Are existing soils data meeting the needs of stakeholders in Europe? An analysis of practical use from policy to field

Soils form a major component of the natural system and their functions underpin many key ecosystem goods and services. The fundamental importance of soils in the environment means that many different organisations and stakeholders make extensive use of soils data and information in their everyday working practices. For many reasons, stakeholders are not always aware that they are reliant upon soil data and information to support their activities. Various reviews of stakeholder needs and how soil information could be improved have been carried out in recent years. However, to date, there has been little consideration of user needs from a non-expert perspective. The aim of this study was to explore the use of explicit and hidden soil information in different organisations across Europe and gain a better understanding of improvements needed in soil data and information to assist in practical use by non-expert stakeholders. An on-line questionnaire was used to investigate different uses of soils data and information with 310 responses obtained from 77 organisations across Europe. Results illustrate the widespread use of soil data and information across diverse organisations within Europe, particularly spatial products and soil functional assessments and tools. A wide range of improvements were expressed with a prevalence for finer scale resolution, trends over time, future scenarios, improved accuracy, non-technical supporting information and better capacity to use GIS. An underlying message is that existing legacy soils data need to be supplemented by new up-to-date data to meet stakeholder needs and information gaps.     

Applications of calendar instruments in social surveys: a review

Retrospective reports in survey interviews and questionnaires are subject to many types of recall error, which affect completeness, consistency, and dating accuracy. Concerns about this problem have led to the development of so-called calendar instruments, or timeline techniques. These aided recall procedures have been designed to help respondents gain better access to long-term memory by providing a graphical time frame in which life history information can be represented. In order to obtain more insights into the potential benefits of calendar methodology, this paper presents a review of the application of calendar instruments, their design characteristics and effects on data quality. Calendar techniques are currently used in a variety of fields, including life course research, epidemiology and family planning studies. Despite the growing interest in these new methods, their application often lacks sufficient theoretical foundation and little attention has been paid to their effectiveness. Several recent studies however, have demonstrated that in comparison to more traditional survey methods, calendar techniques can improve some aspects of data quality. While calendar instruments have been shown to be potentially beneficial to retrospective data quality, there is an apparent need for methodological research that generates more systematic knowledge about their application in social surveys.     

“追赶式”境外研发投资:以浙江企业为样本的实证研究

"追赶式"境外研发投资是指发展中国家企业在发达国家进行研发投资,以实现对发达国家跨国公司先进技术的跟随和追赶。发展中国家企业的追赶式境外研发投资,是一种"逆向型投资"行为,有其自身的规律与特点,学术界对其尚缺乏足够关注。部分成功实现了"追赶式"境外研发投资的浙江企业在2007年底以来的外向型经济调整中保持了高速增长,这极大地增强了这一现实问题的研究意义。本文以问卷调查和田野访谈为研究手段,实证分析了浙江企业追赶式境外研发投资的发展阶段、产业和区位特征,总结其经验与存在的问题,并在此基础上提出推动企业境外研发投资的对策建议。     

Entrepreneurial Intention and UAE Youth: Unique Influencers of Entrepreneurial Intentions in an Emerging Country Context

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a young, oil-rich country, where national youth display a clear preference for public sector employment. Growing youth unemployment reinforces the importance of non-government employment, including entrepreneurship. This study investigates UAE national youth intentions toward entrepreneurship through the Theory of Planned Behavior and the Entrepreneurial Intention Questionnaire (EIQ). Analysis (N?=?544) identifies the direct influence of attitude and perceived behavioral control and indirect influence of subjective norms on entrepreneurship intention. Results also examine several demographic variables and highlight the potential importance of family and social groups in promoting entrepreneurial intentions in this emerging country context.     

Measuring Financial Risk Attitude: How to Apply Both Regulatory and Scientific Criteria to Ensure Suitability

Due to regulatory requirements, assessing investors' attitude toward financial risks is becoming increasingly important for advisors. To address this, the authors aimed to develop a risk attitude questionnaire, based on existing instruments, which fulfills both regulatory and scientific criteria. They conducted a survey on real investors and linked the survey data to actual portfolio data to test the validity of the instrument. The risk attitude index the authors developed uses only 6 easy-to-understand items, is reliable (Cronbach's α = 0.88), and explains substantial amounts of variance (R² = 0.40) in the investors' behavior. It therefore fulfills regulatory and scientific criteria.     

