Planes,trains and wheelchairs in the bush: Attitudes of people with mobility-disabilities to enhanced motorised access in remote natural settings

Managers of remote and wilderness environments have been among the last to accommodate the needs of tourists with mobility-disabilities – partly because of the physical difficulties and expense of doing so, but also due to a wider desire and mandate to preserve the natural and wilderness character of such areas. This research explores the extent to which those with mobility-disabilities desire enhanced access to natural areas. Do they share the same desires and values with respect to wilderness and access as the able-bodied? This paper reports upon a survey of over 400 residents and tourists, some with mobility-disabilities and some able-bodied, and compares their attitudes with respect to the development of various forms of motorised access to wilderness environments. Significant differences were found between the two groups in terms of their desire for greater access and also in how they view the impacts of such development. The group with mobility-impairments expressed a stronger desire for enhanced access in such environments. The environmental values of both groups were also examined using the revised New Ecological Paradigm scale, however no significant differences were found between the groups. The implications for tourism providers and wilderness managers are discussed.     

Do socially responsible activities help hotels and casinos achieve their financial goals?

While the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has gained much attention and is currently practiced by many companies, it has yet to be empirically examined in the context of hotels and casinos, especially in regard to the potential effects of CSR on firm value and performance. As the findings on the relationship between CSR and financial performance have been inconclusive and this relationship has been found to differ among industries, this study examines the relationship between CSR and firm value and profitability for hotels and casinos. Results of the Durbin–Wu–Hausman (DWH) test and a subsequent two-stage least square (2SLS) method show that hotel companies’ CSR has a simultaneous and positive relationship with financial performance. For casino companies, however, results show that CSR has no simultaneous or particular effect on financial performance. Findings suggest that hotel companies can confidently and strategically increase CSR investment to enhance both short-term (profitability) and long-term performance (firm value). Casino companies need to carefully examine the effects of CSR on financial performance, when making CSR-related decisions.     

Predictors of customer service training in hospitality firms

Small hospitality firms have a reluctance to embrace business improvement activities in general and customer service training in particular. In a survey of 255 hospitality firms, this study investigated a range of predictors for owner–managers to adopt specific customer service training activities, in a series of regression equations. It was found that, in general, those firms that placed more importance on customer service training were willing to take up more training activity. In addition, it was found that predictors for specific customer service training activities, such as benchmarking best practice or mystery shopping, varied between types of activity and with a general intention to consider customer service training.     

基于技术学习的区域创新网络升级研究:以浙江台州为例

技术学习是影响区域创新网络升级的核心因素,外向型和内向型技术学习是其两种典型模式。通过对浙江台州146家集群企业的问卷调查发现:区域创新网络中的技术学习活动非常活跃,非正式技术学习活动居于主导地位,龙头企业在技术学习中扮演着关键角色。从完善内部网络和开拓外部联系两个角度,提出了进一步推动产业集群创新网络升级,提升集群企业技术创新能力的对策建议。     

新创企业出生率区域差异的影响因素分析

新创企业对促进经济增长和带动区域就业有重要作用,然而我国新创企业的出生率存在着显著的区域差异,尤其是东部和西部地区差异较大,使得区域经济发展更加不平衡。通过回顾大量文献,分析了测度新创企业出生率区域差异的方法,研究了新创企业出生率区域差异的现状,探讨了造成区域新创企业差异的影响因素及影响途径,总结了缓解新创企业出生率区域差异、促进落后地区加强创业的启示。     

中间品进口会促进企业生产率增长吗——基于中国企业微观数据的分析

本文运用2000-2005年中国工业企业数据库和海关数据库的匹配数据,分析进口中间品的使用对中国企业全要素生产率影响。研究发现:与非进口企业对比,进口企业在反映企业经营状况的各项指标上都强于非进口企业,一直进口的企业在各项指标上最高,东部地区企业和高人均资本行业的企业表现最佳;进口中间品对企业层面全要素生产率有显著促进作用,企业从非进口状态转为进口状态能促进全要素生产率提高7.49个百分点,这种促进作用对低人均资本行业企业和西部企业尤为明显。这一结论的政策含义在于,后金融危机时代,中国须重新调整"出口主导,进口从属"外贸发展思路,实施积极的进口贸易战略,促进企业全要素生产率的提高和技术创新,鼓励中、西部企业和低人均资本行业企业参与到经济全球化,边干边学,促进企业全要素生产率水平更快提高。     

Corruption,product complexity and African exporters

Several studies have shown that African manufacturers perform poorly, especially in comparison to their counterparts from other developing countries. We build on these studies by (a) examining the decision to stop exporting among African manufacturers and (b) investigating whether these decisions can be linked to institutional dimensions (such as corruption). Consistent with previous studies, we observe that a significant fraction of African firms stop exporting every year. Using product complexity as a measure of an industry’s ‘sensitivity’ to corruption, we find that firms in more ‘corruption-sensitive’ industries are more likely to stop exporting if there is an increase in overall corruption in the exporting country. Firm characteristics (such as size and productivity) also seem to influence the decision to stop exporting. Our finding about the relationship between corruption and the decision to stop exporting supports the conventional wisdom that corruption is detrimental to economic performance.     

金融发展、企业特征与研发融资约束

基于2008-2014年沪深A股主板和中小企业板上市公司数据,实证研究金融发展能否缓解企业R&D融资约束、促进企业R&D投入,并进一步考察这种作用在规模、区域、所有权、行业等4种因素影响下的差异性。研究发现：金融发展能够显著缓解企业面临的R&D融资约束,并且这种缓解作用对小规模企业和民营企业更加明显;金融发展水平较高的东部地区能够在更大程度上促进企业研发投入,而中西部地区则未能有效刺激企业R&D支出;与高科技行业相比,非高科技行业能够从金融发展中获利更多,其R&D投入水平得到显著提高。     

家族涉入对企业多元化及其价值效应的影响研究

多元化是战略管理领域中的一个核心议题。文章基于社会情感财富框架和企业行为理论,着重考察了家族涉入对企业多元化战略及其价值效应的影响。基于2010年363家中国民营上市制造业企业样本数据的研究发现：家族所有权对企业总体多元化和非相关多元化均具有显著的负向影响。在多元化的企业价值效应方面,家族管理权会显著减弱总体多元化和非相关多元化对企业绩效的负向影响。这样的研究结果证明了假设猜想：家族通过所有权参与更多影响的是企业的多元化决策,而家族参与管理则会更多地影响多元化战略的执行。这一研究有助于深入揭示家族涉入对企业行为的内在影响机制,有效区分不同维度家族涉入对企业战略决策及执行过程影响机制的差异。     

油价不确定性与企业投资

本文利用2000-2015年中国宏观经济数据和1998-2007年中国工业企业调查数据,从宏观和微观两种视角考察了投资对油价不确定性冲击的反应。宏观研究发现,油价不确定性冲击不仅能够解释约12%的固定资产投资波动,而且还对固定资产投资具有短期抑制效应。在微观层面,本文采用基于异质性折旧率计算得到的企业投资,发现油价不确定性冲击在短期内对民营企业和外资企业投资也有抑制效应,但是对国有和集体企业的影响不显著,这一结论随着企业折旧率异质性的程度提高将变得更加明显。进一步分析发现,与非国有企业相比,国有和集体企业的投资行为具有明显的政策导向性,特别是在“十五计划”实施以后,国有和集体企业的投资密度比非国有企业高出约2.1%。这种政策导向性的存在,使得国有和集体企业的投资对油价不确定性冲击的反应并不显著。