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Der Abstieg erfolgte vergleichsweise unspektakulär, aber nachhaltig: Noch zu Beginn der neunziger Jahre war die Deutsche Bank gemessen an der Marktkapitalisierung die größte europäische Bank und gehörte zu den zehn größten Banken weltweit. Seither haben sich die Relationen grundlegend verschoben: In allen großen europäischen Ländern gibt es inzwischen jeweils mindestens zwei Banken, die eine größere Marktkapitalisierung aufweisen, als die Deutsche Bank. Damit stellt sich die Frage, welche Rückschlüsse für die, neben den in Deutschland dominierenden Volksbanken und Sparkassen, börsennotierten privaten Banken zu ziehen sind.

Auf den ersten Blick erscheint es paradox: Kreditausfälle im US-Immobilienmarkt führen zur Existenzkrise von zwei deutschen, im nationalen Geschäft verwurzelten Instituten. Selbst wenn noch nicht sämtliche Einzelheiten der aktuellen Krise im Bankgeschäft bekannt sind, können erste Ansätze zur notwendigen Aufarbeitung und Ableitung eines künftigen Marktszenarios vorgenommen werden.

At first glance it seems paradoxical: Loan defaults in the U.S. real estate market threaten the viability of two major German financial institutions-both with deep national roots. But although the full extent of the current banking crisis remains yet unknown, the first steps toward a critical reappraisal of future market scenarios can begin now.

This paper investigates the role of exploitative abuse under Article 82. Unlike exclusionary practices, there is relatively little economic commentary on the proper role of exploitative abuses in competition policy, even though the legal perspective in Europe has consistently emphasized the importance of enforcing antitrust action in the arena of exploitative practices. In this paper I will address the following two questions: what are the effects of antitrust action against exploitative conduct? and when to take antitrust action against exploitative abuses?

A pdf file of this working paper may be available at INSEAD.

Purpose - The purpose of this article is to raise awareness of the dynamic character of career and its key attributes, and the embeddedness of their definitions and meanings in national social, political and economic contexts. Design/methodology/approach - Features of three recent distinct social, political and economic situations in Russia are used to explore the meanings of nine key career attributes introduced by the Western career literature. Findings - It was found that in Russia each of the nine key career attributes accommodates a different meaning compared with their original Western meaning, and that these meanings are continuously changing to reflect the current social, political and economic environment. In sum, this exploration revealed a dynamic character to career attributes, and their content changed depending on the underlying context. Research limitations/implications - Among key research implications are: a possibility of using Western career theories mainly as conceptual frameworks for studying careers in other countries; that current social, political and economic contexts need to be taken into consideration when studying careers in a particular country; and the 'intelligent career' concept can be used to study careers in various cultural contexts, and to examine the interdependence between career and a national culture. Originality/value - This paper examines the extent to which Western career concepts may be used to study careers in various countries around the globe. It notes the dynamic character of career and its related career attitudes. This paper also makes suggestions on how the 'intelligent career' concept can be used for exploring career meanings in a particular national setting. Finally, this paper looks at specifics of careers in Russia, which are still underrepresented in the literature.

With permission of Emerald

Energy is a central issue in the current European policy context. Europe faces a number of fundamental challenges. First, the ongoing process of global economic integration emphasizes the importance of having access to secure, reliable and cost-effective sources of energy. Since energy is an important input for much economic activity, it contributes towards the competitiveness of the European economy as a whole. Second, declining international reserves of fossil fuels are changing the world energy map and have started to increase global competition for scarce resources. Whether European countries will follow common or national sourcing strategies is of profound political significance for the EU. Last but not least, climate change is an issue of great international concern. The need for stricter environmental standards has become apparent and the willingness of European leaders to spearhead this reform at a global level has resulted in calls to start optimizing environmental policy instruments at EU level. Without a common policy the EU can hardly be a credible world player.