Recent developments in virtual reality (VR) technology have the potential to revolutionize the way economists do experimental research. With Oculus’ light and affordable head mounted display (HMD) human subjects can literally move and use objects in virtual spaces and interact with others....

This research project reports the findings of an original study with regards to a new Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) instructional technique to be used for training purposes. The study investigated the effectiveness of a model HACCP instructional technique, the main...

This article analyses business strategies in the automobile sector to determine the key factors behind production relocation processes in automobile components suppliers. These factors help explain changes in production geography in the sector not only in terms of location advantages but also...

This article presents an analysis of the impact of virtualization process on competitiveness of small and medium sized firms. The developed methodology for measuring the level of organizational virtualness has been effectively applied to a wide range of businesses, both large and the smallest...

We present a micro-founded model of design, that provides a framework in which design leads to demand rotations. We show simple sufficient conditions that determine when design should be extreme (fully standardized or fully tailored) or rather be only partially tailored.

We endogenize product differentiation in a model of sequential search with random firm-consumer match value à la Wolinsky (1986) and Anderson and Renault (1999). We focus on a product design choice by which a firm can control the dispersion of consumer valuations for its product; we interpret...

In this paper, we examine the structure and the evolution of international exchanges of auto parts over the 2000-2012 period for four European countries. The first part of our study reviews the literature and points out four stylized facts about the geography of automotive supply networks. In...

With increasing globalization, the intense competition and customer-pressure have spurred many producers from developing/ emerging countries to adopt the best management and organizational practices. The quality issues are paramount for automotive manufacturing. The multiplicity of Quality...

This paper aims to carry out an analysis of fuzzy clusters in the Brazilian automotive industry to contribute to the analysis of the relative importance of these economic activities in the national productive structure and in their regional contexts. The intention is to assess whether, once they...

The NAFTA and MERCOSUR agreements seem to have accelerated the regional integration process respectively within North and South of America. In the South in particular, MERCOSUR has led to trade liberalisation and deregulation, which has resulted in significant growth of its regional trade. In...