Telecom reform: progress and prospects

The dominant activity in telecom reform is now shifting from policy development to implementation. This is a more difficult task that depends heavily on competent, independent regulation in both developed and developing countries. A speed up in the remaining steps to complete full institutional restructuring is needed, including clarification of the roles for national and regional regulation and for international governance. New national regulators must rapidly establish transparent participatory processes and decision criteria to minimise uncertainty and enhance credibility. Experience to date indicates that competition in reality may be a more limited instrument of policy than it has been in theory, and the goal of a global universal service will remain elusive unless given a higher priority in policy and practice. Telecom reform is leading to increasing integration of telecom with other sectors of the economy, and telecom policy with broader economic and social policy. Telecom networks are providing the foundation of information infrastructures, which in turn are rapidly becoming an indispensable component of the 21st century knowledge infrastructures. For the future, telecom policy and regulation must facilitate knowledge network development in new knowledge-based economies and societies. This raises a question of whether telecom regulation should assume a more proactive role in facilitating new network service applications, especially in the public sector.     

垂直合约与产业环境贸易政策——环境成本内部化及中国的策略选择

全球经济一体化背景下,发达国家利用环境贸易政策来实现竞争优势已经出现趋势。本文介绍了欧盟的环境贸易政策,基于环境贸易政策的背景,预设国内外上、下游企业之间已经构成一个产业链,应用Stephen F.Hamilton的垂直型结构模型,将数量竞争分为四种不同情况,给出了最大均衡供给量。分析表明,如果采用垂直合约,则数量竞争和价格竞争的最佳非合作环境政策均是庇古(Pigouvian)税。在国内下游出口商与上游进口品供应商能够达成合约的条件下,政府之间存在着非合作环境政策。因此,我国的产业环境贸易政策应当是努力实现环境成本的内部化。     

Transnational Collective Agreements and the Development of New Spaces for Union Action: The Formal and Informal Uses of International and European Framework Agreements in the UK

Transnational collective agreements (TCAs) are an important development in the international dimension of industrial relations. This article compares four case studies of multinational companies in the UK covered by TCAs. Findings show that while the formal influence of TCAs was limited, they were invoked around particular disputes and could strengthen union influence in a context otherwise characterized by limited union rights. Such influence depended on the co‐ordination of workplace‐ and firm‐level industrial relations institutions, union access to management at headquarters level and union receptiveness to and outward engagement with transnational activity. The formal but also the informal dimensions of these dynamics played a significant role.     

Juggling ecumenical wisdoms and xenophobic institutions: Framing and modelling China's telecommunications universal service and rural digitalization initiatives and policies

China historically belongs to a farming civilization, in which rural population tended to stick to their farmlands for a lifetime. This situation has somehow been changing with, inter alia, the advancement and application of modern Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). In recent years, China has been pushing for the inclusion of its rural communities into modern information society through aggressively digitalizing its rural areas under a public policy umbrella. With the literature's lopsided focus on Western nations, a cohesive paradigm in mapping the Chinese style of universal service implementation remains elusive, a situation that has often obfuscated deeper understanding of the Chinese case from a socioeconomic, technological, or institutional perspective. The main purpose of this present paper lies in the framing and modelling of China's universal service and rural digitalization practices. The paper proposes and applies an integrated offer–agent–target (OAT) framework in a retrospective and empirical examination of the Chinese case and conceptual characterization of what has appeared to be the Chinese model. In so doing, China's universal service development is demarcated into discernible stages that are then pattern-matched with corresponding institutional landscapes. Three salient stages are identified and corresponding institutional landscapes explicated. Finally, insights and suggestions are offered that throws lights on the current issues and future developments.     

Policy System in Taiwan's Industrial Context

Drawing on institutional analysis of politics, this paper proposes a concept of policy system that is then applied empirically to Taiwan's industrial context of 1986–95. Contemporary political sciences now identify the institutionalization of state-business relations. Accounts differ, but generally they retain a strong sense of conventional rules in the formulation and implementation of industry policy. While taking this idea of rules seriously, we extend institutional perspectives on politics from the familiar confines of structural constraints to the institutional context of resources. Thus, a policy system is socially constructed with a variety of rules and resources, appreciable in the Taiwanese context.     

Dynamics of agricultural research organization in Latin America

The authors summarize the conditions that led to the development of national research institutes in Latin America and to the creation of the international centres of agricultural research. The authors review the modernization process of the agricultural sector and the role played by public and international organizations in the appearance of non-public research. The authors discuss the impact of these institutional developments on the effectiveness of national research institutes, and the implications for agricultural science, technology policy, and the organization of agricultural research in the Third World.     

