The market-based dissemination of energy-access technologies as a business model for rural entrepreneurs: Evidence from Kenya

Improving access to more modern forms of energy requires supply chains that reach further into rural areas. This paper studies a supply-side intervention intended to foster last-mile distribution of energy-access technologies through local small-scale entrepreneurship. We use a staggered-implementation evaluation design to assess the impact on employment and income outcomes of the intervention, which is a large-scale program in Kenya that supports the diffusion of improved cookstoves and small solar products. The results demonstrate how trained entrepreneurs intensify and diversify their income-generating activities, often by shifting away from subsistence farming as a main source of income. For cookstove entrepreneurs, this goes along with improvements in individual and household incomes as well as perceived economic well-being. Our estimates suggest that impacts do not only differ between the two technologies but also across subgroups including gender, age, and baseline occupation. Our findings substantiate that market-based interventions can foster energy access in rural areas by supporting the establishment of local businesses. We highlight several contextual factors that are of relevance when considering the adoption of this approach.     

科技企业孵化器何以激活区域创新——风险投资与孵化基金的中介作用

完善创新生态系统、提升区域创新能力是我国科技企业孵化器建设的重要目标。基于2013-2018年中国（内地）30个省份面板数据，采用面板数据模型实证检验科技企业孵化器是否促进了区域创新能力提升，并基于中介效应模型探讨风险投资和孵化基金在其中的间接作用。结果发现：①科技企业孵化器建设显著提升了区域创新水平，但主要增加的是实用新型和外观设计专利申请授权数总量，对发明专利申请授权数并没有显著促进作用。上述结果在剔除直辖市样本、采用随机效应模型及空间计量模型的稳健性检验后依然成立；②通过中介效应模型检验发现，区域风险投资和孵化基金集聚效应是科技企业孵化器影响区域创新水平的主要机制；③科技企业孵化器对区域创新的影响在不同区域间差异较大，在东部地区的创新激励效应更加显著，而且政策工具强度对科技企业孵化器与区域创新水平的关系具有正向调节作用。     

Legally astute managers as a source of value in organizations

The legal and compliance departments in organizations have more influence than ever before. Why then are companies so vulnerable to legal liability? The problem may not be with talented legal professionals, but with the lack of legal knowledge held by MBAs and other business school graduates that make day-to-day decisions in modern organizations. Firms can close this knowledge gap and minimize legal liability by training their managers in legal astuteness—the ability of a manager to address legal issues successfully—by instilling four essential traits: respecting the rule of law, recognizing legal issues, resolving problems proactively, and reporting complex legal issues to experts. Job candidates should also be screened for traits of legal astuteness. A legally astute candidate, especially a graduate of a business school that requires legal education for all its students, can be a cultural ambassador for legal astuteness and a valuable liaison between legal and compliance departments and the candidate’s functional area. A legally ignorant candidate will require significant training and a frank assessment of the legal risk they bring to the organization. Modern firms in today’s legal environment face two choices: hire a legally astute manager now or deal with a compliance headache later.     

Large agricultural investments in Kenya’s Nanyuki Area: Inventory and analysis of business models

Many experts agree that more agricultural investment is needed in the global South to improve local food security and reduce poverty. However, there is a lack of consensus about the types of investment needed to achieve these goals. This paper contributes to the literature on large agricultural investments and corresponding business models by inventorying and analysing such investments in Kenya’s Nanyuki area. We identify four clusters of business models that differ primarily by type of production and other distinct determinants, namely: demand from markets; access to land; land tenure regime and colonial history; actors involved; biophysical context; labour availability; and governance of the value chain via private standards. The study results shed light on the factors that help or hinder implementation of large agricultural investments and shape their impacts in the context of African land use systems. The way land is accessed represents one of the most-decisive factors determining the risks and opportunities associated with such projects. We find that most investments in the Nanyuki area occur on land bought or leased from private owners.     

