The Accounting Reform in the Brussels-capital Region： New Tool for Financial Analysis

In the last 20 years, public administrations in Belgium have completely reformed their accounting systems. The new system consists in combining double-entry general accounting with budgetary accounting, which is traditional in the public sector. The accounting reform of 2003 marks a turning point in the history of accounting of the federal State and federated entities （regions and communities）. The Brussels-capital region is the first federated entity to embark on the adventure and implement the new accounting system in 2006. The aim of this article is to introduce the legislative framework and the different implementation steps of the accounting reform in the Brussels-capital region and to provide a financial analysis of the region. The objective is to see if the region has a good financial situation. To do this, this paper analyses the data from the balance sheet and the income statements from 2008 to 2011. On one hand, it analyzes the evolution of the region＇s different results; and on the other hand, it presents different financial ratios. It also analyzes the evolution of the regional debt. This paper concludes that, although expenses and the debt are increasing, the situation of the region is not worrying, because of good budgetary performances, sophisticated financial management, and law loans rates. Even if the results of the analysis don＇t have to be interpreted as the same way as for a private company, the annual accounts provide interesting information that can be used to improve public finance.     

Bar in Questionnaires

Vougiouklis ＆ Vougiouklis have proposed the replacement of Likert scales, usually used in questionnaires, with a bar. With this proposal a discrete situation is replaced by a fuzzy one. There are identified certain advantages concerning the use of the bar as compared to that of a scale during both the stages of filling-in as well as processing a questionnaire. The main advantage associated with business research requirements is the fact that it is expected to be much quicker to fill in and much easier to explain to participants. The bar provides the potential for different types of processing Likert scales cannot. Therefore the researchers are allowed to ascertain that the given answers follow not only the already suggested and used Gauss distribution but also a parabola distribution as it will be suggested in present paper, and which is expected to give the researcher the opportunity to ＂correct＂ this tendency. Therefore, a possibility of choosing amongst a number of alternatives is offered, by utilizing fuzzy logic in the same way as it has already been done in industry and combining mathematical models with multivalued operations.     

Sandwich-Course Training in Higher Education as a Major Strategic Thrust Regional Policy of Professional Training： Lessons Learned From the Pioneering Example of the University Institute of Technology Corsica

Corsica is an island economy marked by the complete absence of any of the big holdings and multinationals that fuel and forge the worldwide economy. Equally absent is any of the kind of medium-sized enterprises servicing big business that have spearheaded local economies in other regions like Lombardy. Corsica＇s economic fabric is essentially made up of small and home businesses, farm smallholdings, artisans, and small-scale retail. Given how public-sector capital investment is already hypertrophied, a policy of investment in human capital could be a compelling new opportunity to trigger a dynamic regional development impetus. Leading the way, the University Institute of Technology Corsica, Corsica University＇s affiliated school of applied vocational technologies, is demonstrating its ability to act as a structurally engaged facilitator of island-wide spatial planning and regional branding. As a founding pillar in pioneering the emergence of a sandwich-course training system in higher education in Corsica, in 2010 the university made its entire training curriculum fully accessible to all through the signature of apprenticeship training or vocational qualifications agreements. This grass-roots programme is the outcome of a committed core strategy to develop partnerships with the island＇s key social and economic communities （businesses, community groups, and local authorities）, and it plays a fundamental role in shaping and selling the most vital valued assets that typify a regional territory emerging into a structured destination-brand identity （simultaneous growth in the employability and quality of school-to-work transition shown by its human capital, mass shift in the degree of skill acquisition directly tied to the regional territory＇s own organic needs, fluidity of knowledge transfer fully controlled through sandwich placements, deep sustainable entrepreneurship education etc.）. After highlighting the specific features of the sandwich training policy development process in Corsica as a shaper of the Regional Vocational Development Programme, this paper brings an analysis of the lessons learned from the pioneering example of the University Institute of Technology Corsica as a dynamic engineer of structured future and regional brand for Corsica.     

