness of domestic industries remains a key obstacle to the implementation of effective carbon prices in a world without harmonized climate policies. We analyze countries’ non-cooperative choices of emissions taxes under imperfect competition and mobile polluting firms. In our general equilibrium setup with trade, wage effects prevent all firms from locating in the same country. While under local or no pollution countries achieve the first-best, under transboundary pollution taxes are inefficiently low and lower than under autarky where only the ‘standard’ free-riding incentive distorts emissions taxes. This effect is more pronounced when polluting firms are mobile.

Strategic Environmental Policy and the Mobility of Firms

The loss of international competitiveness of domestic industries remains a key obstacle to the implementation of effective carbon prices in a world without harmonized climate policies. We analyze countries' non-cooperative choices of emissions taxes under imperfect competition and mobile polluting firms. In our general equilibrium setup with trade, wage effects prevent all firms from locating in the same country. While under local or no pollution countries achieve the first-best, under transboundary pollution taxes are inefficiently low and lower than under autarky where only the standard free riding incentive distorts emissions taxes. This effect is more pronounced when polluting firms are mobile.

Cooperation between Middle East countries and Ukraine in aerospace industry

The article examines the expediency of international cooperation in the aerospace industry between two regions, Ukraine and Middle East countries. With the help of Porter's diamond model of national competitive advantages, the international competitiveness of aerospace industries of Ukraine and Middle East countries have been analysed, and competitive advantages of countries in this industry have been determined. The article provides a detailed analysis of the feasibility of international cooperation between companies from Middle East and Ukraine in the aerospace industry. Strengths of Ukrainian and Middle East companies in the aerospace industry were analysed, and opportunities for international partnership were highlighted. The benefits of all participants were detected. Taking into account, the specifics of analysed countries and regions, the participants of cooperation, and their roles were defined.

Prospects for the development of Russian pharmaceutical products in the process of forming the single market of the Eurasian Economic Union

The article analyzes the state and dynamics of the development of the Russian pharmaceutical industry. There is given an assessment of the state and trends of exports of its products to the member states of the Eurasian Economic Union, as well as the countries of the post-Soviet economic space. Opportunities and prospects for the development of the Russian pharmaceutical industry in the process of formation of the single market of the EEU, the use of regional economic integration opportunities are substantiated. Proposals have been formulated to increase the export potential and international competitiveness of the Russian pharmaceutical industry, to develop integration processes of forming a single pharmaceutical market for the member states of the EEU.

International competitiveness of Chinese textile and clothing industry – a diamond model approach

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyze raw materials, labor, capital, demand, related industries, strategies and policies influencing international competitiveness of Chinese textile and clothing industry.Design/methodology/approachThe analysis is conducted using “Diamond Model”, in which raw materials, labor, capital, demand, related industries, strategies and policies are included as explanatory variables, and the impacts of international competitiveness on market share (MS), trade competitiveness(TC) and revealed comparative advantage(RCA) are examined based on the estimated coefficients of these variables.FindingsThese factors have different effects on TC, MS and RCA. While their effects on TC and MS are similar in sign even though their degree of significance differs, their effects on RCA are opposite to TC and MS except for capital. Raw materials and capital have negative effects on TC and MS, while the other factors have positive ones. Raw materials have positive effects on RCA, but all other factors have negative ones.Practical/implicationsThe results from this study imply that it is necessary to increase investment in fixed assets of Chinese textile and clothing industry, speed up the pace of upgrading equipment, improve the level of industrialization, while strengthening the supply of textile raw materials, and lowering raw material prices, thereby reducing the cost of textile and clothing enterprises.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first empirical research made using econometric model about the impact of the main factors of trade competitiveness in Chinese textile and clothing industry based on the “Diamond Model”.

Implementing Education Vision in the Context of Industry 4.0

Transformation of the traditional industry through digital technologies shapes the education system, as comprehensive knowledge in the interdisciplinary areas of technologies is required. Amid the challenges of competitive and digital technologies in the advanced manufacturing industry, the universities and industry cooperation is imperative. This study presents the planning and implementation of the educational projects in metrology to create a vision of building the bridge between educational institutes and the industry. The implementation of tele-presence and tele-operation case studies focus on flexibility, efficiency and quality of the processes that does not limit the resources to a location, time difference or facility. Vision in education is of extreme importance in this present time of worldwide international competition in Industry 4.0 that will enable to achieve sustainable environmental friendly goals with contribution to both industry and society.

Real exchange rates and job flows: evidence from Turkey

ABSTRACTThis study investigates the effects of the real exchange rate on job flows in Turkish manufacturing industries between 2006 and 2015 using data at the four-digit NACE Revision 2 level. Using dynamic panel data models, we find that a real appreciation increases gross and net job creation rates, and that the effect of appreciation is magnified as the exposure to international competitiveness of industries increases. We think that this is because Turkish manufacturing firms import a greater share of their inputs compared to the firms in developed countries. Hence, an appreciation creates more jobs because lower imported input costs enable firms to outcompete foreign producers.

