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The purpose of this article is to identify the ways to develop the innovative potential of Russian export. As a perspective direction for enhancing Russian export sector, segment of services is considered to be the fastest growing and least dependent on the volatility of the global environment element of international trade. The article analyzes the dynamics of Russian exports of services over the past eleven years and concludes on the gradual strengthening of its position In this regard, attention is focused on the export of high - tech and intellectual services - analysis of Russian prospects and opportunities in this area. Also author's recommendations for the improvement of this segment in the long term are given. Special attention is paid to the development of national technology exports. As a result, the article analyzes experience of leading innovation-active countries and presents the author's development model of Russian export sector innovative potential.

AbstractVariability in export returns is a major source of instability in the Australian economy and, in the presence of price and wage rigidities, may be a substantial cause of social costs. There have been calls for explicit policies to change Australia's pattern of exports away from traditional agricultural and mineral exports. In this article, the implications of changes in the pattern of Australian exports have been examined taking into account the variability of each category and the correlations between categories. From the results it appears that the diversification from rural to mineral exports since 1970 has substantially reduced the variability of export returns. While rural exports remain the most variable component of the total, a reduction in the rural share of total exports and a corresponding expansion of Australias traditional manufactured exports would appear to have surprisingly little effect on export variability.

This paper sets out to examine the way in which guano was dug and removed from the Chincha islands in the middle of the nineteenth century, when the Peruvian trade was in its most buoyant phase. We shall, in fact, be looking at the physical operation of an entire export sector, up to the point at which the commodity left the shores of Peru for the farms of Western Europe and North America.

The apparel export industry in Ethiopia began modestly in the 2000s, but increased significantly by the mid-2010s and will continue to do so in the coming years, positioning Ethiopia to be an important supplier country in the globalized apparel industry. This paper provides an overview of the emergence and evolution of the apparel export sector in Ethiopia. It argues that the EPRDF government's pro-active industrial policy played an important role in the development of the sector. While foreign firms are an important driver behind the growth of apparel exports, there are also locally owned firms exporting apparel, which makes Ethiopia distinct from most other Sub-Saharan African apparel exporter countries. Ethiopian-owned apparel firms exhibit diverse ownership patterns, including state-owned, party-owned, and private sector-owned firms. The first phase of industrial policy particularly focused on incentivizing local investment in apparel production for export while later phases of industrial policy shifted the focus to attracting foreign direct investment, in order to boost exports and generate employment more quickly as well as bring knowledge and global networks into the country. Despite the focus on exports, the EPRDF government simultaneously has pursued import-substitution policies in the textile and apparel sector, which has helped the development of locally owned apparel firms by subsidizing the cost of learning to export as well as building a national supply chain from cotton to textile to apparel. The challenges for the government's industrial policy approach is to retain the focus on local firms given their important role in productive transformation and to ensure incentives and support for local firms to export, and through this to increase their capabilities and value added, despite the existence of a protected domestic market. ; The apparel export industry in Ethiopia began modestly in the 2000s, but increased significantly by the mid-2010s and will continue to do so in the coming years, positioning Ethiopia to be an important supplier country in the globalized apparel industry. This paper provides an overview of the emergence and evolution of the apparel export sector in Ethiopia. It argues that the EPRDF government's pro-active industrial policy played an important role in the development of the sector. While foreign firms are an important driver behind the growth of apparel exports, there are also locally owned firms exporting apparel, which makes Ethiopia distinct from most other Sub-Saharan African apparel exporter countries. Ethiopian-owned apparel firms exhibit diverse ownership patterns, including state-owned, party-owned, and private sector-owned firms. The first phase of industrial policy particularly focused on incentivizing local investment in apparel production for export while later phases of industrial policy shifted the focus to attracting foreign direct investment, in order to boost exports and generate employment more quickly as well as bring knowledge and global networks into the country. Despite the focus on exports, the EPRDF government simultaneously has pursued import-substitution policies in the textile and apparel sector, which has helped the development of locally owned apparel firms by subsidizing the cost of learning to export as well as building a national supply chain from cotton to textile to apparel. The challenges for the government's industrial policy approach is to retain the focus on local firms given their important role in productive transformation and to ensure incentives and support for local firms to export, and through this to increase their capabilities and value added, despite the existence of a protected domestic market.

