Taking environmental partnerships seriously

Increasingly, firms are integrating environmental sustainability into their business strategies. Yet, sustainability is a complex topic and many firms need to form environmental partnerships to access additional resources—in the form of investments, technologies, expertise, public image, and/or political influence—to develop competitive advantage. Environmental partnership decisions are difficult, however, because they often need to reconcile multifaceted sustainability issues with multi-level, and potentially divergent, strategic goals. To meet their intended objectives, companies should carefully consider the type of environmental partnerships and partners that can best meet their needs. Based on a review of the literature, interviews with executives responsible for environmental partnerships, and publicly available data, we find firms engage in three main types of environmental partnerships: innovation-seeking, legitimacy-building, and policy-influencing. Each type of partnership benefits from different types of resources and partner choices. Herein, we describe the advantages of each type of environmental partnership and partners that may best support them. Given that many firms develop environmental partnership portfolios, managing multiple environmental partnerships simultaneously, we also discuss the implications of our research for environmental partnership portfolios.     

论自愿原则在《合同法》中的体现

自愿原则在民法中具有非常重要的地位,是“私法自治”的精华。我国新的《合同法》关于遵循自愿原则的规定比原来的《经济合同法》更全面、更具体,反映了我国民法与国际接轨的趋势。虽然,我国新的《合同法》在形式上仍保留一些对自愿原则的限制性规定,但却是实质自愿原则的体现。     

搜索引擎传播：品牌传播新价值

随着互联网时代的到来,搜索引擎传播成为各个广告主的宠儿,而各大搜索引擎公司不断崛起,昨天辉煌的战绩也充分显示了其独特的魅力。     

Setting the right direction

An elementary definition of management is getting work done through others. Yet, delegation seems to be a lost art. Peter Danby believes it's time to set a new direction.     

重塑有关传播的认知

在过去的五到十年中,整合传播的策略,从一个大创意主导整合营销的框架,不断转向一个全渠道整合、媒体布局先行的框架。在营销广告科技不断创新、新媒体颠覆传统媒体生态的时代,这是个水到渠成的变化。但转变的过程,对组织和专业人员技能点的焕新和重组带来了巨大的挑战。     

快递物流只选对的

国际贸易业务流程环环相扣,快递物流就是其中一个方面.对国际贸易来说,快递物流包括国内快递和国际快递.目前,在中国经营国内快递市场的快递公司主要有国有的中国邮政所属的EMS,以及众多民营的速递公司,如申通、顺风、圆通和韵达等.     

Role of economic and political freedom in the emergence of global middle class

The study examines the role of the economic freedoms such as regulatory efficiency, open markets and limited markets, political freedom and rule of law in the growth of the global middle class through international business activity in 34 emerging markets during the period of 1994–2011. The analysis suggests that some dimensions of freedom are more critical than others in making these markets attractive locations for international business and this in turn leads to domestic growth and thus growth of the middle class in these countries. The results also reveal the existence of a feedback loop, whereby the growing middle class becomes a driving force for further expansion of international business activity and economic growth.     

Re-examination of price level differentials using economic freedom index

Findings reported in this paper provide improved explanation as to what factors are correlated with price levels across a large sample of 152 countries. The results are obtained from using a new set of variables called economic freedom indices, covering 19 years. Prior studies used income, trade openness, and productivity, which led to results with much less explanatory power compared to findings reported in this paper. We apply advanced panel data econometrics to obtain robust estimates of parameters, which, in our view, led to results with substantially high coefficient of variations close to 90%. The findings show that all the nine dimensions of economic freedom used in this study significantly account for the variations in national price levels.     

5W理论视角下的科学家精神传播实践

如何更好地弘扬科学家精神,将其传播给社会大众,已成为每一位科技工作者需要用心思考的重要课题。本文以5W传播模式为理论基础,以笔者亲身参与的“我和我的祖国——中国科学家精神主题展”全国巡展为案例,在理论与实践相结合的基础上,探索新时代科学家精神的传播方法。     

Taking strategy to the bottom line

Many companies try to connect strategy with the financial plans that actually guide managers' actions, but only a few have devised good linkages. In this case study, the authors describe the steps taken by one organization to integrate strategic and financial planning.     

Latin America: Taking the Helm

The eyes of the world are locked on Europe these days.This is understandable.After all,the storm in the euro area casts a long shadow over the entire global economy.But the IMF has 187 members,and my job is to serve each and every one of them as effectively as possible.Like so many in the region,Latin America countries have done remarkably well over the past few years.They have harvested the fruits of strong fundamentals,sound policy frameworks,and prudent macroeconomic policies and are now enjoying sustained growth with reduced vul-nerabilities,an enviable sweet spot.     

Taking Big Steps to the Future

In 2010, China and Ecuador celebrated the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations. Accepting an invitation from the Chinese government, Ricardo Armando Patino Aroca, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Integration of Ecuador, and his delegation had a state visit to China. During his visit, China＇s Foreign Trade magazine interviewed the Minister, providing his views on bilateral relations, he stated that in the past thirty years, bilateral relation haven＇t developed enough and the aim of this visit was to strengthen bilateral relations further, especially regarding the economy and travel.     

广告传播模式的变革:从显意识传播到潜意识传播

网络广告的出现使得中国广告传播模式发生了巨大的变革：传统的显意识传播逐渐被潜意识传播所代替。潜意识广告大致有五种类型：快速切换、背景反转、植入／置入、双关、声光学处理。随着认知神经技术在广告中的应用,以FMRI为代表的技术,使得潜意识广告的效果测量成为可能,尽管存在一系列道德上的争议。     

Crowdfunding: Tapping the right crowd

With crowdfunding, an entrepreneur raises external financing from a large audience (the “crowd”), in which each individual provides a very small amount, instead of soliciting a small group of sophisticated investors. This article compares two forms of crowdfunding: entrepreneurs solicit individuals either to pre-order the product or to advance a fixed amount of money in exchange for a share of future profits (or equity). In either case, we assume that “crowdfunders” enjoy “community benefits” that increase their utility. Using a unified model, we show that the entrepreneur prefers pre-ordering if the initial capital requirement is relatively small compared with market size and prefers profit sharing otherwise. Our conclusions have implications for managerial decisions in the early development stage of firms, when the entrepreneur needs to build a community of individuals with whom he or she must interact. We also offer extensions on the impact of quality uncertainty and information asymmetry.     

Music carnival hits the right note

An Expo-themed music carnival is touring the world. It involves a bunch of musical and cultural exchange programs that bring students across the planet together. The debut concert of the carnival was staged on June 26 at Fudan University in Shanghai. This was followed by a performance of Chinese student choir, dance troupe and symphony orchestra at the closing ceremony of the 20th Australian International Music Festival on July 12.