The relationship between trainers’ media‐didactical competence and media‐didactical self‐efficacy,attitudes and use of digital media in training

The ongoing digitalization in the training sector produces new demands on the media‐didactical competence of trainers. We conducted an online survey of 279 trainers in Germany to investigate the relationships among media‐didactical competence, media‐didactical self‐efficacy, attitudes toward the use of digital media and the actual use of digital media in training. Furthermore, we compared trainers who attended a course on digital media with trainers who did not attend such a course. The analysis of the theoretically expected correlations between the variables resulted in not all hypotheses being accepted. The analysis of the group differences showed that the trainers who attended a course on digital media had higher media‐didactical competence and media‐didactical self‐efficacy scores and used digital media more often in training. There was no significant difference in negative attitudes. The implications for the promotion of the media‐didactical competence of trainers are discussed.     

Balancing economic revenue and grazing pressure of livestock grazing on the Qinghai–Tibetan–Plateau

Treating grazing pressure as an undesirable output of livestock grazing in a directional distance function improves understanding of how economic behaviour affects the environment. Field survey data from 193 livestock grazing households combined with remotely sensed net primary productivity (NPP) data on the Qinghai–Tibetan–Plateau was used to develop a directional output‐orientation distance function. The average efficiency of livestock grazing households is 0.817 when incorporating grazing pressure as an undesirable output, which means that households can achieve 18.3% more output and decrease proportional grazing pressure holding all inputs fixed. The relative shadow price of undesirable grazing pressure to good output grazing revenue is estimated to be between 1.795 and 3.986. According to the Morishima elasticity of substitution between inputs, there is a significant complementary relationship between grassland, labour and capital.     

Coming home to Europe: Greece and the Euro

The European Council’s recent decision that Greece is ready to join EMU at the beginning of 2001 raises a number of questions. How was Greece able to comply with the convergence criteria? What are the costs and benefits of its accession from both the Greek and the present EMU members’ perspectives? Is the current process of economic reform in Greece sustainable?     

Conceptualizing leapfrogging with spatially coupled innovation systems: The case of onsite wastewater treatment in China

A rapid implementation of potentially more sustainable sector structures in newly industrializing countries (NICs) is of key importance to reach global sustainability. The conceptual basis for assessing such “leapfrogging” potentials is however still rather weakly developed. The present paper elaborates an encompassing conceptual framework drawing on the technological innovation systems literature and adding an explicit geographical focus that embeds an NIC's innovation system in its international context. From this, we derive six ideal-type leapfrogging trajectories. The framework is applied to the case of a potential transition to onsite wastewater treatment in China. Empirical evidence is based on 30 expert interviews with representatives from companies, universities, authorities and associations in China and Europe. Our results suggest that leapfrogging in the Chinese wastewater sector might develop in either an integrated “international innovation system” trajectory, where Chinese and international actors closely interact, or in an “international competition” trajectory, where Chinese actors endogenously build up technological leadership in strong competition to international actors. We conclude by outlining policy implications and by discussing future research priorities for leapfrogging and transition studies.     

Productivity change and the effects of policy reform in China's agriculture since 1979

During China's rural reforms, policies were frequently adjusted. Most policies favoured the continuation and deepening of reform; but some were contradictory or even led to regression in the reform process. How have the rural reforms affected China's agricultural production over the past three decades; and what lessons can be learned to aid the future course of reform? To answer these questions, this study estimates productivity change in China's agriculture and evaluates the effects of policy on agricultural output during the reform period. Aggregated provincial‐level data for the 1979–2008 period are used in a translog production frontier model to estimate indices of total factor productivity (TFP) change and its three components—technical change, technical efficiency change, and a scale effect—with a focus on explaining the variation in technical efficiency. The estimation results show that the impressive improvement of TFP change is dominated by the technical change component. However, technical efficiency change and scale effects have worked against the improvement in TFP change in most periods. To improve technical efficiency, social welfare policies designed to eliminate the rural–urban divide, and reform polices focusing on factor market reforms, such as reform of the household registration system (hukou) and reform of land rights, seem to hold some potential.     

How Advergame Content Influences Explicit and Implicit Brand Attitudes: When Violence Spills Over

Well-liked advergames foster favorable brand attitudes. Research has been conducted on games where the content offers positive associations (e.g., racing: speed) that may transfer to the brand. Yet games may offer negative associations (e.g., combat: violence). Using the affect transfer and associative-propositional evaluation models, we test the influence of game content (combat, racing) on implicit and explicit brand attitudes. Results of an experiment showed that negative content resulted in less favorable attitudes toward the game and the implicit (unfamiliar) brand attitudes. The relationship between content and explicit attitude toward the brand was mediated by attitude toward the game.     

Exploration and exploitation fit and performance in international strategic alliances

Exploration and exploitation constitute two separate, potentially conflicting strategic choices for firms engaged in international strategic alliances. Our empirical study challenges the ambidexterity argument and demonstrates that exploration and exploitation are separate (though not necessarily antithetical) strategies with different antecedents and performance consequences.Our results show that while competency similarity is conducive to upstream innovative performance, prior experience with the partner is potentially damaging for this type of performance and trust and cultural distance do not play significant roles. When the motive is efficiency and downstream market performance, prior experience with the partner instead is beneficial, as are high levels of trust and low levels of cultural distance. These findings have key implications for literature on strategic fit and alliance performance.