A “load-carrier” perspective approach for assessing tourism resource carrying capacity

To address the challenge of global tourism resources being overloaded or underutilization, there requires an adequate method for assessing the tourism resource carrying capacity (TRCC). However, the majority of previous evaluation perspectives on TRCC are limited by thresholds. This paper develops an innovative approach for assessing TRCC from the “load-carrier” perspective. TRCC is assessed by exploring the interaction between the carriers and loads of tourism resources. Chongqing city in China is employed as the case city to demonstrate the application of the established TRCC method. The conclusions are as follows: 1) This study elaborates the new connotation of TRCC from the perspective of “load-carrier”, and establishes the TRCC evaluation system based on the dynamic relationship between the carrier and load of tourism resources. 2) The proposed TRCC evaluation method is proved effective through an empirical study of Chongqing. 3) Chongqing's case unveils that the overload performance of TRCC can be dynamically monitored and predicted. By applying the TRCC evaluation methodology developed in this study, tourism managers and policymakers can identify whether it is the load or the carrier of tourism resources that affect the performance of TRCC, thereby taking targeted policy measures to eliminate potential risks of overload or underutilization.     

The impact of reverse logistics process coordination on third party relationship quality: A moderated mediation model for multichannel retailers in the fashion industry

Multichannel retailing is a widely adopted strategy in the fashion industry. Companies in this industry find it a source of competitive advantage to invest in reverse logistics infrastructure. However, limited empirical studies investigate the enablers of the relationship quality between the retailers and their reverse logistics service providers. This study quantifies the impact of reverse logistics process coordination between retailers and logistics service providers on relationship quality. Moreover, it tests the mediating role of reverse logistics service quality and the moderating role of conflict frequency in this relationship. Data were collected through a survey using a purposive sample of 241 retail store managers from the fashion retail industry of Pakistan. For this purpose, a self-administered questionnaire was developed using a five-point Likert Scale to gauge the responses. Conditional process analysis was used to evaluate the moderated mediation model. The findings showed a significant positive impact of reverse logistics process coordination on the relationship quality with a logistics service provider, a significant positive mediation effect of reverse logistics service quality, and a significant moderation effect of conflict frequency on the indirect relationship. However, conflict frequency, contrary to the hypothesis in the study, strengthened the indirect relationship. Furthermore, the moderation effect of conflict frequency on the direct relationship was insignificant. This study will help managers better understand the best practices leading to effective management of reverse logistics processes, particularly product returns.     

中国农药施用与农业经济增长脱钩状态：时空特征与影响因素

[目的]明确农药施用与农业经济增长关联状态及其影响因素,为实现"控药减害增收"的目标提供借鉴。[方法]基于2005—2015年数据利用脱钩理论和对数平均分解指数法分解进行分析。[结果]中国农业经济增长伴生大量农药施用,仅少数省域表现出农药施用和农业经济增长扩张绝对脱钩的理想状态,东北西北部分省域农业经济增长则以更大幅度的农药投入增长为代价。中西部地区劳动力规模和技术进步效应是推动农药施用与农业经济增长脱钩的因素;东部地区种植规模变化、劳动力规模和技术进步因素均是推动农药施用和农业经济增长脱钩的因素;东北地区仅劳动力规模效应成为推动脱钩的力量。[结论]推动农药施用与农业经济增长脱钩需要强化农业科技的创新与普及,完善农业生产过程中的技术支撑,推动农业病虫害监测预警,加大对环境友好型低污染农药和肥料的推广度;构建农户施药的多重约束机制,完善农业病虫灾害保险减少农户对生产过程的风险感知,发挥农业合作社对农户施药行为的规制作用,完善产品分级认证和安全准入制度;通过农地合理流转和农业机械化等方式集约利用农业生产资源;因地制宜推动农药施用与农业经济增长脱钩,结合区域资源优势和农业发展阶段有针对性地设计对策措施。     

水资源管理的供给侧结构性改革研究

根据供给侧结构性改革的背景和基本内涵,对水资源供给侧结构性改革的内涵进行研究,提出了狭义和广义的水资源供给侧结构性改革的内容。在分析水资源需求新形势的基础上,提出了水资源供给侧结构性改革的要求。根据水循环理论提出了水资源管理是推动水资源供给侧结构性改革的重要抓手,并在最严格水资源管理制度的基础上,提出了符合水资源供给侧结构性改革要求的水资源管理制度。     

Employee workplace spirituality and pro-environmental behavior in the hotel industry

