“技术的索尼”是怎么死于技术的

近日，日本各大企业2013财年的财务报表相继出炉，索尼1284亿日元的亏损在日企业绩翻红一片的背景中尤为刺眼。与其形成对比的是，包括夏普、松下、东芝等在内的日本企业都在扭亏或持续盈利。为何以技术著称的索尼在互联网时代逐渐走向衰落？为什么索尼不同于苹果，未能不断推出让用户尖叫的产品？从创业者到守业者，究竟是谁在战略上下了错误的一招棋？索尼这个曾经的伟大公司，是否还能重整旗鼓，走出困境？日本纪实文学作家、记者立石泰则所著的《死于技术：索尼衰亡启示》一书，试图对上述问题作出解答。     

《中国经济周刊》:日本家电之死

"日本家电",这个标志着全球传统家电产业最高端、最优秀、最有保证的代名词,正不可遏止地滑向"死亡". 2008年以来,日本家电企业在黑电、白电全线溃退,电视机产业亏损最为惨烈.从2009年起,日本已从家电出口国成为进口国.2011财年,日本家电的三大巨头索尼、松下和夏普共亏损1.6万亿日元(约合1283亿元人民币).索尼连续4年亏损无计可施,夏普的巨亏"百年一遇",而松下的亏损额度更是创造了全日本企业中的新高.     

日企衰落

电影"日本沉没"曾将日本人的危机意识表现得淋漓尽致,而这一幕正在日本家电业真实上演。过去几十年,日本企业在资源短缺的局限下,凭借高度细分的产业体系,几乎统治了整个电子产品领域。它们像团结的群狼一样一致对外,赢得了世界市场,并向全球输出管理文化。但今天,属于日企辉煌的一页已被翻过,索尼、夏普、松下、三洋等创造历史的企业,正被抛在历史的车轮之下。为了走出困境,它们开始"去家电化",卸掉包袱,砍掉"尾巴",企业之间的整合也日趋频繁。但病入骨髓的日企要想重生,更需一场文化思潮来颠覆。     

日本“藏起来的”实力不容小看

在日本,包括索尼、松下都是主要做"小玩闹"的公司,日本的核心企业实际做装备制造、金融、商社等。因此,中国抵制那几家公司产品的意义不大,它们出现巨亏也未必会让日本伤筋动骨。     

三洋缘何败落

迷恋代工创新缺失 三洋和索尼、松下曾经三足鼎立，都是日本的明星企业。三洋与索尼、松下的主要区别，是惯于走捷径，自上个世纪90年代后期以来实施OEM战略。三洋利用其精益求精的质量控制体系、完善的零配件供应系统，来为其他公司代工，赚取加工利润。     

中国音响市场大趋势

我国录音机生产起步晚但发展迅速,产量从1987年的253万部增加到1993年的3050万部,平均每年递增51.4％。但是据对北京、上海、广州、长春、成都、西安、芜湖市的1800名消费者进行的问卷调查结果表明,目前在中国电子音响产品市场中,最使中国消费者满意的组合音响产品为:先锋、索尼、健伍、山水、爱华、夏普、飞利浦、三洋、狮龙、燕舞。知名度最高的10种名牌组合音响依次为:燕舞、索尼、三洋、先锋、星河、飞利浦、夏普、爱华、熊猫、健伍。这说明我国音响产品的消费偏爱进口产品。 今后我国电子音响产品市场发展趋势如何? 分析表明,收入和居住条件是影响音响购买选择的主要原因。目前市场上带CD唱机的国产音响价格一般在2000元以下,而进口原装同类音响价格起码要     

索尼电子亟待振兴

索尼电子产品销量惨淡,不过索尼似乎已经把掌上游戏押注到手机上。业内人士普遍认为,加倍押注智能手机业务,或许是索尼翻盘的最后机会。索尼不卖电子,卖金融产品。"索尼总裁平井一夫要求公司高管返还巨额奖金",这一消息在5月初经《日本经济新闻》报道后,被传得沸沸扬扬。报道称,平井一夫已经向索尼董事会提交了提案,要求公司约40名高管全部全额返还奖金,并已经得到了董事会支持。     

