Feeling the Effects of a Competitor’s Product Recall: Lessons Learned by Quebec SMEs in the Cheese Sector

This article explores learning opportunities and portrays the product recall as a crisis situation from which small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) indirectly impacted by the event can and must learn. It describes the raw milk cheese recall in Quebec. A semistructured interview guide was used. The population studied comprises 12 cheese makers specializing in processing partly or totally raw milk and presents the results of interviews with managers of companies that survived the ordeal. Excerpts from interviews show that cheese makers took advantage of this crisis to improve their capacity to manage product recalls. The comments by the producers interviewed indicate that the crisis had a marked influence on knowledge creation related to prevention and preparedness for product recalls.     

美国和加拿大社会背景下的职业教育——北美职业教育考察手记

文章通过对美国和加拿大职业教育理念的思考与辨析，力图寻找我国的职业教育与发达国家存在的差距，并从中得出发展我国职业教育的启示。     

The interplay between organizational and national cultures: a comparison of organizational practices in Canada and South Korea using the Competing Values Framework

This paper examines the concept of organizational culture using the Competing Values Framework (CVF) in organizations from six different industries in Canada and South Korea. The Competing Values Framework (Quinn and Rohrbaugh, 1983; Quinn, 1988) is used to compare organizational cultures of similar firms and their HRM in the two countries. The data reported are from thirty-nine Canadian and forty Korean organizations. The findings show that, even though some aspects of organizational culture are related and can be attributed to the differences between the national cultures (Korean versus Canada), industry and contextual variables do contribute to a significant extent to the perception of organizational culture. In addition, the analysis reported here shows that other organizational aspects that are closely related to organizational culture (organizational climate and leadership) have significant associations with national cultures as well as industry and contextual factors. The aspects of organizational context under study included size, age and ownership of the firms, uncertainty and unpredictability of the environment, organizational support for training and unionization. Implications of the study for cross-national research, and for the use of competing Values Framework are discussed.     

Port devolution revisited: the case of regional ports and the role of lower tier governments

Most models of port governance have been developed to fit the largest ports, and tend to simplify the devolution process as one involving the transfer of jurisdiction from the State to the private sector. The devolution of smaller ports has been largely ignored as have transfers involving transfers from upper levels of government to lower tiers of public administration. Yet in many countries this has been the experience of port governance, where complex structures have arisen, many of which involve public control, in contrast to the strongly privatised process covered in the literature. The objective of this paper is to examine the process and consequences of changing port governance involving small and medium size ports where lower tiers of government are involved. It examines the recent devolution process in Canada and the decentralization policy in France. It brings to light the diversity of actors, public and private, who have come into play. The paper goes on to examine the challenges that have come about as a result of devolution that face the new port administrations. The paper concludes that existing models of port governance are incomplete and that the role of public administration in port governance is greater, albeit in a different form, than claimed in the existing literature.     

加拿大土地利用规划的启示

从规划的立法、编制、审批、实施以及各级政府的职责和对规划的审批权限等方面介绍了加拿大规划的概况,通过进行比较研究,提出了对完善我国土地利用规划的借鉴意义.     

North American Integration and Monetary Policy Convergence: A Canadian Perspective

ABSTRACT

The overwhelming dependence of Canada and Mexico on their trade with the United States suggests that less exchange rate flexibility could benefit both countries. Yet, the central banks of Canada and Mexico argue that their policies of inflation targeting call for just the opposite. In the case of Canada and the United States, this article concludes that the occasional divergence in the two monetary policies cannot explain the exchange rate.

The alleged existence of a fundamental connection between the exchange rate and the international price of a given set of commodities is the usual explanation for this result. However, the evidence presented in this article suggests that the connection may be simply the result of a self-fulfilling prophecy and bandwagon expectations. This would imply that the case for exchange rate flexibility is overstated in the case of Canada.

RESUMEN. La abrumadora dependencia de Canadá y México de su comercio con los EE.UU., parece sugerir que podría ser ventajoso para ambos países que existiese una menor flexibilidad en la tasa cambiaria. No obstante, los bancos centrales de Canadá y México argumentan que las metas trazadas para sus políticas de inflación exigen justamente lo opuesto. Este artículo concluye que, en el caso de Canadá y los Estados Unidos, a menudo la divergencia en ambas políticas monetarias no consigue explicar el tipo de cambio.