In December 2004 to December 2007, the Kenya shilling real exchange rate appreciated by 30.0 % representing a major deviation from its past levels. Appreciation of the shilling real exchange rate has attracted public attention recently, especially from exporters and importers who have argued that the weakening shilling is eroding their competitiveness. This study was guided by the following objectives; to investigate the effects of foreign aid inflow on real exchange rate and export volumes in Kenya. It was hypothesized that foreign aid inflows to Kenya do not result in real exchange rate appreciations, and that exports do not respond positively to foreign aid inflows. The data comprised of annual time series data for Kenya over the sample period 1960 to 2010. The sources of data included World Bank world tables, Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development, Central Bank of Kenya and Kenya National Bureau of Statistics. The study adopted Error Correction Model, because of its ability to induce flexibility by combining the short run dynamic and long run equilibrium model in a unified system. Inferential statistics were applied using Micro fit and PC Give (ox-metrics); unit root, co integration and granger causality tests were done prior to estimation. The study found that, foreign aid inflow lead to real exchange rate appreciation in Kenya. This was depicted by the significance of aid in the long run co-integrated equilibrium results. Foreign aid inflows also had a positive impact on export volumes as shown by the significance of aid in the export performance model estimation. The results of short-run parsimonious real exchange rate model revealed that real exchange rate is influenced by domestic factors such as government expenditure, technological progress and commercial policy stance. External factors proxied by terms of trade also tend to play a critical role as they lead to real exchange rate depreciation this was shown by the positive co-efficient of terms of trade in the long run co-integrated equilibrium results. The study concluded that for foreign aid to be an effective investment, policy management need to focus on ensuring the prevalence of sound macroeconomic fundamentals, liberalizing trade, focusing on export-led growth strategy and promotion of tourism industry in Kenya. KEY WORDS: Real Exchange Rates, Aid, Exports Sector Performance.