末日狂欢

自上世纪以来，索尼（Sony）就作为全球著名消费电子产品品牌陪伴着一代又一代人的成长。从特丽珑电视机到Walkman随身听，从PlayStation游戏机到VAI0笔记本电脑，再从Cyber-shot数码相机到Xperia手机，显然，索尼旗下的电子产品已经成为人们生活的一部分。不过．随着苹果、三星等电子产品的崛起，不少索尼的产品都被取而代之，这是索尼正在面临的严峻局面。     

日本模式:嵌入式系统开发型

1、日本软件业的特点 日本把软件业当成软件工厂来发展.日本把软件看成是一种附加值,把软件的开发作为工厂生产可以循环的一个过程,而没有在中间加入更多的创新.日本在几年以前很少有纯粹的软件公司,特别是很大的软件公司,规模并不大.日本以硬件带动软件发展,其软件属于嵌入式的.松下、东芝、日立、索尼、富士通等跨国公司都有自己的软件公司,他们研发的软件产品往往随着企业的各类产品(通信、计算机、家电、精密电子设备等)出口世界各地.但他们很少把软件作为独立产品放到市场去经过用户的考验和试用.     

中国大葱与日本电器

我们这一代中国人,家庭里电器的脱胎换骨,最初都是在日本产品的笼罩下。记得20世纪80年代初期,从日本访问回来的亲戚送给我一部很小巧的日本索尼录音机学英语用,那是我平生第一次接触日本电器产品,此前就见过别致的日本尖头筷子。那精制的“日本制造”给我留下深刻的印象,因为当时中国国产的录音机黑乎乎的,有砖头那么大。我家里使用的第一台电视、冰箱、录像机、数码相机、笔记本电脑等,几乎都是日本的产品。我儿子玩的电子宠物和电子游戏还是日本的。松下、索尼、东芝、三菱等日本株式会社,都是中国新一代耳熟能详的名字。日本电器的性能…     

Pleasure and belief in Hume's Decision Process

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to introduce explicitly pleasure and belief in what aims at being a Humean theory of decision, like the one developed in Diaye and Lapidus (2005a). Although we support the idea that Hume was in some way a hedonist – evidently different from Bentham's or Jevons' way – we lay emphasis less on continuity than on the specific kind of hedonism encountered in Hume's writings (chiefly the Treatise, the second Enquiry, the Dissertation, or some of his Essays). Such hedonism clearly contrasts to its standard modern inheritance, expressed by the relation between preferences and utility.

The reason for such a difference with the usual approach lies in the mental process that Hume puts to the fore in order to explain the way pleasure determines desires and volition. Whereas pleasure is primarily, in Hume's words, an impression of sensation, it takes place in the birth of passions as reflecting an idea of pleasure, whose “force and vivacity” is precisely a “belief”, transferred to the direct passions of desire or volition that come immediately before action. As a result, from a Humean point of view, “belief” deals with decision under risk or uncertainty, as well as with intertemporal decision and indiscrimination problems.

The latter are explored within a formal framework, and it is shown that the relation of pleasure is transformed by belief into a non-empty class of relations of desire, among which at least one is a preorder.     

Globalization,Neoliberalism and the attack on social security

Neoliberal political movements advocate privatization of public pension systems. Globalization imposes pressure on nations to conform to neoliberal policy views with respect to the design and structure of social insurance, including public pension systems. The paper begins with an investigation of the economic, ethical and ideological dimensions of the privatization debates in the U.S.; it argues that privatization advocates may be largely moved by ideology, since the other reasons advanced appear weak or unfounded. The second part discusses the history of Social Security, the purposes for its creation, and some of its economic effects. Differences between public and private pension systems are considered. A brief international comparison of some aspects of public pension system finance and benefit structures is presented. The final section considers the ethical, macroeconomic and distributional implications of privatization, prefunding and payroll tax funding, and argues for a pay as you go system financed with income taxes. In order to promote equity, economic security, community, and social cohesion, public pension systems should be universal in coverage. In order to reduce the inequality, income insecurity, and aged poverty generated by market economies, public pension systems ought to be progressive: benefit/contribution ratios should be inversely proportional to income, and progressive income taxes should finance the system. To promote economic growth, the systems should be financed on a pay-as-you-go basis, and should not be prefunded except for an emergency reserve. The fiscal policy recommendations partially depend upon the theory developed by Abba Lerner in the 1940s, and recently advanced by Wynne Godley and Randy Wray: Lerner's “principle of functional finance.”     

