The major determinants of logistic performance in a global perspective: evidence from panel data analysis

The global logistics industry has grown significantly and logistics has become an important sector of the business economic system and a major global economic activity in recent years. Logistics activities accelerate economic and productivity growth. Efficient logistics is also important to a country’s competitiveness and source of employment. The purpose of this paper is to uncover and understand the major determinants of logistics performance (LP) to further lift the LP of countries. Using unbalanced panel data of 93 selected countries from 2007 to 2014, the present research attempts to critically investigate the major determinants of LP. In estimating the model, this study prefers to use static panel data approach owing to limited data. The findings of the present study reveal that (a) countries with low level of corruption and stable political environment are likely to yield a high level of LP; (b) improvement in resources supply such as infrastructure, technology, labour, and education also have a significant positive effect on LP. Therefore, institutional reforms and upgrading resources will effectively accelerate LP.     

The empowerment expectation–perception gap: An examination of three alternative models

Previous empowerment research has focused on subordinate perceptions of empowering leadership and its outcomes. Met‐expectations theory suggests that subordinate expectations of leader behaviours are essential in forming their a posteriori evaluations. To address the lack of investigation of individual expectations in the empowerment literature, in this study, we explore how subordinates' empowerment expectations and perceptions combine to influence their job satisfaction and psychological empowerment based on three alternative, theoretically derived met‐expectation models, namely, the disconfirmation model, the ideal‐point model, and the experiences‐only model. The results of a 2‐stage study of 114 respondents indicate that employees are more satisfied with their work when perceived empowerment exceeds expectations. However, both empowerment perceptions and expectations positively contribute to higher psychological empowerment. We then discuss implications and directions for future research.     

Using a dual-frame design to improve phone surveys on political attitudes: developing a weighting strategy for limited external information in Hong Kong

Quality & Quantity - In recent years, rapid increases in mobile phone ownership and decreases in landline users have led to potential biases in landline phone survey estimations. Mobile-only...     

Economic Targeting of Agricultural Beneficial Management Practices to Address Phosphorus Runoff in Manitoba

The mechanisms used to deliver agricultural beneficial management practices (BMPs) can influence the performance of these policies. Research has suggested that agri‐environmental instruments targeted based on specific economic or environmental characteristics can improve policy performance. Using a case study approach, we evaluate the relative performance of different mechanisms to target subsidized water retention pond BMPs to reduce phosphorus (P) runoff in an agriculture dominated subwatershed within the Lake Winnipeg watershed in southern Manitoba. The water retention pond BMPs were targeted based on estimated establishment costs (cost targeting), total phosphorus removal from surface water (benefit targeting), and pond‐specific benefit–cost ratios. The targeting was simulated using predictions of retention pond‐specific P removal from an adapted hydrology model and site‐specific pond construction and land opportunity costs assembled in a geographic information system database. Targeting of water retention pond BMPs has an impact on the cost effectiveness of the policy delivery with benefit–cost targeting being the most cost‐effective approach. Water retention ponds providing higher P removal at lower cost were smaller in size and on land previously used for the production of lower value crops. Le ciblage économique des pratiques de gestion bénéfiques en agriculture pour remédier au ruissellement du phosphore au Manitoba Les mécanismes utilisés pour livrer des pratiques de gestion bénéfiques (PGB) peuvent influencer la performance de ces politiques. Des études suggèrent que le ciblage d'instruments agroenvironnementaux basé sur des caractéristiques économiques ou environnementales précises peut améliorer la performance des politiques. Au moyen d'études de cas, nous évaluons la performance relative de divers mécanismes pour cibler les PGB des bassins de rétention d'eau subventionnés pour réduire le ruissellement de phosphore (P) dans un sous‐bassin du bassin du Lac Winnipeg au sud du Manitoba. Les PGB du bassin de rétention des eaux ont été ciblées en fonction des coûts estimés d'établissement (ciblage des coûts), de l′élimination totale du phosphore de la surface de l'eau (ciblage des bénéfices), et des ratios avantages‐coûts liés au bassin. Le ciblage fut simulé au moyen de prédictions du taux de suppression de P spécifique à chaque bassin de rétention obtenues à partir d'une adaptation d'un modèle hydrologique et d'une base de données d'un système d'information géographique (SIG) contenant les sites de chaque bassin de rétention et le coût d'opportunité du terrain. Le ciblage des PGB des bassins de rétention d'eau a un impact sur la rentabilité de la mise en ?uvre de politiques, le ciblage coût‐avantages étant l'approche la plus rentable. Les bassins de rétention d'eau ayant le plus haut taux d'élimination de P à moindre coût s'avéraient plus petits et sur des terrains ayant servi, auparavant, à la production de cultures de moindre valeur.     

