A Micro-Approach for Testing Marx's LTRPF: Evidence from Greece, 2000 and 2009

This article develops a novel micro-approach for the empirical evaluation of Marx's law of the tendency of the rate of profit to fall. Contrary to the traditional method which uses national macroeconomic data, this approach utilises data taken directly from company reports and accounts. The principal advantage of this approach is that it provides an accurate measurement of the value composition of capital, devoid of the measurement limitations of the traditional method regarding variable capital which stem from the inability to distinguish productive from unproductive labour. A disadvantage, however, is that this approach does not cover the entire national economy. The application of the proposed micro-approach to the ongoing Greek crisis yields results which are congruent with the traditional method and reinforce other recent studies linking the current crisis with low profitability.     

Technology upgrading of Small-and-Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) through a manpower secondment strategy – A mixed-methods study of Singapore's T-Up program

This paper outlines a scheme that uses manpower from public research institutes to assist the technology upgrading of Small-and-Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). The Growing Enterprises through Technology Upgrading (GET-Up) initiative has been successfully implemented in Singapore since 2003. The key program in the initiative is a manpower secondment scheme (i.e. a temporary placement of manpower in a different organization) known as T-Up. We propose that T-Up represents a new approach to technology transfer which additionally maximizes the industrial impact of public sector research. Instead of traditional technology transfer modes which are transactions-based, T-Up utilizes skills and human resource transfer through secondment of public sector researchers. Findings from two surveys conducted in 2005 and 2012 show that the T-Up secondment program had positive impact on the technological capabilities, innovation performance and growth of participating companies. Additionally, case studies highlight that this approach addresses a wide range of challenges faced by local SMEs and is flexible enough to cater to specific needs and requirements.     

城乡一体化背景下耕地社会保障价值研究——以安徽省怀宁县为例

当下农村改革不断深化,农村经济社会面貌迅速变化,城乡一体化引领农村发展进入新阶段。为阐明当前农村地区耕地社会保障现状和发展趋势,本文采用条件价值评估法(CVM)在安徽省怀宁县进行了耕地社会保障价值研究。在条件价值评估法下,利用二项回归模型分析了影响受访者受偿意愿的相关因素,结果表明:受访者年龄、家庭年收入与受偿意愿呈负相关;家庭收入来源、农地流转期限、新农保养老金发放级别与受偿意愿呈正相关;同时测算出怀宁县耕地资源社会保障总价值为9.91亿元,占当地2014年国民生产总值的5.68%,单位面积耕地社会保障价值为1 141.67元/667m~2,占当地征地统一年产值的71.95%。通过与他人相关研究对比分析,结论认为目前耕地在中部地区农村社会保障体系中仍承担着基础性作用,但随着城乡一体化趋势的不断增强,耕地社会保障地位正在弱化,农村社会保障多元化发展趋势明显。     

Analysis of Shared and Sustainable Value Creation of Companies Providing Energy Solutions at the Base of the Pyramid (BoP)

This study was conducted to analyze the shared and sustainable value creation (SSVC) of 33 energy companies selling energy solutions at the base of the pyramid (BoP) markets. SSVC by selling energy technology solutions directed to address the cooking and lighting needs of BoP consumers were the main focus of analysis. Result showed that achieving profitability and affordability is affected by the kind of energy solution that is offered as well as the investment and level of commitment required. However, companies that fulfilled the profitable and affordable solutions were also able to deliver social and environmental sustainability benefits. Social sustainability benefits point to the ability of alleviating poverty by improving productivity or offering cost‐savings. Environmental sustainability benefits point to the energy savings. The findings show that inclusive business strategy is not necessarily required to reach the poor people profitably but a suitable business strategy depends on the type of energy solution. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

电子商务背景下农产品F2F电商模式及其发展策略分析

由于信息交流不通畅、农产品价格波动频繁等原因,农产品电子商务在互联网技术发展带动下应运而生,各类农产品电商模式不断出现,其中农产品F2F电商模式就是最为重要的发展模式之一。文章通过归纳总结,从当前几种农产品电商模式特点出发,提出了农产品电商新模式——F2F(Farm to Family)。该文阐述了农产品F2F电商模式的运营模式内涵及当前发展现状,其次,剖析了F2F农产品模式的优劣点,最后根据前文分析,提出了积极构建农产品物流配送系统、积极培养农产品电子商务优秀人才、强化农产品的品质管理加快农产品电商发展的对策措施。     