我国电力普遍服务问题研究

首先提出了电力普遍服务的定义与内涵,对电力普遍服务的必要性和资金来源进行了详细讨论;接着分析了我国电力普遍服务的发展历程、现状和存在的问题;最后明确提出,我国应该构建与电力体制改革和市场化改革相适应的、具有中国特色的新型电力普遍服务机制,对普遍服务的责任主体和资金来源、阶段目标、实施主体和实现方式、服务对象和业务范围、管理机制和成本补偿机制进行明确,为我国电力普遍服务提供法律保障。     

Universal service in Turkey: Recent developments and a critical assessment

The meaning of universal service in telecommunications has changed considerably in the last decade. Technological advances have created the necessity to redefine the legal framework. While the demand for old universal services falls, new and wider services are to be included in the scope of legal obligations such as broadband. In this transformation of public policy toward universal services, political preferences take precedence over economic considerations. Turkey provides a good case in point. In this paper, the authors assess the legal framework of universal services and its institutional structure in Turkey. The tension between enlarging the scope of universal service and pressures on using revenues efficiently is emphasized.     

Patterns of international R&D cooperation for new product development: the Olivetti multimedia product

Abstract
The aim of the paper is to identify a number of different patterns of international R&D cooperation during the initial phases of the product development process. This is a case-study of new product development based on the work of the Olivetti Multimedia Laboratory in Pisa, how it set up its own pattern of multinational collaboration in the idea generation and pre-competitive phase; how, in turn, this collaboration led to new R&D collaboration agreements to satisfy specific problem-solving requirements connected with the confirmation of a dominant design, though limited to a certain extent by previous agreements between Olivetti and other firms; the role played by marketing in the choice of alternative solutions. Finally, in the product implementation phase, the emergence of a defined technological paradigm leads to a highly competitive environment, where R&D collaboration is increasingly directed towards multifunctional requirements (R&D, manufacturing, marketing) within a strategic network of alliances that involves large sized companies, start-up firms, industrial and university research units.     

论新形势下辽宁中小企业政策和服务体系的完善

金融风暴使外贸依存度较高的辽宁中小企业遭遇前所未有的困难，也为辽宁中小企业政策和服务体系的完善提出了新的课题。借鉴瑞典、英国、法国、澳大利亚等国扶持中小企业的成功做法，提出完善辽宁中小企业政策与服务体系应注重政策效果评估；将中小企业扶持列入政府工作绩效考核方案；制定政府采购中小企业产品政策；增设中小企业行业经营环境危机预警服务；注重企业家精神的培养。     

Flexibility in industrial service relationships: The construct, antecedents, and performance outcomes

Exchanges between service providers and their customers on business markets increasingly take place in the form of long-term business relationships. These relationships are governed through formal or informal agreements. However, actors are bounded in their rationality and find it impossible to contemplate all possible future contingencies. The more formal and detailed the contracts they conclude, the likelier it becomes that at least one actor is going to perceive a need to adjust the initial agreement as environmental events unfold. In this case, the actor relies upon his partner's flexibility. This paper deals with service providers' flexibility and presents empirical results from the market research sector including outcome variables (satisfaction, trust, commitment) and determinants of service provider flexibility (uncertainty, relationship-specific investments, mutuality, long-term orientation). Empirical results suggest that service provider flexibility is an important determinant of customer satisfaction, trust, and commitment.     

Formal standards-setting for global telecommunications and information services. Towards an institutional regime transformation?

This paper reviews the nature and economic significance of the activities carried on by standards development organizations (SDOs), focusing in particular upon the telecommunications and information technology standards-setting work of the government-created public and quasi-public institutions, and the international treaty organizations that constitute the formal standards sector. It documents the current sources of tension within this regime and appraises various proposals for organizational reforms. There are especially pressing needs for adaptations of the inherited institutional mechanisms for technical coordination to provide for inter-operability in the development of new telecommunication networks and services. Among the manifold sources of strain on the old structure, those which seem at once most fundamental and potentially most threatening are the recently heightened industrial perceptions of the potential strategic value of standards as tools of business competition and national policy, and the incentives for ‘institutional by-pass’ that have been created by the rapid proliferation of technological possibilities. The paper considers some alternative organizational models for negotiated standard-setting that might be able to withstand, and better harness these forces for the continued production of standards as public goods.     

工作—家庭平衡的企业制度安排

工作已经通过网络渗入家庭,员工面临严重的工作—家庭冲突,影响组织绩效和生活质量。工作—家庭平衡作为企业家庭伦理理论的核心问题已成为制度设计的中心问题。对工作—家庭平衡制度安排的理论与实证研究发现,工作—家庭平衡还没有成为政府、企业和员工的共享信念,制度设计失去社会价值观基础;弹性工作制是有效的正式企业制度;家庭照顾福利是无效的正式企业制度;经理须持之以恒支持员工平衡工作—家庭需要、控制因享用工作—家庭平衡福利而带来的负面职业生涯后果。两者是有效的非正式制度安排。据此提出的政策建议是:政府要在全社会倡导、培育以工作—家庭平衡为核心的企业家庭伦理管理哲学、提供家庭照顾福利作为公共制度供给;企业进行系统的组织文化改造;员工培育照顾家庭的应得权利感。     

Universal service in China and India: Legitimating the state?

This paper examines the contrast between China's and India's universal service policies as manifestations of the two states' differing self-conceptualizations and legitimation strategies. We examine the timeline of universal service policies in the two countries, differentiating between the territorial, demographic and layered dimensions of universal service. The analysis reveals many similarities between the two countries, as well as some differences primarily related to the mode of funding universal service programs and the lead China has taken in deploying informatization services. We identify some of the proximate causes that resulted in these policy decisions. But in addition, we also examine how universal service policies are related to contrasting models of state legitimation.     