Does reputation of sponsors matter in IPO? Evidence from Hong Kong

Contrary to other markets where underwriters perform a combined role of underwriting and sponsoring in an Initial Public Offering (IPO), IPO issuers in Hong Kong must appoint at least one sponsor in addition to the underwriters. The splitting of the single role of underwriters into two separate ones offers an ideal setting to disentangle the effects of the two roles and to examine which of the two roles—sponsor or underwriter—is more important in explaining IPO underpricing and initial volatility in the Hong Kong equity market. Interestingly, our findings provide supportive evidence that the sponsor reputation does matter in an IPO and it is even more significant than the underwriter reputation in explaining the IPO underpricing phenomenon. Given the recent high-tech fervor, our research goes deeper to examine specifically the role of sponsors on high-tech firms, with results indicating that the reliance on sponsors is higher for traditional issuers than for technology firms. We further discover that sponsors and underwriters are playing substitution roles rather than complementary roles. In order to examine the regulatory policy impact, our research also compares the role of IPO sponsors before and after the launch of the new sponsor regulatory regime in 2013. The empirical findings lend support to our argument that after the launch of the new regulations, public awareness of sponsors is raised, respect towards more reputable sponsor increases, and thus, the role of sponsors becomes more important than before.     

Potential implications of COVID-19 on the Canadian pork industry

Canada and the United States have strong economic ties and form part of an integrated North American pork industry. Canada's pork industry is export-oriented, and the United States represents a key market for both live pigs and pork. Pork value chain stakeholders include input suppliers, pig producers, transportation companies, slaughter plants, wholesalers, and retailers. There are three overriding areas of concern for the Canadian pork industry with respect to potential impacts of the current pandemic (COVID-19). The first is Canada/US trade and the ability to continue exporting Canadian live pigs and pork to the United States. The second is labor and the impact of potential absenteeism on all sectors of the pork value chain. The third is global trade, because Canada's pork industry relies heavily on exporting pork to markets around the world.     

Polycentric development in the Cape Town city-region: Empirical assessment and consideration of spatial policy implications

The concept of the ‘polycentric urban region’ has been popularised both as a theoretical concept for understanding regional urban systems in an era of reduced transport and communication costs, and as a normative policy objective in its own right. This paper explores its relevance to the rapidly urbanising Cape Town city-region. First, empirical evidence for the emergence of polycentric regional development patterns was considered. Shifts in relative settlements sizes (morphological polycentrism) over the period 1991–2011 were examined using population data, and patterns of inter-settlement interactions (functional polycentrism) were explored by analysing commuting information. Contrary to expectations, trends toward polycentric development were found to be weak. Second, the paper considers the relevance and value of polycentric development thinking for regional economic and spatial planning policy, concluding that there are insufficient grounds for policy intervention aimed at encouraging polycentric regional development or countering the dominance of Cape Town in the region.     

Segmenting and Understanding Publics in a Social Media Information Sharing Network: An Interactional and Dynamic Approach

This study segments social media publics and analyzes their informational behaviors during organizational crises. With a public-centric perspective, our study highlights how social media publics interact with each other (i.e., interdependence) and share different information through crisis stages (i.e., dynamics). Following the situational approach to segmentation, we identify different types of social media publics (i.e., influentials, broadcasters, and followers) based on their informational behaviors and their positions in an information sharing network. Crisis managers are recommended to pay more attention to publics with higher influence, namely key influentials and broadcasters. In addition, we try to understand social media publics’ changing concerns by analyzing whether and how publics share messages of different themes and forms in different stages of a crisis. Crisis managers are recommended to customize crisis communication content to fit publics’ needs, prioritize organizational resources, and maximize positive communication effect. With big data from Chipotle’s E. coli crisis, we analyzed the Twitter activities surrounding this crisis over a 6-month period. Our segmentation receives initial support from the network analysis and content analysis on the Twitter data, which lays the foundation for effective social media crisis management.     

Twenty years of Hong Kong and Macao under Chinese rule: being absorbed under ‘one country,two systems’

This paper examines the implementation of ‘one country, two systems’ (1C2S) in the two former Western colonies, Hong Kong and Macao, as a policy innovation in managing inter-governmental relations of a large, diverse country like China. 1C2S embodies internal tensions because the Hong Kong and Chinese governments have multiple and often incompatible goals. After 20 years, these two special administrative regions (SARs) of China are gradually being absorbed.