Strategic Interests of ASEAN-5 in Regional Trading Arrangements in the Asia-Pacific

We examine the strategic interests of ASEAN countries within APEC when forming regional trading arrangements in the pursuit of trade liberalization. Employing a Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model, the effects of ASEAN's various Free Trade Area arrangements with the U.S., Northeast Asia as well as APEC are analyzed. The impact on ASEAN as a whole as well as for each individual member coutry is examined. A free trade area with the U.S. is likely to benefit the Philippines and Indonesia most.     

Human rights in nutrition and nutrition in human rights

Many countries around the world are involved in nutrition planning and nutrition program implementation. This concern and activity with regard to nutrition, however, has failed to give the issue proper and adequate consideration in development plans and programs of action. The author proposes a two-pronged approach to promote nutrition as a human right. One approach is to include nutrition as a human right in educational and training programs in nutrition. Another approach is to include nutrition as a human right in educational and training programs on human rights. These approaches are described using examples from experiences in the Philippines. Families, universities, and other training institutions have roles to play in making sure that individuals and groups receive the nutrition they need. It should be stressed that nutrition is both a right and an input for development.     

河北省民营企业电子商务应用研究

电子商务作为新的商业运作模式，正在改变着民营企业的生产、经营乃至整个企业的管理模式。这既给民营企业带来了机遇，同时也提出了挑战。然而河北省民营企业电子商务应用起步较晚，发展水平相对落后，存在诸多问题。因此，只有通过借鉴国内外的先进经验，采取各种行之有效的措施，才能加快河北省民营企业电子商务的发展，提升其市场竞争力，逐步与世界经济接轨。     

Shareholder Activism in REITs

Conventional wisdom suggests that shareholder activism in REITs is less prevalent than in other (non‐REIT) public firms because of stronger barriers to hostile takeovers and potentially less undervaluation. Our results, however, suggest that the conventional wisdom does not hold. Specifically, we find that in 2006–2015, Equity REITs (EREITs) are as likely to be targeted by shareholder activists as non‐EREITs. We also find that shareholder campaign characteristics and determinants, as well as their value consequences, appear similar for EREITs and non‐EREITs. Given that this is the first study to examine shareholder activism in REITs, we raise several questions for future research.     

Myth in design

Conclusion Like our society, design is riddled with myths. Not all are harmful. Indeed, there is often a symbiotic relationship. Myths are also useful as a learning device in which the unintelligible —randomness, is reduced to the intelligible — a pattern. However, if we are striving, as designers, to gain understanding, to have gnosis, then an awareness of the role of myth in design is essential.Myth in design is important because, in casting ideas into tangible forms, it affects the way we think and behave; it not only reflects our past and present, it can also determine our future.     

The role of farmer organizations in supplying supermarkets with quality food in Vietnam

The development of supermarkets in Vietnam, as in other emerging countries, is accompanied by increasing consumer concern for food quality. This paper investigates whether farmer organizations are able to help small-scale farmers obtain access to supermarkets as well as examines the role that supermarkets and public support play in the emergence and development of these organizations. The paper is based on case studies of a number of stakeholders marketing vegetables, flavored rice and litchi fruit in Vietnam. Eight farmer groups operating in the form of private commercial organizations act as regular supermarket suppliers for the selected products. Their ability to supply supermarkets is related to the combination of functions they make available to their members, especially with regard to promoting and controlling quality for which they receive public support. Their participation in flexible contracts with supermarkets, shops and schools is also a key issue. Supplying supermarkets via farmer associations increases farmers’ profits per kilo compared to traditional chains, but the quantities supplied to supermarkets remain limited. The paper argues that changes in farmer organizations are not primarily due to supplying supermarkets, but rather to public and international support for food quality improvement which has been of benefit to supermarkets.     

Deregulation in Hong Kong

Waves from the tide of deregulation that first started to rise in USA over a decade ago have washed on many distant shores, as far apart as the UK, Australia and Japan. Hong Kong is no exception. Geographically tiny, the territory of Hong Kong is a throbbing dynamo, a financial and trading centre of immense importance in the Far East. With a telephone penetration of 36 per 100 population covering over 95% of all households, it is the most developed telephone country in the region, apart from Japan.     

