Fundamental theories and concepts for understanding how business is done in Europe, linked to the current European business environment through a range of up-to-date case studies and examples.
For many observers, the European Union is mired in a deep crisis. Between sluggish growth; political turmoil following a decade of austerity politics; Brexit; and the rise of Asian influence, the EU is seen as a declining power on the world stage. Columbia Law professor Anu Bradford argues the opposite in her important new book The Brussels Effect: the EU remains an influential superpower that shapes the world in its image. By promulgating regulations that shape the international business environment, elevating standards worldwide, and leading to a notable Europeanization of many important aspects of global commerce, the EU has managed to shape policy in areas such as data privacy, consumer health and safety, environmental protection, antitrust, and online hate speech. And in contrast to how superpowers wield their global influence, the Brussels Effect - a phrase first coined by Bradford in 2012- absolves the EU from playing a direct role in imposing standards, as market forces alone are often sufficient as multinational companies voluntarily extend the EU rule to govern their global operations. The Brussels Effect shows how the EU has acquired such power, why multinational companies use EU standards as global standards, and why the EU's role as the world's regulator is likely to outlive its gradual economic decline, extending the EU's influence long into the future.
The only comprehensive textbook on Europe's business environment, examining the region's economics and policies in social, political and historical contexts.
Buying and Selling explores the many facets of the business of books across and beyond Europe, adopting the viewpoints of printers, publishers, booksellers, and readers. Essays by twenty-five scholars from a range of disciplines seek to reconstruct the dynamics of the trade through a variety of sources. Through the combined investigation of printed output, documentary evidence, provenance research, and epistolary networks, this volume trails the evolving relationship between readers and the book trade. In the resulting picture of failure and success, balanced precariously between debt-economies, sale strategies and uncertain profit, customers stand out as the real winners.
This book demolishes the widely held view that the phrase 'medieval business' is an oxymoron. The authors review the entire range of business in medieval western Europe, probing its Roman and Christian heritage to discover the economic and political forces that shaped the organization of agriculture, manufacturing, construction, mining, transportation and marketing. Businessmen's responses to the devastating plagues, famines, and warfare that beset Europe in the late Middle Ages are equally well covered. Medieval businessmen's remarkable success in coping with this hostile new environment was 'a harvest of adversity' that prepared the way for the economic expansion of the sixteenth century. Two main themes run through this book. First, the force and direction of business development in this period stemmed primarily from the demands of the elite. Second, the lasting legacy of medieval businessmen was less their skillful adaptations of imported inventions than their brilliant innovations in business organization.
Major changes which have occurred since this book was first published have been included in this edition. In particular, the chapter on Germany has been substantially revised and now includes a separate section on easter Germany. The other five countries covered in the book have also witnessed changes in their business culture and these have been taken into consideration. This book examines the background to business practice in Europe of six major countries: Germany, France, Italy, the UK, Spain and the Netherlands. Each chapter tracks the commercial development of that country in the late 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s, focusing on the business environment, special features affecting business, and the response to the EC's single market. The business culture section in each is divided further into business and government, business and the economy, business and the law, business and finance, business and the labour market, business and trade unions and business training, education and development. The test is organized in such a manner to enable cross-referencing between countries, and maps have been included in the new edition.
The book brings together an international panel of experts on economic integration and international business to address the essential link between the two fields, namely the impact of integration processes on the business environment. Focusing on the European Union, it presents numerous examples and case studies to demonstrate how local business is becoming international business, and addresses the opportunities, constraints and overall historical changes. Starting with the regional and global economic integration framework, and subsequently exploring the institutional structure that makes everything possible and how the union came to be, the book reveals how the common policies of the EU impact businesses and entrepreneurship within both the common market and the member states. Readers will learn about the economic and political context that affect businesses in Europe; understand the basic concepts of integration, accompanied by cases and examples; gain a new perspective on important EU sectoral policies and challenges for individuals and businesses; become aware of the main challenges to EU enlargement; and better grasp the advantages and disadvantages of doing business in Europe in the present context.
This edited volume is based on the European Law Institute's (ELI) project 'Rescue of Business in Insolvency Law'. The project ran from 2013 to 2017 under the auspices of the ELI and was conducted by Bob Wessels and Stephan Madaus, who were assisted by Gert-Jan Boon. The study sought to design (elements of) a legal framework that will enable the further development of coherent and functional rules for business rescue in Europe. This includes certain statutory procedures that could better enable parties to negotiate solutions where a business becomes financially distressed. Such a framework also includes rules to determine in which procedures and under which conditions an enforceable solution can be imposed upon creditors and other stakeholders despite their lack of consent. The project had a broad scope, and extended to consider frameworks that can be used by (non-financial) businesses out of court, and in a pre-insolvency context. Part I of this book, the ELI Instrument as approved by the ELI Council and General Assembly, features 115 recommendations on a wide variety of themes affected by the rescue of financially distressed businesses, such as the legal rules for professions and courts, treatment and ranking of creditors' claims, contract, corporate and labour law as well as laws relating to transaction avoidance. Part II consists of national reports that sketch the legal landscape in 13 States and of an 'Inventory Report on International Recommendations from Standard-Setting Organisations', both of which provided insight for the drafting of the Instrument. This volume is designed to assist those involved in a process of law reform and those setting standards for soft law in the business rescue context.
By bringing together elements of a radical new approach to the firm based on a biological metaphor of the ecosystem, this unique book extends the limits of existing theories traditionally used to investigate business networks.