Reconfiguring supplier relationships between local and global: History matters

Small and medium-sized companies are increasingly facing international markets as part of their processes of growth and development. A great deal of literature deals with different patterns of growth and international development that are specific to SMEs with respect to large companies. Fewer studies have been conducted on the reconfiguration of company supplier relationships involved in these processes. This paper focuses on the role played by the consolidated set of company supplier relationships when the firm faces some critical stages in its process of development, i.e., growth from small to mid-sized and the implementation of new ventures abroad accessing new business relationships with international suppliers. A multiple and longitudinal case study shows how the local set of supplier relationships of four mid-sized Italian mechanical companies acting in industrial districts has played an important role in shaping the emerging set of supplier relationships and addressing companies' actions in their growth and internationalization processes.     

Economics at the FCC, 2011–2012: Spectrum Incentive Auctions, Universal Service and Intercarrier Compensation Reform, and Mergers

The past year in economics at the Federal Communications Commission covered a broad range of topics in telecommunications policy. This paper highlights the economic issues that are addressed in the following key areas: spectrum management, universal service and intercarrier compensation reform, and merger review. In spectrum management, the FCC received congressional authority to implement an ??incentive auction?? to repurpose television broadcasting spectrum into flexible-use licenses that will be suitable for mobile wireless service providers. We discuss some important issues in designing the auction. We next address some aspects of the FCC??s comprehensive reforms of intercarrier compensation, which mainly involves call termination rates, and of universal service. Finally, we discuss the economic analysis of two major mergers: AT&T-T-Mobile, which the FCC staff recommended should be referred to an administrative hearing, and Level 3/Global Crossing, which was cleared with no conditions.     

Employer Organizations and Labour Immigration Policy in Australia and the United Kingdom: The Power of Political Salience and Social Institutional Legacies

This article examines employer organizations and labour immigration policy in Australia and the United Kingdom. Drawing on 102 elite interviews, it analyses employer organizations’ preferences and influence over recent reforms. The article builds on Culpepper's arguments relating to the significance of political salience and identifies the importance of various institutional factors, particularly social institutions, in shaping employer organizations’ decisions and engagement with the policy process. Political salience and social institutional legacies are critical for explaining why employer organizations played a central role in driving labour immigration reforms in Australia and a marginal role in the UK. Large intakes of workers from the European Union, which sustained immigration as a high salience issue and fuelled the Brexit campaign, also influenced the strategies of UK employer organizations.     

加快发展现代服务业 推进新型工业化进程

以现代服务业的内涵及发展趋势为论述基点,在阐述现代服务业与新型工业化之间的＂耦合＂现象的基础上,比较深入地分析了新型工业化过程中现代服务业存在的突出问题,主要表现在现代服务业发展滞后、服务支撑体系不完善、体制性政策性约束等方面。进而,对加快发展现代服务业,推进我国新型工业化进程的有效措施进行了初步探讨。     

The politics of success in the fight against malnutrition in Peru

The dramatic reduction in children’s chronic malnutrition in Peru observed in recent years has defied the patterns of stunting reduction worldwide. After nearly a decade of stalled progress, the government reported a reduction in stunting rates of nearly 10 points, from 29.8% in 2005 to 18.1% in 2011. The specialized literature has acknowledged the critical role that immediate (e.g. increasing breastfeeding promotion) and underlying (e.g. investments to improve household food security) interventions have played in reducing stunting (Black et al., 2013), as well as the contributing role of enabling factors related to economic performance. This paper offers an alternative explanation to success by looking at the shift in the government’s nutrition strategy after 2006 with the formation of the Child Malnutrition Initiative (CMI), a civil society working platform, and the adoption of a national poverty reduction strategy prioritizing nutrition interventions (known as CRECER) and conditional cash transfers (JUNTOS). The paper uses veto players theory to explain how these changes effectively contributed to policy change by reducing the effective number of nutrition stakeholders involved and facilitating policy agreements around a common policy platform and established goals. The Peruvian case also highlights the importance of the government’s public commitment to reduce chronic malnutrition in children under five by 5 percent in 5 years (“5 by 5 by 5”) and the accompanying role, advocacy and monitoring from civil society organizations.The paper looks at the success of implementing the nutrition strategy in three dimensions. Horizontally, it looks at the coordination between government and non-government agencies to converge around a common policy discourse;vertically, it looks at the implementation of the nutrition strategy across national, regional and municipal governments;and financially, it looks at the coordinated and conditional allocation of nutrition funding and how this created greater incentives for horizontal and vertical coordination. The paper draws some theoretical and policy implications for improving the effective and accountable delivery of nutrition interventions in Peru and other countries outside Latin America.     

浅析我国电力普遍服务

目前我国电力普遍服务还处于初级阶段,其内容目标、对象主体、实施措施等等都还处于探索之中,本文对电力普遍服务的基本问题进行了探讨.