The growth of knowledge: Testing a theory of scientific revolutions with a formal model

Modern theories of science emphasize scientific revolutions rather than the traditional cumulative view of scientific progress. Thomas Kuhn, in particular, has formulated a theory of science based on the lifecycle of paradigms. Though Kuhn's theory is attractive, no calculus is offered by which the theory can be tested. This study tests the dynamic consistency of Kuhn's theory by formalizing the theory and testing it with a computer simulation model. The model plays the roles of the actors, tracing out the consequences of their day-to-day actions. Sensitivity tests are used to explore the importance of various hypotheses. Results show the theory to be dynamically consistent: The lifecycle of paradigms described by Kuhn can be accounted for by Kuhn's theory. Kuhn's theory thus passes a test to which few other theories of science have been subjected. The study shows how modeling can provide a method for testing theories even when those theories are stated entirely in qualitative terms, at a high level of abstraction, and in a context divorced from explicit dynamic analysis.     

The Law and Bioeconomics of Ethnic Cooperation and Conflict in Plural Societies of Southeast Asia: a Theory of Chinese Merchant Success

Overseas Chinese dominate merchant roles in the economies of Southeast Asia. Chinese merchant success has generated envy and hatred by indigenous populations, resulting in episodes of racial violence toward the Chinese. In order to understand the economic basis of inter-ethnic conflict and violence, it is necessary to understand the economic basis of success of Chinese merchants in Southeast Asia. The paper presents an economic theory of Chinese middleman success. Central to the theory is the idea that the Confucian code of ethics which emphasize the importance of mutual aid/reciprocity among kinsmen, fellow-villagers and those speaking the same dialect, enabled the Chinese to cooperate among members of their own dialect group to form a club-like ethnically homogeneous middleman group (EHMG) for the provision of infrastructure, essential for middleman entrepreneurship. Chinese merchants embedded in the EHMG were able to economize on transaction costs, and this gave them a differential advantage to out-compete other ethnic groups to appropriate merchant roles. The EHMG functions also as a 'cultural transmission unit' transmitting Confucian ethics to future generations of Chinese middlemen, hence maintaining Chinese merchant roles over time. The paper draws on some key concepts in the New Institutional Economics literature as well as modern evolutionary biology.     

Conceptualising environmental collective action: why gender matters

This paper demonstrates how institutions for natural resourcemanagement (such as community forestry groups), which appearto be participative, equitable and efficient, can be found lackingon all three counts from a gender perspective. It also examinespossible gender differences in social networks, values and motivations.Although there is little to suggest that women are inherentlymore conservationist than men, the distinctness of women's socialnetworks embodying prior experience of successful cooperation,their higher dependence on these networks (as also on the commonsin general), and their potentially greater group homogeneityrelative to men, could provide an important (and largely ignored)basis for organising sustainable environmental collective action.The paper also outlines the factors that can constrain or facilitatewomen's participation in formal environmental management groups.Illustrative examples are drawn from rural South Asia.     

从权变观点探讨员工参与对预算管理绩效的影响

文章通过研究不同参与情境下员工参与对预算管理绩效的影响后发现,在不考虑参与一致性情境条件下,员工实际参与程度会通过工作满意度或个人工作绩效,间接提高公司经营绩效,但在考虑参与一致性情境条件下,当参与一致性高时,员工实际参与程度是通过工作满意度间接影响个人工作绩效,进而提升公司经营绩效;当参与一致性低时,员工实际参与程度是通过工作相对紧张度间接影响个人工作绩效,进而提升公司经营绩效.     

Cleaner Production and OrganizationalLearning

The paper is concerned with organizational learning around cleaner production as a response to environmental pressures, and presents an analysis of the character, strengths and limitations of organizational learning as stimulated by four key drivers: regulation, green market pressures, quality and technical efficiency considerations, and the culture and values of those within organizations. The analysis is supported by a number of case study examples in manufacturing industry based on field work conducted between 1993-1996. The theoretical approach draws particularly on the innovation and inward technology transfer literature, which uses the concepts of 'receptivity' and 'absorptive capacity' to explain the ability of organizations to assimilate new knowledge, but is also sensitized to the contested and sometimes conflictual nature of change processes. Particular emphasis is given to (a) the importance of good linkages with external sources of knowledge, including regulators, and (b) the extent to which the organizational culture encourages a pluralistic and participative approach. The case studies suggest that weaknesses with respect to the enforcement of the current regulatory framework and the lack of sufficient financial incentives (i.e. ecological tax reform) are liable to continue to give rise to selective approaches which do not fully address the cleaner production agenda. In conclusion, the analysis of the limitations of firm-based organizational learning, particularly with respect to the need to change consumption patterns, indicates the continuing need for a wider process of social learning.     