Dual Kriging: An Exploratory Use in Economic Metamodeling

Sensitivity analysis of capital investments can be effectively carried out by employing a metamodel approach and experimental designs. Although polynomial regression metamodels are popular and straightforward, they do not consider spatial relationships among the data. Dual kriging is an estimation technique that allows the incorporation of spatial correlation into the interpolation or estimation process and has been used primarily in geophysical statistical analysis. This article investigates the dual kriging approach as an alternative technique to polynomial regression and artificial neural networks for metamodel analysis of capital investments. It is observed that dual kriging shows potential in performing sensitivity analysis as its accuracy is as good as, or better than, other techniques, and, while model building and interpretation is more complicated than that of polynomial regression, it is significantly more straightforward than that of neural networks. Furthermore, this is the first known work of using kriging in the field of engineering economics; there may be other useful applications such as in cost estimation.     

Unfolding implementation in industrial market segmentation

Market segmentation is an important method of strategic marketing and constitutes a cornerstone of the marketing literature. It has undergone extensive scientific inquiry during the past 50 years. Reporting on an extensive review of the market segmentation literature, the challenging task of implementing industrial market segmentation is discussed and unfolded in this article. Extant literature has identified segmentation implementation as a core challenge for marketers, but also one, which has received limited empirical attention. Future research opportunities are formulated in this article to pave the way towards closing this gap. The extent of implementation coverage is assessed and various notions of implementation are identified. Implementation as the task of converting segmentation plans into action (referred to as execution) is identified as a particularly beneficial focus area for marketing management. Three key elements and challenges connected to execution of market segmentation are identified — organization, motivation, and adaptation.     

Determinants of economic and social satisfaction in manufacturer-distributor relationships

The aim of this work is to examine the dimensions of satisfaction in manufacturer-distributor relationships as well as identifying the antecedents of both the economic and the non-economic dimensions of satisfaction. A literature review about satisfaction in marketing channels is followed by quantitative research into how this interchange process is perceived by food product distributors in their relationships with manufacturers. The results provide strong support for the impact of communication, trust and commitment on satisfaction, as well as the interrelationships among the economic and the non-economic dimensions of satisfaction. Theoretical and managerial implications are extracted from these findings.     

Conceptualizing business models in industrial networks

This paper is concerned with business model conceptualizations and outlines a framework for their analysis in industrial networks. A literature review suggests that there is a broad range of current conceptualizations of business models. Analyzing them as they pertain to interaction, business relationships, and industrial networks reveals two main explanations for their differences: first, they clearly rely on different basic theoretical assumptions, and second, they seem to address two types of business models. We refer to these as firm-centric and network-embedded business models. Based on this distinction, a scheme of analysis at the levels of the firm, relationship and network is suggested for the two types of business models. Business models are challenging from an analytical as well as managerial perspective. Further research on emerging network-embedded business models is suggested.     

Cable television and government policy in Japan

The development of the cable industry in Japan has been steady but slow. The Japanese cable penetration rate is not as high as in the USA and Canada for several reasons, and in this article the focus is on how broadcasting policy in Japan has affected the cable television market. Nevertheless the number of cable television systems has increased every year, and the future of the cable business in Japan is also discussed.     

Bargaining Levels and Relative Earnings in Northern Ireland in 1987

Individual level data is used to consider the effects of the union mark-up on earnings in Northern Ireland and in particular to find out if a differential exists between bargaining groups as well as across covered and not covered workers. The results show that company (and to a lesser extent, UK industry-wide) agreements have a much lower mark-up than might be deduced by simply analysing mean wage levels across groups. This suggests that most of the differential is actually the result of a productivity advantage attached to (these) covered workers and not because of union power per se.     

Multiple part-type scheduling in flexible robotic cells

This paper considers the scheduling problem arising in two-machine manufacturing cells which repeatedly produce a set of multiple part-types, and where transportation of the parts between the machines is performed by a robot. The cycle time of the cell depends on the robot move sequence as well as the processing times of the parts on the machines. For highly flexible CNC machines, the processing times can be adjusted. To this end, this study tries to find the robot move sequence as well as the processing times of the parts on each machine that jointly minimize the cycle time. The problem of determining the best cycle in a 2-machine cell is first modeled as a traveling salesman problem. Then, an efficient 2-stage heuristic algorithm is constructed and compared with the most common heuristic approach of longest processing time (LPT).     

