The meeting place: Qualitative aspects of product environmental assessment

Quantitative methods for evaluating the environmental impact of products are receiving considerable attention. Software is being developed to enable analysis of many aspects of a product's life cycle—from materials' extraction, through manufacture, to use and disposal. Less attention is being paid to the qualitative aspects of products and their significance in addressing environmental concerns. Here, the argument is made for including qualitative evaluations as an important facet of product environment assessment. Such evaluations are essential if significant progress is to be made in alleviating the adverse environmental effects of products. Combined with quantitative analyses, the two approaches become mutually supportive and, ultimately, inseparable.Qualitative environmental assessments can be applied to existing products and at every stage of the design process. Their adoption within the context of professional practice will be fostered by their inclusion, formulation and discussion within design education. This paper describes the basis and nature of these qualitative judgments, and places the qualitative and quantitative in a unified context which points towards more sustainable ways of living. The use of scenarios is discussed as a tool for academic design projects in order to address the complex relationships which might otherwise seem overwhelming to the design student.     

混业经营制度下国有商业银行产品创新战略研究

对于国有商业银行来说,加入WTO后如何确定产品创新的战略目标和策略,发挥核心产品的优势为客户提供满足个性化需求的金融产品,从而赢得客户、扩大市场份额,是一项重大课题。本文从混业经营制度下的商业银行产品创新入手,分析了国内分业经营制度下,商业银行产品创新存在不能有效利用各要素市场,不能满足客户个性化需求,无法适应市场竞争的不足及其原因。在此基础上,作者提出了国有商业银行混业经营的目标路径和步骤;在混业经营制度下的产品创新战略定位选择;国有商业银行金融产品创新策略,包括机制创新、队伍创新、平台创新和产品创新。     

导航产品与商业银行产品创新的实践与思考

长期以来,产品易于被竞争对手模仿及保持市场优势时间短,成为制约商业银行产品创新的“瓶颈”。目前国内商业银行需要经历机制性的组织变化才能逾越产品创新的难关,因而要求在组织管理层中有能动的“导航者”。导航者的作用在于使组织的创新机制运作顺畅、培养有创新能力的团队及引入合适的创新技术,从而改善组织的产品创新效果、塑造组织的产品创新文化。有鉴于此,要求导航者要具备必要的知识、投入足够的精力及承担潜在的风险。本文通过案例银行的具体产品创新实例,分析了导航者如何导航产品创新的开展,使理论与实际结合,具有一定的应用价值。     

我国金融发展与经济增长关系的区域差异分析——兼论分税制改革对金融发展与经济增长关系的影响

本文利用1979-2003年的省级面板数据，将我国分为东、中、西三大区域，考察了金融发展对经济增长的影响，结果表明：把国有商业银行贷款占GDP的比例作为金融发展的衡量指标对三大地区人均GDP均具有显著的正相关性，金融发展促进经济增长的理论在我国同样成立；但金融发展与实体经济部门之间均不存在良性互动的关系，其对经济增长的贡献仅仅停留在增加资本积累上，对资本配置效率的改善作用不大；1994年的分税制改革对金融发展促进经济增长的作用造成了显著的负面影响。因此，我国的金融体制改革需要将金融体制改革、国有企业改革、财税体制改革和政府体制改革纳入同一个分析框架中进行。     

National culture and R&D and marketing integration mechanisms in new product development: A cross-cultural study between Singapore and New Zealand

The integration of R&D and marketing in new product development (NPD) is an important contributor to NPD performance. Of the mechanisms developed to aid functional integration, many have been developed in western cultural environments and may not have applicability in other national cultural settings. Using a sample of NPD workgroup personnel in New Zealand (NZ), the western cultural environment, and Singapore, quantitative and qualitative data have been used to measure national culture and determine the applicability of different organization integration mechanisms. Results show key differences between the two samples, indicating a link between formalization, centralization, role flexibility and interfunctional climate mechanisms with the Hofstede dimensions of Power Distance, Masculinity and Uncertainty Avoidance of national culture. Managerial implications are that national cultural values and settings of the respondents are important when determining best integration mechanisms.     

Diversification and Capital Structure: Some International Evidence

This study examines the effects of international and product diversification on capital structure with 232 firms from 30 countries. Results for the full sample show that international diversification is negatively related to financial leverage, but further analyses indicate that this is mainly attributable to US firms. For non-US firms, we fail to find a significant relationship. Results also show that product diversification is positively related to financial leverage, indicating that such diversification allows firms to reduce their risks, thereby enabling firms to carry higher debt levels.     

On Quality and Variety Bias in Aggregate Prices

How do product variety and quality affect the aggregate price bias? We develop a general equilibrium model that accounts for the joint interaction of product quality and variety. Our findings show that the aggregate price bias is procyclical and the contribution of product variety is persistent whereas the contribution of product quality becomes countercyclical in the medium to long run. We show that accounting for product quality and variety has critical implications on the measure of cyclical fluctuations. Measurements of cyclical fluctuations derived using the consumption deflator, which abstracts from changes in product quality and variety, underestimate the variables' true volatility.     

Cross‐Firm Real Earnings Management

Our analysis is rooted in the notion that stockholders can learn about the fundamental value of any firm from observing the earnings reports of its rivals. We argue that such intraindustry information transfers, which have been broadly documented in the empirical literature, may motivate managers to alter stockholders’ beliefs about the value of their firm not only by manipulating their own earnings report but also by influencing the earnings reports of rival firms. Managers obviously do not have access to the accounting system of peer firms, but they can nevertheless influence the earnings reports of rival firms by distorting real transactions that relate to the product market competition. We demonstrate such managerial behavior, which we refer to as cross‐firm real earnings management, and explore its potential consequences and interrelation with the practice of accounting‐based earnings management within an industry setting with imperfect (nonproprietary) accounting information.     

易逝性新兴技术产品的自噬效应及其对策

从高技术产品的更新期入手,通过梳理以往文献,定义了易逝性新兴技术产品的概念和特征。通过案例分析,总结了易逝性新兴技术产品中自噬效应的影响,并尝试建立一个统一框架帮助不同背景的企业解决在新兴技术产品更新过程中出现的自噬问题。