The paper explores the competition dynamics of the global seed market. It documents the growth strategies of the major seed companies, in particular their M&A activity and their reliance on complex intellectual property strategies in order to offer a one stop shop solution to farmers. Recent merger activity in this sector (the Monsanto bid to buy Syngenta, the DuPont and Dow merger deal, ChemChina's bid to buy Syngenta) illustrates its rapid transformation from an already concentrated industry to a tight oligopoly on a global scale. The increasing global consolidation of this industry raises new challenges for competition law enforcement authorities dealing with the emergence of new powerful actors at the factor of production (input) level, in view of the broader concerns animating public policy in the food sector and the existence of a nexus of international commitments for biodiversity, sustainability, the right to food etc. By exploring this under-studied but fascinating area of competition law enforcement we open the debate over the inclusion of broader public interest concerns in competition policy and the consideration of its distributive impact from a global perspective.
Modern Universities play increasingly important role in contemporary society, advancing frontiers of science and transforming regional economies. As funding models of modern universities change, they adopt some features of a business organization. While their ability to attract funding becomes vitally important for universities, especially from private sources (industry), a balance between fundamental and applied research becomes vital. The current research investigates 5-years of activities of the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech) and particularly its research portfolio. It is based on the theory and practice of the Research Domain Portfolio Matrix (RDPM) approach considering a University to be a portfolio of R&D technologies in diverse scientific areas and at various stages of technology maturity. It is of utmost importance for Universities to find a balance between basic and applied research while making decisions on launching new projects/programs or modifying the existing projects/programs. The proposed RDPM approach helps to leverage limited resources, establish priorities, monitor risks, and influence outcomes in the short and long-term horizons.
The paper delves into the implications of the financialisation process for competition law enforcement. We consider that the recent debate over common ownership and its impact on competition law and policy integrates one of the possible manifestations of the broader debate competition law should have on the financialisation of the economy. We focus on the food industry and explore the possibility that common ownership may constitute a competition concern, raising issues of unilateral effects, horizontal collusion, vertical exclusion and vertical exploitation. This discussion is particularly important in the context of Global Food Value Chains as many institutional investors are passive investors in the diverse companies that are active at various segments of the Global Food Value Chains. In view of the possible negative welfare effects of common ownership on competition and its prevalence in the food sector, it is contended that competition authorities need to develop adequate legal tools to deal with this issue and rely on economics but also other sources of wisdom (e.g. advanced social network analysis) that may enable a better mapping of the complexity of competitive interactions in this sector and be more adequate in the context of a complex economy. The paper sets the broader theoretical framework and proceeds to an empirical investigation of common ownership in the global food value chain using the tool of advanced social network analysis.
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