Broadband and rural areas in the EU: From technology to applications and use

The paper examines current trends and policy issues related to broadband access and use in the rural areas of European Union (EU) member states. It draws selectively on the findings of a recently completed, multi-country project focused on current and future trends in broadband provision, applications and use in the enlarged European Union.The paper reviews key aspects and examples of the research literature and policy initiatives related to socio-economic and policy aspects of broadband, especially those focused on spatial inequalities of network rollout, access and use. It presents the main trends and issues related to broadband access and use in rural areas in EU countries and considers some related implications and conclusions.     

从高速增长走向和谐发展的中国经济

本文将中国经济快速增长的影响因素归结为7方面:工业化和城市化的快速推进为中国经济长期高速增长提供了充足动力;大众消费时代来临,消费需求成为支撑中国经济持续高速增长最稳定的因素;对外开放的深化,对中国经济具有重要推动作用;高储蓄为中国经济持续高速增长提供了充足的资金保证;丰富的劳动力供给和日益提高的劳动力素质成为中国经济持续高速增长的基本要素;技术进步是中国经济持续高速增长的重要因素;“中国模式”的经济体制改革成就了中国经济的奇迹。同时,本文认为中国经济发展面临结构失衡的压力、来自分配差距扩大的压力、面临资源和环境方面的压力和人口快速老龄化的压力。综观中国经济的全局,支撑经济快速增长的因素还没有改变,只要我们认真贯彻落实科学发展观,坚持以人为本,坚持全面协调和可持续发展,认真对待、妥善处理好发展中的各种矛盾和问题,在未来10—15年时期里,中国经济继续保持7%以上的增长速度是完全可以做到的。但是,从现在所处的发展阶段和面临的问题看,今后中国最为重要、最为迫切的是要在科学发展观的统领下保持和谐发展,更加重视协调发展,更加重视经济增长的质量和效益,更加重视结构优化,更加重视深层次的改革。     

Using the economics of platforms to understand the broadband-based market formation in the New Zealand Ultra-Fast Broadband Network

The government of New Zealand is currently building a nation-wide fibre-optics network, a project known as the Ultra-Fast Broadband (UFB) initiative. The UFB network will cover 75 percent of New Zealanders over 10 years and will cost NZD $1.5 billion to the New Zealand government. The technical and economic characteristics of the new network will have a deep impact on the current landscape of the telecommunications markets. Institutional arrangements are in place for the development of the New Zealand's UFB: a government-owned agency, Crown Fibre Holdings (CFH); private investors who jointly with CFH own the Local Fibre Companies (LFCs) which will operate the UFB; and Retail Service Providers (RSP) that will provide end-user services by purchasing wholesale services to the LFCs. Relying on a normative economics approach that uses recent advances in the theory of platform-based markets with cross-network effects – also known as theory of two-sided platforms – the paper proposes a novel view of the way markets over the UFB will unfold. On one hand, the theory is used to explain the rationale behind regulatory decisions already made and their effect on the development of UFB-based markets for contents and services. Such analysis is followed, on the other hand, by the introduction of a simple taxonomy for the RSPs which provides the framework to argue about the most likely scenarios for service deployment and competition to develop over the UFB. The analytical framework reveals that the UFB ecosystem will be fraught with cross-network externalities which are the basis for regulatory decisions already adopted and the source of particular forms of strategic behavior adopted by the UFB-based market innovators.     

从创意到商品：运作流程与创意产业成长——基于“一意多用”视角

一个创意多样化利用("一意多用")是创意产业中重要的经济现象。本文提出"一意多用"概念,对其三个存在条件和两种基本表现形式进行了详细分析,进而构建了一个从创意到商品的运作流程框架,并提出"一意多用"的三种发展模式。文章还从创业理论和新增长理论两个视角分别提出了"一意多用"促进创意产业成长的独特机制。最后,从创意生成和创意开发两个基本层面提出发展创意产业的政策建议。     

Broadband and contributions to economic growth: Lessons from the US experience

The connection between broadband deployment and economic prosperity in the United States has garnered public attention due to stimulus plan funding authorized in February 2009 for broadband planning and deployment initiatives. The importance of innovation for a nation's economic well-being is fairly well understood. Through a literature survey, this article analyzes the connection between information and communications technologies and economic growth, as well as the connection between broadband and economic growth. There appears to be a positive economic impact from expanded broadband deployment and adoption. However, various research challenges including methodological problems and access to sufficiently granular data have prevented the authors from drawing more definitive conclusions from the US broadband experience. Another finding is the time lag for businesses to effectively exploit innovative broadband applications.     

