The relationship between business diversification and productivity: considering the impact of process innovation at different corporate life cycles

This paper investigates the link between a firm's process innovation (PI) and its segment productivity at different life cycles. The results show that business diversification is negatively associated with a firm's productivity, and further reveal that a firm's PI moderates the above relationship. In addition, the corporate life cycle literature builds blocks for this study to explain that the involvement of administrative costs varies across life cycles when diversified firms get mature and bigger. Our empirical evidence indicates that the potential costs of a complex organisational structure contingent on business diversification at a firm's mature life cycle could be alleviated by the conduct of process innovation. As process innovation at different life cycles may alter managerial incentive that leads to different firm performance, the managerial implication is that diversified firms should appropriately engage in process innovation to prevent unfavourable liability from the development of their businesses.     

Optimal portfolios under worst-case scenarios

In standard portfolio theories such as Mean–Variance optimization, expected utility theory, rank dependent utility heory, Yaari’s dual theory and cumulative prospect theory, the worst outcomes for optimal strategies occur when the market declines (e.g. during crises), which is at odds with the needs of many investors. Hence, we depart from the traditional settings and study optimal strategies for investors who impose additional constraints on their final wealth in the states corresponding to a stressed financial market. We provide a framework that maintains the stylized features of the SP/A theory while dealing with the goal of security in a more flexible way. Preferences become state-dependent, and we assess the impact of these preferences on trading decisions. We construct optimal strategies explicitly and show how they outperform traditional diversified strategies under worst-case scenarios.     

On the Opportunity Cost of Crop Diversification

Distance functions are increasingly being augmented, with environmental goods treated as conventional outputs. A common approach to evaluate the opportunity cost of providing an environmental good is the exploitation of the distance function's dual relationship to the value function. This implies that the opportunity cost is assumed to be non‐negative. This approach also requires a convex technology set. Focusing on crop diversification for a balanced sample of 44 cereal farms in the East of England for the years 2007–2013, this paper develops a novel opportunity cost measure that does not depend on these strong assumptions. We find that the opportunity cost of crop diversification is negative for most farms.     

试析进一步提升共青城市企业自主创新能力的对策

为深入了解共青城市企业自主创新情况,笔者深入工业园区,对共青城市高新技术企业和部分科技型企业进行了调研并提出了适当的对策。     

农地流转对农户生计转型影响的实证分析

[目的]为清晰识别土地流转对农户生计转型的影响程度,以期为后期土地流转政策及农户生计引导政策提供科学的决策依据。[方法]文章借鉴已有研究方法,基于农户可持续生计分析框架,利用内蒙古4个市区的380户农户样本数据,采用Multinomial Logit模型对参与土地流转和未参与土地流转农户的生计模式进行了分析,客观评价农村土地流转对农户生计转型的影响。[结果]农地流转在一定程度上对农户的生计转型产生了显著影响,拥有较低自然资本和较高金融资本的农户倾向混合型和务工型生计策略,同时人力资本水平高的家庭更倾向于采取混合型生计策略,而不是采取农业型生计策略。[结论]农地流转后,农户从繁重的种植业活动中得以解放,有了更多时间和精力从事非农生产活动,生计策略由单一化走向多样化,从传统的主要依赖种植业到经营养殖业、从事建筑业、交通运输业、批发零售业等非农行业,多元化了农户的收入来源。     

旅游业上市公司多元化经营能够降低公司风险吗？——基于2004—2012年A股上市公司数据的实证研究

我国的旅游业上市公司普遍存在进入房地产业、高新技术产业等行业的多元化经营现象。国内外学者对多元化经营与公司风险之间的关系展开了一系列的研究,但是没有得出一致的结论。截至目前,对旅游类企业多元化经营能否降低公司风险的研究仍较为欠缺。因此,文章以2004—2012年国内23家A股旅游业上市公司1的184个截面数据为样本,利用多元回归分析法检验了旅游业上市公司多元化经营对其公司风险的影响。旅游行业自身的行业特征及其多元化特点使得针对旅游业上市公司多元化经营行为的分行业研究产生了与以往整体层面的研究截然不同的结论：旅游业上市公司多元化经营能够降低公司的财务风险,但无法降低公司的经营风险。进一步对多元化类型进行区分后发现：旅游业上市公司相关多元化水平的提升可以显著地降低公司的财务风险,但无法显著地降低公司的经营风险;而非相关多元化水平的提升无法显著地降低公司的财务风险与经营风险。基于上述研究成果,文章从促进融资体系多元化、完善主业发挥自身优势、谨慎选择多元化行业3个角度对旅游业上市公司的多元化发展提出了建议。     

Choice of Diversification Strategies in an Emerging Market: Evidence from Indian Manufacturing Industries

The study seeks to measure the strategic choice of industries over different dynamic phases in the Indian economic environment. The total sample of 536 companies has been divided into 14 industries as per Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes. The paper also categorizes companies as per the cyclical changes in the economy, that is, growth, cyclical, and defensive industries. Evidence suggests that choice of diversification is industry specific and concurrently affected by the environmental conditions prevailing in the emerging economy. Food and beverages, plastic/rubber, and electrical equipment industries follow higher categories of diversification than other industries.     

区县党委政府保障和改善民生实践存在的问题与对策——以重庆市九龙坡区为例

一段时间以来,我国区县一级党委政府围绕保障和改善民生进行了积极实践,但也还存在保障水平不高、顶层设计不善、部门协同不力、社会参与不够等突出问题.从重庆九龙坡区的实践来看,我国区县党委政府要深入推进保障和改善民生实践,必须坚持系统抓好经济发展、提升战略认识、加强组织领导和强化科学统筹四个方面的工作.