The Geography of Innovation in China and India

The BRICS countries in general, and China and India in particular, are now widely regarded as the areas of the world likely to challenge the economic leadership of the United States (US) and the European Union (EU). A large part of this challenge will come from rapid technological catch‐up by China and India. Yet, despite a recent rise in interest, there is limited knowledge about how and where innovation takes place in these two leading emerging countries and to what extent the Chinese and Indian territorial systems of innovation differ from those in the EU or the US. In this article we explore the geography of innovation in China and India, concentrating on understanding key territorial‐level innovation trends by country, region and technology field, using the US and the EU as benchmarks. We find significant contrasts between the geography of innovation in China and India and that of the US and the EU. First, the degree of concentration of innovative activities in both countries is extremely high. Levels of agglomeration of innovation in the coastal provinces of China, as well as in Delhi and the South of India, significantly exceed the levels of agglomeration found in the USA and the EU. Secondly, China has witnessed a more rapid increase in the degree of concentration of innovation than India. We posit that the differences in the geography of innovation between, on the one hand, China and India and, on the other hand, between these countries and the developed world are rooted in different institutional settings, different systems of innovation and different national innovation strategies.     

Managing AIDS in Africa: HRM challenges in Tanzania

The impact of the AIDS epidemic in developing countries, and in Africa in particular, is now a matter of great concern to policy makers, managers, and academics on a global scale. The magnitude of the potentially disastrous effects of the disease has severe implications for management in organizations, and, in particular, for HRM. The AIDS epidemic is imposing, and will continue to impose, in the foreseeable future, a significant burden on the way people are managed. Little has been written on HRM in Africa, and the present literature on AIDS and HRM in Western societies is inappropriate and insufficient in relation to African organizations. Fifteen organizations in Tanzania took part in this study, which is probably the first of its kind, to produce a picture of current developments and approaches in managing people under the threat of AIDS.     

Interference among conflicting institutions and technical-economic conditions: the adoption of the Assessment Center in French,German, Italian,UK, and US multinational firms

We analyze the adoption of the Assessment Center (AC), one of the most complex human resource management techniques, in 161 British, French, German, Italian and US multinational firms both at the headquarters and in their Italian subsidiaries. Combining both quantitative analysis and qualitative accounts, we investigate how different and partially contradictory institutional influences stemming from national business systems and professions, global corporate networks and professions, and different technical-economic conditions affect the adoption of the AC. Our study shows that AC-diffusion is similar at headquarters level in all national contexts, testifying to the paramount importance of transnational institutions of Anglo-American origin for MNCs of any nationality, despite great local variation in the degree of institutionalization of the AC, which ranges from fully-fledged support in culture and the professions as, for example, in Germany, the UK and the USA, to weak or negative backing as in France and Italy. However, the study also reveals how different characteristics of the corporate field of firms with headquarters in different countries, as well as organizational size and labor market conditions, still explain adoption of the AC in their subsidiaries in Italy.     

The (Re)Making of Polycentricity in China's Planning Discourse: The Case of Tianjin

Polycentricity is promoted as an ideal urban form to achieve sustainable and balanced development, and it has been widely adopted by planners in China, especially in large cities. However, the rhetoric about polycentricity has rarely been interrogated in planning research in terms of scales, contextuality, power and rationality. To fill this gap, we carried out a Foucauldian discourse analysis in our research to interpret the nature of polycentric practice in City Master Plans, using Tianjin as a case study. Through an analysis of how the discourse of polycentricity is being deployed in planning documents, we develop two principal arguments in this article. First, the conceptual substance of polycentricity evolved alongside the urban transition process in China, and its discursive practice involved multiple scales and spatial elements. Secondly, rather than being mere technocratic practice, the production and legitimation of distinct discourses of polycentricity is an articulation of multi-scalar power involving various stakeholders, which is disguised and justified by the planning profession.     

