Delineating the nature and extent of the market for agricultural commodities

In this article, an approach is suggested for defining the nature and extent of geographic and product markets for agricultural commodities relying on the concept of instantaneous causality. The markets for rice are used for the empirical implementation of the approach. The results, based on both domestic and world prices, suggests that the extent of the geographic market changed between 1968 and 1986. This has obvious policy implications.     

Internal service quality within the different Chinese subcultures: a comparison between Taiwan, China, and Singapore

Previous research has determined the different internal service quality (ISQ) characteristics in the East and the West; however, the differences within Chinese subcultures still remain unknown. The objective of this study is thus to determine whether the importance level of ISQ factors and attributes is similar within the different Chinese subcultures. The empirical results show there are significant differences between Taiwan, China, and Singapore in the purchasing function of the manufacturing industry. Internal service providers should thus be able to use the results of this research to improve the service quality they direct towards their customers. This study also offers recommendations for managers to increase the levels of ISQ in Chinese businesses.     

Aesthetic Consumption Differences in Asian-American and Anglo Subcultures:

The criteria by which three Asian subcultures within the U.S.-Chinese, Japanese, and Korean-and the Anglo subculture engage in aesthetic consumption are empirically examined. The findings indicate that there are differences in the preferences related to the various attributes of art-specifically eroticism, symmetry, and emotion-and the "packaging" of such artistic consumption, that is, the museum. These results have important segmentation and positioning implications for non-profit markets as well as the "aesthetic" elements of consumer goods packaging design for different ethnic groups.     

Subculture as learning context: subcultural music consumption as language,channel and journey

ABSTRACT

Subcultures cultivate alternative and resistive discourses and practices as well as transcendental meanings, experiences and identities. Yet, current knowledge falls short in documenting the ways in which subcultures facilitate learning. Therefore, this study empirically investigates the ways in which music subcultures offer consumers a learning context and potentially transformative process. Via an extensive online and offline ethnographic research design, the findings show how music subcultures enable learning at both the individual and collective levels. Findings reveal that the language of music awakens, the channel of music engages, and the music as journey of experiences facilitates action, navigation from one subcultural scene to another, alternative ways of knowing and critical social learning. Subcultures of music therefore provide consumers with a highly informal and unstructured experience in a participative, (inter)active, creative learning context.     

Global Location Strategy

The essence of global strategy is the worldwide mobilization of the firm's resources behind global objectives. Global companies see national markets as part of a single world market. This perception fundamentally effects their strategy, including questions of geographic location, i.e., where to locate the firm's plants and other facilities. In general, methods for evaluating geographic location have not received a great deal of attention in the literature. Those that have been forwarded focus on an individualistic country-by-country evaluation of potential sites which is at odds with the more integrative view of world markets currently adopted by global companies. This article applies and adapts portfolio screening as developed in the corporate strategy literature to the special problem of international site location. It provides a simple yet effective method for viewing the global geographic positioning of the firm relative to world markets. Secondly, geographic analysis is further developed as a tool for identifying and interpreting global competitive strategy.     

Acceptability of operations as an indicator of corporate social performance

There has been much theoretical debate on issues of business ethics during the last decades, but there has been little research which could concretise the content of these issues in terms of practical business. Although business life must frequently deal with concepts such as corporate social performance, business ethics and the acceptability of operations, the content and meaning of these concepts has remained flexible. In addition, rapid internationalisation and globalisation have introduced a number of new phenomena related to corporate social performance. An attempt at defining the concepts more precisely and searching for a potential indicator was considered necessary in order to concretise the business environment facing corporations engaged in internationalisation and globalisation. The connection between corporate social performance and stakeholder theory provides a basis for the proposal put forward here that acceptability of operation could be employed as an indicator of corporate social performance. This approach was then applied to developing a model which could be used to assess corporate social performance.     

Geographic scope of proximity effects among small life sciences firms

A large number of studies have demonstrated that proximity effects from knowledge spillovers, network externalities and other forms of knowledge transfers among like firms are geographically bounded. However, only a few studies have measured the strength and geographic scope of such externalities and even fewer have done so for firms in very close proximity. In this study, we examine the size and geographic scope of proximity effects among all life science firms that have received Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants in the US over a 23-year period while controlling for relevant regional and firm characteristics. From our empirical analysis, we conclude that proximity effects among nearby small life science firms are strong within one-tenth of a mile distance and are exhausted within a radius of 1.5 miles. By examining the location of all firms in the sample, we offer possible explanations for the narrow geographic scope of the measured proximity effects. We also explain the significance of such findings for academic research that seeks to understand the nature of spatial externalities and for public policy.     