兰州市旅游消费与地区国民经济增长的实证分析

改革开放以来,我国旅游消费与国内生产总值均取得了高速增长,旅游消费已成为地区经济发展的加速器。文章以兰州市旅游消费与经济增长的实证关系为主题,选取兰州市2008—2017年与旅游业相关的经济数据,通过回归分析对兰州市旅游消费与经济增长的关系进行实证分析,得出兰州市旅游消费与经济增长具有互动关系,并对此提出了相关建议。     

How can we better capture food away from Home? Lessons from India’s linking person-level meal and household-level food data

Despite acknowledged shortcomings, household consumption and expenditure surveys (HCES) are increasingly being used to proxy food consumption because they are relatively more available and affordable than surveys using more precise dietary assessment methods. One of the most common, significant sources of HCES measurement error is their under-estimation of food away from home (FAFH). In 2011, India’s National Survey Sample Organization introduced revisions in its HCES questionnaire that included replacing “cooked meals”—the single item in the food consumption module designed to capture FAFH at the household level—with five more detailed and explicitly FAFH sub-categories. The survey also contained a section with seven, household member-specific questions about meal patterns during the reference period and included three sources of meals away from home (MAFH) that overlapped three of the new FAFH categories.By providing a conceptual framework with which to organize and consider each household member’s meal pattern throughout the reference period, and breaking down the recalling (or estimating) process into household member-specific responses, we assume the MAFH approach makes the key respondent’s task less memory- and arithmetically-demanding, and thus more accurate than the FAFH household level approach. We use the MAFH estimates as a reference point, and approximate one portion of FAFH measurement error as the differences in MAFH and FAFH estimates. The MAFH estimates reveal marked heterogeneity in intra-household meal patterns, reflecting the complexity of the HCES’s key informant task of reporting household level data, and underscoring its importance as a source of measurement error.We find the household level-based estimates of FAFH increase from just 60.4% of the individual-based estimates in the round prior to the questionnaire modifications to 96.7% after the changes. We conclude that the MFAH-FAFH linked approach substantially reduced FAFH measurement error in India. The approach has wider applicability in global efforts to improve HCES.     

关于企业内部审计应用效果的实证研究

本文从企业内部审计的现状出发,通过调查问卷的方法对内部审计在企业中的应用效果进行了实证研究。结果表明,在企业类型中国有企业内部审计的总体应用效果相对较差;从行业差异看,金融行业内部审计总体应用效果差于其他行业;规模较大的行业内部审计总体应用效果要好于规模较小企业。同时,笔者还对问卷结果进行了分析,并在此基础上提出了完善我国内部审计体系的建议。     

Cross-Validation Study with Confirmatory Factorial Analysis of the Revised Legal Attitudes Questionnaire Scores

The present article establishes the factorial structure of the Legal AttitudesQuestionnaire, one of the most frequently used measurements for the studyof legal authoritarianism, in several Spanish samples consisting of a communitypopulation (N1 = 618 and N2 = 533). In study 1, confirmatory factorial analysesare carried out by LISREL for different models, based on theory and on previousexploratory analyses. In study 2, based on the models selected in study 1, across-validation study is carried out by multigroup analysis. The structure thatappears to be most adequate is the one based on two trait factors (authoritarianismand anti-authoritarianism) and one of method, in which the tendencies of the participants' answers are included     

Response Format Effects in Questions about Norms: Implications for the Reliability and Validity of the Normative Approach

Several studies have demonstrated that altering the format (question wording or presentation format) can alter responses obtained from normative questions. This study extends that research with two experiments. In a study of McKenzie River boaters in Oregon ( n = 225), respondents received either a semiopen (fill in the blank) or closed (scale with anchored points) format of questions about acceptable waiting time at boat launches, percent of time spent in sight of other boaters, and number of groups met per day. In the second study, at Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, 774 respondents received either the semiopen format or one of two closed formats (anchored with 30 or 60), asking for the acceptable number of motorboats and canoes. In both cases, norm prevalence was significantly higher in the closed format (46 to 78%) than in the semiopen format (27 to 60%), and the average increase from one format to the other was 23%. This suggests either that respondents are more likely to guess at a number when given a closed response frame or that the closed format provides important context that elicits valid responses. Examination of the mean values obtained under the different response formats suggest that both processes may be operating, but the latter is more likely. It appears that closed formats, like photographs, offer a cognitively easier and more meaningful task.