An interview with Luis Raúl Pericchi

Luis Raúl Pericchi Guerra was born in Caracas, Venezuela, on 11 March 1952. He completed a B.S. in Mathematics in 1975 at the Universidad Simón Bolívar in Caracas, an M.S. in Statistics at the University of California Berkeley in 1978 and a Ph.D. in Statistics at Imperial College London in 1981. After graduating from Imperial College, Luis Raúl went back to Universidad Simón Bolívar. There, he played a key role in the developing of graduate programmes in Statistics and single handedly built an internationally recognised group focused on Bayesian statistics. In 2001, he moved to the Universidad de Puerto Rico in Rio Piedras to become the Chair of the Mathematics Department. At Universidad de Puerto Rico, he was instrumental in the establishment of a Ph.D. track in Computational Mathematics and Statistics. Luis Raúl has published over 120 papers in statistical and domain-specific journals, making significant contributions to several areas of Bayesian statistics (especially in the areas of model selection and Bayesian robustness) and their application (especially in hydrology). He is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association, the International Society for Bayesian Analysis, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and an Elected Member of the International Statistical Institute. This conversation took place over multiple sessions during the 2022 O'Bayes meeting in Santa Cruz, California, and the months that followed.     

A PATCHWORK SAFETY NET: A SURVEY OF CLIOMETRIC STUDIES OF INCOME MAINTENANCE PROGRAMS IN THE UNITED STATES IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

Abstract Social welfare programs in the USA are designed to serve as safety nets for people in hard times, in contrast with the universal approach found in many other developed western nations. In a survey of cliometric studies of social welfare programs in the USA, we examine the variation in the safety net in the USA across states in the 20th century, the determinants of the variation and its impact on socioeconomic outcomes. The USA has always displayed substantial variation in the extent of the safety net because the features of most public social welfare programs have been and currently are determined by local and state governments, even after the federal government became involved in the 1930s. Differences across states persist strongly for typically a decade, although the persistence weakens with time, and there are some periods when federal intervention led to a re‐ordering. The rankings of state benefits differ from program to program, and economic and political factors have different weights in determining benefit levels in panel data estimation of their effects. Variation in benefits across programs during the early 1900s had significant impact on labour markets, economic activity, family formation, death rates and crime.     

城市灾害风险与中国城市减灾战略

社会管理和公共服务是现代城市的两大基本职能.保障城市公共安全,实施防灾减灾是城市履行管理与服务职能的重要内容.首先,综述国际城市防灾减灾的合作和研究的主要进展;其次,基于城市生态经济系统特征,探讨城市灾害系统的结构功能和形成机制,分析中国城市灾害风险的特征;再次,提出中国城市防灾减灾体系的建设战略,包括:确立城市安全发...     

Performance of microfinance institutions in Europe—Does social capital matter?

This paper investigates performance drivers of microfinance suppliers in Europe. As such suppliers, in contrast to advanced microfinance suppliers in developing economies, typically focus on uncollateralized microcredit services to individuals at the margins of society and of labor markets, we draw on the theory of social capital and empirically investigate the role that social capital may play in the overall performance of European microfinance suppliers. We build a unique, unbalanced panel data set of 302 microfinance service providers in Europe covering the years 2008–2015, and measure their performance in terms of credit risk, financial and social performance, and efficiency. Pursuing an econometric approach, we test a series of hypotheses using various measures of conditions conducive to building social capital on both the institutional and the country level, such as the client base of a microfinance supplier and the level of cultural fractionalization in a society. Our findings confirm that a higher intensity of social capital is positively associated with all areas of the performance of microfinance suppliers in Europe. Our conclusions could help in the design and launch of microfinance institutions in those European countries in which microfinance markets are developed not at all or only to a very limited extent. Our paper thus contributes to the nascent literature on microfinance in developed economies by applying and extending the theoretical framework and empirical models on social capital and microfinance that were originally elaborated for developing economies.     

Conformity or divergence in describing the business concept and profitability

The relationship between conformity or divergence in the way CEOs and chief financial officers describe the business concept, and profitability, was studied in 20 firms in one industry. Measures were obtained for firm size, profitability, degree of conformity, organizational stability, product development and the CEO's influence on strategic decisions. Controlling for the effect of size, the relationship was analysed in stepwise multiple regression analyses. Conformity was positively correlated to profitability in stable organizations, and (weakly) to divergence in unstable ones. These findings are consistent with those reported in studies of top management team consensus and performance, which suggest that environmental turbulence has a moderating effect on the relationship. It is concluded that environmental contingency factors affect the conformity-profitability relationship by way of organizational processes. Consequently, differences in organizational stability should be taken into account in studying the impact of environmental conditions on this relationship.     

