Does Size Matter? Evaluating Corporate Environmental Disclosure in the Australian Mining and Metal Industry: A Combined Approach of Quantity and Quality Measurement

There are an increasing number of companies in the mining and metals sector disclosing environmental sustainability information in their annual reports, sustainability reports and corporate internet web pages. However, there is ongoing debate about the relationship between the quantity and the quality of environmental disclosure. That is, does an increase in number equate to an increase in quality? This study investigates the relationship between the quantity and the quality of environmental disclosure reports. Using content analysis, we examine the environmental disclosure of 55 Australian mining and metal companies which are listed among the Australian Securities Exchange's (ASX) Top 100 mining and metal sector companies. We find that the size of firms influences both the quantity and the quality of corporate environmental disclosure. That is, we find that market capitalization is positively and significantly correlated to the quantity (number of words) and the quality of disclosure. We also confirm that there is a very highly significant, positive correlation between quantity (number of words) and quality of environmental disclosure. In order to investigate any differences between the top performing group and the bottom performing group in terms of environmental disclosure quality, further analysis also confirms that there is a positive relationship between the quantity and the quality of environmental disclosure. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

河南省农民消费支出地区差异的实证分析

据2011年河南省统计年鉴调查数据表明,河南省各地区农民支出差异较大,且呈现出进一步扩大的趋势。文章从河南省农民消费支出地区差异的现状着手,对河南省农民消费支出地区差异进行实证分析,找出影响河南省各地区农民消费支出的主要影响因素,并提出解决河南省农民消费支出差异较大问题方案的模型,为合理调整河南省农民消费结构,尽快消除消费支出地区差异较大并继续扩大的现象,实现各地区经济均衡发展提供一定的科学依据。     

Innovation and its diffusion: process,actors and actions

Seeking to understand factors affecting innovation diffusion, research has increasingly focused on process, actors and activities. After two decades of research, however, a systematisation of these three sets of studies is still lacking. Thus, this paper contributes to the existing literature providing a comprehensive framework of factors affecting innovation diffusion between organisations. Specifically it evidences phases of innovation diffusion process, clarifies the role of innovator, adopters and intermediaries and evidences actions that policy-makers can implement to support it.     

山东省水资源价格波动效应的投入产出分析

针对水资源价格波动引起的国民经济各部门价格连锁反应问题,利用2012年山东省42部门以及139部门国民经济投入产出表,对水资源生产各部门的用水量进行分配,调整了投入产出,得到平衡的15部门价值型水资源投入产出表;应用投入产出价格波动模型分别计算50%、75%、100%3种水价上调方案对其他14部门以及对农业、工业、商业、公共服务四大产业价格的影响程度。研究结果表明,受影响最大的是公共服务部门,其次是农业、工业、商业,总体来说,水价提高对各类产品价格的影响程度均较低。     

Supply chain management executives in corporate upper echelons

Supply chain strategies and their implementation have been recognized as a source of competitive advantage. According to the principle “structure follows strategy”, we expect the number of firms having supply chain management (SCM) functions represented on their top management team (TMT) to have increased in the past years. However, little is known about the degree to which executives responsible for SCM functions (i.e., Chief Supply Chain Officers) are present or absent in TMTs and if their presence is related to firm performance. Therefore, we study the TMTs of large US corporations and show that SCM is present in upper echelons, either through executives whose responsibilities explicitly include SCM or indirectly by executives, especially CEOs, who had acquired SCM experience in their previous positions. However, firms׳ operating margins are lower when a Chief Supply Chain Officer is present in the TMT.     

Using a network data envelopment analysis model to assess the efficiency and effectiveness of cultural tourism promotion in Taiwan

The importance of tourism promotion has been discussed throughout past studies, and the consequences of ineffective promotion have also been investigated. While tourism promotion is a topic of interest to many researchers, performance measurement used to assess the effectiveness of tourism promotion is a topic seldom discussed. The purpose of this study is to develop an approach based on the data envelopment analysis (DEA) model to evaluate performance for tourism promotion. The main difference compared with previous DEA models is the evaluation of multiple efficiencies in a single DEA implementation, and the assessment of overall efficiency in a ratio index. In the assumption of variables, we use cultural tourism promotion as a foundation in formulating the empirical evaluation, and we test the proposed model by using data across 20 regions in Taiwan.     

人- 组织匹配对创新行为的内在影响机制研究

员工是企业创新活动的主要实施者，其创新行为决定了创新的成败，但现有研究对员工创新行为的内在影响机制仍缺乏清晰刻画。本文基于社会认知理论，从心理因素的视角出发，探索人 - 组织匹配对创新行为的内在影响机制。通过收集数据，应用层次回归分析验证所提出的理论假设。结果表明，人-组织匹配不仅能对创新行为产生直接影响，还能够通过内部动机对创新行为产生间接影响。本文从理论上丰富了创新行为的相关研究，实践上为提升员工创新行为提出了对策建议。     

面向职业能力培养的学习情境分层递进课程开发与实践——以《AVR单片机原理与应用》为例

为实现职业院校学生职业能力培养,提出学习情景分层递进开发原则,以项目为载体,实施从单元模块到系统设计的点面结合的训练方法,通过参与情境性学习与训练,养成满足职业需要的技能知识与素养,应用分层递进的原则设计从模块、项目最后到具体的学习情境构建完整的课程体系,经过多年教学实践取得显著效果.     

Short-term safety or long-term failure? Empirical evidence of the impact of securitization on bank risk

Based on a sample of U.S. commercial banks from 2002 to 2012, this paper shows that bank loan securitization has a significant and positive impact on both Z-scores and the likelihood of bank failure, indicating a short-term risk reduction and a long-term risk increase effect. We also find disparate impacts between mortgage and non-mortgage securitization. Loan sale activities are found to have a similar impact to securitization.