The fostering factors in the occurrence of rural small industries and enterprises in the Northeast of Thailand

The rural small industry and enterprise have a close relation with the regional development. Although they generated job and income, the number of them increased quite low in the area. The previous study focused on the financial support on the hypothesis of lack of capital. Many agencies had provided the variety fund, but the number of them increased not so high. In the study, the author focuses in the management background on the basis that capital is the important issue but not the major factor. The management background should have a role. The author studies 370 small industries and enterprises of every type in the region. The study found that the major three issues that are the fostering factors in the occurrence of them are management background, capital, and creative thinking. Management background of entrepreneur that relate directly to their experience is a major factor rather than capital. The regression coefficient show significantly. The study can bring new strategy to develop them in the future.     

From compensation to development： the application and progress of RwD in China

Involuntary resettlenment caused by project construction is a difficult problem over world. In the past, therestoration of livelihoods in the event of involuntary resettlementhas been based purely on providing compensation to those who are displaced. Evidence has shown that compensation-based involuntary resettlement can not realize the objective of restoring and improving resettlers＇ living standard. With a view to improve this outcome, the concept of Resettlement with Development （RwD） was envisaged and is now generally heralded as the means to mitigate catastrophic failures of the past. However, few developing countries have included the concept of RwD into th, ational policies and China is one of them. The Chinese government has taken resettlement as an opportunity to help resettlers restore and improve their living standards and develop economy in reservoir areas by implementing RwD olicy including giving compensation and subsidies at early stage and offering production assistance at late stage, citing up reservoir construction fund, initiating partnership programs and preferential policy as well as enhanc infrastruture construction. The preliminary experience from the TGP resettlement has verified that the transformation from compensation-based resettlement to RwD is a right policy, choice. Meanwhile. because ofthe changing political environment and the complexity of involuntary resettlement there is still room for china to improve its RwD policy.     

Public choice on coordinated development of border regions and its empirical research： a case study of Wuling mountain area

Due to the difficult segmentation of land destiny, popularity destiny, industry destiny on the platform of common interests demand, the regional governance of production and living for the needs of the people in cross-regional areas, such as in the aspects of security, education, assignment and management of water resources, transportation, energy, environment protection and public health, the administrative border regional cooperation is relatively easy. These aspects are equivalent to public products. Just because of this, it leads to problems that nobody will not control. The governments, in order to realize regional economic coordinated development and to eliminate the regional interests parties of administrative regions economy in microcosmic, were adapting various self-protection measures, even including that ＂you may have your policy but I have my countermeasures＂ that is derived from inter-regional economic relations. The action of market segmentation has limited the flow of various economic development elements, especially the condition of ＂dead end highway＂, resource exploitation and use, difficult social security work in social living of the administrative boundary zone. This paper studies the typical economical district of Wuling mountain area in the obvious strategic position at the junction of Chongqing, Guizhou, Hunan, Hubei provinces from the angle of regional public management and public choice to present issue awareness and academic purpose.     

FDI＇s Sustainability and the Sustainable Development of the Yangtze River Delta

The fast development of the Yangtze River Delta of China is closely related to the dense inflows of FDI. The clustering of the foreign capital in this region has brought new projects, technology and business skills, which have given a strong impetus to the fast development of the regional economy and the upgrading of the economic structure. But the sustainability of FDI and its long-term influence have drawn a lot of attention. It is also a problem whether the slow-down of the FDI inflows or its flight will bring negative effect on the sustainable economic development of the Yangtze River Delta. In this paper, we will prove that the inflows of FDI are stable to some degree. It is unlikely that there will be a drastic large-scale FDI flight, so the so-called ＂migratory bird economy＂ will not occur. But the sustainable economic development in the Yangtze River Delta will depend on the continuity of the policies to attract FDI. What should be done includes the policy to promote the accumulation and circulation of the international capital to promote the sustainable development of the regional economy and market.     

