The sugarcane byproducts to a food security in an ecofriendly way: A review

This article addresses, in an integrated way, the main aspects of the by-products obtained from sugarcane processing summarizing their most important and economic characteristics, their composition, and most relevant uses as options for industrial diversification, all taken as a review.

Intensifier of urban economic resilience: Specialized or diversified agglomeration?

With increased uncertainty and instability worldwide, how to enhance the urban economy resilience effectively has become one main issue for urban economic development. Based on the measurement of the economic resilience of 241 cities at the prefecture level and above in China using the sensitive index method, we scrutinize the impact of industrial specialization agglomeration and diversification agglomeration on urban economic resilience. Results indicate that, during the impact resistance period, industrial diversification agglomeration, especially related industrial diversification agglomeration, can enhance urban economic resilience, whereas industrial specialization agglomeration has no positive effect. In contrast, during the period of recovery and adjustment, industrial specialization agglomeration can improve urban economic resilience, and industrial diversification agglomeration, especially related industrial diversification agglomeration, has no positive effect. Further analysis indicates that, under the interaction of specialization and diversification agglomerations, the effect of industrial agglomeration on urban economic resilience depends on the type of dual industrial agglomeration, showing remarkable heterogeneity. This study may provide useful references for policy makers concerned with urban resilience.

Evolution of industrial diversification and its determinants in West Germany: Evidence from population data of enterprises

Germany is among the largest countries in the world in terms of total GDP, owing largely to rapid industrialization and expansion of economic activities into several sectors. This paper contributes to the literature on German economic development by investigating the evolution of industry diversification in Germany; particularly focusing on the recent concepts of related (RV) and unrelated variety (UV) in West German regions. It also identifies the statistical and economic determinants of variation in variety over time. Among several industry structure measures; RV is the only measure that reveals a pronounced increasing trend. Since RV is composed of two parts: 1) entropy at five-digit within a two-digit classification, and 2) shares of two-digit sectors in total output, we examined which of the two components dominate. Our findings suggest that the entropy component within two-digit sectoral shares of the RV index is more dominant than the two-digit sectoral shares themselves. We further examined entries and exits of the firms among regions with top and bottom rankings in RV. Findings suggest that both the top and bottom regions experienced an increase in the total number of industries, however, exits were much less pronounced in the bottom regions. It suggests that an increase in variety among top regions is the result of the creative destruction type effect where new industries force inefficient old industries to leave the region. Finally, analysis shows support for the inverse u-shaped relationship between development and diversification.

Mediapro: reconversión de un carrier en grupo global de comunicación

The transformation that the Spanish company Mediapro has undergone from its beginning as carrier to become a global communication group –the first in Spain by net income– is studied. Mediapro is one of the largest European producers and one of the largest broadcasters of world sports broadcasting rights. Starting from an analysis of its strengths and weaknesses and an in-depth study of its industrial diversification policies and its business results, as well as its corporate reputation, closely linked to corporate behavior, the text also investigates some of the keys to its future as a large media conglomerate, subject to an extraordinarily competitive sector and in full digital transformation. The conclusion is that in a business context in which it must compete with the world´s largest content producers, as well as with the large holders of sports broadcasting rights, this future must necessarily go through less dependence on sports rights –subject to a fierce negotiation with large global conglomerates– and, at the same time, for a clear reinforcement of its corporate reputation. Resumen Se estudia la transformación que ha experimentado la empresa española Mediapro desde sus inicios como carrier (transportador de señal) hasta convertirse en un grupo global de comunicación –el primero de España por ingresos netos y ebitda–, además de una de las mayores productoras europeas y uno de los mayores difusores de derechos de retransmisiones deportivas mundiales, y que opera en numerosos países. Partiendo de un análisis de las fortalezas y debilidades de Mediapro y de un estudio profundo de sus políticas de diversificación industrial y de sus resultados empresariales, así como de su reputación corporativa, íntimamente unida al comportamiento corporativo, el texto indaga también en algunas de las claves de su futuro como gran conglomerado mediático, sujeto a un sector extraordinariamente competitivo y en plena transformación digital. La conclusión es que en un contexto de negocio en el que debe competir con las mayores productoras de contenidos mundiales, así como con los grandes poseedores de los derechos de retransmisiones deportivas, este futuro debe pasar necesariamente por una menor dependencia de los derechos deportivos –sujetos a una férrea negociación con grandes conglomerados mundiales– y, al mismo tiempo, por un claro reforzamiento de su reputación corporativa.

The roles of KIBS and R&D in the industrial diversification of regions

There is a growing recognition of the importance of the creation of new industrial specialisations for sustained regional growth. However, path dependency often limits a region’s ability to do so, as the occurrence of new industrial specialisations is conditioned by its existing industrial base. In this paper, we use data for 269 NUTS-2 EU regions to examine whether regional Knowledge-Intensive Business Services (KIBS) and Research and Development (R&D) enhance the capacity of regions to specialise in new industries, against the forces of path dependence. Our findings show that both KIBS and R&D exercise direct positive effects on the creation of new industry specialisations and that professional-KIBS and public R&D impact negatively on the relatedness of new specialisations, while private R&D does so positively.

Macro-Policy, Labour Markets, and Industrial Policy

Debates on industrialization and industrial policy have historically had a supply-side bias: development planners focused on strengthening inter-industry linkages, mobilizing savings to finance investment, and the accumulation of technological knowledge. Aggregate demand was expected to accommodate and even facilitate the structural change brought about by the industrialization process. However, botched industrialization experiences in South East Asia, Latin America, and Africa demonstrate that failures to manage demand in ways supportive of industrial policy can slow or even derail industrialization. We use an open-economy growth model of a late industrializing economy, featuring cumulative causation and a (long-run) balance-of-payments constraint, to investigate conflicts and complementarities between macroeconomic and industrial policies. We identify key macro mechanisms that undermine industrialization processes—and highlight macro policies in support of industrial diversification, structural change, and upgrading. We close by arguing that from a macro point of view, the widely held claim that labour laws are a ‘luxury’ developing countries cannot afford, is wrong. Labour regulation and higher real wage growth, when given adequate macroeconomic policy support, can be made to further industrialization.