Making the ‘rules of the game’: Constituting territory and authority in Nicaragua's indigenous communities

Indigenous communities, particularly in Latin America, are increasingly winning recognition of rights to lands and forests that they have managed or used historically under customary institutions. If property refers to ‘the rules of the game’, this article uses the constitution of indigenous communal territories in Nicaragua to examine the process of ‘making the rules’. Specifically, the recognition of rights by central governments leads to political contestations over both territory and authority as communities and indigenous political leaders vie for different configurations of both lands and new territorial authorities. That is, the process of constituting large collective territories is intimately related to the constitution of authority, as it involves not only the negotiation of physical boundaries but also the recognition of an existing authority structure – or the creation of a new entity – to represent the beneficiaries. In Nicaragua's North Atlantic Autonomous Region, then, the decision over ‘which configuration of territory’ is ultimately a political negotiation over which ‘authority’ will have the right to control and enforce access to which rights and benefits from land and natural resources.     

The impact of coercive and non-coercive forms of influence on trust, commitment, and compliance in supply chains

A major premise in managing channel relationships is encouraging cooperation to achieve the aims of the relational partners. This often requires a balancing act between utilization of influence across the supply chain to motivate decisions, while employing tactics that do not damage the future of the relationship. This paper builds and tests a model of how influence strategies affect relational elements, specifically trust and commitment, which both promote strong inter-firm relationships and act as mediators of joint action, specifically cooperation and compliance across channel partners. Results suggest that coercive strategies are counterproductive in encouraging cooperation and compliance either directly or through relational intermediaries, while non-coercive influence produces positive outcomes and effects on intermediaries. Low levels of coercive influence do appear to generate positive outcomes. Managerial implications and future research based on these results conclude the paper.     

一种双模导引头目标检测的模糊数据融合算法

本文利用模糊集合来描述传感器的检测率和虚警率,提出了一种双传感器目标检测的模糊数据融合算法,并将其应用于双模复合导引头的目标检测,仿真结果表明算法合理。     

Paradigm Conflict and the Wealth Effects of Blockholder Formation in Private Target Acquisitions

Decision making in public companies follows an organized structure dominated by risk aversion. The decisions in private entrepreneurial firms tend to be driven by overconfidence and reliance on trial and error. Such entrepreneurial attitudes are reinforced by high levels of profitability. The authors argue that this difference in decision-making paradigms limits the wealth effect of blockholder formation by the profitable private target's owners in mergers and acquisitions. Blockholder formation by private target owners is associated with substantial acquirer shareholder gains in the acquisitions of targets with relatively low and moderate profitability levels. To the opposite, the market reacts to blockholder formation by the owners of highly profitable targets with skepticism. Such announcements are associated with insignificant wealth effects overall and substantial acquirer losses in acquisitions in human capital-intensive sectors whereby disagreements are likely to be consequential. Acquirers understand these wealth effects and reduce the extent of stock financing when acquiring highly profitable targets.     

经济增长目标驱动投资吗?——基于2001-2016年地级市样本的理论分析与实证检验

已有文献发现政府制定的经济目标能够产生经济增长绩效,本文考察政府目标实现经济增长绩效的渠道和机制,提出经济增长目标驱动辖区投资增长的理论假说,并采用2001-2016年地级市政府工作报告公布的经济增长目标数据,对理论假说进行了验证。研究发现,经济增长目标每提高1%,地区投资显著上升约0.44%。这一发现在采用不同的核心变量度量指标、回归样本和估计方法后依然稳健。本文还发现,经济发展阶段和地区发展水平差异导致了目标驱动投资效应的异质性。随着经济发展阶段的转变,经济增长目标推动辖区投资增加的边际效应下降;在经济发展水平较高的东部地区,地方政府所制定的增长目标更有效地扩大了辖区投资。本文的研究发现有助于理解中国经济增长的内在动力机制,可为经济高质量发展转型提供政策启示。     