The New Method to Determine Ownership Stake to Exercise Control： An Empirical Analysis on Italian Companies

The idea of this work arises from the analysis of the researches developed in the literature on topic of ownership and control that are mostly based on threshold of ownership stake to determine control equal for all companies and, in most cases, not supported by theoretical arguments and empirical evidences. In fact, the aim of this paper is to build a new method of determining the threshold of ownership stake that allows the shareholder to exercise control. In particular, this survey uses all Italian listed companies as reference, and the minutes of the Ordinary and Extraordinary General Meetings of shareholders, in 2009-2012, as database. The topic can be enriched with further and future researches aiming to adapt this new method in a cross-country investigation and so to identify the different threshold for the countries, on the basis of the different national laws regarding the ownership stakes that affect the control.     

Widespread Hotel： An Innovative Made in Italy Model for Cultural Tourism and Local Sustainable Development The Umbria＇s Case

Widespread hotels represent a new Italian phenomenon still not much investigated, both on theoretical and empirical side, which cannot be ignored anymore. Indeed they meet the need to implement techniques and management tools which are able to improve the culture-tourism binomial. This would permit to transform into valid instruments of national economical development, the shared declaration of intents for which culture and tourism, especially in Italy and in this particular fragile period, represent even more the main strategic levers for the sustainable development. This article intends to describe the potentiality of these widespread hotels as innovations particularly suitable with trends recently emerged in tourism sector and outline the phenomenon pattern in ltaly with particular attention on Umbria region, in order to identify his main strength and weakness and some innovation to improve performance. To this end, it starts from the analysis of the national and international economic-managerial literature concerning in particular cultural and experienced trends shown in tourism. Then it introduces the main acquisitions about widespread hotels in Italy, updating and extending them through a desk survey based on indirect sources of various natures. Lastly, it describes the case of Umbria, analyzing more in depth making use of interviews with entrepreneurs/managers of hotels and based on a semi-structured questionnaire. The aspects of indeterminateness which were found, starting from the normative one, testify how the potentiality of the widespread hotels as far as regards the value creation for the enterprise itself and the territorial stakeholder, are still not properly understood and therefore used. It is clear that, therefore, new behaviors are needed for entrepreneurs and, most importantly, for local policy makers in order to create the conditions for the full success of these hospitality models.     

Disruptive Innovation in the Nordic Countries＇ Healthcare Systems

The Nordic healtheare model is recognized to be one of the most innovative in the world. Here billions of USD are annually invested in developing new treatments, drugs, robots etc. to diagnose and cure diseases. Nevertheless, this study establishes that there is a fundamental shortcoming in the system that supports healthcare innovation： It is strongly biased towards micro-level innovation projects focusing on new products, alternative processes, and new financial solutions. The problem with this approach to support new projects is that the results are created as inventions within the system thus lacking holistic perspectives. This has consequently contributed with increasing costs that are out of proportion with existing budgets. Therefore this study seeks to analyze the current understanding of the Nordic healthcare system from a business model perspective. Here other aspects of the healthcare system are explored to determine if they could be redesigned to promote new types of innovation projects. The purpose of undertaking this task is to challenge the established patterns of the current healthcare innovation support practices. Here the vertical innovation process （VIP） framework, which is a systematic radical innovation model that seeks macro-level outcomes based on standalone inventions （see more below）, is applied to analyze the current state-of-the-art in Nordic healthcare innovation projects. The results determine that very little attention is given to rethink and redesign the healthcare system at a macro-level, and it is discussed that stand-alone inventions ought to be rethought into the entire healthcare system to create a larger impact. Finally, it is argued that existing performance measures are inappropriate to foster projects that innovate the existing system： New measuring points should be developed to promote macro-level projects and to avoid the current rapid increase of costs in the Nordic healthcare system.     

