Women-owned firms start and grow businesses with substantially less outside financing, according to a Department of Commerce survey of women-owned companies across the U.S. That helps to explain why the average women-owned business has 25% lower revenue than the typical male-owned firm in the same industry.

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In the same way that marketers syndicated their content across paid, owned and earned media, commerce activities such as offers, promotions and daily deals can be syndicated as well.

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Commerce Bank, which is now owned by Canada's TD Financial, shook up the market with innovations such as staying open late so customers could come in after work.

ECONOMIST: Retail banks

Dubai, a sheikhdom in the United Arab Emirates, is driven by commerce--and that helps explain the government-owned airline's success.

FORBES: Even during wartime, a Middle Eastern airline thrived.

On the other hand, one might also want to consider that in September, Baidu's music accessibility got slammed by a quadumvirate of Warner Music Group, Vivendi Universal 's Universal Music Group, EMI Group and Sony BMG (half-owned by Sony), which all filed suits against the Chinese e-commerce firm (see: " Bronfman Leads Music Bigs In Baidu Piracy Lawsuit").

FORBES: Magazine Article

Commerce said that the government gave the approval for a whopping 18, 000-plus new foreign-owned companies to do business in China, up 7.7% from last year.

FORBES: Multinationals Rush To China; Foreign Investment Rises 11% In August