To make innovations work commercially among the target group requires institutional approach that can anticipate and predict users urgent needs through participation. Conversely, to make innovations work technically requires a pile of junk and good imagination according to Thomas Edison. Biotechnology no doubt is a significant innovation that can enable farmers in developing countries increase productivity and manage their products. Nevertheless, biotech application is surrounded with many controversial debates. These controversies have affected its perception among farmers and consumers...

Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) are important strategic business options for corporations. Yet, the understanding of industry-specific drivers of M&A transactions is more than limited. Characterized by highly fragmented markets, cross-company production structures and increasing international business scope, the construction industry represents an attractive field of research to address questions on M&A motives. Based on comprehensively selected datasets and state-of-the-art empirical methods, the study illustrates the motives, the strategy and the effects of M&A transaction within the...

From a historical perspective, the period between the fall of the Berlin Wall (1989) until the Wall Street crash of 2008 was brief, but the social changes were far-reaching and resulted in the profound alteration of institutional frameworks of post-socialist societies in Central and East European countries, e.g. Estonia. This book examines the transformation of Estonian society, concentrating on changes in the stratification order. The (re)distribution of the risks and opportunities between different groups in Estonian society, the most neoliberal in the European Union, and the perceptions...

This book analyses women s transnational encounters in the Northern Ireland case. It connects both the different national contexts of women s movements and different strands of feminism against the setting of a raging local conflict and new international frameworks. During the 1970s the international women s movement, composed of a spectrum ranging from radical feminist to conservative, focussed on problems arising from the Troubles . Using a wide range of European and American sources this book highlights the nationality of the women involved and what it meant for their activism. It argues...

Due to the demographic development, public pension systems in the European Union organized on a pay-as-you-go (PAYG) principle will be forced to either raise contribution rates or taxes, shorten future replacement rates, or enforce a combination of both. In this regard, two important issues have to be addressed: The first issue refers to the question of measuring the public pension liabilities of private households until today. The extent of these liabilities has an impact on the saving behaviour. The second issue refers to the consequences of the demographic development for future retirees...

The book presents a new approach towards the promotion of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs). Over three decades there have been controversies in development policy circles on whether SMEs in Sub-Saharan Africa have the potential to create and sustain employment, generate income, alleviate poverty, and contribute to economic growth. The concerns were due to the worsening employment crisis in the region, increasing poverty, structural weakness and increasing globalisation pressure. Several theoretical approaches with respect to promoting Small and Medium Scale Enterprises in the region...

The European linguistic diversity goes far beyond the official national languages of the present 27 member states of the European Union. In every country several languages of smaller or larger groups of speakers are used besides the official language or the languages of the majority population. These languages are autochthonous languages that have been used for a long time in the individual country as well as allochthonous languages of different groups of migrants and their descendants. The sometimes complicated relations between national, regional and minority languages within various...

This book presents the results of the GMLS II conference on -Implications of GM-Crop Cultivation at Large Spatial Scales-, held in Bremen in March 2010. The meeting was a platform to discuss ecological, agricultural and economic implications of genetically modified organisms (GMO) and to present new developments in risk assessment and monitoring. Approaches in co-existence regulations and nature protection standards are presented as well as legal challenges and resolutions on national and on EU-level. The book collects 30 contributions written by specialists in science, administration and...

This book analyses the distributional effects of economic growth on different dimensions of poverty in Colombia. It provides a microeconomic perspective on how economic growth affected poverty and inequality at the household level, as well as a macroeconomic perspective on the effects of growth on regional living standards. The study incorporates recent discussions on multidimensional analysis of well-being and goes beyond traditional income based measures, thereby contributing to the ongoing research on how to measure pro-poor growth and on the importance of incorporating different...

This book focuses on the economic and political relations between the EU, Turkey, Morocco and Mediterranean Countries. It examines these relations from a global and pluralistic perspective and investigates them through a comparative analysis. The study reveals the untold issues and that s why it leads the readers to go beyond the borders. It is a professional and important source, particularly for economic and political decision makers. Furthermore this book addresses everyone, who wants to know about the background of international economic and political happenings."