The Effect of Intellectual Property Rights Protection on the International Competitiveness of the Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Industry in China

Research on the relationship between intellectual property rights (IPR) protection and economic growth and innovation has been often explored. However, there is an absence of research dealing with the the relationship between IPR protection and the international competitiveness of high-tech industry, especially pharmaceutical manufacturing industry. This study aims to examine the impact of the strength of IPR protection on the international competitiveness of China’s pharmaceutical manufacturing industry, by using time series data from 1995 to 2014. Modified Ginarte-Park (GP) index is used to measure the strength of IPR protection and revealed comparative advantage (RCA) index is utilized to measure the international competitiveness of China's pharmaceutical manufacturing industry. Multivariate time series model and OLS estimation are employed to examine the relationship between IPR protection and RCA index. The result shows that strict IPR protection does not enhance the international competitiveness of China’s pharmaceutical manufacturing industry. The finding suggests that it is more appropriate to adopt a more relaxed IPR protection system for pharmaceutical manufacturing industry in China. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ee.29.1.16878

Export competitiveness of the Croatian food industry

The main aim of the paper is to assess the international competitiveness of the Croatian food industry by deploying the Constant Market Share (CMS) analysis. The CMS model is able to quantify the export performance of the food industry compared to the rest of the world and individual foreign markets (the EU 27, new member states). The analysis revealed rather disappointing results in terms of the competitive position of the Croatian food industry in the period after 2010. The CMS was able to decompose change in the market share based on the geographic and product component and competitiveness effect, and the results confirmed the hypothesis that the loss in competitiveness of the Croatian food industry is the most important factor which determined the decreasing share of Croatian companies in world trade. The impact of the product mix of exported food products was neutral while its geographical effect was also negative. A regional reorientation of exports to more dynamic markets is an option which could boost the exports of the Croatian food industry.

A Study on the Analysis of International Competitiveness of Korean and Chinese Auto Parts Industry

Purpose - Korea and China have a very competitive structure in the automobile market. Therefore, this study examines the current status of the automobile market in Korea and China and the size of trade, and analyzes the international competitiveness of the auto parts industry. This is not an automobile itself but a comparative analysis of the automobile parts industry that can bring about various ripple effects. Research design, data, and methodology - The statistical data were used by Korea and China Automobile Industry Association. The statistical data related to automobile parts were extracted from the data of UN comtrade s trade statistics from 2006 to 2015 for 10 years considering the consistency of statistics. This data was extracted by the HS 2002 version because it was extracted from the 2005 statistical data. From the extracted trade statistics data, Korea s and China s Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) and Trade Specialization Index (TSI) were calculated and analyzed for international competitiveness and suggested implications. Results - The gist of research result is as follows. Conclusions - China s auto parts industry shows that technology-intensive and high value-added items are not competitive, exports are considered to be less profitable. Therefore, Chinese parts companies need to enhance the competitiveness of automobile parts by strengthening their own development capability, cultivating their own technology development talents, and establishing a technical standard system for the auto parts industry. On the other hand, the Korean auto parts industry should keep in mind that competitiveness index is gradually improving little by little. As a result, the Korean auto parts industry needs to concentrate on developing high value-added automotive parts. The main requirement for exports to China is not price competitiveness, but technology through differentiation. In order to enter the Chinese auto parts market in a short period of time, it is effective to cooperate with local auto parts companies of different kinds. In addition, Korean auto parts makers are experiencing difficulties in overseas car parts makers, such as lack of full-time overseas workforce and manpower management, and it is necessary to acquire and cultivate global talent to solve this problem. Also, it is necessary to support the government to invest in basic research and development related to automobile parts and to provide policy support to enhance R & D capability

The Impact of the Negative List Approach on the International Competitiveness of Service Industries

In 2013, China formally tried out the negative list management mode in Shanghai Free Trade Zone. Based on this background, this paper makes an empirical study of the effect of the implementation of the negative list management mode on the international competitiveness of service industries in a country from a perspective of value added in trade, to provide references for future reform of foreign investment access system. It shows that compared with the countries without the negative list approach, the international competitiveness of service industries in countries with the negative list approach reduces, indicating that after the implementation of the negative list approach, foreign enterprises entering a host country can crowd out domestic value-added share of the host country’s services exports by their competitive advantages, and weaken the competitive advantage of domestic enterprises in the host country in domestic exports. Moreover, the differentiated analysis results show that the negative impact of negative list on the international competitiveness of service industries is likely to be more significant for the host countries with lower GDP, worse law environment and for countries applying a negative list for partners with higher GDP, and the international competitiveness traditional services suffer more from the negative list. As a result, this paper concludes that it is necessary for China to reform the internal legal system during the international investment liberalization process, which means we should improve the legislation about foreign investment in service industry to make up for the negative impact of the negative list approach. And China should take the difference in both sectors and regions into consideration to optimize the degree and order of opening-up, and make sure that China could promote the service competitiveness effectively during the international investment liberalization process.

A Study on Strengthening International Competitiveness of Korean High-tech Industries for Protectionism

This study analyzed the international competitiveness of Korean high-tech industries in the U.S., Japan, and China, all of which are Korea’s major trading partners by using UN comtrade database. In terms of trade volume from 2001 to 2016, China s trade volume increased the 18 times, and Korea’s exports and imports increased by five to seven times during the period. In the case of the U.S. and Japan, the increase in exports was very little, but the increase in imports was significant. As a result of examining the trade specialization index by item, it was found that there were many import-specialized sectors in Korea in general. Specifically, import specialization in the biotechnology industry was very high. In the U.S., nuclear technology and electronic products are found to be export-specialized sectors, while in Japan, export specialization of automatic production and electronic products are high. On the other hand, China is highly specialized in exporting weapons, information and communication technology products. While the U.S. and Japan are losing their overall competitiveness, Korea’s technological competitiveness is increasing while China’s price competitiveness is increasing. In order to establish and implement effective policies to enhance the competitiveness of high-tech industries, government-led R&D policies should be encouraged to involve private companies, major universities, and government agencies.