From Experience Dreams to Market: Crafting a Culture of Innovation

Do certain common principles guide uncommonly innovative companies down the risk-riddled road to value creation? Or do successful innovators break boldly through the barriers to new product development along pathways of their own unique making? Karen Anne Zien and Sheldon Buckler discern a strikingly consistent model of how companies craft and sustain cultures in which innovation is nurtured, rewarded, even demanded. An article by the authors in the September 1996 issue of JPIM recounts seminal tales from the cultures of innovation consciously nourished by 12 leading-edge corporations in the United States, Europe, and Japan. Gathered through an extensive series of interviews with key personnel in the management, technical, manufacturing, and marketing divisions of each firm, the stories revealed seven traits widely shared from one company to the next, irrespective of business focus, geography, or nationality. These traits, as discussed in this article, not only serve to reconcile the culturally contradictory demands of the three critical stages of innovation—the “fuzzy front end,” the product development process, and marketplace operations—but also condition the company as a whole to sustain its innovative capacity over time. The principles at work in highly innovative companies encompass corporate as well as individual attitudes and behaviors. On the one hand, company leaders demonstrate in every decision, action, and communication that innovation propels profitability. So, for the CD project at Sony, the R&D general manager heeded “a voice from above that does not question the possibilities and absolutely believes” in the potential of the enterprise. On the other hand, actively helping individuals create a linkage between their “work life” and longer term “life work” is a crucial step in generating an environment where innovation and high productivity flourish together. Thus, a divisional chief executive at ICI/Imperial Chemicals Industries recognizes the need to “create an environment where people will work at what they are best at doing and what they like doing best.” Although the trail to successful innovation inevitably follows the unique contours of any company's environment, some universal guideposts point the way.     

Italy: From Products to Lifestyle

The Italian Trade Commision—I.C.E is the government agency entrusted with promoting trade,business opportunities and industrial co- operation between Italian and foreign companies,mostly by organizing the participation of Italian firms to international trade fairs,exhibitions, workshops and bilateral meetings,covering every year more than 100 countries all over the world.Mr.Antonino Laspina is the Trade Commisionner and Coordinator of ICE Offices in China.     

吉利：从“无畏”到“下沉”

在第四届中国品牌汽车试驾测评的现场,一位专业评委打开吉利熊猫的车门,走出时,调侃地说了一句：＂李书福闭嘴了,吉利下沉了。＂ 周围的记者和其他评委笑了。虽为玩笑,但这绝对是一句褒奖之词。     

多经企业:从电力的走向市场的--以云南滇能集团(控股)公司为例

云南电力集团有限公司(以下称云电集团)基于自身的内部资源和外部条件,经过战略思考,广泛论证,于2001年开始正式实施二次创业发展战略。主业增长和有限相关多元化发展是这一战略的基本内容。本文将通过对云南滇能集团(控股)有限公司(以下称滇能集团)发展历程的回顾,探讨在新的电力体制格局下,电力企业开展多元化经营的基本取向。滇能集团是依托云电集团原有多经企业由职工持股会控股组建的,成立的初衷就是整合资源,组建龙头企业,形成合力,实现产业化、规模化发展,全面提升传统电力企业多种产业的整体素质和市场竞争力。经过三年多的快速发展…     

Political economy of telecommunication infrastructure: An investigation of the National Broadband Network early rollout and pork barrel politics in Australia

It has been argued that infrastructure unevenness rigidifies into more lasting structures of socio-economic and political privilege and advantage. This paper focuses on telecommunication infrastructure as the backbone of the fast-growing digital economy, and raises important questions about the early National Broadband Network (NBN) rollout in Australia. The paper asks whether there was any case of pork barrelling in the selection of early release sites that enjoyed a regional competitive advantage against other localities that had to wait several years to receive the infrastructure. The answer to this question then leads to a second question about the degree to which voting in the early NBN release sites has swung following the infrastructure rollout. In order to answer these questions the paper examines the voting patterns in the earlier NBN release sites versus all electorates in the Federal elections in 2007–2013 using the data available via Australian Electoral Commission. Findings show trends of politically targeted funding, followed by vote swing in the very next election.     