A hybrid DEA-MOLP model for public school assessment and closure decision in the City of Philadelphia

Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is generally used to evaluate past performance and multi objective linear programming (MOLP) is often used to plan for future performance goals. In this study, we establish an equivalence relationship between MOLP problems and combined-oriented DEA models using a direction distance function designed to account for desirable and undesirable inputs and outputs together with uncontrollable variables. This equivalence model can be effectively used to support interactive processes and performance measures designed to establish future performance goals while taking into account the preferences of decision makers (DMs). In particular, it allows DMs to consider different efficiency improvement strategies when subject to budgetary restrictions. The applicability of the proposed method and the efficacy of the procedures and algorithms are demonstrated using a case study where the performance of high schools in the City of Philadelphia is evaluated.     

肯尼亚基苏木铁路枢纽分工布局研究

肯尼亚内马铁路二期引入基苏木后,将与既有米轨铁路共同形成基苏木铁路枢纽,形成基苏木铁路枢纽内各铁路系统功能分工布局。基于基苏木铁路枢纽构成,结合既有米轨铁路现状、城市功能规划及客货运量分析,提出基苏木铁路枢纽客货分设方案和客货合设方案,经比选推荐采用客货分设方案;同时,提出港区支线接入基苏木北站南侧接轨和北侧接轨方案,经比选推荐采用南侧接轨方案。基苏木铁路枢纽分工布局符合基苏木城市功能和规划,有利于形成基苏木地区的综合交通枢纽。     

Do cash flow imbalances facilitate leverage adjustments of Chinese listed firms? Evidence from a dynamic panel threshold model

This paper investigates the asymmetric impact of cash flow on firms’ leverage adjustments. We use a dynamic panel threshold model and estimate it with a newly-developed first-difference GMM approach, which allows endogeneity in both threshold variable and regressors. Employing data of 1054 Chinese listed firms during 2004–2016, we show that Chinese listed firms have leverage targets, towards which they adjust at an average speed of 25.9%. Moreover, firms with larger absolute cash flow adjust towards their leverage targets significantly faster than those with smaller absolute cash flow. This finding is robust to a post-financial crisis sample period, alternative measures of leverage and cash flow, and the incorporation of an additional control variable. We find evidence that cash flow imbalances facilitate leverage adjustments by reducing adjustment costs, and Chinese listed firms rely more on debt issues. These findings provide new insights on firms’ leverage adjustment and cash flow management.     

Valuing foreign exchange rate derivatives with a bounded exchange process

Foreign exchange rates have been subjected to periods of tighter or looser controls as various political and economic forces have waxed and waned. When currencies were backed by gold there were fixed exchange rates. In 1973 floating exchange rates were adopted though many countries did try to keep their currency values within certain ranges. More recently the European Economic Community formalized this practice. Free-floating exchange rates might be well characterized by the lognormal distribution which is standard in option pricing. However, this is probably a poor approximation for exchange rates which are kept within some range by the actions of one or both governments or central banks. This paper develops a model which can be used to value options and other derivative contracts when the underlying exchange rate is bounded in a fixed range (a, b). Methods for pricing both European and American style options are developed.The author would like to thank Ken French and Geert Rouwenhorst for their comments and suggestions.     

Types and functions of social relationships in the organizing of an international joint venture

This paper examines the use of social relationships in the organizing of a business network in the case of an international joint venture (IJV) developing over time. The organizing process and the multicultural setting of the international joint venture emphasize the actions of and interactions between individuals from various organizations. The IJV-managers' use of their social relationships in business organizing is explored through analysis of narratives of IJV-managers in a longitudinal single case to provide empirically grounded theory. From the in-depth interviews with IJV-managers the business relationships are identified as characterized by four possible levels of interpersonal relationships whose type influences the functions of the relationships and visa versa. One business relationship may contain only one or many of these interpersonal levels and an effective business relationship contains the appropriate interpersonal level for the business issue at hand.