Freie University Berlin, Diss., 2004.

Within this thesis, the general developments of E-Business are discussed as well as their strategic implications and related opportunities for the chemical industry. To support strategic management decisions, potential scenarios are developed. On their bases, recommendations with regard to generic corporate strategy types can be drawn. Finally, E-Business related technologies are put into context again to show how they can support the successful implementation of the chosen strategy.

In the past, regional integration in Asia has basically been limited to market-driven economic integration and private networking. Policy-driven or institutional co-operation and integration have been very limited. The Asian financial crisis as well as the introduction of the Euro has contributed to a change in this pattern. A growing awareness of the advantages of regional co-operation is discernible among Asian states. The Chiang Mai initiative and numerous regional trade agreements are the most visible results of this growing awareness. Nevertheless it is to be doubted that this awareness will transform into concrete and higher level institutional integration among Asian states within the near future. The paper summarises the progress achieved so far in regional co-operation and integration and discusses the main factors favouring and limiting future perspectives.

This paper analyses the transfer of standardized products by FDI between industrial countries, newly industrialized countries and developing countries. One focus of this study is the question whether local entrepreneurs can acquire knowledge as joint venture partners and utilize this knowlegde for an outgoing investment in a third country. This requires that the local entrepreneurs have access to product, production process and management know how. This paper proposses the hypothesis, that the transfer of simple, standardized products can be explained with the catching-up product cycle. In the empirical part, Japanese FDI in Taiwan are compared with Taiwanese FDI in China in the branches electric & electronic and automobile parts. Case studies supplement this research. There two major findings. Taiwanese-Japanese joint ventures are operating successfully in China. The Taiwanese side has acquired at least management know-how in co-operation with the Japanese.

Internet banking is frequently classified as an extension of conventional distribution channels for financial services in the retail market. The present study empirically investigates the internet banking strategies of German saving banks. The study develops marketing strategy recommendations for the saving banks which take into account the results of the empirical analysis.

Seit dem Ende des zweiten Weltkrieges hat die deutsche Automobilindustrie, durch kurzfristige Konjunktureinbrüche und exogene Schocks temporär unterbrochen, einen kontinuierlichen Aufschwung erlebt. Der gravierende Einbruch der Automobilkonjunktur ab 1993 offenbart jedoch in einer sehr drastischen Art die sich schon in der zweiten Hälfte der achtziger Jahre abzeichnende internationale Wettbewerbsschwäche der deutschen Automobilhersteller. Die deutschen Produzenten werden jetzt um so drastischer mit Herausforderungen konfrontiert, deren Bewältigung zu tiefgreifenden Anpassungsprozessen innerhalb der automobilen Wertschöpfungskette zwingt. Die deutschen Hersteller sind gezwungen, durch entsprechende Strategien die Wettbewerbsfähigkeit und damit die Existenz ihrer Unternehmen zu sichern. Aufgabe staatlicher Wettbewerbsbehörden ist es, die Strategien der Automobilproduzenten, welche diese zur Sicherung oder Verbesserung ihrer Wettbewerbsposition wählen, daraufhin zu überprüfen, ob sie wettbewerbskonform sind, d.h . Wettbewerbsprozesse auf dem deutschen Pkw-Markt nicht erschweren oder gar blockieren.

In recent years, ,globalization" or ,growing international economic interdependence", which we will use as synonyms here, has generally been understood as offering many opportunities for newly industrialized economies like Korea (here used as an abbreviation for Republic of Korea or South Korea). However, serious challenges are also associated with it. Whereas some time ago, the renowned ,citadels" of learning and policy consulting have taken little notice of this darker side of economic internationalization, recently the perception seems to have changed. In its May 1997 World Economic Outlook, the International Monetary Fund (IMF 1997) extensively discussed the opportunities and challenges of globalization, concentrating on the latter. And the Washington-based Institute for International Economics has begun to publish a couple of books, attempting to ,provide an objective and thorough reassessment of the case for and against globalisation" (Bergsten 1997: vii). The institute, which was frequently quite perceptive of upcoming intellectual and political moods in recent years, suspects that - in the words of its director, C. Fred Bergsten - ,the United States will soon engage in a fundamental debate on the country's trade, and perhaps its overall international economic policy".

The author takes a close look at bilateral German-Japanese trade and direct investment data, employing various techniques (intensity indicators, RCA, intra-industry trade). It turns out that German-Japanese trade and FDI links are indeed rather limited, as has frequently been stated. A number of somewhat surprising pieces of evidence do emerge, though. For competitive industries and with respect to emerging opportunities, the bilateral figures do show a healthy performance.

In jüngster Zeit ist das Phänomen der Korruption in der VR China wieder verstärkt in das Blickfeld gerückt. Wie allen ökonomischen Austauschbeziehungen, so stellt sich auch korrupten Transaktionen das Problem der Absicherung derselben gegen opportunistisches Verhalten. In diesem Beitrag werden die chinesischen Guanxi-Netzwerke als eine sowohl in funktionaler als auch transaktionstheoretischer Hinsicht optimale Lösung dieses Ordnungsproblems identifiziert. Dies resultiert daraus, dass Guanxi-Netzwerke es vermögen, durch die Bindung von Investitionen in social capital stark risikobehaftete Austauschbeziehungen in sich selbst durchsetzende Verträge zu transformieren. Die durch den forcierten Aufbau eines Rechtssystems in der VR China aufgeworfene Frage, ob hierdurch Guanxi-Netzwerke verdängt und somit letztlich auch das Phänomen der Korruption zurückgeführt werden könnte, wird abschlägig beantwortet. Eine Analyse der einen derartigen institutionellen Wandlungsprozess determinierenden Faktoren institutionelle L eistungsfähigkeit, Kostenstrukturen, Pfadabhängigkeit und embeddedness zeigt, dass eine substantielle Verdrängung der Guanxi-Netzwerke auch bei weiterer Stärkung des chinesischen Rechtssystems nicht zu erwarten ist. Von dieser Seite her kann also kein Impuls zur Reduzierung des Korruptionsphänomens in der VR China erwartet werden.

This is a collection of three papers presented during a workshop in October 2000 in Heidelberg. They discuss to what extent the so-called "new economy" is associated with news ways of organising labour. The aim of the workshop was to organise a comparative discussion on Japan, the USA, and the EU, making use of theory-based reflections. Christoph Scherrer presents some theoretical background on the issue of the "new economy" and asks whether the recent experience of the US productivity performance is indicative of the possibility of growth without cyclical downturns. Michael Muller et al. look at a long-term study of personnel concepts in Europe and try to draw conclusions on what may be happening in Europe's "new economy". Wolfram Manzenreiter finally looks at Japan´s IT industries and asks to what extent the employment situation is being affected.