全国煤炭交易中心运营模式研究

全国煤炭交易中心的设立对规范我国煤炭交易市场规则、实施能源宏观调控、提升我国煤炭国际定价话语权具有重要意义。在分析全国煤炭交易中心功能定位和业务的基础上,设计中长期合同邀约、现货挂牌、现货竞价、现货招投标4种交易模式及业务流程,提出依托国家重大战略争取政策支持、加强各方沟通完善综合物流体系、建立银企合作机制与信用体系、完善煤炭交易中心协调机制、增强信息服务与风险防控能力等对策建议。研究成果对优化煤炭供给结构、规范煤炭交易市场和保障国家煤炭能源安全提供了支撑。     

优化营商环境与外资企业FDI动机——市场寻求抑或效率寻求

在优化营商环境已成为当前发展中国家引资竞争新优势的背景下,针对优化营商环境影响外资企业FDI动机的考察变得尤为重要。本文在构建企业层面营商环境指数的基础上,考察了发展中国家优化营商环境影响外资企业FDI动机的机制及效应。结论表明:优化营商环境减弱(增强)了外资企业的市场(效率)寻求型FDI动机;内资企业竞争力的增强、外资企业特惠资源的取消和加工贸易型外资企业的存在,使得优化营商环境降低了外资企业的生产率,进而市场(效率)寻求型FDI动机减弱(增强)。细分样本的考察发现,上述结论仅存在于独资企业、工业和低收入国家的外资企业中,对于合资企业、服务业和高收入国家的外资企业,优化营商环境对其FDI动机无显著影响,且生产率的中介效应不存在。本研究从优化营商环境的视角为当前中国引资政策的制定提供了更为具体的政策启示。     

National response strategies and marketing innovations during the COVID-19 pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic, different nations have adopted a variety of response strategies to fight and contain the new coronavirus. Such national response strategies can be classified into three categories based on their underlying philosophy: strict control with unlimited resources, relentless contribution with limited resources, and rough rationality with limited resources. We discuss the philosophies, characteristics, and performances of the three response strategies and when they should be adopted. We also examine what marketing innovation strategies enterprises should adopt to survive and grow their businesses in both the short and long term. This study provides important strategic implications for national policymakers and enterprises on the use of response strategies as well as marketing innovation tactics and strategies to be used both during and after the pandemic.     

Capital flows and growth dynamics in Central and Eastern Europe

This article assesses the importance of capital flows as measured by the current account balance for the growth dynamics of the EU countries from Central and Eastern Europe. Economic growth in these countries was on average relatively high before the global financial crisis but markedly lower after the crisis. Panel data econometrics using annual data for 1997–2015 point to the contemporaneous current account balance having a sizeable negative effect on annual GDP growth. Estimations using many control variables and instrumental variables suggest that the negative effect is mainly demand driven. Counterfactual simulations show that growth rates in all CEE countries would have been lower in the absence of capital flows, and this applies particularly to the countries with the most disadvantageous starting points.     

From disruptively digital to proudly analog: A holistic typology of digital transformation strategies

Recently booming academic interest in digital transformation aims to provide continuous support to managers in dealing with this important issue. However, as with all new fields, the scholarly literature is characterized by increased variability and diversity of topics covered, constructs used, and the relationships between them, resulting in an unclear and blurry understanding of the whole of digital transformation. Our article closes this gap by identifying distinctive digital transformation strategies in terms of two critical dimensions: usage of digital technologies and readiness of a business model for digital operation. The result is a typology of four generic digital transformation strategies that essentially differ in the primary motivation and target of transformation, leadership style, importance of skills like creativity and entrepreneurial spirit among employees, risks and challenges faced in the process, consequences of potential failure, and available tactics for improvement. By providing heuristics and a systematic basis for comparison of different strategies, it is our belief that the proposed framework will be useful to researchers and managers responsible for and interested in digital transformation.     

不平衡时代的创新与创业研究

不平衡是新时代的基本特征。对于创新与创业而言，正是因为时代的不平衡而孕育了更多具有时代特色的创新想法和创业机会，也正是因为时代的不平衡为中国情境下的创新创业研究理论开发带来了更多挑战。在此背景下，首先，客观环境的不平衡来自创业者的主动感知，解决不平衡问题需要提高创业者的创新、创业能力，而能力的提升离不开创业认知加工和积极心理资本发挥作用。创业者通过环境扫描进行信息加工从而引发认知变革。创业团队知识和经验异质性带来了积极的心理资本。其次，合法性是创业企业在不平衡时代中得以生存和发展的"强心剂"。创业学习、关系网络都有助于企业获取合法性、解决新企业的合法性困境。创业企业战略选择和战略导向对于创业合法性也具有直接或间接的影响。最后，创业与创新融合下的商业模式创新逐渐成为不平衡时代的研究热点。商业模式创新需要适宜的资源开发、机会开发或机会-资源一体化开发行为支持，且机会、资源的开发还离不开由"环境-组织-个体"所组成的多层次影响因素发挥的联动效应。