加强标准化工作为我国从包装大国走向包装强国提供技术包装

众所周知，包装对保护商品、美化商品、宣传商品以及对商品的储运、销售、使用都起着重要的作用。对大多数产品而言，没有包装，就不成其商品。但我国的包装技术、包装水平、包装标准化等方面与一些技术先进国家相比还有一定的差显巨。 另外，由于包装本身不属于某一具体商品，而又是商品不可缺少的一部分这一特殊性，常常被大做文章，成为一些国家设置贸易技术壁垒的借口或手段。如何利用包装标准化这个武器有效地保护我国有关企业的利益、冲破贸易技术壁垒，是摆在我们面前非常紧迫的课题。[编者按]     

Towards a Model for Teacher Development in Technology Education: From Research to Practice

This paper reports on a series of interventions in New Zealand schools in order to enhance the teaching of, and learning in, technology as a new learning area. It details the way in which researchers worked with teachers to introduce technological activities into the classroom, the teachers' reflections on this process and the subsequent development of activities. These activities were undertaken in 14 classrooms (8 primary and 6 secondary).The research took into account past experiences of school-based teacher development and recommendations related to teacher change. Extensive use was made of case-studies from earlier phases of the research, and of the draft technology curriculum, in order to develop teachers' concepts of technology and technology education. Teachers then worked from these concepts to develop technological activities and classroom strategies. The paper also introduces a model that outlines factors contributing to school technological literacy, and suggests that teacher development models will need to allow teachers to develop technological knowledge and an understanding of technological practice, as well as concepts of technology and technology education, if they are to become effective in the teaching of technology.     

Assessing the compliance of a product with an eco-label: From standards to constraints

The new awareness of the consumers regarding environmental issues should allow companies to gain a competitive advantage by obtaining eco-labels which certify the low impact of a product on the environment. Getting such label requires to analyze a product according to rules expressed in natural language which may be difficult to interpret but also to apply when the product is complex. In order to address this problem, we suggest a method aiming at providing support to the user when checking the compliance of a product with an eco-label. The method is applied on an illustrative example of the literature.     

From products to services and back again: Towards a new service procurement logic

This paper explores patterns in the process of buying complex services. While there is currently hype about a service-dominant logic, there are also indications of a diametrically opposed logic implying the objectification of services; a goods-dominant logic. This paper investigates how buyers of different kinds of services relate to these logics and how the degree of objectification of services varies during different stages of the procurement process. By highlighting the buyers' perspectives and how services are transformed over time, the paper expands on the current knowledge of service-dominant logic. The paper is based on individual and focus group interviews with buyers at eighteen large industrial firms.     

From pond to plate: Towards a twin-driven commodity chain in Bangladesh shrimp aquaculture

Globalization of the agro-food system has led developing nations to orient their production to meet global markets. Consequently, local agricultural systems are increasingly linked to global commodity networks, and generate complex intersections and sometimes tensions. Cultured shrimp in Bangladesh is such a global commodity that connects the local producers with the global consumers starting from pond to plate via a network of diverse actors in a complex manner. Field research in Bangladesh shows that shrimp aquaculture in Bangladesh is moving towards a twin-driven commodity chain in which lead firms govern supply network, while the Shrimp Seal of Quality Organization (SSOQ), a recently emerged third-party certifier, as well as other environmental NGOs define regulatory aspects of the industry. While governance in twin-driven commodity chain offers opportunities for a sustainable aquaculture, it also poses many questions which have significant policy implications for different stakeholders involved in the chain.     

Advance Notice: From Voluntary Exchange to Mandated Benefits

This paper examines the controversy surrounding advance notice within the framework of a simple jobless duration model that is based on the differential search intensity of notified and nonnotified workers. The determinants of notice are also analyzed to evaluate whether the observed benefits are a chimera produced by sample selection, and a procedure is outlined for calculating the effects of mandatory notice using voluntary notice data