Wimbledon Effect
The Wimbledon Effect is a chiefly British and Japanese analogy (which possibly originated in Japan[1][2]) which compares the tennis fame of the Wimbledon Championships, held at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London, with the economic success of the United Kingdom's financial services industries — especially those clustered in the City of London. The point of the analogy is that a national and international institution (the All England Club) can be highly successful despite the lack of strong native competition (in modern tennis Britain has produced very few Wimbledon champions).
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[edit] Financial context
London's financial industry has boomed since the deregulation of UK financial markets (the "Big Bang") in the 1980s under the Thatcher government — but has also become dominated by foreign companies, especially American investment banks, rather than British firms (a result opposite to the original intention of the reforms).
The analogy is typically used to mark a debate over whether it matters if an industry is primarily domestically owned if easing of foreign ownership restrictions allows the economy to benefit from foreign investment and increased global competition. The phrase can be used positively to assert the economic success of liberal attitudes towards foreign ownership (and sometimes to emphasize that such attitudes promote a level playing field for domestic and foreign interests alike); or it can be used negatively to emphasize how these policies have eroded a nation's ability to produce globally leading domestic companies. This opposing perspective is represented by economic patriotism and "national champion" policies.
The analogy has also been used in policy discourses outside Britain - most notably in the business discourse of Japan[3][4], whose financial markets and other parts of the economy (as of 2006) have not yet been substantially opened up to foreign competition compared with its international peers. It has also, for instance, been used in banking reform debates in South Korea[5] as well as in discussing Business Process Outsourcing in India.[6]
[edit] Sports in Japan
The term has been also frequently appeared in sports in Japan since late 20th Century, including sumo where there has been no Japanese-born yokozuna since 1998 and no Japanese-born champion since 2006 as most of the top players have been from Mongolia or Polynesia. In martial arts (mixed martial arts and kickboxing), it is hard to find a Japanese-born popular player or champion but the vast majority of big competitors in K-1 have been from the Netherlands or Thailand, much like the now-defunct mixed martial arts promotion Pride Fighting Championships where the most prominent names had been from Brazil, United States, and other countries.
[edit] See also
[edit] References and further reading
- ^ "Leader: Foreign ownership - Importing success", June 19, 2004, The Guardian
- ^ Amory, Edward Heathcoat : "A fearful symmetry", June 6, 1998, The Spectator
- ^ Sprague, Jonathan : "Foreigners at the Wheel : A new boss at scandal-hit Mitsubishi Motors", September 22, 2000, Asiaweek.com
- ^ "DATABASE: GLOSSARY OF JAPANESE TERMS", ANALYTICA JAPAN: FINANCIAL RESEARCH
- ^ http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/biz/200611/kt2006112119004911880.htm
- ^ http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/createpdf.cfm?articleid=875
- "Wheeling & Dealing", Newsweek, January 23, 2006
- The Competitive Position of London as a Global Financial Centre, report by City of London Corporation & Z/Yen, November 2005
- "Spate of takeover bids 'sign of economic strength'", The Financial Times, 14 November, 2005
- "Buying British", The Guardian, 1 November, 2005
- "Foreign Penetration of Japan's Investment-Banking Market: Will Japan Experience the 'Wimbledon Effect'?", discussion paper by Nicole Pohl, Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, Stanford University, July 2002
- "What is the Wimbledon Effect shocking the world of sumo?", livedoor, November 2, 2005 (Japanese)
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