ZONGSHEN be dragonized ...by the world champion

Zongshen Industrial Group was founded in 1992, and now is composed of 52 totally invested or holding subsidiaries （including Zongshen Power, a holding listed company）. The number of staff member is over 18 thousand and total assets exceed RMB 4 billion Yuan.     

Russia cannot be understood by the mind alone…

These words by the 19th-century Russian poet Fyodor Tyutchev still resonate today. Russian is beyond comprehension; it can only be felt. And to do that, you have to come to Russian, see Russian, travel through Russian.     

Can the HM-test be brought to an end?

A significant change seen in the new regulatory framework for communications markets regards issues of market delineation. Relevant markets according to the new regulatory framework should be defined in accordance with competition law methodology/principles, most notably the so-called Hypothetical Monopolist Test (HM-test). Our discussion points to the conceptual and practical difficulties associated with evaluating the effects of a 5–10% price increase on the costs and therefore on the profitability of a hypothetical monopolist. Applying our analysis to fixed retail voice telephony markets we show that, in the presence of scale economies, final results crucially depend on assumptions about the cost function, in particular the relation of variable to fixed costs and the resulting (competitive) margin. The latter, in turn, will depend on the time horizon that is deemed to be relevant for market delineation purposes. Overall quantitative techniques applied to carry out the HM-test rigorously on empirical grounds are highly sensible to those assumptions a priori even if one assumes that (empirical) estimates of elasticities can be derived reasonably.*The views expressed are those of the authors and do not represent those of RTR or TKK.     

Searching for investments—the race is on,the runners should be wary

Competition among countries to attract foreign investment is heating up as governments seek solutions to high unemployment, sluggish growth, and low foreign exchange earnings. However, enticements may not be all they're made out to be.     

Shall DAD 798 Still be 798 in the Future？

Speaking of 798, it is never to be a strange place for the readers. Now as a new travel landmark of Beijing, it entertains hundreds of thousands of tourists every day. For most people, it is a scenic spot, but actually, its real identity should be a cultural industrial park, which is regarded as the successful mod el for the development of the cultural industrial parks. And now it is also listed as one of the top 10 cultural creativity industrial parks in Beijing. But how are the culture dealers running their business right now？ How do they feel about the DAD＇s development？ The reporter of China＇s Foreign Trade visited some of them for answers, but the results are a little bit surprising.     

China＇s Capital Market： Could it be the Best in the World？

＂The share-list of China＇s stock market this year is bound to reach 3000 points.＂ ＂Before or after the Beijing Olympic Games, another upward fluctuation of the stock market is sure to emerge in China.＂ ＂The latest statistics show that the total market value of the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock market have surpassed the mark of 10 trillion RMB, surpassing 50% of GDP.＂ ＂Having successfully completed the reform of China＇s stock market, China has achieved a full revolution.＂     

Will China Continue to be the Engine of the World＇ s Economy？.

No one has an answer as to whether China＇ s economy will keep chugging along and remain the engine of the world＇ s economy. I for one am very optimistic as to the country＇ s growth prospects
With economic data consisting of mixed signals, it＇ s really a challenge to definitively know how China＇ s economy is really performing, and where it s headed.     

To be，or not to be

中国参加G6可以更加直接地维护谈判利益,更好地培养和锻炼谈判队伍,但同时让步的压力也相应加大,要考虑的利益也更加复杂。     

Situational Moral Disengagement: Can the Effects of Self-Interest be Mitigated?

Self-interest has long been recognized as a powerful human motive. Yet, much remains to be understood about the thinking behind self-interested pursuits. Drawing from multiple literatures, we propose that situations high in opportunity for self-interested gain trigger a type of moral cognition called moral disengagement that allows the individual to more easily disengage internalized moral standards. We also theorize two countervailing forces—situational harm to others and dispositional conscientiousness—that may weaken the effects of personal gain on morally disengaged reasoning. We test our hypotheses in two studies using qualitative and quantitative data and complementary research methods and design. We demonstrate that when personal gain incentives are relatively moderate, reminders of harm to others can reduce the likelihood that employees will morally disengage. Furthermore, when strong personal gain incentives are present in a situation, highly conscientious individuals are less apt than their counterparts to engage in morally disengaged reasoning.     