Generational management in corporate America： The differences and challenges in management of four generations of working adults

There are many differences and challenges that employers face while managing employees in the current work force. Our present day workforce is made up of a diverse group of people： Matures, also known as Veterans （age 55＋）, Baby Boomers （age 45-54）, Generation X （age 35-44） and Generation Y also known as Millennial （age 18-34）. The differences and challenges among these groups will be evident when reviewing recognition and praise, managerial styles, subordinate responses to generational leadership. Companies are stepping back and looking more holistically at how to develop programs and deploy technology that will speak to four distinct generations in the workforce （Sprague, 2008）. Each generation has their own definition of work ethic, responsibility, and performance. The best way to deal with the multi-generations is coming up with ways that make everybody feel like they are members of a team, thus helping them to learn how to develop a better way of communication than what exists between them now. If everybody is a part of a team, then they are all sharing the benefits that the other generations can bring to the table, making them a strong entity. Matures and boomers can become mentors to the X and Y＇s, and the X and Y＇s can then share and impart their knowledge of technology to the Matures and boomers. Companies in today＇s workplace must learn a better way to understand the values of the four generations, for it is very important in understanding and guiding these people in the workplace. Without this proper understanding, the guidance and alliance that managers are hoping to achieve will be even longer in the making and then one, possibly two, whole generations will be gone from the workforce and their knowledge and skill gone as well.     

An Evaluation on the Effects of the Policy of the Great Campaign of Western Development of China in the First 10 Years Based on the Kuznets Regional Inverted-U Theory

In order to reduce the regional differentials or narrow the gap in economic development between eastern and western areas and prevent the intensification of contradictions resulting from the regional inequality during the development process, the government of China launched the Great Campaign of Western Development （GCWD） in 2000. In this paper, we will evaluate the effects of the first 10 years＇ GCWD and use the latest Chinese annual data from 1978 to 2010 to investigate the problem of regional differentials in the development process, evaluate the effects of GCWD policy and test whether there is a regional Kuznets inverted-U curve in the regional development of China. The result shows that there are both good and bad news： the good news is that the inverted U-shaped curve of absolute differential between eastern and western areas finally emerges （the previous studies showed that the inverted-U curve did not appear and the differentials between eastern and western areas became worse） and the bad news is that the differential is in the first half of the inverted U-shaped curve in our choice of time span （1978-2010）, that is, it is still in the situation of deterioration, and the turning better point will emerge in 2025. Although the western areas have benefitted from GCWD, the absolute gap has been still widened. To narrow the gap, the western areas should accelerate the industrial development and the government should adjust the policy and make more efforts to support the development of the industry in the western areas, especially cultivate and support the development of the western characteristic and advantageous industry rather than just supporting the construction of infrastructure in the western areas.     

China introduces the 24-hour rule

Recently, international movement measures that may be causing tension between the of cargo had been the subject of increasing border control needs for security and the needs for trade facilitations. On the one hand customs authorities are charged with the responsibility for policing a country＇s borders, and consequently they need to have in place measures to ensure that only legitimate trade takes place and that this trade does not present security concerns. On the other hand we have the requirements of traders, who benefit from an environment of trade facilitation with speedy and efficient movement of cargo across international borders, with minimal bureaucratic intervention. This paper focuses on and provides early discussion and comments on the possible ramifications of the introduction of the 24-hour rule in China, effective for all exports and imports of sea freight container traffic since January 1, 2009. The new rules will have significant impact on the logistics flows of exporters and importers alike. Specifically, the reporting requirements timelines are likely to result in increased costs in cargo processing at wharves that traders will have to bear; place added pressure on storage facilities at wharves, or at container depots; and may additionally increase the amount of inventory buffer because of the timing of the data reporting requirements. The paper concludes that security needs have prevailed over trade facilitation considerations and that traders should urgently implement a review of existing practices to ensure they comply with the China Customs requirements, whilst simultaneously minimizing cost increases.     

