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.     

Legally astute managers as a source of value in organizations

The legal and compliance departments in organizations have more influence than ever before. Why then are companies so vulnerable to legal liability? The problem may not be with talented legal professionals, but with the lack of legal knowledge held by MBAs and other business school graduates that make day-to-day decisions in modern organizations. Firms can close this knowledge gap and minimize legal liability by training their managers in legal astuteness—the ability of a manager to address legal issues successfully—by instilling four essential traits: respecting the rule of law, recognizing legal issues, resolving problems proactively, and reporting complex legal issues to experts. Job candidates should also be screened for traits of legal astuteness. A legally astute candidate, especially a graduate of a business school that requires legal education for all its students, can be a cultural ambassador for legal astuteness and a valuable liaison between legal and compliance departments and the candidate’s functional area. A legally ignorant candidate will require significant training and a frank assessment of the legal risk they bring to the organization. Modern firms in today’s legal environment face two choices: hire a legally astute manager now or deal with a compliance headache later.     

军工研究所薪酬体系优化研究

军工研究所在国家经济和国防建设中占有重要地位,对军工研究所的薪酬体系进行完善至关重要。通过分析发现,该薪酬体系存在薪酬结构简单、低激励、薪酬体系考核和监督脱节等问题。论文在现有文献和军工研究所"三元"薪酬结构的基础上,针对具体问题建立"五元"薪酬体系方案。"五元"薪酬体系方案分别从明确优化方向、宽带薪酬策略、确定优化的目标和方法、制定方案以及考核与保障策略进行设计,为改革提供科学、合理、有效的解决建议。     

新农科建设背景下江西高校涉农专业人才培养的思考

新农科建设是新农业新乡村新农民新生态建设的必然要求,顺应了新时代社会的发展规律,致力于培养爱农业、懂技术、善经营的高水平实用技能型卓越农林新人才。"新农科"建设宣言的提出对高等院校涉农专业人才的培养提出了更高的期许和要求。目前江西高校存在涉农专业人才数量紧缺且离农化趋势严重,涉农专业精品课程少、设置不够合理,涉农专业人才培养结构与行业需求脱轨,科研成果转化率不高的问题。本文从新农科建设的角度出发,针对江西高校在涉农专业人才培养过程中出现的问题提出了相应的对策。     

军事遗产旅游资源分类与价值评估

军事遗产是重要的历史资源,尤其在历史教育、知识输出、国情教育等方面具有重要价值,因而可被视为独特的旅游资源。本文在国内外军事遗产研究综述的基础上,提出军事遗产的分类方法,共计2个大类、7个亚类、28个子类。在梳理国内外研究的基础上结合专家评价,提出军事遗产的旅游价值评估指标体系,包含要素价值、存续特征2个一级指标及游憩价值、历史价值、审美价值、社会价值、独特程度、规模程度、知名度、完整性、适游性、承载力和安全性11个二级指标,并进一步划分为可观赏性等23个三级指标。采用基于专家打分的层次分析法对指标权重赋值,形成军事遗产旅游价值评价的方法体系,并构建军事遗产旅游价值评价对比关系图,以指导资源群中的单体开发梯次。     

Schmoozers,not snoozers: Busting the Kevin and Angela stereotypes in public accounting

In contrast to the well-known stereotype of the boring, unsociable accountant, today’s public accounting professionals argue that they are boundary spanners. Working at the intersection of the firm/client interface, these professionals contend that sociability is a requisite skill for routinely navigating the many interactions they have with multiple personnel at client organizations. This research aims to address this disconnect and to confront whether the public perception is warranted. Using the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (TEIQue), we assess the sociability of 176 public accounting professionals and discover that, contrary to the stereotype, male public accountants are more sociable than males in the general population. Our analysis also demonstrates that female public accountants are no more or less sociable than females in the general population. Additional analysis shows that while male public accountants are more sociable than female public accountants, this effect is attributable to differences at lower levels of the profession and that male-female differences disappear when comparing male managers and partners to female managers and partners. Given the importance of sociability in public accounting, this research offers recruiting strategies that will help to dispel the myth of the unsociable accountant and provides training tips for enhancing sociability within the ranks.     

When does advice impact startup performance?

Why do some entrepreneurs thrive while others fail? We explore whether the advice entrepreneurs receive about managing their employees influences their startup's performance. We conducted a randomized field experiment in India with 100 high-growth technology firms whose founders received in-person advice from other entrepreneurs who varied in their managerial style. We find that entrepreneurs who received advice from peers with a formal approach to managing people—instituting regular meetings, setting goals consistently, and providing frequent feedback to employees—grew 28% larger and were 10 percentage points less likely to fail than those who got advice from peers with an informal approach to managing people, 2 years after our intervention. Entrepreneurs with MBAs or accelerator experience did not respond to this intervention, suggesting that formal training can limit the spread of peer advice.     

Enhancing adaptive transfer of cross-cultural training: Lessons learned from the broader training literature

Drawing insights from the broader training literature, we argue that evaluation of cross-cultural training effectiveness should adopt comprehensive criteria, including cognitive, skill-based, and affective learning outcomes as well as adaptive transfer. We propose that the integration of an error management supplement in cross-cultural training can enhance trainee acquisition of self-regulation skills and self-efficacy that facilitate adaptive application of learning to novel cultural situations. In addition to the traditional error management training designs (i.e., positive error framing), the current paper describes additional design elements to promote acquisition of cognitive strategies, prevent premature automaticity, alleviate concerns about error occurrence during learning, and enhance readiness to transfer. In addition, we offer propositions regarding the effects of the supplement on learning and transfer outcomes, along with implications for future research and practice on cross-cultural training.     

The effect of a tax training program on tax compliance and business outcomes of starting entrepreneurs: Evidence from a field experiment

This paper estimates the long-term impact of a short, partly personalized, mandatory tax training program on tax compliance and business outcomes of first-time entrepreneurs. To this end, we combine survey data, audit data and unique register data from the Netherlands' Tax and Customs Administration with a three year long randomized experiment. The results show that the training affects specific domains of tax compliant behavior. Moreover, it has no impact on business survival, but treated entrepreneurs have significantly higher profits compared to the control group due to lower business costs. These outcomes are partially supportive of our hypotheses developed from theories on tax compliance and mental accounting.     

War and economy. Rediscovering the eighteenth-century military entrepreneur

Abstract

The detrimental effects traditionally assigned to warfare in the development of pre-industrial economies have obscured the prominent role that military entrepreneurs played in economic development in this period. Historiography minimises the extent to which war and the concomitant strengthening of the central state provided a whole new range of opportunities for capital investment, a tendency that has been strengthened by the paradigm of Redlich’s ‘decline of the soldier-entrepreneur’ and the technological determinism of the debate on the Military Revolution among others. The aim of this introduction is to look into the background of this relative lack of interest and to reaffirm the mutual dependence of eighteenth-century state-formation and the business of war.