PARTICIPATION IN THE MANAGEMENT OF PUBLIC ENTERPRISES: Experience from Greek utilities

ABSTRACT * : This paper attempts to evaluate employee and social-group participation in the management of public sector enterprises, using evidence from a scheme introduced in seven public utilities in Greece, 1983-8. It describes the institutional background and the formal directives through which this participation scheme was implemented and assesses its effects. Difficulties arising from the wider political and administrative environment are discussed. Reasons for the observed disfunctioning of the scheme are given. These refer to the structure of the scheme itself, negligence of existing experience and tradition within the enterprises, and failure to associate participation with modernization. Suggestions are provided for the implementation of more effective participative management in future .     

参与式环境下紧控制、棘轮对预算影响的实验研究

紧控制和棘轮是预算管理控制中常用的两种方法。基于实验经济学研究方法的研究结果表明,在参与式预算过程中,相对于松控制,紧控制明显地提高了预算值,降低了预算松弛;相对于无棘轮,棘轮明显地降低了预算松弛和预算完成率。且紧控制和棘轮的交互作用对预算值、预算松弛和预算完成率存在显著影响,当紧控制和棘轮同时存在时,存在着相互抵消的作用。但是,紧控制、棘轮以及它们的交互作用对业绩没有显著影响。     

网络柠檬问题的原因分析——网络企业的视角

较之传统市场,网络市场上的柠檬问题有其特殊的表现形式及原因。本文基于网络企业的视角,将网络柠檬问题的主要表现归纳为网络企业向消费者传递信息、网络消费者信息搜集这两个过程,并将其原因归纳为消费者的有限理性及群体内部知识水平的差异、网络经营者的机会主义行为、网络产品的SEC属性及网络自身的虚拟性等四个方面。文章最后提出了网络经营者可以采取的营销策略,这些策略主要包括充分利用网络中介的作用、声誉转移策略、促成产品属性的转换及顾客参与式的定价策略四个方面。     

国际创业中效果逻辑对绩效的影响：资源拼凑与创业机会的链式中介效应

初次尝试国际化经营的企业，往往面临经验缺失和资源约束双重瓶颈，从而不得不强调对手头现有资源的整合与创造性利用，即效果逻辑。已有研究虽然验证了效果逻辑与国际创业绩效的相关性，但对其具体行动和作用机制缺乏挖掘。以资源拼凑和国际创业机会为中介变量，对初次国际创业中效果逻辑与创业绩效之间的影响传递路径进行探索。结果表明，效果逻辑对国际创业绩效具有显著正向影响，资源拼凑和国际创业机会在其中发挥显著中介作用，而且资源拼凑和国际创业机会在两者间发挥显著双重中介作用。     

Community participation mode of ecotourism in Tibetan area of Shangri-La County, Yunnan Province

1. The basis of community participation of ecotourism in Shangri-La Tibetan area In 1980, the Canadian scholar Clande Molin put forward community participating ecology and cul- ture tourism in his academic thesis [1]. Based on this, Mexico scholar H. Ceballos Lascurain first used the term “ecotourism” in his book in 1983, and was con- firmed by International Environment Conference in Mexico 1986[2]. In 1993, the Ecotourism Society re- defined ecotourism and pointed out its two impor- t…     

The Delphi method as early warning: Linking global societal trends to future radicalization and terrorism in The Netherlands

A Delphi study was performed to answer the question: Which global societal trends relate to future radicalization and subsequent terrorism in the Netherlands? An inventory of two hundred global societal trends and a literature study of radicalization together served as briefing of the participants in the Delphi study. The first two rounds were conducted in anonymous writing. The third round was a face to face focus group meeting. In the first and second round participants scored the trends, adjusted their scores relative to others and provided arguments, and in the focus group meeting, themes were discussed in which the participants remained to have strong opposite views. This approach emphasizes divergence in opinion (‘dissensus’), as opposed to convergence (‘consensus’). Consensus seeking to us seems to be the dominant application of Delphi, but we emphasize the value of seeking dissensus. We hypothesize that in those cases where the opposite views that were discussed kept their ground, this Delphi study may have found early warnings of future radicalization.The essence of this paper is that it is possible, with limited effort, to get a handle on the complex and poorly defined subject of global societal trends influencing future radicalization. Application of the Dissensus Delphi method provided a selection of early warnings that may be looked into with future research.     

