Domestic political connections and international expansion: It's not only ‘who you know’ that matters

Former politicians on the board of directors bring to the firm domestic political connections and political knowledge. Previous research has mainly highlighted the role of contacts, without fully recognizing the role of political knowledge accumulated at home. By focusing on the effect of domestic political connections on foreign direct investment, we show that domestic political knowledge also shapes foreign expansion. We argue that contacts provided by former politicians may not be useful for foreign expansion whilst their political knowledge can be of help in countries with discretionary governments and with similar institutional environments to the one of the home country.     

Motives behind retailers’ post-entry expansion - Evidence from the Chinese luxury fashion market

This study aims to examine the motives behind retailers’ post-entry expansion in foreign markets. Through case studies of eleven participating luxury fashion retailers in China, qualitative data was collected from twenty-two executive interviews. Although their initial market entry was driven by both reactive (push) and proactive (pull) factors, the motives behind their post-entry expansion have become predominantly proactive, especially long-term growth strategies, the ambition to extend their brands and retail formats to more cities, and the experiences gained in entry markets. The desire to optimize the retail store portfolio through multiple channel strategies have slowed down the expansions of physical stores.     

探地雷达在公路改扩建工程检测中的应用

公路改扩建工程在广东省正处于快速发展时期,如何准确得到路面病害情况,是旧路处治方案制定面临的主要问题.依托开阳高速改扩建工程,采用三维探地雷达对旧路进行病害检测,得到道路表面及内部的病害分布情况,并分别与人工徒步调查路况及开挖后内部实际情况进行比对.结果表明:当三维探地雷达检测采样间距设置为2.0 cm、驻波时间设置为0.6 ms、时窗设置为85 ns时,可达到较好的检测精准度;三维探地雷达可实现对路面结构内部不同深度位置的裂缝病害进行探测,精确识别3 mm宽裂缝,并了解裂缝的发展方向及性质.     

旅游发展对城市工业化的影响及其差异性研究——以58个旅游城市为例

文章构建了旅游业发展影响工业化的理论模型，并利用2000—2016年中国58个旅游城市面板数据和动态面板模型，从总体、专业化、规模和区域等多维度，分析检验了旅游业发展对城市工业化的影响及差异性。结果表明：无论是宏观层面，还是三种分类检验，旅游业发展对城市工业化都具有负向效应。当前，中国旅游城市存在一定的“旅游诅咒”效应，阻滞了其工业化深化；分专业化研究可知，旅游业发展对工业化的负向作用，由大到小依次为旅游高专业化、低专业化和半专业化城市；分规模研究发现，中型旅游城市的最显著，小型旅游城市次之，而大型旅游城市最不显著；分区域研究表明，中西部旅游城市的较突出，而东部旅游城市统计上并不显著。这为各个旅游城市采取有效措施及时防范和规避“旅游诅咒”效应和正确处理“旅游业+工业化”关系提供了参考依据。     

基于软件无线电平台的1090ES扩容信号收发处理

随着空中交通的信息传输与新应用拓展需求不断增加，1090ES信号容量有限问题日益显现，对1090ES信号进行容量扩充是一种有效解决途径。针对一种基于脉内调相的1090ES信号扩容技术，给出了叠加调制的信号模型，研究了1090ES信号的解调解码算法；在GNU Radio+ USRP软件无线电平台上，实现了1090ES扩容信号的产生和接收处理，包括脉冲位置调制（Pulse Position Modulation，PPM）与8PSK叠加调制、低通滤波、报头检测、载波同步、PPM解码和相位解调等，并利用Matlab对实验的解码错误率和信号的频谱特性做了统计分析与仿真，结果表明了该扩容技术的可行性。     

最低工资标准、人力资本扩张与企业成本加成*

本文以人力资本扩张为切入点，构建了最低工资、人力资本扩张影响企业成本加成的理论框架，并使用中国1998-2013年284个地级市的工业企业数据进行了经验研究。结论显示：最低工资上调会显著抑制企业成本加成的提升，削弱了企业的市场势力，但该抑制效应在人力资本扩张的背景下得以缓解。同时本文通过进一步分组回归发现，最低工资标准与人力资本扩张对企业成本加成具有明显的异质性影响。因此，适度、稳定调整最低工资标准及推动人力资本质量的整体提升有助于保持企业成本加成能力及其动态竞争力。     

How a Firm's Domestic Footprint and Domestic Environmental Uncertainties Jointly Shape Added Cultural Distances: The Roles of Resource Dependence and Headquarters Attention

Even though many firms conduct most of their business domestically, international management research has remained remarkably silent on the role of a firm's domestic footprint in its internationalization strategy. We shed light on that role by exploring how the size of a firm's domestic footprint influences the cultural distance that the firm adds to its country portfolio when expanding internationally. Integrating resource dependence theory and the attention‐based view, we hypothesize that a firm's domestic footprint has a negative relationship with added cultural distance (ACD), and that domestic policy uncertainty strengthens this relationship whereas domestic demand uncertainty weakens it. We find robust support for our hypotheses in a sample of the world's largest retailers covering the period 2000–07, indicating that a firm's domestic footprint and domestic environmental uncertainties jointly shape cross‐cultural expansion strategies. Our findings suggest that ACDs reflect headquarters executives' desire to avoid ineffective foreign expansions, hinting at possible biases in studies of the performance effects of distance.     

Enhanced network effects and stochastic modelling in generation expansion planning: Insights from an insular power system

Electricity generation capacity expansion is driven by both economic and socio-political realities. Policy makers determine public infrastructural decisions, such as climate and renewable targets, and transmission infrastructure, and the optimal generation capacity expansion follows. Policy makers therefore require planning models that can determine the optimal generation capacity mix in the long run under various scenarios, including policy choices. This work presents a planning model based on linearised alternating current optimal power flow which determines optimal generation capacity expansion and operation, in a least-cost manner, given global and local technical constraints, as well as policy decisions. We apply the model to a test case of the island of Ireland, which has two weakly interconnected systems, high renewable generation targets and low storage and interconnection. We determine the optimal generation expansion and operation out to 2030 considering the effects of increased multi-area interconnection, existing fossil fuel generation phase-out and increased renewable generation targets and carbon prices. Our results find that costs and emissions are driven primarily by the decommissioning of old inefficient generation units. High renewable targets, on the other hand, render increased carbon prices relatively ineffective in reducing system emissions. Furthermore, high renewable generation targets crowd out low-carbon power generation options such as carbon capture and storage (CCS). The strategic north-south interconnection has little effect on renewable energy source installations required to achieve renewable power generation targets but does impact on security of supply and the congestion level across the island.