Attitudes,norms and difficulties underlying road sharing intentions as drivers and cyclists: Evidence from the Czech Republic

Cycling-inclusive urban planning is attracting attention worldwide because of the environmental, health, economic, and transport benefits inherent to cycling from the individual and the societal perspectives. The Czech Republic is one of the emerging cycling countries that are trying to promote and support cycling, but cycling mode shares are low because of the poor quality of the scarce infrastructure and the psychological barrier of the perceived lack of safety when cycling in mixed traffic. This study takes a multimodal approach based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour and focuses on the factors underlying the willingness to share the road from the perspective of cyclists and drivers: positive attitudes toward cycling, positive attitudes toward cyclists’ behavior, social norms toward cycling and anxiety to share the road. A web-based questionnaire was tailor-designed and administered in the Czech Republic via social networks, web forums, and the Civinet network, and a hybrid bivariate-ordered model tested the behavioral framework. Results show that the willingness to share the road as a cyclist or as a driver relates positively to positive attitudes towards cycling and cyclists’ behavior, and negatively to the anxiety of sharing the road. Moreover, mediator effects are observed and a clear relation emerges between the experience on the road as both a cyclist and a driver on the willingness to share the road as a cyclist. Lastly, results show that the factors underlying road sharing intentions are related significantly to gender, travel habits, and perceived personal and infrastructure-related barriers to cycling.     

Can investors time their exposure to private equity?

Private equity performance, both for buyouts and venture capital, has been highly cyclical: periods of high fundraising have been followed by periods of low performance. Despite this seemingly predictable variation, we find modest gains, at best, to pursuing realistic, investable strategies that time capital commitments to private equity. This occurs, in part, because investors can only time their commitments to funds; they cannot time when commitments are called or when investments are exited. There is a high degree of time-series correlation in net cash flows even across commitment strategies that allocate capital in a very different manner over time.     

Modelling household conservation behaviour among ethnic consumers: the path from values to behaviours

This article tests a model that explains household conservation behaviour among ethnic consumers. Increasing immigration into Western countries has raised serious questions about the extent to which emerging ethnic communities contribute to environmental degradation or sustainability in their host countries. Previous research focused mainly on measuring ethnic consumers' environmental attitudes, worldviews and concerns, assuming that these ultimately lead to pro‐environmental behaviours. However, these studies overlooked the reality in which pro‐environmental attitudes are not automatically being translated into corresponding behaviours. This study explores the relationship between a set of factors that drive pro‐environmental behaviour, proposing a hierarchical model that depicts a flow from values to household conservation behaviours (i.e. recycling, water, electricity and energy conservation) and the intervening cognitive, affective and psychological variables. Results from a sample of 410 American Hispanic students indicate that the cultural value of collectivism influences conservation behaviour through the more specific factors of environmental values, environmental concern, perceived consumer effectiveness (PCE) and concrete environmental knowledge. Interestingly, the influence of PCE was more apparent in routine, easy‐to‐perform behaviours such as water conservation and the behavioural aspect of electricity conservation. The influence of concrete environmental knowledge was more powerful in predicting recycling, the use of electricity‐efficient home appliances and energy conservation. Implications for the promotion of conservation behaviour and consumer education as well as directions for future research are discussed.     

The role of calculative attachment in the relationship between diversity climate and retention

This study enhances our understanding of the complex relationship between diversity and employee retention. The study found that positive perceptions of an organization's “diversity climate” were related to decreased turnover intentions and found support for the proposition that calculative attachment mediated this relationship. In addition, the study considered potential interactions with diversity climate perceptions in predicting calculative attachment and found support for satisfaction with pay as a moderator, but not supervisor effectiveness. Finally, the study determined that the benefits of a positive diversity climate may extend to all employees, including White men. ©2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

商业模式创新失败的五个原因

CEO及高管团队并不热衷于商业模式创新,他们对当前的模式很满意,希望组织中的其他人都集中精力来优化它。每当提到新的商业模式或者颠覆性的技术时,他们一般仅仅视为威胁。     

The cumulative nature of the entrepreneurial process: The contribution of human capital,planning and environment resources to small venture performance

The study is theoretically grounded in the resource-based view and applied to a service industry-tourism. It examined the performance of small ventures by utilizing an integrated dynamic model of entrepreneur choices and resource accumulation. Each phase in the process is added to previous one. Findings from 305 small tourism ventures revealed that the human capital of the entrepreneur, particularly managerial skills, were the greatest contributing factor to performance. This was followed by venture type. The study illustrates the unique nature of the entrepreneurial process among small ventures, often defined as “lifestyle businesses”.     

哈佛商学院——保护公司的战略性支出

在经济衰退时期，许多经理的本能反应是削减公司各个层面的支出。由于没有对短期运营性支出和长期战略性支出加以区分，这种“一刀切”的削减行为很可能会铸成大错。我们认为，除非衰退已经威胁到公司的生存，否则经理们应该专注于寻找并克服公司运营的无效率，而不是牺牲公司的战略性项目，因为后者决定着公司的长期竞争力。     

Identifying Performance Measures of Small Ventures—The Case of the Tourism Industry

Drawing on the goal theory to effectiveness, the current research study attempts to identify performance measures of small ventures by focusing on the tourism industry and by doing so develops a conceptual model of small-venture performance in a service industry within its unique conditions. After reviewing theory and research on small venture performance measures in general and in service industries in particular, we propose that performance measures of small tourism ventures constitute a combination of short- and long-term measures. Furthermore, both types of measures include both objective and subjective dimensions. The findings, based on a cluster sample of 305 small tourism venture owner–managers that were interviewed face to face, generally supported the research proposition. The study emphasizes the importance of mapping the venture's achievements, allocating resources, and developing managerial skills to improve its performance and ability to survive in the long run.