Introduction 9
As distinct from the previous part, the second part of the monograph discusses the
various aspects of the challenges of economic cooperation from the mesoeconomic
perspective, which involve analysing the changes at sectoral or industrial level that
differed from either micro or macroeconomic view.
The first chapter begins by examining the rising significance of relationships and
interactions between market participants, which lay the foundation of the network
market concept based on network structures and network effects. Moreover, the
author indicates the determinants of a company’s success in network markets,
including the dynamics of the growth of a network created or used by the enterprise.
In addition to these deliberations, the chapter outlines the other vital aspects of
network market phenomena such as the factors shaping a market player’s network
position, the changes in market participants’ behaviour under the influence of the
network effect, and the characteristics of the concept of the network good.
The discussion about the network markets and the forces and mechanisms that
determine them is followed by another challenge of economic cooperation at
mesoeconomic level. First, the chapter discusses the growing importance and
strength of an economic linkage between industrializing Vietnam, Cambodia, Lao
PDR, Myanmar, and the Greater Mekong Sub-region, potentially leading to the
formulation of the regional production network. The study investigated the structure
of the automobile industry’s production network in the Greater Mekong Sub-region
by implementing methods such as the Grubel and Lloyd index and the unit value
ratio of exports and imports to decide the types of division of labour in the process
of production. Additionally, this research was expanded with a comparative analysis
of the European and North American cases, which allowed the author to conclude
that the production fragmentation network in the Greater Mekong Sub-region is still
in the early development stage.
The last challenge, which is addressed in this part, involves discussing industrial
cooperation in the form of the transfer of arms and military equipment. The author
of this chapter underlines the significant role of industrial cooperation in international
business and its various forms such as strategic alliance, joint venture, licensing,
subcontracting, and teaming agreements. In this chapter, the author also examined
the forms of industrial cooperation in the defence industry from the perspective of
the international transfer of arms and military equipment, which allowed to
underline two groups of determinants that influence industrial cooperation in the
arms sector and its spectrum. Moreover, the author outlined the way of acting on the
part of government institutions and the arms sector’s functioning as the determinants
that set favourable conditions for industrial cooperation.
The selected issues regarding the cultural aspects of the global economic phenomena
aspects are discussed in the last part of the monograph. The first chapter begins with
a case study of Karuizawa, a summer resort in Japan, and the locally adopted