Pro-environmental behaviors in the workplace are less investigated than those in the public and private spheres. With this in mind, and through the values framework of workplace spirituality (WPS), synthesizing the theories of connectedness and organizational citizenship, the current study proposed a theoretical model to gauge the influence of WPS, a relatively new area of inquiry in organizational research and a neglected field in tourism and hospitality, on hotel employees’ organizational citizenship behavior for the environment (OCBE). In this framework, the emerging concept of connectedness to nature (CNS) – a strong cognitive and affective predictor of pro-environmental behavior – was depicted as a mediator, and the construct of environmental awareness (EA) was deemed a moderator. The intended model received support through empirical testing, and results confirmed that WPS is significantly associated with employees’ OCBE, and CNS indirectly affects the relationship between WPS and OCBE, while EA functions as a booster. The theoretical and practical implications of the study were discussed, and a series of contributory managerial implications were described accordingly.     

信息传播培养理论视域下的农户亲环境行为研究——对甘肃省19个县（区）542农户的调研分析

大众传播媒介及农业信息服务网络通过环保信息传播可在潜移默化中培养农户的亲环境价值观，进而影响农户的亲环境行为。基于信息传播培养理论，整合计划行为理论和“信念—价值—规范”理论构建亲环境行为理论模型，并采用甘肃省19个县（区）542户样本农户的调研数据进行验证，结果显示：环保信息的有效传播可以潜移默化地强化农户的亲环境价值观，农户的亲环境价值观、行为态度、主观规范、知觉行为控制及责任归属均对其亲环境行为有显著的正向预测作用，农户经营规模和专业化水平对其亲环境行为也有显著正向影响。应提高农户生产经营的规模化和专业化程度，加强对农户亲环境价值观及主体责任认知、亲环境行为知识和技能等方面的教育和培训，并充分发挥农村干部、党员、能人等的带头示范作用，以有效促进农户亲环境行为。     

Employee brand engagement on social media: Managing optimism and commonality

This article considers how employees engage with B2B firms on social media, a topic that is largely overlooked in the extant brand engagement literature. Using the results from a large-scale study of employee brand engagement on social media, we identify two key drivers of employee brand engagement using the content analysis tool DICTION—namely, optimism and commonality. Employees of top-ranked and -rated firms express higher levels of optimism and commonality in their reviews of their employers on social media than do their counterparts in bottom-ranked and -rated firms. This permits the construction of a 2 × 2 matrix that allows managers to diagnose strategies for increasing or improving employee brand engagement. This creates four different kinds of employee brand engagement situations, and offers human resources and marketing managers different strategies in each case. We demonstrate how practitioners and scholars can shed new light on the way stakeholders engage with brands.     

Flow Signals: Evidence from Patent and Alliance Portfolios in the US Biopharmaceutical Industry

Integrating signalling theory and the portfolio diversity literature, we theorize that diversity in a firm's patent and alliance portfolios sends contrasting flow signals impacting its market value in a nuanced way. Diversity in an alliance portfolio mediates the patent portfolio diversity – market value relationship by suppressing the negative effect of patent portfolio diversity creating an overall positive effect. We test our mediation model on a longitudinal set of 225 US biopharmaceutical firms that were awarded 17,078 patents and participated in 37,744 alliances between 1990 and 2006. Our theory and findings contribute three novel insights. First, we demonstrate the value of a temporal lens in explaining why diversity in a firm's patent and alliance portfolios send flow signals that establish expectations among market observers and have performance implications. Second, establishing that patent and alliance portfolio diversity are temporally sequenced provides compelling evidence for the value of studying multiple types of portfolios, their temporal relationships and effects on firm outcomes. Third, since diversity in a firm's portfolios can send contrasting flow signals conditioned on the cognitive demands and proximity involved in interpreting the signals, firms that do not maintain a ‘signalling fit’ with market observers increase the probability of unintentional negative signalling effects.     

Dual boundary spanning: Toward a typology of outside‐in open innovation in the Canadian context

The extant literature runs short in understanding openness of innovation regarding and the different pathways along which internal and external knowledge resources can be combined. This study proposes a unique typology for outside‐in innovations based on two distinct ways of boundary spanning: whether an innovation idea is created internally or externally and whether an innovation process relies on external knowledge resources. This yields four possible types of innovation, which represent the nuanced variation of outside‐in innovations. Using historical data from Canada for 1945–1980, this study unveils different implications of these innovation types for different levels of innovation novelty. Copyright © 2016 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.