Doing more and doing better are two different entities: Different patterns of family control and environmental performance

Family firms bear two types of agency costs, including type I and type II agency problems, in corporate environmental practices: (1) Outside executives at family firms hesitate to engage in environmental strategies, which can lead to drops in profits; (2) Controlling families employ opportunistically environmental management to achieve their interests. We argue that a primary cause for the agency problems lies on ineffective internal corporate governance at family firms, which can cause loss of managerial (or power) balance between outside executives and family executives. Our findings show that family firms with ownership and strategic control (FSC), which family executives and outside executives monitor and constrain each other, can achieve the highest environmental performance. Moreover, external controls, including product market competition and provincial environmental regulations, substitute effective internal control of FSC. The environmental performance premium of FSC is more prevalent when the production market competition is lower. Family firms with ownership, operational, and strategic control (FOSC) can achieve higher environmental performance within a province with more stringent environmental regulations.     

ICT Statistics at the New Millennium—Developing Official Statistics—Measuring the Diffusion of ICT and its Impact

The paper gives a short and very rough overview of the ongoing work in the field of statistics relating to the development of information and communication technology (ICT) and its impacts on the economies and on the society as a whole. It introduces three slightly different approaches with different emphasis on describing the emergence and diffusion of ICT and the respective economic and social change. These are termed the indicators approach, the new economy approach and the intellectual capital approach. The paper also discusses the basic requirements for the establishment of a new statistical system, as well as the present obstacles and problems of this work. Finally, some remarks are presented regarding further statistical co-operation in this field.     

Changes in food provision in Russian households experiencing perestroika

The purpose of this article is to describe how households in Novgorod the Great, Russia, deal with food provision in everyday life. The study focuses on changes experienced in food provision and consumption in Russian society, in order to illustrate how households respond to the transformation towards a market economy. The study reflects women's perspective on food provision. Students from Novgorod the Great visited 105 households and asked the women in the household to answer a questionnaire. Results from the study show that in order to cope with changes in society related to economic reforms, Russian households had changed both their food consumption and food production patterns. There was no big difference between urban and rural households. Nearly all of the households were self‐sufficient in the provision of vegetables and potatoes. Many households had a ‘dacha’ (plot), where they produced most of what they needed. Among the changes experienced during recent years (i.e. during the end of the 1990s), a decade after perestroika was initiated, households mentioned the rise in food prices and the decrease of income. Households reported that they consumed less fruit and/or meat. Some households also mentioned that the quality of nourishment had decreased, thereby indicating lower general quality, lower nutrition value, or less healthy foodstuffs.     

论全面推进农村小康社会建设

我国新世纪“全面建设小康社会”的奋斗目标和纲领,是邓小平“小康”思想的进一步丰富和发展。从目前的经济发展和人们生活水平来看,离全面建设小康社会目标最远的主要是农民,全面建设小康社会的重点和难点在农村。在我国农村,全面建设农村小康社会应从政治、经济、文化和可持续发展等方面全面推进。     

生态文明建设与社会和谐发展

当代重大社会问题几乎都与生态状况有着密切的联系,生态社会化是社会发展的必然趋向,最终必然影响到社会形态的种种变革。论述了生态社会化和社会生态化的涵义,阐述了生态文明建设与构建和谐社会的关系。把生态问题与社会问题相结合研究是一个值得十分重视的研究领域。     

中国生殖健康产业的需求与市场

根据生殖健康的内容 ,将生殖健康产业划分为两大市场和 7类产品。通过对人口、购买力和购买欲望发展趋势的分析 ,提出中国生殖健康产业市场需求潜力巨大的预测。在培育生殖健康产业的过程中 ,产业发展要素的协调、市场化的策略与步骤、多方面合作的机制是政府目前需要优先考虑的三大问题     

专业化管理的家族企业——新加坡的华人企业

通过考察大量口迷历史记录、个人访谈、文献研究及有关新加坡经济、社会的评论，研究了亚洲金融危机（以下简称危机）前后新加坡华人企业变化及其发展的持续性，表明危机前，这些大型企业由家族制管理变为专业化管理；危机后，其变化趋势有两种，一种由于面临着西方企业日益激烈的竞争，在政府密切关注下，同时也因缺乏有能力、有管理家族企业意愿的后代，家族制度已松散；另一种由于没有政府的直接管制，在危机后消极的市场形势下，为谋求生存，任用有能力的家族后代充分发挥优势，维持着传统的家族制。本文分别从市场、制度（包括文化和政府）及一些主要大公司的领导者行为分析，推导一个路径清晰、条脉分明的管理变化模式，同时提出进一步的研究方向——专业化管理家族企业的结构及政府的角色。     

论理性消费视角下生态和谐社会的建构

传统的消费观念和消费心理在目前资源和环境日益恶化的奈件下，已经难以为继。如何调整消费心理。进行合理消费已成为当前社会需要解决的重大课题。     

提高我国自主创新能力的思考

本文依据当代经济发达国家经济社会发展经验的总结,并从我国当前全面建设小康社会的客观需要出发,分析了提高自主创新能力在国家经济社会发展战略中的核心地位,提出构建体制基础和科技基础以及营造生态环境,是推行自主创新战略的基本措施。     

论高职院校学生信息素质教育

文章论述了信息素质教育的内涵和对高职院校学生实施信息素质教育的重要性及其措施。