Para justificar este resultado, generalmente se dice que la explicación reside en la presunta existencia de un vínculo esencial entre el tipo de cambio y el precio internacional de un conjunto de mercancías. Sin embargo, las pruebas presentadas en este artículo sugieren que dicho vínculo puede ser meramente resultado de una profecía que pregona su propio cumplimiento y una tonelada de expectativas. Esto implicaría que, en el caso de Canadá, opinar que debe existir mayor flexibilidad en el tipo de cambio es una posición exagerada.

RESUMO. A opressiva dependência do Canadá e do México de seu comércio com os Estados Unidos sugere que uma menor flexibilidade na taxa de câmbio poderia beneficiar ambos os países. No entanto, o banco central do Canadá e o do México argumentam que as metas traçadas para a sua política de inflação exigem exatamente o contrário. No caso do Canadá e dos Estados Unidos, o artigo conclui que a eventual divergência entre as duas políticas monetárias não explica a taxa de câmbio.

A justificativa para este resultado é a suposta existência de um forte vínculo entre a taxa de câmbio e o preço internacional de um determinado conjunto de mercadorias. A evidência apresentada neste artigo, contudo, indica que tal vínculo possa ser simplesmente o resultado de uma profecia auto-realizável e de muitas expectativas. Isto significaria que, no que diz respeito ao Canadá, o caso da flexibilização da taxa de câmbio é exagerado.     

The Fort McMurray demonstration project in social marketing: Health- and safety-related behaviour in a prosperous industrial community

Abstract

This is the first in a series of surveys conducted in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada, as part of the Fort McMurray Demonstration Project in Social Marketing. The Project is a community-based, cooperative program designed to demonstrate and to evaluate the application of social marketing and community animation to health- and safety-promoting interventions. This baseline survey was for the purpose of planning specific interventions and to support evaluation of the impact of these interventions. In 1992, a survey of Fort McMurray residents was conducted by telephone. Respondents to the survey tended to be disproportionately women (60%) and aged 30 to 44 (men 55%, women 54%). Most of the findings reported describe a generally affluent community with good self-reported health status and satisfaction in the quality of life. Occupational and personal health-and safety-related behaviours showed some contradictions. Both hearing protection and eye protection are much more frequently practiced at work than at home by both men and women. Protection from ultraviolet radiation, in the form of sunscreens or clothes cover, is practiced with about the same frequency at home or at work, suggesting that this behaviour is conditioned by lifestyle attitudes. Warm-up exercises are much more commonly practiced by both men and women before exertion at home than at work. We conclude that safety-related practices at home and at work are often at variance. The strategy of encouraging generalization of safety-related behaviours, to be practiced consistently both at home and at work, seems to hold promise for achieving greater compliance and promoting both community and workplace safety.     

REVIEWS

Abstract

PRIVATE CAPITAL FLOWS TO EMERGING MARKETS AFTER THE MEXICAN CRISIS. Calvo, Guillermo A., Morris Goldstein, and Eduard Hochreiter (Eds.). Washington, D.C.: Institute for International Economics, September 1996, Tables, Figures, 330 pp. Reviewed by Roberto J. Santillán Salgado.

INDUSTRIALIZATION AND POLITICAL AFFINITY: INDUSTRIAL POLICY IN BRAZIL. Nelson, Roy C. London and New York: Thunderbird/Routledge, 1995, 144 pp. Reviewed by Kurt Weyland.

PRIVATIZING MONOPOLIES: LESSONS FROM THE TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND TRANSPORT SECTORS IN LATIN AMERICA. Ramamurti, Ravi. (Ed.). Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, vii + 401 pp. Reviewed by Alejandro Ibarra Yunez.     

THE USE OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS AND INNOVATION BY MANUFACTURING FIRMS IN CANADA

The objective of the paper is to determine how the utilisation of intellectual property rights (IPRs) by Canadian manufacturing firms is related to their characteristics, activities, competitive strategies and industry sector in which they operate. The principal source of information used in this endeavour is the Statistics Canada Survey of Innovation 1999.

The paper starts with an overview of other studies that looked at the use of intellectual property rights in Canada. Follows a conceptual framework presenting variables likely to explain the use specific IPRs by Canadian manufacturing firms.

The use of IPRs is to a great extent correlated with basic economic characteristics of firms, their activities and industry environment. A series of estimated logit regressions predict the probability that a firm will use a specific IPR instrument. Also estimated is the contribution of the use of IPRs to the probability that a firm innovates.

The decision of a firm to use IPRs is often not independent of the decision to innovate. To eliminate the potential endogeneity bias I estimate a two-stage logit model. A comparison of the single- and two-stage logit models shows that the nexus from the protection of intellectual property (patents) to innovation may be weaker than indicated by the single equation model.