A Conversation with James O. Ramsay

Jim Ramsay was born on September 5, 1942, in Prince George, British Columbia. He pursued undergraduate studies at the University of Alberta, where he completed a BEd in 1964 with a major in English and a minor in mathematics. He then specialized in statistics and psychometry, earning a PhD in psychology from Princeton University in 1966. After holding a temporary lectureship in the Department of Psychology at University College London for one year, he joined the Department of Psychology at McGill University, where he rose through the academic ranks. He was chair of his department from 1986 to 1989 and spent sabbatical leaves in Cambridge, Grenoble, and Toulouse. He was named professor emeritus upon his retirement in 2007. Jim is the author of four influential books and over 100 peer‐reviewed articles in statistical and psychometric journals. He developed much of the statistical theory behind multidimensional scaling and is widely recognized as the founder of functional data analysis. Three of his papers were read to the Royal Statistical Society, and another won The Canadian Journal of Statistics 2000 Best Paper Award. The Statistical Society of Canada (SSC) awarded him a Gold Medal for research in 1998 and an honorary membership in 2012. Jim was president of the Psychometric Society in 1981–82 and president of the SSC in 2002–03. The following conversation took place at Jim's home in Ottawa, Ontario, on March 14 and April 4, 2012.     

Citizen Participation in Urban Governance in the Context of Democratization: Evidence from Low‐Income Neighbourhoods in Mexico

Participation has recently been subject to renewed attention and critique in the context of neoliberal urban governance. This is especially relevant in countries where decentralization and democratization in the context of neoliberalism have led to increased promotion of local‐level participation. This article suggests that current critiques of participation's potential for democratic citizen engagement in a neoliberal context would benefit from further reflection on how participation is implemented in contexts, particularly the global South, where neoliberalism and democracy may be understood differently. Different ‘cultures of engagement’ in specific settings suggest that understandings and practices of participation draw on different traditions, including corporatism and self‐help. This article seeks to add to the debate by exploring the socio‐spatial consequences of participation structures in low‐income neighbourhoods in a provincial Mexican city. Based on qualitative research in two low‐income neighbourhoods in Xalapa, Mexico, it examines how the provisions of the local citizen‐participation framework compare with residents' experiences of it. Formalized conceptions of participation, framed as involvement in service provision, interact with and shape residents' activities in developing their neighbourhoods. This has consequences for urban development there, including the reflection and reproduction of social and spatial marginalization.     

Employee reactions to voice and choice in the workplace: the influence of culture

The present study investigated the effect of culture on a much-prescribed management practice, that of employee participation in decision making. A survey was conducted among employees from two countries culturally distinct in the dimensions of power distance and individualism, namely Canada and the Philippines. Given eight decision-making scenarios that varied in terms of whether voice and/or choice was given to the employee and in terms of the importance of the outcomes, the respondents were asked about their perceptions of fairness of the procedures and outcomes, satisfaction with the procedures and outcomes, and preference for the decision-making procedures. Results show a highly significant country decision-making mode outcome importance interaction effect, but not in the directions expected. Overall, the Philippine sample registered more positive reactions to participation in decision making, although the Philippines' higher rank in power distance and lower rank in individualism than Canada seem to indicate otherwise. The results, together with a previous study conducted in high power distance-low individualism Mexico, forcefully suggest that employee participation in decision making may be successfully transferred.     

外商投资我国服务业:现状与建议

20世纪80年代以来,随着全球产业结构调整和国际分工的日益深化,服务业已取代制造业成为对外投资领域的主流。与此相适应,我国服务业吸收的外商直接投资也呈现快速增长的态势。但由于我国服务业发展滞后,服务体系不完善,法律法规不健全,一定程度上制约了我国对服务业外资的吸收和高效利用。文中对我国服务业在利用外商直接投资中出现的问题及其应对策略进行初步的探讨。     

Gender Roles and Organizational HR Practices: The Case of Women's Careers in Accountancy and Consultancy Firms in China

