The market-based dissemination of energy-access technologies as a business model for rural entrepreneurs: Evidence from Kenya

Improving access to more modern forms of energy requires supply chains that reach further into rural areas. This paper studies a supply-side intervention intended to foster last-mile distribution of energy-access technologies through local small-scale entrepreneurship. We use a staggered-implementation evaluation design to assess the impact on employment and income outcomes of the intervention, which is a large-scale program in Kenya that supports the diffusion of improved cookstoves and small solar products. The results demonstrate how trained entrepreneurs intensify and diversify their income-generating activities, often by shifting away from subsistence farming as a main source of income. For cookstove entrepreneurs, this goes along with improvements in individual and household incomes as well as perceived economic well-being. Our estimates suggest that impacts do not only differ between the two technologies but also across subgroups including gender, age, and baseline occupation. Our findings substantiate that market-based interventions can foster energy access in rural areas by supporting the establishment of local businesses. We highlight several contextual factors that are of relevance when considering the adoption of this approach.     

技术中介在技术交易服务中是否存在下沉倾向——基于买方选择视角的验证

技术要素转移与交易对技术中介有较强的依赖性，而技术中介的存在能够有效降低交易过程中的信息失衡，为买方交易提供必要支持，技术中介服务直接影响技术交易效率。当代技术中介服务已经形成较大规模，提供服务的种类也较为全面，整体上适应了技术市场发展需要。但是，由技术中介参与的大量交易都存在低端化倾向，据此提出中介服务下沉化假设，并构建选择影响因素模型。通过对买方企业数据的采集与回归，发现无论是全样本还是分类样本均有效验证了主要假设变量。因此，为保障技术中介合理发展，从政策层面应重点关注如何提升服务质量，使其服务于中高端技术交易需求。     

中国城市科技人才集聚促进了全要素生产率增长吗——来自285个地级市的经验研究

基于2005—2018年中国内地285个地级市数据，对城市科技人才集聚与全要素生产率（简称“TFP”）进行测度分析，实证考察科技人才集聚对TFP的影响。结果表明：①城市科技人才集聚与TFP空间分异特征显著，但二者具有较强的时空一致性，即科技人才集聚特征显著的城市，其TFP也相对稳定；②城市科技人才集聚对TFP的影响呈倒U型，但研究期内大多数城市仍处于集聚效应占主导阶段,科技人才集聚通过提升城市技术进步水平促进TFP增长，而科技人才集聚对技术效率的影响呈倒U型；③不同类型城市科技人才集聚对其TFP影响的异质性显著，且适宜集聚区间也存在差异。省会城市及一、二线城市等优势特征显著的城市所能承受的科技人才集聚规模上限更高，有利于通过释放集聚红利促进TFP增长，而非省会城市、三线及以下城市等则拐点值较低。     

科技企业孵化器何以激活区域创新——风险投资与孵化基金的中介作用

完善创新生态系统、提升区域创新能力是我国科技企业孵化器建设的重要目标。基于2013-2018年中国（内地）30个省份面板数据，采用面板数据模型实证检验科技企业孵化器是否促进了区域创新能力提升，并基于中介效应模型探讨风险投资和孵化基金在其中的间接作用。结果发现：①科技企业孵化器建设显著提升了区域创新水平，但主要增加的是实用新型和外观设计专利申请授权数总量，对发明专利申请授权数并没有显著促进作用。上述结果在剔除直辖市样本、采用随机效应模型及空间计量模型的稳健性检验后依然成立；②通过中介效应模型检验发现，区域风险投资和孵化基金集聚效应是科技企业孵化器影响区域创新水平的主要机制；③科技企业孵化器对区域创新的影响在不同区域间差异较大，在东部地区的创新激励效应更加显著，而且政策工具强度对科技企业孵化器与区域创新水平的关系具有正向调节作用。     

Measuring benefits from spatially-explicit surface water quality improvements: The roles of distance,scope, scale,and size

Programs to improve water quality do not improve all water bodies equally. Evaluation of the benefits of such programs must account for where improvements occur and the relative magnitude of improvements that occur in different places. This study uses a choice experiment survey to explore how the value to a household of a surface water quality improvement varies as a function of (i) the distance between the household and the affected streams and rivers, (ii) the degree to which the quality of the water has been improved, (iii) how many stream and river miles have been improved, and (iv) the sizes of the affected streams and rivers. Results show evidence that value declines with distance in an approximately linear way, weak evidence that large rivers are worth more than small rivers, and no evidence that willingness-to-pay is nonlinear in either the degree of water quality improvement or the number of stream miles improved. These results indicate that it may be defensible in applied work to value small, spatially-explicit water quality improvement projects independently and then sum over projects.     

东部地区十省市规模以上工业企业研发投入绩效评价

选取2021年度数据，采用数据包络分析（DEA）方法对中国东部地区10个省份规模以上工业企业的研发投入绩效进行评价，并采用灰关联分析方法分析确定各项研发投入产出指标相对于DEA效率的灰色关联度。研究结果表明，80%的省份规上工业企业研发投入产出处于非DEA有效状态，存在不同程度的投入冗余或产出不足；规上工业企业发明专利申请数与研发投入产出效率的关联度最高，其次是新产品销售收入和R&D经费内部支出。     

The diffusion of mobile payments: Profiling the adopters and non-adopters,Roger's way

This study aims to establish various market segments based on consumers' attitudinal elements influencing the adoption of mobile payments (m-payments). It also examines the best discriminators between identified clusters of m-payment users. Three hundred and sixty m-payment users participated in the study. Cluster and discriminant analyses were employed for the analysis. The findings suggest that two segments are established, and strategies can be developed accordingly. The study provides marketers with numerous touchpoints to propagate the adoption of m-payment apps. It also comprehensively explains m-payment users in developing economies by superimposing the cohorts to Roger's diffusion of innovation model.     

Does justice affect brand advocacy? Online brand advocacy behaviors as a response to hotel customers’ justice perceptions

This study focuses on customers' information-sharing behavior in the context of online brand advocacy behavior regarding hotel brands. We aim to explain hotel customers' online brand advocacy behavior through three-sided justice evaluations (i.e., justice for employees, justice for the self, and global belief in a just world), and their hotel satisfaction. Hypotheses are tested by using survey data acquired from 688 individuals on Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk) through partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The findings show that customers' perceptions of justice for the self positively affect their hotel satisfaction, perceptions of justice for employees and the global belief in a just world positively affect online brand advocacy behavior, and hotel satisfaction also positively affects online brand advocacy behavior. We expand current research efforts on online brand advocacy research and provide theoretical and managerial implications for the development of marketing and management research and practice.     

Obesity of politicians and corruption in Ukraine in 2000–2020– Reply

We collected 469 frontal face images of Ukrainian cabinet ministers who were in office in 2000–2020. For each image, the minister's body mass index was estimated using a computer vision algorithm. The time series of median estimated body mass index of cabinet ministers co-moves over time with two existing measures of corruption – World Bank worldwide governance indicator Control of Corruption, and the discrepancy between the quantity of luxury wristwatches exported from Switzerland to Ukraine (reported by Swiss statistics) and the corresponding quantity imported by Ukraine from Switzerland (reported by Ukrainian statistics).