Economic Openness and Fiscal Multipliers*

Recent empirical findings attribute a central role to the degree of economic openness to determine the size of the fiscal multiplier. See, for instance, Ilzetzki et al. (2013) [How big (small?) are fiscal multipliers? Journal of Monetary Economics, 60(2), 239–254]. However, traditional macroeconomic models have difficulties to account for this evidence. By introducing ‘deep-habit’ formation into a New Keynesian small open economy model, this paper provides a theoretical framework which is able to attest for the new empirical evidence. Deep habits give rise to counter-cyclical firm markups, which are crucial to generate effects of openness on the fiscal multiplier as found in the data. We study three dimensions of economic openness: exchange rate flexibility, trade openness, and capital mobility. In line with the empirical findings, we report a negative relationship between measures of economic openness and the fiscal multiplier.     

Measuring Corporate Environmental Performance: A Methodology for Sustainable Development

Assessing corporate environmental performance (CEP) that is both comprehensive and consistent with sustainable development both for society and companies, while at the same time taking heed of the facts and interests of each stakeholder, is not a simple feat. Due to the multidimensional character of the sustainability concept, several questions must be considered in the evaluation process: (i) the qualitative nature of indicators and the complexity of developing a synthetic index; (ii) the difficulty of choosing properly statistical techniques for aggregation and (iii) the difficulty of introducing stakeholders’ preferences in the assessment models. This paper is an attempt to address this challenge by developing a framework for the assessment of CEP, based on the application of a fuzzy multi‐criterion decision‐making (MCDM) method. To achieve positive scores in a CEP assessment, an organization should be strategically committed and engage in environmental management and governance structures that are translated into good results in terms of both engagement and operational performance. Unless such premises are explicitly incorporated into the assessment criteria, the results would reveal that the CEP measurement could not be brought into a line with an earnest ambition of achieving true sustainable development. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

South Korean MNEs’ international HRM approach: Hybridization of global standards and local practices

This paper analyses the international Human Resource Management (HRM) approaches of Korean Multinational Enterprises (MNEs). Through a study of nine major Korean MNEs’ approaches to subsidiary-HRM, it is argued that the firms pursue hybridization through a blending of localization and global standardization across detailed elements in five broad HRM practice areas. Local discretion is allowed if not counter to global HRM system requirements and “global best practices” used as the template for global standardization of selected HRM elements. This strategic orientation appears to be part of a deliberate response to the “liabilities of origin” born by firms from non-dominant economies.     

Identifying R&D partners through Subject-Action-Object semantic analysis in a problem & solution pattern

Today’s companies still rely heavily on expert knowledge rather than quantitative data with a systematic approach to effectively identify and choose Research and Development (R&D) partners. It is advantageous to identify and select potential R&D partners using a Problem & Solution (P&S) pattern. This paper presents a novel process for identifying R&D partners on the basis of solution similarities that assist technology managers in understanding the relationships between research targets. First, we choose a thematic dataset that contains problems and quantitative data with relative topic terms. Then, we extract Subject-Action-Object semantic structures in a P&S pattern from the dataset, and identify various solutions to a technical problem, with each as a subject. In addition, we provide correlation mapping to visualise the text characters and identify R&D partners. Finally, we validate the proposed method through a case study of the dye-sensitized solar cells sector.     

Do global CO2 emissions from fossil-fuel consumption exhibit long memory? a fractional-integration analysis

In this article we use an autoregressive fractionally integrated moving average approach to measure the degree of fractional integration of aggregate world CO₂ emissions and its five components – coal, oil, gas, cement, and gas flaring. We find that all variables are stationary and mean reverting, but exhibit long-term memory. Our results suggest that both coal and oil combustion emissions have the weakest degree of long-range dependence, while emissions from gas and gas flaring have the strongest. With evidence of long memory, we conclude that transitory policy shocks are likely to have long-lasting effects, but not permanent effects. Accordingly, permanent effects on CO₂ emissions require a more permanent policy stance. In this context, if one were to rely only on testing for stationarity and non-stationarity, one would likely conclude in favour of non-stationarity, and therefore that even transitory policy shocks have permanent effects. Our fractional-integration analysis highlights that this is not the case.