Privatizing agriculture : Policy options in developing countries

This paper examines the background to, and options for, privatization of state-owned enterprises in the agricultural sector in developing countries. It identifies areas of the sector where privatization is feasible and those likely to remain under government control. It is concluded that, while there is some scope for privatization, it is unlikely to be as extensive as in other sectors since much of the production is already in private hands, there is limited capacity to pay for services and the capability of the private sector is currently low.     

Private voluntary standards in the food system: The perspective of major food retailers in OECD countries

The paper examines the main economic and institutional incentives which have driven major OECD food retailers in their use of private voluntary standards and discusses their growing role in shaping the agri-food system. It is based on interviews with quality and safety directors of major OECD retailers and a brief survey of retailers’ actual buyer practices. Though not all retailers are included, these firms account for over 70% of retail food sales in OECD countries. We find that the growing voice of civil society, changing legal and institutional frameworks, increased market concentration and buying power as well as their integration with financial markets has provided the setting for development of private standards. While food safety and quality standards are seen as key to maintaining and improving reputation as well as against legal liabilities, additional standards such as labour, environmental and animal welfare are also gaining ground as strategies for customer loyalty and market shares. The grass-roots retailer move in the harmonization of food safety standards is seen as an initial step towards a global approach to managing the food system, with harmonization of other standards likely in the future. Given their buyer power, these developments can be viewed as a way of governing the food system and will be important for both OECD and non-OECD food and agricultural sector evolution in the coming years.     

Co-development as a marketing strategy in the construction industry

This paper deals with a specific issue in project marketing, namely project co-development, presented as a relational and cooperative form of exchange in the project network. It endeavours to find out under what conditions project co-development is considered as a viable marketing strategy as opposed to competitive bidding. A model is developed, which is then used to analyze two cases of project co-development in the construction industry. Of the two cases, one is a successful case and the other is a failure case. This enabled us to analyze factors and conditions that can lead to a successful co-development strategy. Factors such as, project complexity, conflicting objectives, lack of compatibility, lack of trust and commitment and lack of coherence between the budget and the objectives turned out to influence a co-development strategy. The role played by the key decision-makers (project manager) also influenced the success/failure of co-development strategy.     

Efficiency Wages in Weitzman's Share Economy

Weitzman proposes widespread profit or revenue sharing as a way of guaranteeing both very low levels of equilibrium unemployment and increased stability in the face of aggregate shocks. The benefits of a share economy come from the subsidy that current workers pay to marginal workers. In an efficiency-wage model, the wage subsidy paid by current workers costs the firm as much in lower productivity as it gains from lower labor costs. There is, therefore, neither a reduction of the equilibrium unemployment rate nor a necessary increase in macroeconomic stability when the share economy is introduced.     

Knowledge and Values in Technology Education

This paper addresses two closely interrelated issues in Technology Education: knowledge and values. The starting point for the discussion is analysis of the nature of knowledge in technology education. Approaches for theorising knowledge will be analysed in this paper as well as problems associated with them. Three major types of problems are identified: problems with finding an appropriate approach for the analysis of technological knowledge; problems with a technocratic interpretation of technological knowledge for the purpose of its classification; and problems with establishing a consistent approach to distinguish common features of technological knowledge. A model that represents knowledge in technology education and the place of values in it is presented as a way of overcoming the problems specified. The claim is made that understanding of knowledge/values relationships can improve theoretical understanding of how technology education can be constructed.     

我国地区工业技术创新力评价

地区工业技术创新力是区域创新体系的核心和重要组成部分,它主要体现在知识创造能力、自主创新能力、技术转化能力、技术创新活力、技术创新绩效和创新支撑能力等6个方面。采用2002年中国30个省区市的数据以及20项指标,本文测算了各地区工业技术创新力指数,并据此将各省区市分为工业技术创新力较强、中等和较弱三种类型。从三大地带看,目前中国工业技术创新力大体呈现出东高、中低、西中的格局。这说明,从总体上看,目前我国西部地区工业技术创新力并不算太弱。