Betting on China - Chinese Stocks, American Stock Markets, and the Wagers on a New Dynamic in Global Capitalism

D'Aveni demonstrates how global powerhouses such as Disney, Microsoft, and Procter & Gamble have achieved preeminence by reconceptualizing their product portfolios as powerful competitive arsenals he calls "spheres of influence." Essentially a new way to compete by restructuring portfolios around a core geographic/product market, spheres enable any company to influence the behavior and positioning of rivals. In immensely readable prose, D'Aveni describes how prevailing spheres of influence can be used to create legal business equivalents to a "concert of powers" and other industry structures that mix cooperation with competition. Just one of the potent functions of a corporate sphere, D'Aveni shows, is to contain competitors of equal size (as NBC contained ABC). Spheres can also be used to stabilize an entire industry's global power system.

A glance at the detailed table of contents will provide a sense of the wealth of new information contained in this essential handbook of global warfare, including "how-to" tools the reader will need to measure and map the pattern of competitive pressure in any industry and to interpret the meaning and strategic implications of these pressure patterns for his or her position within the industry's power hierarchy.

How was the European airline industry transformed from national fragmentation in 1957 to a point in 2006 where the European Commission could negotiate with the US for an Open Aviation Area on behalf of all twenty five members of the European Union? What can explain the change in mindset that saw conservatism and the tight regulation of the airline industry replaced with increased competitiveness and the subsequent rise of the low cost no-frills airline? In his new book, Alan P. Dobson draws from a mass of European documentation, including interviews with officials and airline executives and a unique collection of personal papers, to answer these questions.

Dobson traces the liberalization of the airline industry from the 1970s right through to the present day, illustrating how integration came about and which forces were driving it. The approach is comprehensive, focusing on the work of the Commission, market forces, the voices of airline industry interests and on key individuals in the policy making process. The story concludes with an overview of the attempts by the EU and the US to create an Open Aviation Area that would embrace their respective airline industries allowing free operation of services throughout their territories and mutual ownership and control of each others airlines.

This book is a key resource for students and researchers interested in aviation and international policy, as well as academics engaged with European integration, globalism and economic history.