Cooperative adaptive cruise control (CACC) is an extension of ACC. In addition to measuring the distance to a predecessor, a vehicle can also exchange information with a predecessor by wireless communication. This enables a vehicle to follow its predecessor at a closer distance under tighter control. This paper focuses on the impact of CACC on traffic-flow characteristics. It uses the traffic-flow simulation model MIXIC that was specially designed to study the impact of intelligent vehicles on traffic flow. The authors study the impacts of CACC for a highway-merging scenario from four to three lanes. The results show an improvement of traffic-flow stability and a slight increase in traffic-flow efficiency compared with the merging scenario without equipped vehicles.

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This article presents the results of an empirical study on the roles of commercial diplomats at foreign posts. As commercial diplomacy is just starting to grow in importance in a globalising world, the actual work and activities of commercial diplomats at foreign posts have hardly been researched. This is relevant though, since it can help to advance theory that aims to understand commercial diplomacy's effectiveness. A model was developed that conceptualises commercial diplomats' roles as corporate entrepreneurial behaviour, and institutional theory was used to identify the contextual factors that influence their behaviour. By using a multi-method, qualitative and cross-sectional case study based on 23 self-selected, face-to-face, semi-structured interviews, we found that three types of commercial diplomats exist, each adopting a different approach in terms of the importance accredited to proactivity, the level at which it is pursued, and the intensity with which it is pursued. The influence of informal institutions increases for higher levels of proactivity in a specific order, namely background, skills and experience, cultural differences, and the working environment. Further research is needed to confirm these findings.

This study addresses current gaps in the empirical literature regarding the effect of diplomatic representation on trade using a panel data set for 100 countries with 5‐year interval data from 1985 to 2005 and four‐digit level industry data. The results indicate that the effect of diplomatic representation on exports in differentiated goods is positive and significant and larger than on exports in homogeneous goods on average, but not statistically different from it. Furthermore, diplomatic representation only increases trade along the extensive margin and not along the intensive margin. The results indicate that diplomatic representation is effective in performing its function as a network search intermediary and that it is a useful policy tool to alleviate market failure.

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