Intended destination image positioning at sub-provincial administration level in China

Tourism development is officially recognized by the Chinese central government as one of the strategic pillars of the country's economy. Hence, regional authorities are responsible for developing positioning strategies for their tourism destinations. This study investigates the following: (1) the variety of planned image positions among sub-provincial prefectures in China; (2) the commonalities of these image propositions across China and (3) the differences within and across the regions and provinces. This research is based on a representative sample of tourism development plans of 77 prefectural administrations. The texts (in Chinese language) were content analyzed and condensed in two steps into semantically similar terms and concepts. The results show that image-positioning objectives are generally lean in the planning documents lacking sophistication and creativity. The variety of used image terms tempts to believe in quite different positioning goals. Yet, from a compound perspective, this does not yield very distinct overall image positions.     

Alternatives to local content requirements in resource-rich countries

This paper discusses whether and to what extent resource-rich developing countries should introduce local content policies, i.e. requirements to include local inputs in petroleum extraction activities of multinational corporations. We argue that local content needs to be seen as a public expenditure question, since local content requirements increase multinational costs, and hence reduce the taxes which can be extracted from these companies. This implies that there are opportunity costs in imposing local content requirements, since the forgone taxes can be used in others ways which could potentially do more to improve development prospects. Moreover, past experiences of resource-rich developing countries suggest that local content policies can exacerbate key problems of patronage and rent-seeking which resource rents generate, increasing the chance that the resource wealth will prevent rather than help development. These arguments suggest that an optimal local content policy in the context of flawed institutions is a more limited one than those typically pursued by developing countries with recently discovered petroleum reserves. Using qualitative data from Tanzania, a country with recent discoveries of substantial natural gas deposits, we analyze why local content tends to become such a central issue in debates and policy processes, despite its potentially problematic aspects.     

Exploring the Ethical Identity of Islamic Banks via Communication in Annual Reports

Islamic Banks (IBs) are considered as having ethical identity, since the foundation of their business philosophy is closely tied to religion. In this article, we explore whether any discrepancy exists between the communicated (based on information disclosed in the annual reports) and ideal (disclosure of information deemed vital based on the Islamic ethical business framework) ethical identities and we measure this by what we have termed the Ethical Identity Index (EII). Our longitudinal survey results over a 3-year period indicate the overall mean EII of only one IB out of seven surveyed to be above average. The remaining six IBs suffer from disparity between the communicated and ideal ethical identities. We further found the largest incongruence to be related to four dimensions: commitments to society; disclosure of corporate vision and mission; contribution to and management of zakah, charity and benevolent loans; and information regarding top management. The results have important implications for communication management if IBs are to enhance their image and reputation in society as well as to remain competitive. Roszaini Haniffa is a Senior Lecturer and Head of Accounting and Finance at the Bradford University School of Management. She holds a PhD from Exeter University and has published papers in Abacus, Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Journal of Business Finance and Accounting and other journals. Her research interests focus on social responsibility reporting, corporate governance, international accounting and the Islamic perspective of accounting. Ros has reviewed papers and is a member on the editorial board of several journals. Mohammad Hudaib is a Lecturer in Accounting at the Bradford University School of Management and holds a PhD from Essex University. He has previously taught at Exeter University and prior to his teaching career, was an auditor in Saudi Arabia. He has published papers on auditing and corporate governance in Journal of Business Finance and Accounting. His current research interests include auditing, Islamic perspective of accounting, accounting theory and ethics.     

