Light pollution,sleep deprivation,and infant health at birth

We conduct the first study to examine the fetal health impact of light pollution based on a direct measure of skyglow, an important aspect of light pollution. Using an empirical regularity discovered in physics (called Walker's law) as an instrumental variable, we address the potential endogeneity problem associated with the skyglow variable. We find evidence of reduced birth weight, shortened gestational length, and increases in preterm births. Specifically, increased nighttime brightness, characterized by being able to see only one‐fourth to one‐third of the stars that are visible in the natural unpolluted night sky, is associated with an increase of 1.48 percentage points in the likelihood of a preterm birth. Our study adds to the literature on the impact of early‐life exposure to pollution, which so far has focused primarily on air pollution. Our study has important policy implications regarding the necessity of minimizing skyglow that is, for example, contributed by streetlights.     

Downsizing and the changing role of HR

This paper examines the changing role of HR in the specific context of downsizing. It highlights the key dilemmas facing HR professionals - on the one hand, the contribution of HRM to the achievement of business results has come under increasing scrutiny and, on the other hand, most of the challenges of downsizing are people-related issues that require sophisticated HR interventions. The paper reports the key findings of a pilot study conducted in sixty organizations in the UK that downsized in the last three years. The key conclusion of the study is that the role of HR has become wide ranging, covering the strategic as well as implementation aspects. The clear message from the study suggests that, unless there is alignment between the two aspects, the envisaged benefits of downsizing are unlikely take place. Key challenges facing HR professionals are managing middle managers, managing careers and managing employee expectations. There are indications to suggest that the process role of HR is likely to become more important in the medium and longer terms.     

The effect of ethnic diversity on expatriate managers in their host country

Expatriate managers often encounter considerable obstacles in their overseas workplaces. While there is significant research on expatriate management and adjustment, relying on social identity and acculturation theories, little research addresses the expatriate experience of ethnic diversity in the host country. To address this gap, the aim of this study is to explore how Australian expatriate managers interpret their experience of working in a new and ethnically diverse workplace in Malaysia. The qualitative analysis suggests that the key to performing in such a context lies in the individual's ability to change and adapt beyond culture and language skills. The key managerial implication is that cross-cultural training can assist with the development of personal attributes by expatriate managers involved in ethnically diverse workplaces. Implications for future research are provided.     

Ten years after: Interference of hospital slack in process performance benefits of quality practices

We investigate the long-term relationship between an organization's quality management practices and process-level performance. Further, we examine whether availability of organizational slack over the study interval interferes with the relationship between quality practices and process performance. Organizational slack consists of the available and accessible resources in an organization; we focus here on unabsorbed slack in the form of financial resources. We investigate the quality practices of U.S. general acute care hospitals, measured by their depth of implementation of practices characterizing a total quality management system, and use them to predict process performance related to four medical conditions. Analysis reveals differing effects that are dependent on hospital slack conditions. In hospitals with high slack, quality practices significantly predict three of four studied process performance measures. In contrast, in hospitals with low slack, quality practices predict only one of the four process performance measures, while other factors outweigh the effects of quality practices. This study lends support to management taking a long-term perspective related to implementation of quality management systems, and highlights the relevance of slack conditions in garnering the benefits of such systems.     

Liquidity Considerations in Estimating Implied Volatility

Option markets have significant variation in liquidity across different option series. Illiquidity reduces the informativeness of the price. Price information for illiquid options is more noisy, and thus the implied volatilities (IVs) based on these prices are more noisy. In this study, we propose weighting schemes to estimate IV, which reduce the importance attached to illiquid options. The two indexes using liquidity weights are SVIX, which is a spread‐adjusted volatility index, and TVVIX, which is a traded volume weighted VIX. We find SVIX outperforms TVVIX, the conventional schemes such as the traditional VXO, or vega weights, and volatility elasticity weights. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 32:714‐742, 2012     

Application of an environmental psychology model to in-store buying behaviour

Although the influence of the environment on behaviour has long been acknowledged by many environmental psychologists, not many studies have been done in a retailing context, and so far no study can provide a framework to determine how environmental cues might impact on store patronage. The main objective of this study is to explore the relationship between environment and human behaviour in a retailing context by adopting the Mehrabian Russell Model (M-R Model) so as to test the predictability and applicability of the model through measurement of the information load, the emotional states induced and the approach-avoidance behaviour of shoppers in two types of CD stores in Hong Kong. The findings show that in-store environment stimuli (expressed in terms of information rate) are positively related to the level of pleasure experienced in the store. In turn, environment-induced emotional states in the store are positively related to in-store shopping behaviour. Therefore, shopping behaviour favourable to retailers can be induced through manipulation of the store's atmospheric elements. The findings show that the in-store environment is dynamic in nature and the model is not as simple as that predicted by Mehrabian and Russell in a one-way direction. In-store behaviour also has positive effects on the pleasure felt in the store and the in-store rating of environmental stimuli.     

Planning Histories and Practices of Circulating Urban Knowledge

This symposium creates and stimulates new dialogue and cross‐disciplinary exchange between planning theorists and geographers in researching the transfer of urban policy and planning models, ideas and techniques. The symposium challenges a restricted historical focus in much of the emerging geographical literature on urban policy mobilities by drawing on a rich tradition within planning history of exploring and documenting the trans‐urban travel of planning ideas and models over the last 150 years. It is argued that this longer‐term perspective is required to highlight important historical continuities and institutional legacies to contemporary urban policy circuits and pathways and to question what is particularly new, distinct and innovative about an intensification in the travel of urban ideas, plans and policies over the past decade — and the accompanying scholarly interest in them. The symposium also uses the emphasis on particular details and specific experiences within planning histories to foreground and develop approaches, particularly from recent geographical scholarship, that investigate the contingent and embodied practices and wider epistemic contexts that enable — or hinder — contemporary policy transfer.     

天津如何塑造国际滨海旅游名城

旅游业是新世纪发展最快和最有潜力的行业。旅游经济将成为天津最重要的经济增长点。那么,在加入WTO后全新的国际经济、政治、文化、安全和激烈竞争的大环境中,天津地区应该怎么样在WTO的机遇中求得迅速发展、在公平的竞争中不断壮大呢?我将和天津人民一起探讨如何塑造有特色和竞争优势的天津城市品牌。 城市品牌面临挑战 实际上世界上的知名旅游城市品牌在新经济高速发展的今天都面临着新的挑战。像巴黎、纽约、东京等著名的旅游城市都开始感到了新的旅游经济带来的冲击。旅游人数的下滑,停留日期的减少和购