Corporate innovation behavior and internal governance mechanism

Innovation is a process results in new products, methods of production and forms of business organization. Innovation can vastly improve the welfare of consumers, investors, firms and the economy. However, there is relatively limited evidence of how corporate governance affects corporate innovation. In this study, the author theoretically demonstrates how internal governance mechanisms interact to affect innovation, such as internal control, monitoring and compensation contracts. Governance mechanisms are determined by firm characteristics. The ＂best＂ governance structures that can be adopted universally do not exist. However, innovative firms often share similar characteristics, and they adopt similar governance mechanisms to facilitate innovation. The ultimate purpose of such internal governance mechanism that facilitates innovation is to prevent managers＇ myopia, and this paper concludes 5 different roles in internal governance mechanism that facilitate corporate innovation behavior.     

An Intermediary Organization Finds Potential Needs By Exploiting Serendipity

This paper intends to clarify the needs serendipity in creating new business. The authors will show that serendipity is capability method of finding potential needs and/or new markets. In economic society, potential needs and/or new markets are only partially exposed, such as an iceberg. Serendipity is a capability that can expose the potential hidden part through accidental opportunity. Something more concrete can be formed from the exposed parts. The authors describe cases that demonstrate the usefulness of serendipity. In one case, a high-tech start-up had intended to use medical electronic equipment and/or industrial electronic equipment as the first application of their core technology. In these markets, they were competing with established major companies, so this start-up had difficulty entering these markets. However, a specific distributor found potential needs that were met by the start-up＇s products, and has created a new market by combining their core technology with social needs. The authors define serendipity capability by analyzing this case example and argue that serendipity can contribute to finding opportunities and solving social issues.     

Healthy Business Environment According to the General Theory of Sustainable Development

The article continues thinking about prospective of human society. Is the healthy business environment a fiction or a real opportunity？ How far-reaching are the roots of the future natural processes of changes？ How to work with the current global economic models？ Can the current European integration process be considered as natural？ Is a weak state a new opportunity for a future strong economy？ What is the historical essence of the liberal thought？ Why the current economic models are not permanent, why are they not sustainable, and why are they not developing for the basic quantum, which is the man as an individual？ Can also the basic quantum be integration units as family, society, company, municipality, region, country, or EU, etc.？ Qualified answers to the questions can be seen in a theoretical context of the General Theory of the Sustainable Development （GTSD）, too. Theoretical trinity of GTSD is based on three theoretical pillars： GPT （Gravitation Polarity Theory）, QET （Quantum Economy Theory）, and BIT （Big Integration Theory）. They can be considered as relevant theoretical basics for historical, current, and future sustainable development process. The healthy business environment is based on the healing of man. In GTSD, businessman and man gain a new source of knowledge, a new natural relationship, and a new content. This is a responsibility towards the customer and towards the pa~ner in business. Businessman＇s profit speaks about a new business in natural partnerships. Sustainable development without the Groove Management （second generation management） and without the fourth Reformation （with second generation of innovation） is a process that only reflects the regressive trend that takes place for more than 6000 years. Without the new content of the Fifth Theoretical Dimension （Consciousness） the historical mainstream of sustainable development process cannot be grasped. The biggest risk for the expected Healthy business society is a contemporary slave commun     

Policy of giving rewards and subsidies for grassland ecological conservation in Tibetan Plateau

