Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) have been important for Vietnam’s rapid economic development. However, the context in which SMEs operate are rapidly changing with the current internationalisation of the Vietnamese economy. The question posed in this paper is “How are Vietnam’s...

This paper suggests that the use of investment incentives focusing exclusively on foreign firms, although motivated in some cases from a theoretical point of view, is generally not an efficient way to raise national welfare. The main reason is that the strongest theoretical motive for financial...

The focus of the economic policy debate in most of Europe’s transition economies has shifted from stabilization and recovery to growth and convergence during the last few years. This paper summarizes some of the growth experiences of East Asia, and discusses some lessons for Europe’s...

This paper analyzes the evolution of industrial competitiveness in Sweden and Finland in a long-term perspective. The first part looks at the foundations for industrial take-off in Sweden, with some focus on the development of institutions for the creation and dissemination of the skills and...

This paper takes its point of departure in a critique of the predominant way in which Japanese power has been conceived/perceived in academic Japanese foreign policy discourse. As an alternative to the /lack of/ power analysis within this discipline, it introduces a relational concept of power...

The main purpose of this paper is to investigate how scholars have related to the term ‘power’ in their research of post-Cold War Japanese foreign policy; how they have filled the term with meaning, i.e. how they have associated it with a concept. This is done through an analysis of English...

Features of institutional tracking play a key role in shaping an individualfs access to and advancement through higher education in Japan. This paper brings institutional tracking features to the foreground and examines the process by which individuals advance from middle school to high school,...