Determinants of smallholder farmers' perceptions of risk in the Eastern Highlands of Ethiopia

This paper reports findings from a study of 178 farm households from two contrasting areas in the Eastern Highlands of Ethiopia. It examines risk perceptions of smallholder farmers under varying contexts. The study utilized both qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection and analysis. It was hypothesized that human capital and household characteristics and orientation, access to resources, infrastructure, information and environmental factors influence perceptions of risks in different ways. Data reduction for independent variables was done by factor analysis (principal component extraction method). Factor analyses identified factors influencing smallholder farmers' perceptions of sources of risks. Logistic regression analyses were used to study the relationships of identified principal components to perceived frequencies of occurrences and consequences of various sources of risks. Logistic regression analyses revealed that asset endowments, locational settings and livelihood diversification strategies pursued determine smallholders' perceived risks. Key findings from the informal survey point out differentiation in perceptions of causes and sources of risks by different actors.     

全球化、柔性化、复合化、差异化:信息时代城市功能演变研究

结合信息技术对中国城市影响的实际,从信息技术影响下城市空间相互作用方式、空间结构的构成要素及其影响因素的变化出发,对信息时代国内城市功能特征进行研究变得尤为重要.全球化、柔性化、复合化、差异化已成为信息时代城市功能的主要特征；信息流和接入信息的能力变得尤为重要；每个城市都成为全球或区域城市网络的一个节点；部分服务的区位选择因此也表现出较大的弹性；城市居住空间分异仍然存在,影响因素越来越复杂.     

中国高等教育发展水平的空间差异研究

在我国高等教育快速发展的同时，高等教育区域发展不均衡、资源配置不公平等现象越来越突出。采用熵权法从教育规模、经费投入、基础设施和师资力量四个维度构建地区高等教育综合发展指数，对2004—2013年我国地区高等教育发展水平进行全局空间自相关分析、局部空间自相关分析和三维趋势分析，结果表明：我国高等教育发展水平在总体上呈现显著的空间正相关特征，且空间关联性逐渐增强；虽然落后地区与发达地区的差距有所减小，但高等教育发展的空间异质性明显，落后地区仍然占很大比重。因此，我国高等教育发达地区未能有效发挥空间辐射和带动作用，空间溢出效应不明显，高等教育发展的空间结构有待改善。国家应避免高等教育区域差距继续拉大，落后地区应加快高等教育发展，发达地区应有效发挥辐射带动作用，努力缩小高等教育的空间差距。     

Electronic Commerce Encourages Differentiation

Abstract

This paper explores why and how ecommerce firms differentiate their products and services. Consumers who shop online are able to do quick and easy comparison shopping, including shopping in an active market for used goods. Since online product search and price comparisons are faster, easier, and involve fewer shopping costs, firms who sell online must differentiate their products and services to a greater extent than those who do not sell online. These product and service differentiations may be certified and rated by host shopping sites and by outside ratings companies.     

产品垂直差异、产品内分工与南北贸易

存在产品垂直差异和产品内分工的贸易模型可以更为深刻地考察南北贸易的模式及影响因素。其中,生产技术仍然是决定生产分工格局的重要决定因素,当其他条件保持不变时,如果南方生产技术水平提高,其将扩大生产范围,在保持生产原有质量产品的情况下,向更高质量产品的生产领域进军。而北方发生技术进步时,其生产范围将缩小,抛弃低质量产品的生产,专攻高质量产品的生产。当两国分别在不同的生产阶段发生技术进步时,基本变化趋势是使本国发生技术进步的生产阶段趋向高质量产品的生产。     