Franchisee Selection for Social Franchising Success

Franchisee selection is a major input for franchising success. In this article, we argue that franchisee selection criteria do not differ between social and commercial franchising. They may be even more relevant for obtaining social franchising success. We discuss criteria for franchisee selection and present details of our multiple case study research to support the argument. Our study finds that evolved social franchisors do adopt similar selection criteria as commercial franchisees. In addition, constraints faced with franchisee selection among commercial franchisors are reflected also among social franchisors. We contribute to franchising literature by extending commercial franchisee selection criteria to social franchisee selection. A major managerial implication of this research is that existing franchising professionals could easily assist new social franchisors in developing their social franchisees. Future research could be study criteria weights and methodology adopted for making final selection. A new research direction could involve studying if selection criteria would differ based on (a) social cause and (b) franchisee location.     

WTO环境货物贸易谈判的最新进展及我国的对策

由于南北国家之间的利益冲突,目前WTO成员对环境货物的界定方法和界定标准问题意见不一,谈判陷入僵局。我国的法律对策应为：在摸清家底的情况下提出鲜明的WTO谈判主张,只同意就我国在贸易利益方面具有比较优势的少数环境货物展开自由化：通过缔结自由贸易协定的方法绕开WTO谈判的僵局,直接与其他发展中国家展开区域性的环境货物贸易自由化。     

Price Tests to Define Markets: An Application to Wholesale Gasoline in Canda

The concept of relevant markets is fundamental to antitrust analysis, particularly to those relating to mergers. However, defining relevant markets is sometimes difficult ot operationalize. This has triggered a substantial literature in which price tests have been used to define both economic and antitrust markets. This paper reviews some price tests and applies them in order to define relevant geographic markets in wholesale gasoline in Canada. We find that relevant geographic markets can be larger than cities but smaller than East and West Canada.JEL classification: L490, L810The views expressed here are solely thoseof the authors and are not purpoted to be those of the Commissioner of Competition, the Competition Bureau, or Finance Canada.     

Moving (Euro American) consumers in mysterious ways with African-American social dance in commercials

Dance is an integral part of culture, as is consumption. However, there is a paucity of published research regarding the effect of dance on consumption. In particular, studies on how black social dance in commercials depicts culturally defining racial tensions and stereotypes, and its effect on Euro American consumption are scant. Consequently, qualitative research was employed to survey and interview a small group of Euro American respondents. A Diet Pepsi commercial served as the research text. A consuming value system reinforced the association of the dance with consumption of individual identity as cool; fractured conformity away from the defining macro social structure; and provided for resistive self and community identities. Three contributions result from the research. First, an alternative way of seeking knowledge through dance theory demonstrated dance's value for consumer's lives. Second, Holt's 2004 work was built upon. The dance demonstrated cultural myth recreation in a “macro dance” performed in the “micro dance” of everyday life. Third, ethnographic dance premises were extended and served as the research framework.     

Client-Agency Relationships

Abstract

The increasing occurrence of client turnover and agency switching among client/agency relationships is of concern to advertising agencies throughout the world. It is proposed that small firms could provide a substantial alternative client base for agencies in order to dampen the impact of uncertainty. This study investigates the perceptions held by owner/managers of small firms toward agencies within New Zealand. We identified two groups of respondents–those who perceived agency contribution to store performance as high and those who perceived it to be low.Significant differences were found between the two group' response ratings on advertising agency services, agency attributes and selection criteria. We conclude by discussing the managerial implications of this study and provide directions for future research in this area     

我国在纳米技术专利保护过程中存在的问题及对策

纳米科技作为影响未来人类生活的世界三大新兴科技之一，是与生命科学、信息技术、并重的具有战略意义的研究领域。由于纳米技术拥有广泛的应用前景，使其在专利保护及产业化方面成为全球关注的热点。介绍了全球纳米技术的竞争态势，重点分析了纳米技术专利应用及保护的重要性以及存在的问题，并讨论了在全球形势下纳米技术专利保护的对策。     

中国文化与组织行为：本土管理研究的路径探讨

本土管理理论的开发离不开对中国独特文化的理解。但中国文化对组织行为的作用机制究竟如何，是一个亟待回答的问题。为此通过对国内外现有研究成果的系统梳理，文章首先界定了本土文化的相关概念，然后基于文化构成，从基本假设、价值观和子文化三个方面探讨了具体文化要素对组织行为的影响作用，最后从中国文化情境的双重属性出发，揭示了文化影响组织行为的制度环境效应和个体偏好效应，构建了中国文化与组织行为的关系路径，并对未来研究进行了展望。     