迁移、自选择与收入分配-来自中国城乡的证据

本文强调两个事实:第一,农村居民并非同质,他们根据自身的特征决定迁移与否;第二,那些成功地改变了户籍身份的永久移民与没能改变户籍身份的临时移民之间有着显著的差异。利用2002年的CHIP数据发现,永久移民的正选择效应非常明显,它使得农村地区教育水平较高、处于收入分布较高位置的样本减少。这导致农村的收入水平和农村内部的不平等程度降低,阻碍了城乡差距的降低。相反,临时移民的选择效应几乎可以忽略不计。     

后发优势：发展中国家对外直接投资新诠释

发展中国家对外直接投资时主要有两种优势可以利用，一是比较优势，另一种是后发优势。目前，学术界大多重视比较优势的作用，而对后发优势的理论研究及其实践价值缺乏深入地探讨。因此，将后发优势理论应用于对发展中国家对外直接投资问题的分析，把后发优势作为发展中国家对外直接投资的一种理论解说，可以在相当程度上弥补以比较优势为核心的西方国际直接投资理论的不足，从而指导发展中国家对外直接投资的发展。     

The importance of composition of fiscal policy: evidence from different exchange rate regimes

We study the macroeconomic effects of fiscal policies in an open economy. We emphasize two transmission mechanisms: the cost channel, by which wage government spending and labor taxes raise the real wage firms must pay, and the exchange rate channel, by which the nominal exchange rate shifts induced by fiscal policy have real effects if (some) prices and wages are sticky. The latter channel implies that changes in wage government spending or in labor taxation should have different effects under flexible than under fixed exchange rates. In a 1964–93 panel of OECD countries we find significant evidence for both channels. Moreover, we find that the real product wage and profitability are more responsive than quantities (employment and output) to fiscal policy innovations.     

合作型劳动关系对企业绩效影响的实证研究

合作型劳动关系对企业绩效有积极影响。在广泛的劳动关系文献研究基础上,通过内容分析、焦点小组访谈、专家法、问卷调查、探索性因子分析、验证性因子分析等方法,确立了合作型劳动关系的四个测量维度:就业保障、工作条件、参与管理、内部和谐等;并通过路径分析验证了合作型劳动关系对企业绩效的积极影响。在此基础上进一步深入探究不同所有制企业合作型劳动关系对企业绩效的影响,研究发现国有企业、民营企业、混合所有制企业的合作型劳动关系及就业保障、参与管理、内部和谐对企业绩效有显著正向影响,进一步说明企业着力与员工长期合作,有利于提升企业绩效,促进劳动关系和谐。     

Ownership effects among Native American banks, 2001-2016

Minority Depository Institutions (MDIs), including Native American Banks (NatBs), play an integral role in providing financial services to the under-served. NatBs are split between those that are Tribal owned and those owned by individual Native Americans as private banks. This research explores differences between the two, other MDIs and comparable mainstream banks, using data from 2001 to 2016. Tribal NatBs are hypothesized to emphasize community development for the under-served over profit maximization, and to take on high levels of risk. Testing uses comparisons of population means and regressions, and the overall pattern of results and limited regression findings support those possibilities.     

Who are more sensitive to procedural fairness? The impact of an innovation implementation approach,employees’ status concerns and need for control

Drawing upon research on personality, innovation and procedural justice, we examine the two-way and three-way interaction effects of people's status concerns (SC) and need for control (NC) on the relationship between a participative innovation implementation approach (PIIA) and procedural justice perceptions. The results indicate that SC and NC moderate the aforementioned relationship in a complex three-way manner. Those who have both high SC and high NC are the most sensitive to the PIIA in terms of procedural justice perceptions. The underlying psychological mechanisms are discussed.     

Causality: Its characterization in system dynamics and KSIM models of socioeconomic systems

Two methodologies—Kane's KSIM and Forrester's system dynamics—for modeling socioeconomic systems are compared and contrasted with regard to the manner in which each characterizes and classifies casuality in socioeconomic systems. The equivalence of the so-called casual diagram used in system dynamics to the cross-impact matrix used in KSIM is indicated. Each method identifies exactly two classes of casual links—the similarity between the classes distinguished in system dynamics with those employed in KSIM is suggested. Then the assumptions regarding the nature of causality that are implicit within the two methodologies are compared. In this context techniques for translating linear system-dynamics models to KSIM-like models (and vice versa) are provided. Examples are provided to illustrate the notions discussed in the article.     

On the Role of Agent‐based Modeling in the Theory of Development Economics

In this article I discuss the potential role of agent‐based modeling techniques in development economics. Development economics has recently seen a strong rise of experimental evidence from the field and the laboratory. At the same time, there is a debate on how theory should adapt to this new approach and its findings. I argue in this paper that the agent‐based modeling approach is a promising complement to the traditional modeling techniques, as it can easily incorporate the non‐standard findings of the experimental literature. Moreover, I emphasize the opportunity of a mutually beneficial interplay between experiment‐based empirical research and agent‐based models.