经济发展阶段划分理论研究述评

经济发展阶段划分理论是经济发展理论研究的重要内容。该理论包括两个基本问题:一是经济发展阶段划分的标准;二是经济发展阶段划分的内容。本文对学术界在这两方面的主要研究成果作了简要评析     

商业组织创新:一个分析框架

商业组织创新是一项有计划的系统工程，且是一个动态的历史发展过程。其发展变革将循着怎样的趋势进行?这是确定每一个发展阶段特定商业组织创新内容与方向的依据。本文将商业组织这个多变量系统放在商业特定的内外部环境的多因素中去分析，从而构建了商业组织创新的内容与方向研究的一般分析框架。     

注意力经济环境下传媒的核心竞争力

注意力经济是以注意力资源的生产和分配为基础所形成的经济关系以及商业运作模式,关于“注意力”的探讨为传媒的研究提供了一个新视角。本文认为,媒介经济也是注意力经济;注意力经济环境下传媒的核心竞争力依然是内容;丰富的高品位的内容是获得受众持久注意力的根本,是媒介可持续发展的关键。     

Environmental Reporting of Global Corporations: A Content Analysis based on Website Disclosures

Today, more corporations disclose information about their environmental performance in response to stakeholder demands of environmental responsibility and accountability. What information do corporations disclose on their websites? This paper investigates the environmental management policies and practices of the 200 largest corporations in the world. Based on a content analysis of the environmental reports of Fortune’s Global 200 companies, this research analyzes the content of corporate environmental disclosures with respect to the following seven areas: environmental planning considerations, top management support to the institutionalization of environmental concerns, environmental structures and organizing specifics, environmental leadership activities, environmental control, external validations or certifications of environmental programs, and forms of corporate environmental disclosures.     

Designing the content of advertising in a differentiated market

In many markets, consumers use attribute information to assess the value they expect from purchasing a product or service. This includes many low involvement experience goods including take-out food, many packaged good categories and restaurants. In these markets, quality differences exist but many differences are horizontal in nature: the consumer is interested in finding a product that meets her unique tastes. Beyond ensuring that consumers know the brand, the category and the price; it seems advertising should provide consumers with attribute information. However, a significant proportion of advertising does not provide it. In fact, within the same category, competitors respond to messages that emphasize detailed attribute information with messages that are devoid of attribute information. These messages are uninformative about product attributes. We explore how competition in a differentiated market is affected by the ability of a firm has to choose uninformative messages. We construct a model to investigate the factors that affect a firm’s decision to use advertising with detailed attribute information or advertising that does not provide it. The model demonstrates that content decisions about advertising are affected by the differences between products, the range of heterogeneity in consumer tastes and the degree to which costs increase as a function of the quantity of information in advertising. Surprisingly, even when the cost to increase the quantity of information in advertising is low, uninformative campaigns can be more profitable than campaigns with attribute information. The analysis also demonstrates that firms can be more likely to provide attribute information when there are less consumers that are attribute-sensitive. Finally, the model shows that uninformative messages can create “artificial differentiation” in some situations.     

逆比较优势进口高技术含量中间品与生产技术革新

科学刻画逆比较优势进口高技术含量中间品对生产技术革新的影响效应能为制定科学进口国外中间品和提升生产技术革新速度方面的政策提供有益参考,以剖析上述效应为目标的多维细致检验结果表明：首先,制造型和服务型中间品进口技术含量逆比较优势指数对生产技术革新的影响效应呈现倒U型,进口约2.5倍于自身比较优势水平技术含量的中间品能最大化中间品进口的生产技术革新功能,这一结论在多层面检验中均稳健成立。其次,中国中间品进口技术含量逆比较优势指数处于倒U型顶点的左侧正效应区间。对于动态比较优势持续提升的中国而言,在处理好“卡脖子”风险的基础上,可适度提升中间品进口技术含量,以更好地发挥中间品进口的生产技术革新功能。最后,倒U型效应具有非常强的稳定性,多维外部冲击均无法撼动倒U型效应。为此,倒U型效应可谓协调中间品进口和生产技术革新间关系的“铁律”。     

公务员制度课程教学内容与方法创新探析——基于素质选修课的视角

在当前公务员制度课程教学改革创新的背景下,结合素质选修课的特点和要求,在课程的内容设计上要注重教学内容的完整性、实用性和前沿性,在教学方法上应当运用传统与现代特点并存的灵活的教学模式。