Cooperative and noncooperative protection against transferable and filterable externalities

Given self-protection from an undesirable environmental externality, we examine, under several conditions, the efficiency properties of cooperative and noncooperative behavior. We demonstrate that if self-protection can transfer the externality to another agent, then noncooperative behavior will lead to overprotection. If self-protection filters or dilutes the externality, then noncooperation leads to underprotection. In addition, overprotection will worsen if an agent with more relative power is allowed a first-mover advantage or if the damage function is elastic and transferability is uncertain. Finally, a reduction in uncertainty about transferability will accentuate overprotection if the damage function is inelastic. Our results suggest that coordination of protection activities among agents will enhance the overall gains from environmental policy in the European Single Internal Market of 1992. Coordination minimizes the costs of environmental protection, thereby reducing the public credibility of its foes.     

Environmental uncertainty and environmental scanning activities of nigerian manufacturing executives: A comparative analysis

This study investigated the relationship between perception of environmental uncertainty (PEU) and environmental scanning behavior of Chief Executive Officers of 47 manufacturing firms in Nigeria. The results indicated that perceived uncertainty in the environment was significantly higher for the task environment sectors than for the remote environment sectors; and as perceived uncertainty increased in a sector of the environment, scanning frequency and scanning interests also increased. The results were compared with those of prior research in the area of environmental scanning. The results show both the economic and political legal sectors of the environment to be more salient for Nigerian manufacturing executives than for their American counterparts.     

Transferability and Naturalistic Generalization: New Generalizability Concepts for Social Science or Old Wine in New Bottles?

Interpretative qualitative social science has attempted to distinguish itself from quantitative social science by rejecting traditional or ‘received’ notions of generalization. Traditional concepts of scientific generalization it is claimed are based on a misguided objectivism as to the mechanisms operating in the social world, and particularly the ability of statements to capture such mechanisms in any abstract sense. Instead they propose new versions of the generalizability concept e.g. ‘transferability’, which relies on the context dependent judgement of ‘fit’ between two or more cases instances made by a researcher. This paper argues that the transferability concept, as outlined and argued by interpretativist methodologists, is thoroughly coextensive with notions of generalizability formalized for natural science and naturalistic social science by philosophers and methodologists of science. Therefore, it may be concluded that the interpretativist claim to a break with received scientific traditions is a premature one, at least with regard to the issue of generalization.     

全球化视角下的现代服务测评体系及判定矩阵

首先,针对现代服务业在全球化趋势下系统测评的不足,对影响服务业全球化潜力的核心属性进行了测评指标体系创建和量表开发。其次,基于24个典型服务行业的调研数据,采用探索性和验证性因子分析方法,对量表内容和结构进行了验证,并根据数据结果对全球服务业进行了划分。最后表明,量表具有良好的信度、单维性、内容效度及结构效度,从而为现代服务企业测度业务特性并判定全球化潜力提供了分析工具。     

Opportunity Costs,Competition, and Firm Selection

Abstract

The paper questions the standard economic assumptions that competing economic agents have identical reservation utility levels, and that when differences in opportunity costs exist, they can be conveniently represented by fixed costs. Asymmetries in opportunity costs are considered in relation to current efficiency. The effect of this interchangeability of skills is studied in the context of the effect of entry on firm selection in a Cournot setting. It is found that inefficient firms are more likely to crowd out efficient ones when the relationship between current efficiency and opportunity costs is strong, and when the fixed costs of changing markets are high. Moreover, in the long-run, firms with intermediate cost levels are likely to induce the exit of low and high cost firms. The model sheds light on the benefits of diversification by multiproduct and multinational firms, and their relationship to skill transferability.     

Resource relatedness and the mode of entry into new businesses: Internal resource accumulation vs. access by collaborative arrangement

When firms seek to enter a new business segment, they have to decide how to best gain access to the required resources. This paper analyzes how resource relatedness influences a firm's decision between internal development and collaborative arrangement as modes of entry. We distinguish between a firm's capacity to transfer its established resources to the new segment (resource transferability) and the integration and synergistic combination of current firm resources with target segment resources in day‐to‐day operations (resource complementarity). Resource transferability makes entry by internal development more likely, but this effect depends on segment characteristics. Synergies from complementary resources can be exploited more easily within firm boundaries than across an alliance interface. However, certain partner characteristics can substitute in part for belonging to the same firm. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The spatial transferability of parameters in a gravity model of commuting flows

This paper studies whether gravity model parameters estimated in one geographic area can give reasonable predictions of commuting flows in another. To do this, three sets of parameters are estimated for geographically proximate yet separate regions in south-west Norway. All possible combinations of data and parameters are considered, giving a total of nine cases. Of particular importance is the distinction between statistical equality of parameters and ‘practical’ equality, i.e. are the differences in predictions big enough to matter. A new type test based on the standardised root mean square error (SRMSE) and Monte Carlo simulation is proposed and utilised.     

General Purpose Technology and Wage Inequality

The recent changes in the US wage structure are often linked to the new wave of capital-embodied information technologies. The existing literature has emphasized either the accelerated pace or the skill-bias of embodied technical progress as the driving force behind the rise in wage inequality. A key, neglected, aspect is the general purpose nature of the new information technologies. This paper formalizes the idea of generality of technology in two ways, one related to human capital (skill transferability) and one to physical capital (vintage compatibility) and studies the impact of an increase in these two dimensions of technological generality on equilibrium wage inequality.     

A best–worst scaling in Colombian patients to rank the characteristics of HIV/AIDS treatment

Aim: To elicit patients’ preferences for HIV/AIDS treatment characteristics in Colombia.

Materials and methods: A best–worst scaling case was used to provide a ranking of 26 HIV/AIDS treatment characteristics that were similar to a previous study conducted in Germany. In each choice task, participants were asked to choose the most important and the least important treatment characteristics from a set of five from the master list. Using the Hierarchical Bayes method, relative importance scores were calculated. Sub-group analyses were conducted according to sex, education, source of infection, symptoms, and age.

Results: A total of 195 patients fully completed the questionnaire. The three most important characteristics were “drug has very high efficacy” (relative importance score [RIS]?=?10.1), “maximum prolongation of life expectancy” (RIS?=?9.7), and “long duration of efficacy” (RIS?=?7.4). Sub-group analysis showed only three significant (but minor) differences between older and younger people.

Conclusion: This study suggests that treatment characteristics regarding efficacy and prolongation of life are particularly important for patients in Colombia. Further investigation on how patients make trade-offs between these important characteristics and incorporating this information in clinical and policy decision-making would be needed to improve adherence with HIV/AIDS medication.     

全球化背景下的国家主权让渡

国家主权是民族国家最重要的特征和最根本的属性,作为国家身份的主权是不能分割、不能让渡的,但在全球化时代下,一国不可避免的要与他国发生交往。在交往中,主权国家不可避免的要自主有限让渡部分主权。本文在阐述了国家主权以及全球化的内涵基础上,分析了全球化对国家主权的影响,最后探讨在全球化背景下主权国家让渡主权应遵循的基本原则。