The Editor's Corner
Boštjan Antončič
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Building Core Competencies in a Turbulent Environment: An Exploratory Study of Firm Resources and Capabilities in Chinese Transitional Economy
Justin Tan, Shaomin Li, and Weian Li

The impact of firm resources and capabilities on performance among Chinese enterprises has been a subject of anecdotal speculation due to its significant implications for organizational researchers as well as practitioners. Yet empirical evidence has been very limited. In this research, set in the People’s Republic of China, we examine firm resources and capabilities and their impact on firm performance among Chinese enterprises. Using large sample of 12,047 Chinese firms from 1991 to 1992, we found that most of the firm specific resources and capabilities examined in this study have a positive impact on performance. We discussed the implications for organizational researchers, policy makers, and managers, and proposed directions for future research.

Key Words: economic transition, firm strategy, resources and capabilities
JEL Classification: M10, L10, L20
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Cooperation after War: International Development in Bosnia, 1995 to 1999
Eric C. Martin, Sue R. Faerman, and David P. McCaffrey

This paper discusses how predispositions, incentives, the number and heterogeneity of participants, and leadership (Faerman et al. 2001) jointly influenced the international effort to develop Bosnia and Herzegovina. International coalitions, task forces, and advisory groups are increasingly charged with implementing reforms following civil conflict. This requires a complex web of interorganizational relationships among NGOS, donors and host nations at both global and ‘ground’ levels. To better understand development assistance, attention must be paid to the relationships between these varied players. We find that four factors influenced relationships between policy, donor, and implementing organizations; and those strained relationships, in turn, affected development success. The paper draws on interviews, conducted in Bosnia, with 43 development professionals, observation of development meetings in Tuzla and Sarajevo, and review of related documents from international development programs.

Key Words: international development, interorganizational relationships and cooperation
JEL Classification: O19, P41
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Language and Culture in International Legal Communication
Alenka Kocbek

In the contemporary business world, partners belonging to different nations, and hence different cultures, conduct business operations in either the language of one of the parties involved or in a third, neutral language, serving as lingua franca. Thus, language skills, as an essential component of the communicative competence, imply a certain extent of implicit or explicit translating and interpreting. The functionalist approaches in translation science, and most of all the Skopos theory by J. H. Vermeer, view translation as an intercultural transfer, which inevitably entails taking into account intercultural differences. As intercultural business communication is directly affected by the legal systems of the cultures involved, the communicating parties need to be acquainted with both the source and target legal systems. This is especially the case with English, as the Anglo-American legal system, based essentially on common law, differs substantially from continental law, to which most of the European countries belong. English as the world’s most commonly used lingua franca will have to be adapted to its new function by adopting terms and concepts from other cultures and, within the EU, take into consideration the existing discrepancies between the continental and the Anglo-American legal systems. In this paper, cases of non-equivalence regarding legal terms are illustrated with examples from company law. In conclusion, some linguistic and cultural implications of the use of English as lingua franca, as well as their impact on teaching and learning practices are presented.

Key Words: translation, lingua franca, Skopos, cultural embeddedness
JEL Classification: K33, L84, M5, M53
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Home Education: Globalization Otherwise?
Christian W. Beck

Home Education seems to be a successful way to educate. Academic results and socialization processes in home education are promising. Already home education is global, home educators everywhere educate their children themselves without schools. They develop new forms of local and international co-operation. Is home education an impulse to a renewing of modern education? Is home education globalization otherwise?

Key Words: home education, globalization, educational politics, pedagogy
JEL Classification: I21, I28
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Global Education in Manufacturing: Basic Framework, Industrial Survey and Possible Implementation
Asbjorn Rolstadas Slavko Dolinšek

Many new challenges and opportunities have arisen for Slovenia since May 2004 when it became a full member of the EU. On the one hand we have some successful economic players who can definitely gain from new opportunities, on the other hand some structural changes still have to be accomplished. One of the most demanding tasks is related to higher education and in particular to harmonization of EU and global educational systems. The paper presents the results of the international framework for a Master degree curriculum in manufacturing strategy and an example of the integration of competence in technology and business. A good example of meeting Bologna goals is to establish a system of easily recognisable and comparable educational degrees and to accelerate the employment of EU citizens as well as the competitiveness of the European higher educational system.

Key Words: manufacturing, education, training, industrial organisation
JEL Classification: L60, I21, M53
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