Over the past two decades, technological advances have facilitated an increasing international fragmentation of production processes. The academic literature has proposed several explanatory paradigms for this new form of trade. Some of these follow the lines of comparative advantage, while...

The original intention behind the ‘Doha Round’ of the World Trade Organization (WTO) was to promote the integration of developing countries into the world trading system. The collapse of the round in 2008 led to pessimism over whether the pursuit of such a ‘development-based’ agenda is...

Banks have already made progress towards developing a distribution strategy in which different channels are closely integrated. However, true multichannel distribution is hard to achieve and requires significant long-term investment. But if banks do manage to achieve the ideal multidistribution...

A new generation of preferential trade agreements (PTAs) is in the making: larger and deeper than most that have been signed earlier. Their focus has moved away from the elimination of tariffs to regulatory cooperation and a WTO-Plus agenda. At the same time, theoretical and empirical modelling...

In recent years, major changes have taken place in the retail banking sector. The customer relationship has once more come to the forefront in terms of priorities. Issues such as customer retention, customer loyalty and communication are more important than ever for building future success. This...

In many countries, innovation in customer relationship management and customer experience has been given a higher priority than previously. There is a consensus within the industry that strong customer intelligence and an effective customer relationship management strategy can help financial...

With the turbulent changes in retail financial services, achieving sales targets is still a key challenge for banks. However, providing high levels of customer service is also a priority. The new social networking and multi-channel world and the prospect of a host of new entrants with new...

The main topics that will be discussed include: Digital financial services - Marketing: greater intimacy with remote customers • Intimacy. What intimacy means for online and mobile customers. Customer centricity in a virtual world. • Digital communication. Customer experience in digital...

This year, therefore, the conference will focus on four key themes - New approaches to customer retention: an exploration of the effectiveness of the latest loyalty schemes; - New approaches to customer communication: engaging customers in real dialogue, using social networking sites and other...

The Efma Congress is dedicated to multichannel management. This year’s Congress will have two special sessions: - New banks and banking models This session will include case studies presented by senior executives of new European banks, such as Metrobank, Zuno Bank and Alior Bank. We will also...