Locally owned firms need to develop their technological capabilities since accumulating firm-level capabilities is one of the most fundamental factors needed for structural change and economic development in African countries. However, building technological capabilities usually involves costly and risky investment with uncertain outcomes. Therefore, it is not usually appealing for local firms to invest in learning and develop their capabilities unless they are incentivised and compelled by the external environment. Firm-level capability building is the result of an interactive process between the internal learning effort of firms and their external environment, but African-owned firms usually face an unfavourable external environment with widespread market failures and few supporting institutions, which increase the learning costs and the uncertainties of a return on investment. As a result, the firms usually have low technological capabilities, which in turn makes it harder for these firms to acquire, absorb and adapt the foreign knowledge required for foreign direct investment spillovers and upgrading in global value chains to occur. Despite the difficult circumstances, locally owned firms in some African countries manage to compete in global value chains, but there is limited knowledge on how those firms became internationally competitive through investing in learning and building capabilities, how they relate to foreign firms and global value chain actors, and whether they try and are able to move into higher value activities within global value chains. In order to contribute to filling this gap in literature, the thesis investigates under which conditions Ethiopian-owned firms in the floriculture export sector invest in building their technological capabilities, considering the national institutional context and floriculture global value chain dynamics in which firms operate. Methodologically, the thesis combines the technological capabilities and global value chain approaches in order to identify more precisely what kind of capabilities are required to enter, remain competitive and upgrade within floriculture global value chains. It uses a uniquely designed firm-level survey to collect the data used to measure the capabilities of Ethiopian floriculture firms, and uses data collected through a firm history method to examine the factors influencing whether and how firms invest in learning. The findings show that local firms' initial investment in the Ethiopian floriculture export sector was mainly incentivised by government industrial policy, while a Dutch development program played an important but less prominent role. Systems of innovation, foreign direct investment spillovers, global value chain governance, and the Dutch development program served as sources of knowledge and catalysed learning to various degrees. Nevertheless, firms' learning efforts were influenced initially by sector specific characteristics, such as the Dutch auction offering relatively attractive rewards, the inherent narrow margin for failure that exists in the sector, and the absence of a significant domestic market for cut-flowers. However, firms' further learning efforts and subsequently their level of technological capabilities was driven mainly by firm-specific characteristics, such as the owner's perception of risk and reward about the export sector as well as in relation to their diversified business groups. Most of the Ethiopian floriculture firms had other business, and they made calculations of risk and reward about the diversified business group as a whole, which shaped their effort in relation to their flower export firm. A key contribution of the thesis is that it distinguishes conceptually three dimensions of local firms' technological capability building process: incentivizing firms' initial investment, sources of knowledge or expanding knowledge sources locally and catalysing learning, and compelling firms' learning effort. In reality, the three dimensions of TC building process are interactive and may not be separable from each other, but the conceptual distinction is important in order to provide a more nuanced view about how firms' learning takes place and more specifically how national and global factors influence firms' TC building process through shaping one or more of the three dimensions. These three dimensions can be useful in assessing processes of learning and firms' TC building in other sectors as well as contexts. The key factors that shaped firm-level capability building processes in the Ethiopia floriculture export case are industrial policy, national innovation systems, foreign direct investment spillovers, global value chain governance, a Dutch development program as well as firm specific characteristics. Thus, the thesis confirms much of the existing arguments in the literature in relation to these key factors, but it also elaborates on the causal mechanisms, refining our knowledge on these processes and how they work in a less developed African country such as Ethiopia. In particular, the thesis highlights the success and failures of the industrial policy of Ethiopian floriculture as lessons for policy makers in Ethiopia and other African as well as other low-income countries. It also discusses the role of the Dutch development program as a unique factor, not conceptualized in the literature, as the Dutch program was driven by both development cooperation objectives and the economic interest of the Dutch auction, making it a hybrid that has characteristics of a global value chain actor and a kind of government industrial policy financed by foreign aid. This finding points to opportunities for alternative forms of support for local firm learning. ; Locally owned firms need to develop their technological capabilities since accumulating firm-level capabilities is one of the most fundamental factors needed for structural change and economic development in African countries. However, building technological capabilities usually involves costly and risky investment with uncertain outcomes. Therefore, it is not usually appealing for local firms to invest in learning and develop their capabilities unless they are incentivised and compelled by the external environment. Firm-level capability building is the result of an interactive process between the internal learning effort of firms and their external environment, but African-owned firms usually face an unfavourable external environment with widespread market failures and few supporting institutions, which increase the learning costs and the uncertainties of a return on investment. As a result, the firms usually have low technological capabilities, which in turn makes it harder for these firms to acquire, absorb and adapt the foreign knowledge required for foreign direct investment spillovers and upgrading in global value chains to occur. Despite the difficult circumstances, locally owned firms in some African countries manage to compete in global value chains, but there is limited knowledge on how those firms became internationally competitive through investing in learning and building capabilities, how they relate to foreign firms and global value chain actors, and whether they try and are able to move into higher value activities within global value chains. In order to contribute to filling this gap in literature, the thesis investigates under which conditions Ethiopian-owned firms in the floriculture export sector invest in building their technological capabilities, considering the national institutional context and floriculture global value chain dynamics in which firms operate. Methodologically, the thesis combines the technological capabilities and global value chain approaches in order to identify more precisely what kind of capabilities are required to enter, remain competitive and upgrade within floriculture global value chains. It uses a uniquely designed firm-level survey to collect the data used to measure the capabilities of Ethiopian floriculture firms, and uses data collected through a firm history method to examine the factors influencing whether and how firms invest in learning. The findings show that local firms' initial investment in the Ethiopian floriculture export sector was mainly incentivised by government industrial policy, while a Dutch development program played an important but less prominent role. Systems of innovation, foreign direct investment spillovers, global value chain governance, and the Dutch development program served as sources of knowledge and catalysed learning to various degrees. Nevertheless, firms' learning efforts were influenced initially by sector specific characteristics, such as the Dutch auction offering relatively attractive rewards, the inherent narrow margin for failure that exists in the sector, and the absence of a significant domestic market for cut-flowers. However, firms' further learning efforts and subsequently their level of technological capabilities was driven mainly by firm-specific characteristics, such as the owner's perception of risk and reward about the export sector as well as in relation to their diversified business groups. Most of the Ethiopian floriculture firms had other business, and they made calculations of risk and reward about the diversified business group as a whole, which shaped their effort in relation to their flower export firm. A key contribution of the thesis is that it distinguishes conceptually three dimensions of local firms' technological capability building process: incentivizing firms' initial investment, sources of knowledge or expanding knowledge sources locally and catalysing learning, and compelling firms' learning effort. In reality, the three dimensions of TC building process are interactive and may not be separable from each other, but the conceptual distinction is important in order to provide a more nuanced view about how firms' learning takes place and more specifically how national and global factors influence firms' TC building process through shaping one or more of the three dimensions. These three dimensions can be useful in assessing processes of learning and firms' TC building in other sectors as well as contexts. The key factors that shaped firm-level capability building processes in the Ethiopia floriculture export case are industrial policy, national innovation systems, foreign direct investment spillovers, global value chain governance, a Dutch development program as well as firm specific characteristics. Thus, the thesis confirms much of the existing arguments in the literature in relation to these key factors, but it also elaborates on the causal mechanisms, refining our knowledge on these processes and how they work in a less developed African country such as Ethiopia. In particular, the thesis highlights the success and failures of the industrial policy of Ethiopian floriculture as lessons for policy makers in Ethiopia and other African as well as other low-income countries. It also discusses the role of the Dutch development program as a unique factor, not conceptualized in the literature, as the Dutch program was driven by both development cooperation objectives and the economic interest of the Dutch auction, making it a hybrid that has characteristics of a global value chain actor and a kind of government industrial policy financed by foreign aid. This finding points to opportunities for alternative forms of support for local firm learning.