US small retail businesses’ perception of competition: Looking through a lens of fear,confidence, or cooperation

The U.S. retail industry has undergone dramatic changes, leading to the closing of brick-and-mortar retail stores on a large scale. Understanding perceived market competition among small retail businesses may help explain why certain businesses survive or fail in the altered retail environment. This study investigates small retail businesses' perceptions of competition within/outside the community, underlying reasons for their perceptions, and variations in perceptions by different business characteristics. Contrary to common expectations, we found that more than half of businesses interviewed were optimistic in the face of competition. Our data reveal two salient underlying reasons for pessimism and five for optimism. These perceptions tended to differ by operational locality (urban clusters vs. urban areas), business revenues, and innovativeness. Based on the findings, we developed propositions and a framework of small businesses' perceived competition and sustainable competitive advantage. We discussed theoretical and practical implications for small retail businesses’ sustainable growth in the challenging retail environment.     

京津冀城市群能源代谢时空特征及优化调控研究

随着中国经济的快速发展,能源消费也快速增长。随着节能减排的压力越来越大,能源的代谢需要根据需求进行更替。论文就京津冀城市群能源代谢时空特征分析并对能量代谢进行优化和调控提出建议。     

机电一体化设备的故障维修特点和可靠性分析

随着我国经济的发展和科学技术的进步,各种机电一体化设备产品也逐渐走进了人们的生活,这就需要相关单位加强对机电一体化设备的故障维修,优化设备性能。为此,论文就机电一体化设备的故障维修特点和可靠性做了简单分析。     

昌九工业走廊工业化指数空间分布研究

利用统计软件，通过主成分分析获得昌九工业走廊26个县域的工业化指数，作为衡量地区工业化水平的标准。并通过空间分析软件研究2016年各县域工业化指数的空间关联性。研究结果表示，各地区的工业化水平在空间单元呈现正相关的特性，同时展示出了地理空间的集聚效应。结合工业化指数及其空间特征，研究地区经济发展的机理，给予产业调整建议：昌九工业走廊应因地制宜地进行产业结构调整，工业化程度较低且第一产业比重大的地区应适当发展特色加工业和特色旅游业，而工业化水平领先的地区应进行工业改造与技术升级，发展低能耗少污染高产值的新型产业。     

“海丝”背景下福州市县域经济空间格局分析

福州市作为“21世纪海上丝绸之路”核心区建设支点城市获得快速发展，各区县之间的经济联系逐步加深，区域经济格局不断演变。以福州市13个区县作为研究对象，测度“海丝”核心区建设实施前后各区县的经济潜力与经济联系强度，通过分析区域经济格局演变，对福州市在“海丝”背景下的经济发展方向提出建议，为今后加快建成支点城市提供参考。     

河南省传统村落空间分布特征及影响因素研究

[目的]分析河南省传统村落的空间分布特征及其影响因素,以期为中原地区传统村落的建设发展提供指导。[方法]文章通过谷歌地理信息系统及Arc GIS10. 2软件对河南省124个国家级传统村落的空间分布类型、分布格局、分布均衡型及影响因素进行分析,采用最邻近距离法、核密度估计法及地理集中程度等方法揭示其空间分布特征及其形成的影响因素。[结果]最邻近距离法分析R=0. 628,小于1,分布类型为凝聚型。核密度分析中,整体空间分布呈现3个核心区域,平顶山东北区域,豫西北沿省边界呈带状分布及豫南信阳南部,空间分布受地理、经济和文化等因素影响。[结论]河南省传统村落的空间分布属凝聚型不均衡分布。从地级市层面上分析,主要集中在平顶山东部、信阳南部和三门峡地区;从分区层面上,以豫中较多,豫北、豫西和豫南其次,豫东基本空白。形成原因与地理高程、社会经济和历史事件有关。交通不便、经济相对发达或相对落后、历史事件少发的区域,传统村落保存较为完整。     

A Framework for the Simultaneous Measurement of Spatial Variation and Temporal Movement in Prices in a Heterogeneous Country: The Dynamic Household Regional Product Dummy Model

This paper contributes to the growing literature on spatial prices in large heterogeneous countries. While the literatures on spatial variation and temporal movement in prices have grown in parallel, this study marks a departure by providing a unified treatment and proposing a comprehensive framework that allows both approaches. The proposed model is based on twin extensions of the household version of the “country product dummy model” by allowing for a dynamic stochastic specification and interdependence of spatial prices of geographically adjacent regions. Tests of temporal stability and regional independence of the estimated spatial prices are proposed and applied in this paper. The paper shows that the introduction of an autoregressive error process of order one, AR(1), improves the efficiency of the estimates of parameters, urban‐rural and temporal price indices under certain conditions. The Indian application points to a rich potential for using the proposed framework in cross country comparisons such as the International Comparison Program (ICP) exercises.     

Pricing used books on Amazon.com: a spatial approach to price dispersion

This paper estimates a spatial autoregressive (SAR) model of price dispersion using publicly available internet bookselling data. It uses a semiparametric adaptive estimator that does not require the usual Gaussian assumption of maximum likelihood (ML) estimators. The results suggest that both price competition and seller heterogeneity are key drivers of the observed price dispersion. The paper finds that sellers with large sales volume, newly established sellers and US mainland states-based sellers tend to price lower. The identified significant spatial interaction is evidence of spatial price competition. Controlling for everything else, a seller asks a lower price when large sellers charge relatively high prices, which is also evidence of price-based selling and undercutting.     

Land price diffusion across borders – the case of Germany

ABSTRACT

Land market regulations are often justified by the assumption that activities of foreign and non-agricultural investors drive up prices in domestic land markets. However, empirical knowledge about the dynamics of agricultural land prices across borders is sparse. Using the German reunification as a natural experiment, we study the effect of the former inner German border on the dynamics of agricultural land prices in East and West Germany. We apply a land price diffusion model with an error correction specification to analyse spatial agricultural land markets. A novel feature of our model is its ability to distinguish price diffusion within states and across state borders. We provide evidence for a persistent border effect given that the fraction of spatially integrated counties is larger within states than across the former border. Moreover, we observe non-significant error correction terms for many counties along the former border. From a policy perspective, it is striking to realize that even 25 years after German reunification, pronounced land price differences persist. It is quite likely that price diffusion through existing borders within the EU would take even more time given language barriers, different institutional frameworks, and information asymmetries between domestic and foreign market participants.     

The long breadth of cities: revisiting worldwide urbanization patterns, 1950–2030

ABSTRACT

A comparative analysis of population dynamics worldwide contributes to profile distinctive demographic and economic trajectories of urban growth, discriminating processes of settlement concentration or dispersion under sequential cycles of urbanization. However, a wide-ranging characterization of urban cycles based on demographic dynamics worldwide is still missing. The present work is aimed at filling such a gap analysing long-term changes (1950–2030) in annual population growth rate of 1691 urban agglomerations with more than 300,000 inhabitants in 74 world countries. Results of this study indicate that metropolitan growth worldwide was associated with largely variable rates of population growth, highly positive before 2000 and progressively reducing over recent decades. Despite important differences at continental (and country) scale, demographic expansion of urban agglomerations showed two contrasting phases with a break point in the 1980s denoting a progressive reduction in spatial heterogeneity of population growth rates and a moderate slowdown in demographic dynamics. Intensity of urban expansion and spatial heterogeneity in population growth rates across metropolitan agglomerations evidences a trade-off between fast and slow demographic dynamics. These findings can be better understood to support theories of sequential city growth, making a suitable contribution to policy making, especially in countries where urban population is expanding more rapidly.