Cross-Border M&As and the Changing Economic Geography of Europe

This study investigates the patterns of corporate mergers and acquisitions (M&As) involving firms located in the EU25 as well as in the four EFTA countries between 1998 and 2003. Against the background of a reflection on the concept of the firm in economic geography, it uncovers the cross-border balance of M&As across European states and identifies the factors that may explain the levels and patterns of corporate takeovers across Europe. The results indicate that the traditional motives of access to new and core markets, the effects of geographical proximity, and the internalisation of localised capabilities (proxied by a skilled and innovative labour pool) represent the key drivers of European M&As, while institutional factors, such as European integration or language barriers, appear to be less influential.     

Tenue de soirée de rigueur: Incursion chez les warocqué

The Warocqué family, “nouveaux bourgeois”, were characterised by their constant intention to change the world in which they lived. They were thus industrialists and businessmen and political representatives as was appropriate, but also inventors, paternalist, philanthropists and employers. The Warocqués thus present a multitude of facets and possibilities for study. It was necessary to give greater importance to one of them, particularly as everything could be encompassed as family business. It is precisely the evolution and progression of the family in its local, Belgian and even international contexts that is analysed here—family, tradition and dynasty even: inaugurated by Nicolas, it progresses, develops and reaches its apogee with Raoul, who benefited from the power of the name. This social rise was also interpreted on the level of traditions, of family, of prestige or of a way of life. The article aims to study this particular aspect while successively reviewing some ‘chapters’ in the life of this dynasty: the family (taken as it should be in the broad sense, joining the very current concept of ‘network’), its sociability and passions.     

Archaeological Evidence for the Emergence of Language,Symbolism, and Music–An Alternative Multidisciplinary Perspective

In recent years, there has been a tendency to correlate the origin of modern culture and language with that of anatomically modern humans. Here we discuss this correlation in the light of results provided by our first hand analysis of ancient and recently discovered relevant archaeological and paleontological material from Africa and Europe. We focus in particular on the evolutionary significance of lithic and bone technology, the emergence of symbolism, Neandertal behavioral patterns, the identification of early mortuary practices, the anatomical evidence for the acquisition of language, the development of conscious symbolic storage, the emergence of musical traditions, and the archaeological evidence for the diversification of languages during the Upper Paleolithic. This critical reappraisal contradicts the hypothesis of a symbolic revolution coinciding with the arrival of anatomically modern humans in Europe some 40,000 years ago, but also highlights inconsistencies in the anatomically–culturally modern equation and the potential contribution of anatomically pre-modern human populations to the emergence of these abilities. No firm evidence of conscious symbolic storage and musical traditions are found before the Upper Paleolithic. However, the oldest known European objects that testify to these practices already show a high degree of complexity and geographic variability suggestive of possible earlier, and still unrecorded, phases of development.