Socio-economic developmental strategies as retail performance indicators: A balanced scorecard approach

This research analyses the commitment to and use of ‘balanced scorecards’ by retailers in generating sustainable profitability, whilst contributing to socio-economic development in South Africa. An international literature review of scorecard frameworks, plans and reports by major retail companies and semi-structured dialogic interviews with a purposive sample of retail business stakeholders and government officials formed the methodology. By contrasting the literature and empirical insights, a summary of findings was generated, which conclude that most retailer scorecards (formal or informal) seek to balance financial with ‘cause-related marketing’ targets, but implementation differs according to factors such as company size, developmental maturity and managerial competence. Furthermore, collaboration between retailers and state institutions in scorecard management is not a reality, as has been achieved in other industries. It is therefore recommended that a Retail Charter scorecard framework be considered, to promote public/private-sector knowledge-sharing and socio-economic development.     

江苏网络经济发展现状及对策研究

网络经济在国民经济中正扮演着越来越重要的角色,是我国经济发展新的增长点。江苏省是我国网络经济和电子商务应用较为发达的地区之一,研究江苏网络经济的发展对于江苏乃至全国的网络经济发展都具有重要意义。通过调查江苏省网络经济的发展现状,分析存在的问题,提出了相关改进措施和优化建议,以推动江苏省网络经济更加健康、良好的发展。     

中国“老字号”企业的经营现状与发展前景

文章以对12个省/市的378位"老字号"企业管理人员的问卷调查资料为基础数据,描述和分析了"老字号"的经营现状(如竞争优势、存在的不足、最需改进的方面)和发展前景,认为在新一轮的激烈市场竞争中,"老字号"企业不但需要不断适应外部市场变化的全球化和本土化的双重压力,而且需要在企业内部将传统的与现代的两种优势相结合,将已有的与新生的两种竞争力相结合(简称"双结合"),以便具备核心能力。这种"双结合"的核心能力不仅可以使"老字号"企业拥有一定的竞争优势,而且可以让其优化企业价值链管理,持续增强企业市场竞争力。     

京津冀城市群耦合协调发展及时空演化研究

本文通过构建城市系统指标体系，运用熵权赋值法和耦合协调度模型，测度和分析了2005~2015 年京津冀城市群经济--科技--人口--土地的综合发展水平、协调关系及演化特征。研究表明，从时序看，京津冀城市群经济、科技、人口与土地基本处于低级耦合协调状态，人口发展和土地扩张仍是经济发展的主导模式，而科技系统发展持续低迷，创新驱动格局尚未形成。从空间看，京津冀各城市耦合协调水平整体提升，逐渐形成以北京、天津为中心，沿京津发展轴、京保石发展轴蔓延的协调发展格局，而城市各系统协调发展呈现空间分异特征，“协调高地”与“协调失灵”局面并存。因此，应大力实施创新驱动战略，加快形成人口多中心分布格局，强化土地利用协调管理，促进区域经济、科技、人口、土地协调发展。     

创业情境下管理强度与创业绩效关系探讨:团队合作的中介效应

创业活动以其良好的经济与社会效益越来越受到重视,创业过程的核心是创业要素之间的动态匹配。为诠释创业理念在创业者和创业成员之间的匹配,结合创业者特质和成熟企业管理制度演化两种理论视角,提出了创业情境下管理强度的概念,并构建了其与团队合作、新创企业绩效之间的理论模型。通过107份预测试问卷和171份正式问卷进行实证分析,结果发现:创业管理强度可以被划分为独特性、统一性、共识性3个维度;创业管理强度对创业企业绩效具有显著正向影响,这种正向影响机制可以从团队合作方面得到解释,即团队合作在创业管理强度和创业企业绩效之间发挥中介作用。     

胶原蛋白在食品中的应用现状及其发展前景分析

由于具有独特的生物功能和理化性质,胶原蛋白拥有着较强的保健功能和较高的营养价值。所以近年来,越来越多的学者开始研究胶原蛋白的保健功能,并且对食品中应用的胶原蛋白的制备问题展开了研究。     

京津冀城市可持续发展效率动态测评及比较研究——基于超效率CCR-DEA模型和Malmquist指数的度量

本文借助超效率 CCR-DEA 模型和 Malmquist 指数，对 2008~2015 年京津冀 13 个城市的可持续发展效率进行了动态测评和对应项分解。研究结果表明：（1）北京与津冀城市的可持续发展效率极为不平衡，北京大幅领先于津冀城市并有逐年扩大的趋势；津冀城市可持续发展效率的差距有逐年缩小的趋势；（2）京津冀城市作为一个整体其可持续发展效率在提高，但各城市可持续发展效率意义上的纯技术效率几乎没有提升；（3）京津冀各城市投入--产出系统虽处于可持续发展效率意义上的规模经济阶段，但不具有持续性。未来京津冀三地应充分利用建设雄安国家新区的战略性历史机遇，统一认识，密切合作，促进京津冀城市经济、社会和资源环境的协调可持续发展。     

The applicability of a national focus State of the Future Index (SOFI) on developing nations and the Implications for Stabilisation Operations—A case study of Timor-Leste

This paper argues for the applicability of utilising the State of the Future Index to forecast the future of small developing nations across a range of areas that are considered important determinants of the type of future a developing country is likely to experience. This analysis provides an insight into the benefits of using such a tool for creating more effective policy towards Official Development Assistance (ODA) and its impact on Stabilisation Operations, in addition to measuring the success and effectiveness of previous policies. Timor-Leste was chosen as a case study because of its contemporary policy significance to Australia and the considerable amount of resources that the Australian government has committed, both directly and indirectly, to its reconstruction. Outputs from the State of the Future Index (SOFI) are used to track some of the key variables that will be significant drivers of future change in Timor-Leste. Hence, Timor's progress at a national level can be monitored. Moreover, individual economic, societal and demographic forecasts provide a more in-depth perspective of the drivers of change and future challenges that Timor-Leste will face.     

Do development projects crowd-out private sector activities? Evidence from contract farming participation in Northern Ghana

Contract farming (CF) is attractive as a possible private sector-led strategy for improving market coordination and smallholder farmers’ welfare. At the same time, governmental and non-governmental development projects aimed at improving farmers’ welfare continue to be organized. It is not uncommon for CF activities and development projects to take place in the same communities. Yet so far there is no evidence on how development projects affect CF activities. We examine factors affecting entry in and exit from different maize CF schemes in Northern Ghana, and focus specifically on the role of development projects. We find that the presence of agricultural development projects in the community is associated with lower scheme entry, but this not the case for non-agricultural projects. CF exit is more strongly associated with maize projects, but not significantly with non-maize or non-agricultural projects. Thus, our findings do not support concerns of a general moral hazard problem arising from the presence of any development project, but indicate possible negative associations of more closely related agricultural or maize projects with maize CF participation.     

The dynamics of tourism discourses and policy in Brazil

This article employs a Foucauldian inspired discourse analysis in order to unveil hidden aspects of the tourism development policy-making process in the UNESCO Espinhaço Range Biosphere Reserve, Brazil. It identifies the emergence of different representations of tourism development and demonstrates the process of social construction of sustainable tourism as an overarching discourse, which incorporates different—sometimes opposing—representations of tourism development to gather the support of people with different backgrounds and interests. However, this research demonstrates that this flexibility caused the sustainable tourism narrative to become a vague and imprecise discourse in the context of the case study, which has been used by the regional elites to conserve the status quo, but disguised as a critical alternative perspective.