Impact of distance on the arrivals,behaviours and attitudes of international tourists in Hong Kong: A longitudinal approach

This study revisits the impact of distance on international tourist behaviours in Hong Kong. This work divides and cross-validates the concept of distance into physical and cultural distance. This work also proposes an alternative cultural distance measure by introducing optimal weight amongst Hofstede's dimensions and then compares the proposed measure with the traditional Kogut and Singh's and Kandogan's measures. By using data from the Visitor Profile Report of the Hong Kong Tourism Board and the World Trade Organisation from 2002 to 2017, along with latent growth curve modelling, multivariate regression and panel data analysis, findings confirmed the significant role of physical and cultural distance. In addition, quadratic relationships are detected using cross-validation methods. The effect of physical distance on tourist demands clearly dominates that of cultural distance in the overall market. The problem of spurious correlation and the results of three cultural distance measures are also discussed.     

Ecosystem impacts of pesticide reductions through Bt cotton adoption

This article examines the ecosystem impacts of transgenic Bt cotton technology resulting from reduced chemical pesticide use. Employing unique panel data from smallholder farmers in India, negative environmental and health effects of pesticide use are quantified with the environmental impact quotient (EIQ), with and without Bt technology. An environmentally sensitive dynamic production function is estimated, treating the environmental risk of pesticide toxicity as an undesirable output in the production process. Negative externalities are significantly lower in Bt than in conventional cotton. The reduction in EIQ through Bt technology adoption has increased from 39 per cent during 2002–2004 to 68 per cent during 2006–2008. Bt adoption has also contributed to higher environmental efficiency. Environmental efficiency is influenced by the quality of Bt technology: high‐quality Bt seeds are associated with higher environmental efficiency than lower‐quality seeds.     

The reduction cost of nonperforming loan: evidence from China’s commercial bank

The nonperforming loans (NPLs) are co-generated by creating the profit in a bank, and this article build a joint production model to measure the reduction cost of nonperforming cost. By using a data set of China’s 13 commercial banks, the conclusions show that the reduction cost of NPLs is lower, which suggests that it is not a good choice for China’s commercial bank to hold the NPLs.     

Distance-sensitivity of German exports: first evidence from firm-product level data

This article uses a tailor-made new data set of 7 580 251 observations for German exports at the firm-product-destination level to estimate a gravity equation and to investigate the link between the amount of firms’ exports and the distance to destination countries. It is shown that, in line with stylized facts based on aggregate data, the quantity of exports declines significantly with distance within a firm for a given product.     

集体林权配套改革非农就业地理距离与农户林业投入行为——基于9省18县面板数据的验证

基于9省18县市2009~2013年1452户农户数据,运用面板数据随机效应模型,论证了非农就业地理距离,集体林权配套改革对于农户林业投入行为会产生的影响。基于研究得出结论:非农就业的地理距离越远,家庭外出务工指数越高,对家庭林业投入产生的负向作用越大;集体林权配套改革中,林权贷款以及林地流转对农户林业投入有显著正向影响;此外,农户林地面积、所在村到县城距离、是否为山区、是否获得林权贷款以及是否参与林地流转都对农户林业投入有显著影响。因此,提出充分利用当地林业资源推动农户本地非农就业以及推动林地流转与林权贷款等配套改革措施的政策建议。     

The Impact of Power Distance and Uncertainty Avoidance on Real Options Exercise: Potential for Suboptimal Time Delays and Value Destruction

Real options (RO) valuation has been promoted as a way to evaluate investment opportunities and make investment decisions that takes into account the value of managerial flexibility in the face of uncertainty. Although RO enjoys a substantial body of literature considering its application and suitability in different situations, the impact of national culture on the application of RO has received little attention. Values embedded in national culture affect the behavior of managers. In particular, these values play a role in how managers frame information, communicate, and make decisions, directly and indirectly affecting behavior through cultural layers such as organizational culture. National culture, therefore, can systematically affect the application of RO, potentially leading to suboptimal outcomes. In this article, we hypothesize how 2 particularly relevant dimensions of culture, power distance and uncertainty avoidance, affect RO exercise, and estimate the magnitude suboptimality of these effects using a model we develop for the case of a put option. Our estimates suggest RO may not always be a superior valuation approach to net present value for national cultures with certain characteristics.     

长距离隧道的通风选型问题浅析

笔者以新建兰渝铁路六标段花石隧道为例,对该隧道的应有的通风设计,结合现有通风方式的弊端和改进,进行浅要的比较分析,在此基础上对同类型隧道的通风选型进行总结。     

Multilevel psychic distance and its impact on SME internationalization

We expand the conceptualization of psychic distance and use a multilevel framework by studying it as a founder’s psychic distance in the pre-entry phase of entering a specific foreign market, and the SMEs (firm) psychic distance in the post-entry phase of entering that specific foreign market. Based on qualitative research involving six SMEs’ with 18 internationalization events, we found that psychic distance at country and business levels causes difficulties for SMEs in the post-entry phase because of their lack of knowledge. Bridge-makers possessing knowledge about target markets help SMEs to overcome psychic distance challenges. Trust in the relationship with the bridge-maker is an important ingredient to gain knowledge that alleviates the SMEs’ psychic distance challenges. Finally, we go beyond country-business levels of psychic distance by showing that psychic distance also matters at bridge-maker level. This relates to their lack of knowledge about the target market and SMEs’ routines.     

政治风险、文化距离和双边关系对中国对外直接投资的影响——基于“一带一路”沿线主要国家的研究

随着“一带一路”战略的实施，中国对外直接投资（OFDI）规模将会持续扩大，也面临各种各样的风险。根据2003-2014年中国对“一带一路”沿线主要43个国家直接投资的面板数据，运用面板矫正误差（PCSE）方法估计，重点研究东道国政治风险、文化距离和双边关系对我国对外直接投资的影响，并将样本分为“新海上丝绸之路”和“丝绸之路经济带”，比较两条路线上的异同。研究发现：双边政治关系与我国OFDI显著正相关；中国对“一带一路”的OFDI一般集中于政治风险高、文化距离近、自然资源丰富的国家，原因在于东道国丰富的自然资源和与东道国良好的双边关系降低了投资风险；地理距离对中国投资有负影响，中国对东道国出口对OFDI有促进作用。此外，政治风险、文化距离和地理距离对OFDI的影响在“一带一路”两条路线上表现出明显差异。     

On the discrepancy in the social efficiency measures between parametric and non-parametric production technology identification

In conventional social productive efficiency measurements that consider the production of undesirable outputs such as CO2, a DEA-based non-parametric method of production possibility frontier (PPF) identification coupled with the directional distance-function approach a-la Luenberger (1992) is typically employed. This paper shows that the discrepancy between parametric and non-parametric methods of PPF identification in social inefficiency measures can be non-negligibly large when the number of observations is small or the data are not well-scattered. By using the same data as Ha et al. (2011), who used non-parametric PPF identification to measure the social efficiency of Japan's inter-city transport services with lifecycle CO2 as the undesirable output, this paper demonstrates that adopting parametric PPF identification instead can result in considerably higher inefficiency measures for decision making units (DMUs) with relatively large undesirable outputs.