John Stuart Mill's Theory Of Justice

John Stuart Mill has traditionally been portrayed as self-contradictory and failing to construct a unified social theory. Recent scholarship, however, has challenged this view, finding Mill's work to be creatively synthetic in bridging the antinomies inherent in liberal democratic thought. This revisionist interpretation of Mill is advanced by an understanding of his theory of justice and its role in shaping his policy positions on issues such as welfare, education, voting rights, property rights, taxation, government intervention, and the future of capitalism.     

A Rich Vein for “Reality Mining”北大核心CSSCISSCI

Arik Hesseldahl In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, U.S. officials quickly turned their attention to other potential targets, including California's Golden Gate Bridge. What would happen if terrorists took down the bridge between San Francisco and Marin County? How much of the region would be affected and for how long?     

Perspective on the Economic Evolution of the European Union States Under the Impact of the Pandemic and Financial-Economic Crisis

The European Union,which is at the beginning of its term of office for all Member States in the European Parliament,the European Commission,its governing body a...     

中国养活自己能力的长期预测:技术和政策分析

中国拥有世界五分之一强的人口 ,收入又在迅速增长。因此 ,国际上很自然地会考虑或推测她在今后的几十年是否有能力养活自己。中国的人口预计将从 2 0 0 0年的 1 2 8亿增长到 2 0 2 0年的 1 4 6亿 ,和 2 0 3 0年的 1 4 9亿。与此同时 ,人均收入的增长将导致对家畜和鱼类产品更大的需求 ,因而对饲料的需求也将有很大的增长     

Interest on reserves and inflation

The payment of interest on reserves has been a common practice in inflationary economies. This policy may seem paradoxical since it involves returning part of the seigniorage, generated by the inflation process, with the intention to finance the fiscal deficit. This paper argues that the motivation for this policy can be captured by the discretionary regime, where the policymaker pays interest on reserves because he is concerned with the erosion of real liquidity by inflation, which is in part beyond his control. However, this policy is an unlikely outcome in the commitment regime, where the policymaker is in full control of inflation.     

John Stuart Mill's Theories of Wealth and Income Distribution

Although he was much influenced by David Ricardo when he wrote the classical part of his Principles , John Stuart Mill was not a Ricardian when he penned his theories of wealth and distribution. They are based on a triple foundation. First, a belief that economics is a moral discipline. Second a theory of custom-driven human behavior. Third, an empirically formed conviction that the institutions of state, education and business cooperate to structure the distribution of income. On the basis of these presuppositions, Mill formulated 1) an institutional theory of the formation of human and non-human wealth and 2) an even more institutional theory of distribution demonstrating how the aforementioned institutions malignantly skew the distribution of income to the advantage of the propertied classes and to the extreme disadvantage of the working class. As a social economist, Mill recommended institutional reforms designed to eradicate the poverty of the working class.     

Forecasting the price of gold

This article seeks to evaluate the appropriateness of a variety of existing forecasting techniques (17 methods) at providing accurate and statistically significant forecasts for gold price. We report the results from the nine most competitive techniques. Special consideration is given to the ability of these techniques to provide forecasts which outperforms the random walk (RW) as we noticed that certain multivariate models (which included prices of silver, platinum, palladium and rhodium, besides gold) were also unable to outperform the RW in this case. Interestingly, the results show that none of the forecasting techniques are able to outperform the RW at horizons of 1 and 9 steps ahead, and on average, the exponential smoothing model is seen providing the best forecasts in terms of the lowest root mean squared error over the 24-month forecasting horizons. Moreover, we find that the univariate models used in this article are able to outperform the Bayesian autoregression and Bayesian vector autoregressive models, with exponential smoothing reporting statistically significant results in comparison with the former models, and classical autoregressive and the vector autoregressive models in most cases.