A critique of Porter＇s cost leadership and differentiation strategies

Porter identifies high market share with cost leadership, citing GM as a successful practitioner of this strategy. However, GM became a market share leader in the American automobile industry due to a strategy of market segmentation, differentiation and a broad scope shaped during the 1920s. Porter argues that cost leadership and differentiation offer an equally viable path to competitive success. Nevertheless, a differentiation strategy based on superior quality compared to competition is more profitable than cost leadership strategy. It can lead a business to become a market share leader, and consequently even a low-cost leader. Research indicates that differentiation and cost leadership can co-exist. However, Porter insists that each generic strategy requires a different culture and a totally different philosophy. The problem is that Porter＇s generic strategies are too broad. It is not his logic that is flawed, but his basic premise that prescribes cost leadership strategy as the only route to market share leadership, and presents a narrow view of differentiation with a unique product--sold at a premium price--on the one hand, and a ＂standard, or no-frills＂ product on the other. Mintzburg （1988） says Porter＇s cost leadership strategy should be called ＂price differentiation＂： a strategy that is based on a lower price than that of the competition. He suggests that business strategy has two dimensions： differentiation and scope. Thus, setting scope aside, competitive strategy has only one component： differentiation. So, the key question is not whether to differentiate, but how？ First, make customer-perceived quality as the foundation of competitive strategy because it is far more critical to long-term success than any other factor. Second, serve the middle class by competing in the mid-price segment, offering better quality than the competition at a somewhat higher price. It is this path that can lead to market share leadership--a strategy that can be both profitable--and sustainable.     

中国转移支付制度规范过程中的利益分化与整合——新制度经济学视角下对中国转移支付演变的一个解释

中国的分税制自实行以来,在各类转移支付的演化过程中,税收返还制度保持了较好的刚性,一般性转移支付的分配规则较为完善,但执行机制普遍较弱,而专项转移支付的分配规则和执行机制均不完善。分析表明,分配规则和执行机制完善与否是中央、地方政府、主管部委以及相关领导者利益博弈的结果,他们之间不同的利益需求及力量对比可能是中国财政转移支付变迁的动因之一,而坚持推进制度化则是16年来转移支付改革的基本逻辑。     

Brand familiarity and product knowledge in customization

I adopt Hotelling's model with two firms. Each consumer has a most preferred variety and possesses a certain level of category‐specific knowledge. When a firm offers customization, consumers must interact with the firm to create their products. Consumers familiar with the brand can do this seamlessly, whereas consumers unfamiliar with the brand have difficulty expressing their individual needs (the difficulty decreases with consumers' knowledge). The firms first simultaneously decide whether to customize, then engage in price competition. Although customization makes the products less differentiated, the frictions caused by consumer co‐design activities relax price competition. Customization by one of the firms occurs in equilibrium.     

非星级旅游饭店产品民族特色化创新路径探究

非星级旅游饭店产品民族特色化创新在遵循市场导向性、特色性、参与性、经济可行性、文化性、环保性原则的基础上，走创建民族特色型主题酒店、民族特色型产品、产品部分功能民族特色化道路，是非星级旅游饭店实现可持续发展的主要路径。     

An inventory reservation problem with nesting and fill rate-based performance measures

In many inventory settings companies wish to provide customer-differentiated service levels. These may, for example, be motivated by differences in the perceived customer lifetime value or by specific contractual agreements. One approach to provide differentiated service levels is to reserve some portion of the available inventory exclusively for specific customer classes. Existing approaches to inventory reservation are typically based on the assumption that a company can assign a customer specific revenue or penalty cost to any order or unit of demand filled or unfulfilled. In practice, however, it is usually extremely difficult to accurately estimate (especially long term) monetary implications of meeting or not meeting customer demand and corresponding service level requirements. The research presented in this paper addresses the problem of setting appropriate inventory reservations for different customer classes based on fill rate-based performance measures. We model a single period inventory reservation problem with two customer classes and nesting. We develop exact expressions for two conflicting performance measures: (1) the expected fill rate of high priority customers and (2) the expected loss in the system fill rate induced by inventory reservation. With these expressions a decision maker can analyze the tradeoff between the loss in overall system performance and the higher expected fill rates for prioritized customers. We provide analytical insights into the effects of nesting and the impact of relevant problem parameters on these two performance measures. The analytical insights are illustrated and highlighted through a set of numerical examples. Although we limit our analysis to a single period inventory reservation problem, we expect that our results can be utilized in a wide range of problem settings in which a decision maker has to ration a perishable resource among different classes of customers.