This paper aims to explore the impact of policy of giving rewards and subsidies(GRS) for grassland ecological conservation in Tibetan Plateau implemented by the Chinese government since 2009.Taking Gerze County in Ngari Prefecture in the Tibetan Autonomous Region(TAR) as an example,it discusses the objective,implementation and outcome of that policy with regard to the ecological reconstruction and problems that have ensured.Located in the northern part of the Qiangtang Plateau,Gerze is the largest county in Ngari Prefecture.It covers more than 7.8 million acres of pastureland,of which 6.2 million acres are usable for pastoralism; 3.4 million acres,however,lack water source.In recent decades,due to the increased population and other reasons,pastures of the area have shown signs of overgrazing,thus leading to serious degradation,desertification and salinization of the grassland.Since 2009,when neighboring Coqin County was chosen as a pilot site for the national ecological incentive and subsidy policy(or: ecological compensation policy),Gerze has also started to adopt this policy and brought ful implementation in 2010.Its purpose is to solve the problem of overgrazing.But like other policies carried out in Gerze,its implementation is faced with many challenges.First,it is difficult to define the types and scopes of the incentives and subsidies,which have become a major source of complaints of the local herdsmen.Second,the local herdsmen are also concerned with the fairness of assigning rewards and subsidies.Third,the high cost of the policy’s implementation and supervision reduces its effects.Fourth,the fact that the herdsmen are not willing to reduce livestock population makes it difficult for the policy to achieve actual results.The author thinks it’s necessary to revise and improve the current ecological incentive and subsidy policy.     

Expanding the US-China cooperation on service programs： New opportunities for both countries

For years, the US and China have cooperated closely on manufacturing programs, which helps China become the world manufacturing center. While they both have gained much from the cooperation, there are also increasing frictions, disputes, complains and dissatisfaction with each other because of the huge trade unbalance problem and other significant issues. The US is eager to expand export to China, but China seems hesitating to decide what to import from the US. This paper presents an analysis about the benefits of the US-China cooperation with a primary focus on the service sector, which remains a large and untapped opportunity for China. The goal of the paper is to explore a new route to relieve the trade balance issues as they separately impact both nations. While focusing on analyzing several immediate opportunities, the paper also investigates several new ideas that rest on technology as well as entrepreneurial development.     

Assessment of the immigration effect and choice of development pattern for scenic areas： a case study of Wuyi Mountain, China

Mountainous regions face a series of Conflicts betWeen the natural resources conservation and the economic development, especially in protected areas, where are the home to some of the poorest people in＇the world In China, the Protected Areas Authorities （such as Protected Areas Authorities of Wuyi Mountain） transferred the mountainous people out of the protected areas. We found that it is not a good approach of immigration project, as fal economic and ecological effect is concerned. Although remote and majestic, beauty attracted many tourists, mass tourism is not a good approach to soh,e the development problem in mountainous areas because it can not provide enough opportunites to make local people live a comfortable life, and the high volume of tourists indicates that the resources, face significant threats. Because many fandscapes,are run by Private enterprises, local residents and government only get limited benefits. Alihough ecotourism principles expatiate on economic development and resource, onservation, local people income and tourists feelings, it has discordance between the theory and the praciice Therefore. the term of ＂integrated ecotourism ＂ was coined in the paper.based on the ecotourism theory, Integrated ecotourism means a broadly tourism resources and pendulum spatial pattern which will come into being with the movement of local,people and tourists from protected areas io the nearby town or city： and it also tries to solve the property right conflict of mountain land between the local people and the private enterprises according to property right theory.     

Mixed Market Competition in a Quality Differentiated Duopoly Model An Approach to Banking Sector

This paper attempts to develop a theoretical framework to investigate the competitive implications of quality choices of financial institutions whereby they charge prices to consumers based on their willingness to pay for the service qualities in the mixed market scenario under vertical product differentiation model. Initially, it analyzes benchmark equilibrium solutions of monopoly and duopoly to establish the degree of quality differentiation between two private banks in an uncover market configuration. Further, it estimates the quality differentiation between private and public banks, and examines the interaction between two market structures keeping public bank as both leader and follower, and then measures the social welfare from different prospectives. The explicit operation of two stages Nash equilibrium game forecasted that public banks＇ monopoly seems to be still better than a private banking, and it is socially optimal. The outcome demonstrates a significant importance of vertical quality differentiation for policy implication in banking industry and provides an insight on the reasons of particular co-existence of public and private banking services in the specified location. In this context, it is concluded that the presence of public banks in banking industries is a crucial condition for obtaining the higher range of social welfare.