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Value chain–based approaches offer tremendous scope for market-based improvements in production, productivity, rural economy diversification, and household incomes, but are often covered by literature that is too conceptual or heavily focused on analysis. This has created a gap in the information available to planners, practitioners, and value chain participants. Furthermore, few references are available on how these approaches can be applied specifically to developing agriculture in Africa. 'Building Competitiveness in Africa's Agriculture: A Guide to Value Chain Concepts and Applications' describes practical implementation approaches and illustrates them with scores of real African agribusiness case studies. Using these examples, the 'Guide' presents a range of concepts, analytical tools, and methodologies centered on the value chain that can be used to design, implement, and evaluate agricultural and agribusiness development initiatives. It stresses principles of market focus, collaboration, information sharing, and innovation. The 'Guide' begins by examining core concepts and issues related to value chains. A brief literature review then focuses on five topics of particular relevance to African agricultural value chains. These topics address challenges faced by value chain participants and practitioners that resonate through the many cases described in the book. The core of the book presents methodological tools and approaches that blend important value chain concepts with the topics and with sound business principles. The tools and case studies have been selected for their usefulness in supporting market-driven, private-sector initiatives to improve value chains. The 'Guide' offers 13 implementation approaches, presented within the implementation cycle of a value chain program, followed by descriptions of actual cases. Roughly 60 percent of the examples are from Africa, while the rest come from Europe, Latin America, and Asia. The 'Guide' offers useful guidance to businesspeople, policy makers, representatives of farmer or trade organizations, and others who are engaged in agro-enterprise and agribusiness development. These readers will learn how to use value chain approaches in ways that can contribute to sound operational decisions, improved market linkage, and better results for enterprise and industry development.

'Catastrophe Risk Financing in Developing Countries' provides a detailed analysis of the imperfections and inefficiencies that impede the emergence of competitive catastrophe risk markets in developing countries. The book demonstrates how donors and international financial institutions can assist governments in middle- and low-income countries in promoting effective and affordable catastrophe risk financing solutions. The authors present guiding principles on how and when governments, with assistance from donors and international financial institutions, should intervene in catastrophe insurance markets. They also identify key activities to be undertaken by donors and institutions that would allow middle- and low-income countries to develop competitive and cost-effective catastrophe risk financing strategies at both the macro (government) and micro (household) levels. These principles and activities are expected to inform good practices and ensure desirable results in catastrophe insurance projects. 'Catastrophe Risk Financing in Developing Countries' offers valuable advice and guidelines to policy makers and insurance practitioners involved in the development of catastrophe insurance programs in developing countries.

China's economic performance over the past 30 years has been remarkable. The report is based on the strong conviction that China has the potential to become a modern, harmonious, and creative high income society by 2030. The report proposes six strategic directions for China's new development strategy: 1) rethinking the role of the state and the private sector to encourage increased competition in the economy; 2) encouraging innovation and adopting an open innovation system with links to global research and development networks; 3) looking to green development as a significant new growth opportunity; 4) promoting equality of opportunity and social protection for all; 5) strengthening the fiscal system and improving fiscal sustainability; and 6) ensuring that China, as an international stakeholder, continues its integration with global markets.

This book tackles crucial issues regarding the emerging global market for corporate governance. The authors describe and explain the transformation of European corporate governance in the light of the imperatives driving global financial markets, using an innovative analytical framework. They chart the response of corporate managers to the interest of global portfolio managers in transparent and accountable modes of corporate governance. In doing so, the authors provide an innovative perspective on a rapidly changing environment, and a challenge to those who ignore the gathering momentum of global financial markets.

