According to the Lisbon Strategy innovation is considered to be a fundamental element for socio-economic growth in the EU. In particular, since it is estimated to count for about 16-18% of the European GDP, public procurement can be a driving force for this. To support this role in 2007 the EC...

The Club de Madrid and the Maastricht School of Management wanted to respond to the challenge of encouraging new thinking on the link between economic performance and social conditions. We invited a range of thinkers and writers from intergovernmental bodies, policy think tanks, academia and...

Which and how many attributes are relevant for the sorting of agents in a matching market? This paper adresses these questions by constructing indices of mutual attractiveness that aggregate information about agents' attributes. The rst k indices for agents on each side of the market provide the...

In managing business in emerging markets, Corporate Social Responsibility [CSR] is an issue of growing worldwide concern. It adds to the complexity of the management task in this environment, contributing to risks faced in all business transactions – although it may not be seen in this precise...

Improving access to healthcare globally represents a pressing societal challenge requiring a comprehensive approach. Stakeholders will need to work together in their quest to finding sustainable solutions that promote universal access to care. In addition, there is a need to better define the...

In April 1998 the political parties in Northern Ireland, working in tandem with the British, Irish and American governments, arrived at a peace accord that brought a 30 year violent conflict to an end. Or so it seemed at the time. The euphoria of the moment temporarily clouded the fact that,...

Business needs to unleash its full potential to contribute to social and environmental challenges, and to increase global well-being. A simple idea that still clashes with mainstream capitalism and its ‗business as usual‘ practices. Grounded in indigenous oriental knowledge, this paper...

In this paper five issues will be analyzed. In the first place that no separation is made between providing Chinese aid, developing trade relations with China and starting investment activities in Africa. Secondly, is it true that the Chinese government helps Chinese entrepreneurs to get started...

In the paper we review Chinese foreign direct investment in Africa, which have increased significantly in the last decade. So-called BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) are actively investing abroad, becoming leading FDI exporters among emerging economies, and China...

This paper uses longitudinal test data to analyze the relation be- tween retirement and cognitive development. Controlling for individ- ual …xed e¤ects and lagged cognition, we …nd that retirees face greater declines in information processing speed than those who remain em- ployed. However,...