The Chinese finance industry has experienced significant expansion both within the state sector and into the private sector. Professional consultancy firms have also emerged as a result of the rising interest in the outsourcing of accounting and management services. However, the study of women's careers in the accountancy profession in contemporary China remains largely an uncharted territory. Drawing on data from 69 interviews with auditors in five firms, this article investigates the nature of work of external auditors in China and how women auditors view their work‐life choices and constraints. We explore the likely differences between male and female auditors in their career aspirations and the extent to which these self‐perceived differences are informed by social conventions of gender role, organizational practices, and personal preferences. The study has strong implications for human resource management in professional service firms in China, with particular reference to job design, work organization, career support, and work‐life balance initiatives. The study contributes to the debate on gender, employment, and career development in the accountancy profession in different parts of the world. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

我国现存城郊水环境管理改革探讨

随着我国社会经济的快速发展,城市对水的需求量增加,随之而来的水污染、浪费等问题的程度也在进一步加重,进而城郊地区也就面临着更严峻的水资源和水污染形势。针对这种现状,许多不同层面的学者对此进行了广泛研究。本文通过对城郊地区的水环境现状进行概括和探讨,讨论出现行管理体制和法律制度所存在的直接原因,提出了城郊地区水环境管理的改革方法。城郊地区是城市发展的最具有前景的区域,当下城郊地区水环境的现状十分不容乐观,所面临的水资源和水环境的问题更为普遍和严峻,城郊地区水环境所面临的复杂形势对加强城郊地区水环境管理、现行条列的改革提出了亟待解决的问题。     

预算外资金管理中存在问题和对策建议

预算外资金是我国特有的财政概念,是在财政管理体制改革和发展过程中逐步形成的,在历史各个时期都为国家经济建设和社会事业发展起到重要作用。但由于受传统经济以及市场经济的共同影响,近几年来预算外资金管理中出现很多问题,并且有些问题已经发展到非常严重的程度,造成了政府财政财力的过度分散,政府公共分配秩序的混乱等。因此随着改革开放的不断深入,预算外资金的不断扩大,越应采取相应的措施,引导和强化预算外资金的管理,使之能为促进社会各项事业的发展和改善人民的生活起到积极的作用。     

HRM and the legitimacy market

This article develops and proposes the concept of the legitimacy market as a counterpoint to the product market in strategic FIRM analysis and practice. It is driven by three major concerns. First, in much of the contemporary literature, internal efficiency pursuits and product market equirements appear to be the dominant reference points in HRM analysis and practice. Criteria of environmental legitimacy are scarcely recognized.

Second, despite the many claims that HRM is novel and distinctive, there appears to have been little social science development in the field of HRM. Third, the dominance of the strategic management paradigm in HRM has obscured the distinctiveness of HRM in organizations, especially its role in reflecting the external social and cultural environment. These concerns are addressed through the concept of the legitimacy market. The concept, it is argued, should help to conceptualize and analyse more effectively the environmental determinants of HRM, in particular culture and ideology, as well as suggesting alternatives for practitioners to follow. The core proposition upon which the article is predicated is that legitimacy and efficiency are the two central concerns of management.     

Top pay transparency in Europe: codes,convergence and clichés

Following the waves of corporate scandals and the increasing attention to corporate governance, the transparency of reporting on director-level pay has increased across Europe. This article examines the extent of convergence in laws, codes and corporate reporting practices in regard to director-level pay in France, Germany, Switzerland and the UK. The paper analyses annual reports and the websites of 23 companies, using institutional theory to discuss the coercive, normative and mimetic pressures for convergence that are revealed, not just in the laws and codes in each country, but also in the standardized wording in the relevant sections of reports which have become clichés.     

新时代加强非公企业廉政建设工作的路径探索

随着非公企业的发展,非公企业的廉政建设工作的重要程度不断提高,在新时代加强非公企业廉政建设工作具有重要的理论与实践意义。但从非公企业廉政建设的现状出发,非公企业的廉政建设工作仍存在政治理论学习不够、廉政建设工作人员业务素质与水平有待提高以及党员的先锋引领作用不足等问题。鉴于此,论文介绍了加强非公企业廉政建设工作的重要意义,结合非公企业廉政建设工作的现状提出各项问题的原因,探索了非公企业开展廉政建设工作的路径,以期实现非公企业廉政建设与企业发展同频共振。