Use this comprehensive primer to simplify exporting, discover exportable products and services, and determine and select the best target market entry alternative while ensuring that you get paid. US small- to medium-size business owners (SMEs with less than 500 employees) interested in entering foreign markets will learn how to overcome the most significant challenges and barriers to entering foreign markets.Firms operate in a worldwide economy responsible today for 40 million US trade-dependent jobs and approximately six million US factory jobs—roughly half of all manufacturing employment, whether or not they have any interest in global business activities. In the face of globalization, small businesses must evaluate their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats and then develop strategies that effectively respond to the globalized business environment in which they operate. If your firm is growth-oriented—and what business is not?—you should grow global markets as an important strategic option allowing you to:Reach new customers/markets with little or no competitionReduce dependence on a limited number of major customersEven out business cycle-related demand fluctuationsExtend the life of niche products to new marketsDevelop a global network of contacts and partners that improves their offerings to established customers What You’ll LearnDetermine your role in global marketsIdentify target markets and find customersNegotiate around the worldComplete the transaction and understand international trade procedures and regulationsUnderstand the keys to global market growthFollow sample forms and sales proposalsWho This Book Is ForUS small- to medium-sized business owners

Design-oriented new product development (NPD) has been recognised as beneficial for company growth; however, there is limited reporting on the understanding of its effectiveness in a real-world context especially in Chinese SMEs. This paper aims to explore issues related to the implementation of designer-led NPD in a Chinese SME. An experiment was setup whereby two NPD teams were assigned to conduct NPD concurrently. One of the teams carried out the conventional NPD process model used by the company, and the other adopted the designer-led NPD process model. A metrics tool was built in the form of questionnaires for obtaining the views of the participants. Results indicate that design-led NPD is perceived to be more inclusive of team members’ views, even if the effectiveness of designer-led NPD in Chinese SMEs requires further investigations.

Globalisation of market present more challenges and it requires firms to respond by adopting various strategies. One of the strategies is through involvement in international strategic alliances. The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of global market environment factors, which consists of two dimensions namely global market opportunities and global market threats on the degree of cooperation of international strategic alliances. A quantitative study with data collected through survey questionnaire was conducted and the sample of the study consisted of 214 service based companies in Yemen. The findings show a significant positive relationship between the global market opportunities factor and the degree of cooperation of international strategic alliances. In contrast, there is no significant relationship observed between the global market threats and the degree of cooperation. Therefore, firms observing new market opportunities resulting from globalization tend to increase the degree of cooperation of their strategic alliances.

Type of the article: Research Article AbstractCompetitive advantage is crucial for the global market as the integration of enterprise resource planning (ERP) and radio frequency identification (RFID) enhances MSMEs’ efficiency, flexibility, and responsiveness, strengthening competitiveness and global expansion. We aim to test the effects of ERP and RFID on competitive advantage and how competitive advantage influences global market success, both directly and through the mediating role. The survey was conducted in June 2025 in Kediri, East Java, Indonesia. It involved 225 SME actors from 75 clusters, selected randomly to reduce bias. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire with a 5-point Likert scale and analyzed with partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).The analysis results demonstrate that ERP and RFID significantly enhance a company’s competitive advantage, with path coefficients of 0.2708 for ERP and 0.5434 for RFID, both highly significant at p = 0.0000. This competitive advantage positively influences global market expansion, with a coefficient of 0.4687 (p = 0.0000), highlighting its crucial role in international growth. Furthermore, both ERP and RFID contribute directly to global market expansion, where RFID exhibits a stronger effect with coefficients of 0.1593 for ERP and 0.2500 for RFID (p = 0.0000). Mediation analysis confirms that competitive advantage significantly mediates the relationship between technology implementations and global market expansion, with RFID’s mediating effect (0.2547) exceeding that of ERP (0.1269). This evidence confirms that implementing ERP and RFID significantly enhances a company’s competitive advantage and contributes to global market expansion, with RFID demonstrating a stronger impact and serving as a crucial mediating factor in this relationship. AcknowledgmentsWe sincerely thank the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology of Indonesia, Directorate General of Research and Development, for their financial support, which made the successful completion of this research possible. The funding, granted through the Research and Community Service Program (DPPM) for the 2025 fiscal year under the “Regular Fundamental Research” scheme, was instrumental in facilitating the research activities and contributing to the overall success of this endeavor.