The interactive effect of time and host country location on Chinese MNCs’ performance: An empirical investigation

We explore the performance implications of location choices Chinese multinational corporations (MNCs) make. Drawing on internalization and organizational learning theories, we find that developing country MNCs entering other developing countries experience a positive effect on their performance in the immediate term that, however, erodes over time because of the decay in their initial internalized advantages. Conversely, MNCs entering developed countries experience a negative effect on their immediate-term performance but a boost in performance over time because of the gradual realization of learning benefits. Our analyses of internationalization and performance of 207 Chinese-listed MNCs between 1992 and 2005 corroborate our key predictions.     

工业锅炉煤改气客户细分模型及其应用——基于层次分析和熵权修正的模糊综合评价理论

煤改气是加快调整工业锅炉能源结构、改善大气环境质量的重要措施之一。燃气运营商欲开拓工业锅炉煤改气市场，应正确辨别终端市场客户的类别。从行业特性、企业特性、锅炉状况和客户开发潜力4个方面构建工业锅炉煤改气客户细分评价指标体系，用AHP－修正熵组合赋权方法确定评价指标权重，建立工业锅炉煤改气客户细分模型并开展应用。评价结果兼顾客观属性与主观偏好，符合客观实际，可为燃气运营商开展差异化管理，采取多元化营销模式提供决策依据。     

Tourist districts and internationalization of hotel firms

The present paper brings together two lines of research that the literature has more often than not studied separately: the generation of externalities in industrial districts; and the international strategy based on location advantages. The application of industrial district approach principles serves to identify the tourist holiday districts situated along the Spanish coastline. This is followed by an analysis of the extent to which the degree of firm agglomeration specific to each district, as well as the presence of institutions generating specific technical knowledge, influence the globalization of the tourism sector, both regarding internationalized Spanish hotel chains and foreign hotels installed in Spain.     

Incorporating activity space and trip chaining into facility siting for accessibility maximization

Location models have been widely used to support locational decisions for various service provision. One common objective of location models has been to ensure maximal accessibility of sited facilities to demand populations. Accessibility evaluation in location models often assumes that trips originate from fixed locations (usually home) and are single purpose. These assumptions contradict the empirical evidence that suggests trips also commonly originate from non-home locations and may involve multiple stops. In this study, a new multi-objective location model is developed that extents the classic p-median problem (PMP) to account for a more realistic assessment of accessibility. Based on the individual accessibility assessment, notions of trip chaining and activity space are incorporated into the model development. In addition to fixed home locations, stops along chained trips are allowed for potential service site visits, and activity space is introduced as an additional dimension to evaluate accessibility of alternative opportunities. The effectiveness of the new model is demonstrated using an application in Tucson, AZ.     

Mobile technology & resident attitude research

This research note highlights the novelty of integrating location-based services (LBS) available on Smart Phones and Tablets into traditional resident attitude survey methodologies such as door-to-door data collection. It specifically reviews how the LBS technology available on mobile devices can be used to systematically capture GPS coordinates of one's residence and integrate this captured spatial information into software such as ArcGIS and SPSS for further analysis. By having GPS coordinates associated with respondents' answers, researchers have an additional layer of information available for conducting a multitude of tests previously not possible with subjective categorical spatial data. Two research applications using the spatial location of residences are provided as examples of how LBS available on mobile devices can be integrated within resident attitude projects. The use of LBS technology can help researchers better understand how the distance residents live from major tourist attractions influences their attitudes towards tourism.     

Data mining framework based on rough set theory to improve location selection decisions: A case study of a restaurant chain

Location selection plays a crucial role in the retail and service industries. A comprehensive location selection model and appropriate analytical technique can improve the quality of location decisions, attracting more customers and substantially impacting market share and profitability. This study developed a data mining framework based on rough set theory (RST) to support location selection decisions. The proposed framework consists of four stages: (1) problem definition and data collection; (2) RST analysis; (3) rule validation; and (4) knowledge extraction and usage. An empirical study focused on a restaurant chain to demonstrate the validity of the proposed approach. Twenty location variables relevant to five location aspects were examined, and the results indicated that latent knowledge can be identified to support location selection decisions.     

Effective and equitable supply of gasoline to impacted areas in the aftermath of a natural disaster

The focus of this research is on supplying gasoline after a natural disaster. There are two aspects for this work: determination of which gas stations should be provided with generators (among those that do not have electric power) and determination of a delivery scheme that accounts for increased demand due to lack of public transportation and considerations such as equity. We develop a mixed integer program for this situation. Two case studies based on Hurricane Sandy in New Jersey are developed and solved in CPLEX. As expected, increasing equity increases cost and also tends to place generators to stations with large initial inventories. It is further observed that CPLEX can solve the largest instances of the problem for a 5% tolerance gap, indicating that the model is efficient.     

Firm location,political geography and environmental information disclosure

As the subjective and objective factors that influence corporate behaviours, political region and firm location are of great importance to environmental information disclosure (EID). With spatial and political geography as a research perspective, this article makes a study by using the samples of manufacturing listed companies from 2009 to 2011. As a result, we determine that regulatory distance and political geography had negative effects on EID, while political geography weakens regulatory distance’s function. After considering an enterprise’s administrative rank, we determined that when the rank is higher, regulatory distance has negative effects on EID; when the rank is lower, the effects are the opposite. Regarding political geography, it always weakened the regulatory distance’s function. Moreover, the effects are significant only when the enterprises had low governmental regulation. The study shows the effects that firm location and political geography have made on EID. At the same time, this study also gives theoretical and empirical evidence to the necessity of raising governmental regulatory effectiveness.     

金融信息风险决策中的熵应用

由于金融信息决策问题的环境存在许多不确定因素,因此就有风险型决策。对风险型决策采用的是概率统计方法,所依据的是期望值准则。然而,复杂的现实生活不断向我们提出这样的问题:依据期望值准则所作出的决策,其不确定性的程度到底有多大?能否寻找到不确定性程度较低的决策方法?本文通过对熵的引入与应用,提出了金融信息风险决策中产生高熵的几个主要因素,同时给出了决策中使系统不确定性的度量——熵变小的方法,使信息管理决策中的熵思想得到广泛的应用。     

江苏省城市土地集约水平时空差异研究

城市土地集约利用是城市可持续发展的必然要求。根据江苏省城市土地集约利用现状及特点,从土地投入水平、土地利用程度、土地产出水平和土地生态效益四个方面建立了城市土地集约利用水平评价指标体系,运用基于熵值法的多因素综合评价方法对2005～2009年间江苏省13个地级城市土地集约利用水平进行时空差异分析,得出结论:(1)从时间变化特征上看,2005～2009年间江苏省城市土地利用集约度呈现总体上升趋势,但各地区之间存在差异;(2)从空间变化特征上看,由于受区位因素及产业结构等因素的影响,江苏省城市土地集约利用水平由南向北呈现明显的空间梯度差异,苏南地区的城市土地集约利用水平相对较高。最后根据影响因素的不同,有针对性地提出提高城市土地利用集约度的相应建议。