Boom and bust in the Baltic countries — Lessons to be learnt

For the first seven years of this decade, the Baltic countries experienced very rapid GDP growth. In 2007, though, the boom period turned to bust as country-specific factors such as the slowdown in credit growth dampened domestic demand growth. This was followed by the international financial crisis, which further limited the availability of foreign capital and pushed the Baltic countries into severe recession. This article looks in particular at the role of public finances, the impact of the fixed exchange-rate regimes and the need for a more balanced growth pattern in the future.     

Eu widening to the East: Must latin America be concerned?

The pending widening of the European Union to the East has revived concerns in Latin America that its trade and foreign direct investment relations with the EU may suffer as a result. Trade patterns suggest, however, that Latin America's exports to the EU are complementary to the exports of Central and Eastern European countries and the new investment opportunities in Central and Eastern Europe appear to be inducing additional foreign direct investment, rather than causing its diversion.     

Thinking of exporting?: Export management companies could be the answer

With the interest in globalization, many domestic manufacturing companies are anxious to export their products. Lacking the resources and experience to sell effectively abroad, manufacturers often rely on export management companies (EMCs) to act as their export departments. How successful have these arrangements been? Haigh reports that the performance of EMCs is below the expectations of manufacturers more than half the time, but concludes that EMCs can be a very effective strategy for entering foreign markets if care is taken to select an appropriate company.     

Will the Health Care Cost Curve be Bent? Where We Stand at the Start of 2011

This overview shows the change in health care costs in the aggregate, as a share of GDP, and—along with other programs—the share of entitlements in the federal budget. These trends are unsustainable. Many current proposals for reform imply a one-time downward shift in the curve but do not affect its long-run shape. Thus, they simply postpone consequences for a few years rather than solve the main problem. What must be done is to bend the health care cost curve so that its rate of growth is more in line with that of GDP.     

Paternalism in the marketplace: Should a salesman be his buyer's keeper?

The marketplace has become increasingly sophisticated. Products and services are more complex resulting in greater customer reliance on salespersons for guidance. The salesperson's role presumes superior knowledge with respect to the buyer because he is consulted as an expert on the quality and uses of his product. Thus, it is important that a tacit professional ethic for sales be established to protect customers from possible exploitation. The purpose of this article is to propose a realistic professional ethic for sales — limited paternalism. Limited paternalism implies that a salesman should be his buyer's keeper in the sense that he should serve the interests of his customers by identifying their needs, while disclosing all relevant information about products or services in order to facilitate mutual exchange to mutual advantage.James M. Ebejer, after studying psychology and philosophy as an undergraduate, received his M.B.A. from Oakland University in 1986. Mr. Ebejer has recently begun a sales career in the ROLM Systems Marketing Division of IBM.Michael Morden received his Ph.D. from Columbia University and is serving as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Oakland University where his courses include Medical Ethics and Business Ethics.     

北大方正：to be or not to be？

公司的生存与衰亡，正像哈姆雷特喊出的那声疑问一样：to be or not to be，is a question(生存还是死亡，是个问题)。1956年的财富500强，到1992能够在前100名中找到的只有29名，在上世纪整个80年代，财富500强中有大约230家公司(占总数的46％)，都从财富500强中消失了，而19世纪最大的100家公司，到20世纪结束的时候，只有16家仍然存在。     

Celebrity endorsement in the world of luxury fashion – when controversy can be beneficial

ABSTRACT

Can a negatively publicised celebrity endorser ever lead to favourable brand attitudes toward a luxury fashion product (i.e. a perfume)? An online experiment was conducted with a sample of 260 target-relevant female consumers where two factors were manipulated: the brand’s positioning objective (image reinforcement versus revitalisation) and the type of celebrity endorser (naturally versus incidentally controversial). Consumer attitudes towards the luxury fashion brand were generally more positive when the type of celebrity endorser was consistent with the brand’s positioning strategy, that is, when a naturally controversial celebrity endorses a brand with a reinforcement strategy and when an incidentally controversial celebrity endorses a brand with a revitalisation strategy. Furthermore, this effect was mediated by consumers’ appreciation of the celebrity-positioning match-up (i.e. the consistency between the celebrity’s persona and the brand’s strategy) but not by their perceptions of appropriateness (i.e. the traditional match-up hypothesis). Several implications suggested by these findings are developed.