Revisiting the substantiality criterion: From ethnic marketing to market segmentation

This paper examines the meaning and application of the concept of substantiality for consumer market segmentation and target selection with a focus on ethnicity and minority ethnic groups. In contrast with interpretations of segment substance anchoring on some sufficient potential size to justify time and effort involved in planning, the objective is to consider key group dimensions to ascertain potential substantiality. Common criteria proposed to assess substance are essentially an exhortation to assess the value of the segmenting opportunity. An increase in producer surplus meets this requirement but this consideration is done post hoc. The challenge for market segmentation is to assess substantiality a priori. This paper presents a screening approach based on appraising minority ethnic group resources that enables such an assessment and has potential applicability to other consumer subcultures.     

中央商务区的成因问题探究

对世界各地一些大城市出现的中央商务区(CBD)现象,仅仅从城市地理发展的角度理解是不够的,CBD形成与发展更深层次的原因是企业内部分工特别是企业内部职能分工在空间位置上的集中表现,也是产业社会分工尤其是第三产业迅速发展而协同作用的结果。文章指出,一个城市CBD能否形成,能否发展,不是单靠地方政府所能“推动”和“做大”的,其形成和发展是世界范围内经济发展的产物。     

Exploring the link between obesity and advertising in New Zealand

This paper reviews the debate on the causes and potential solutions to growing obesity and whether there is a proven correlation with advertising, particularly among children. The paper first considers this debate from the context of the burgeoning literature on this topic. The findings from an empirical study with parents of primary‐age children in New Zealand are then presented. However, any kind of proposed relationship between obesity and advertising tends to be as much emotive as evidential, with for‐and‐against camps lined up to defend entrenched positions. However, it does seem fair to argue that, while advertising does present a problem in relation to food selection choice, many other issues, such as peer pressure, quality of life, in‐school food services, nearby retail outlets and social class criteria, exacerbate the problem. Thus, easy solutions based on insufficient evidence that have failed to substantiate causal effects between advertising (ostensibly) directed at children and nutrition can be seen as inequitable and, thus, ineffective in their intended aims. Although here the paper considers the problem from a New Zealand perspective, the findings may have implications for research elsewhere in the world.     

基于小世界网络的供应链中断风险传导过程研究

文章研究了供应链中断风险传导的生命周期过程,阐述小世界网络研究方法,并分析了供应链中断风险传导过程的小世界网络特性;在此基础上通过网络特征路径长度、集聚系数、顶点度和知识交流频率等统计参量对供应链中断风险传导进行分析,得出在供应链中断风险传导的不同阶段对小世界网络的统计参量要求是不同的结论,并运用MATLAB软件进行了数值模拟和分析,验证了统计参量分析的正确性,最后给出了一些有价值的建议。     

Analysing moral issues in stakeholder relations

The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework for analysing managers' attitudes toward moral issues in stakeholder relations, and to operationalise the developed framework by defining statements to be used as empirical measures in survey research. The research question, how can moral issues in business be examined with the stakeholder approach, is answered by paying attention to both theoretical and empirical viewpoints. The paper reveals that by analysing a company's stakeholder relations, we can discover the important moral issues in business. To validate the framework developed and the empirical measures which result, the development process is described in detail. The argument is that making the development process visible is an important task in validating empirical measures in survey research. As a result of the research process, a total of 50 moral issues in eight stakeholder relations are identified, and operationalised with 58 itemised statements. The final conclusion is that the empirical measures developed in this paper are suitable for measuring moral issues in stakeholder relations, and that they can later be used in analysing real life managers' perceptions of moral issues in stakeholder relations.     

Networks,Entrepreneurial Orientation,and Internationalization Scope: Evidence from Chilean Small and Medium Enterprises

During the last 20 years, the literature on internationalized small firms discussed at length the speed of internationalization, illustrating the importance of born globals. The geographic scope of small firm internationalization and its implications for international business and entrepreneurship theories has however been overlooked, especially with regard to firms based in Latin America. This study expands the research agenda on the effects of networks and entrepreneurship orientation for the internationalization strategy of small firms by examining their effects on internationalization scope. It uses survey data from small firms based in Chile. The findings suggest that the greater the number of networks utilized, the more entrepreneurs are likely to target markets based in diverse regions of the world. The study has managerial and policy implications, suggesting that nurturing diverse international networks can help entrepreneurs reach a broader number of markets.