In recent years, cities such as Amsterdam have used the term hub city to define themselves in a global context. Hub cities are cities that play – or aspire to – a crucial role in the international and globalising economy. As such they form a hub, a ‘node’ of relevant traffic. What exactly is meant by …

Rise of creative industries. Recognition of the importance of the creative industries is one of the notable developments of the fi rst 14 years of the twenty-fi rst century. The realisation has struck that, as the industrial share of the world economy dwindles, other forms of business are gaining in …

In reflecting on Dutch Christmas shoppers, this article will discuss environmental Kuznets curve (EKC), postmaterialist values hypothesis, and ecological modernization theory. According to the EKC hypothesis, while at the initial stages of industrialization material resources are often used unsustainably, …

Does Northern Europe possess unique characteristics that cannot disappear and do not need to disappear, or will globalisation inevitably result in uniformity, divested businesses, lower wages and huge pressure on social security provisions? This is one of the main questions addressed by the authors. …

The League of Green Embassies, also referred to as 'the League' or LoGE, is a global network of now approximately 100 U.S. and Foreign Diplomatic Missions that commit to a "more successful, vibrant, and profitable energy and resource portfolio" (The League of Green Embassies: one-pager). Headquartered …

International expansion has never been easy, but the global economy is changing, cultural and language barriers are fading and this facilitates companies in conducting business across the world. This paper explains different factors such as the internal analysis, but also the external analysis and the …

Chapter 2 in Impacts of Emerging Economies and Firms on International Business. One of the most remarkable phenomena of recent times is that a large number of firms from emerging economies have come to define and dominate new markets and enter the class of global innovation leaders. Firms that once specialized …

In the Netherlands the creative sector has been selected as one of the nine top sectors of the economy which the country wants to prioritise for development. In this framework the Dutch government has recently compiled a policy document, ambitiously stating that the Netherlands should become the most …

This dissertation explores the controversial concept of the green economy and the rapidly increasing environmental concerns associated to the heavy energy industry. The main objective of this paper is to investigate how China's 12th Five-Year Plan responds to the green economy paradigm. Hence, it examines …

Internationalisation is the expansion of a firms operations to foreign markets and includes not only import and export but also foreign direct investments and international cooperation. Today’s globalising economy has resulted in a growing number of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) undertaking international …