Barriers to outsourcing household services to small business

It is popularly assumed that the main barrier that prevents household services from being outsourced to the small business sector is household disposable income. This paper evaluates critically whether this is the case. Reporting survey results from 418 households in the UK city of Sheffield, the finding is that cost is the main barrier in just 38% of instances. Nearly two‐thirds of household services are undertaken in other ways either out of choice or due to the poor availability, quality and reliability of provision by small businesses. How these barriers to outsourcing household services might be tackled is then addressed.     

Involvement, satisfaction, and brand loyalty in a small business services setting

Considerable resources are expended annually on building business brands, yet the literature is virtually silent on brand loyalty in a business setting. This study examines the relationship between attitudinal loyalty and behavioral loyalty in a business services context, and attempts to identify two key antecedents of loyalty in this context. In particular, little is known about small businesses as customers, despite their significant contribution to the economies of developed nations. A longitudinal design is implemented, and data are captured on both attitudinal loyalty and subsequent loyalty behaviors (i.e., actual purchase behavior). The findings demonstrate the value of conceptualizing and measuring both attitudinal and behavioral components of brand loyalty. Specifically, the results indicate that attitudinal loyalty mediates the effects of the antecedents studied (category involvement and purchase satisfaction) on behavioral loyalty. Implications for marketing theory and practitioners are discussed, and possible directions for future research are sketched.     

交易费用的测度:理论的发展及应用

交易费用的测度是交易费用经济学从理论研究走向实证研究的重要环节,它对于比较制度分析和理解不同国家间经济绩效差异也有重要的意义.由于交易费用概念的多样性,在交易费用的测度方面仍然缺少统一的理论框架,不过近些年来宏观交易费用、微观交易费用的测度以及经验性研究都取得了重要的进展,并在应用经济学中得到广泛运用.本文对交易费用测度的理论发展和应用进行了系统的评介,并展望了未来的研究方向.     

交易费用、科斯定理与产权改革

科斯定理的多种解读都表明交易费用概念表面上具有合作的形式,但缺少分配的属性。从而导致在使用交易费用概念分析产权改革具有了片面性和内在矛盾冲突：如果交易成本太高,包括既得利益集团的阻碍、集体行动的搭便车问题等,则新的更有效的制度创新难以出现。如果交易成本太低,则承诺的不可置信会激励更多的利益集团将生产性资源投入到重新变革分配性制度的活动中,从而减少社会生产,降低经济效率。所以,国有企业的产权改革既要解决利益冲突,也要避免国家机会主义。     

Forward Integration and Innovation: Transaction Costs and Beyond

The Transaction Cost Economics (TCE) theory developed by Oliver Williamson has provided a deep understanding of factors behind the vertical integration decisions of firms. This paper begins with a brief case study of forward integration in the early years of select industries. The analysis suggests that other factors, such as capabilities, can complement the TCE approach. The paper shows how TCE has been combined with these other concepts and the Profiting From Innovation framework to provide a more complete analytical toolkit for evaluating forward vertical integration decisions, particularly in the context of innovation.     

Distance,Transaction Costs,and Preferences in European Trade

Beckerman (1956) and Linder (1961) have suggested that international trade is not determined by supply-side factors alone—perceptions about foreign countries and country preferences matter. We explore the relation between exports, cultural distance, and country preferences in Europe. The results show that several distance and preference-related variables, based on Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, income gaps, and voting patterns in the Eurovision Song Contest, are significantly related to bilateral trade. We conclude that cultural distance and preferences influence trade through several channels, both indirectly through transaction costs and more directly, as countries seem to prefer some trade partners before others.     

Data mining in business services

Data mining applies traditional statistical tools as well as artificial intelligence algorithms to the analysis of large datasets. Data mining has proven very effective in many fields, including business. This paper reviews applications of data mining relevant to the service industry, and demonstrates primary business functions and data mining methods. Typical industry data mining process is described, analytic tools are reviewed, and major software tools noted.     

如何规范小企业的会计核算

小企业的蓬勃发展对于整个国民经济都是有利的因素,但是小企业伴随着起灵活性的同时是其自身会计管理存在的一系列问题,因此加强对小企业的会计核算成为我们必须要面对的问题.     

Work in the Platform Economy: Beyond Lower Transaction Costs

Work on platforms is part of a wider trend towards the increasing fragmentation of work. It takes different forms, ranging from short spells of employment with the same employer to moving between different work arrangements to juggling multiple jobs at the same time. In all its forms, it signals an increasing job instability and is often fuelled by insufficient income from one job to cover the cost of living.     

Customs-related Transaction Costs,Firm Size and International Trade Intensity

customs are generally perceived as a time-consuming impediment to international trade. However, few studies have empirically examined the determinants and the impact of this type of government-imposed transaction costs. This paper analyses the role of firm size as a determinant of customs-related transaction costs, as well as the effect of firm size on the relationship between these costs and the international trade intensity of firms. The results of this study indicate that customs-related transaction costs repress international trade activities of firms, even at low levels of these costs. The paper identifies transaction-related economies of scale, simplified customs procedures and advanced information and communication technology as main determinants of customs-related transaction costs. It is shown that when these factors are taken into account, firm size has no effect on customs-related transaction costs. Policy implications are considered for firm strategy and public policy.     

交易成本内部化与模块化组织边界变动

文章基于交易成本理论,对模块化变革引起的交易成本内部化及模块化组织边界变动问题进行了探讨。首先,识别并界定了模块化组织边界,认为模块化组织边界是指依据模块化组织基本架构和主导规则所建立起来的关系网络的界限范畴。其次,基于模块化"竞合机制",指出了模块化组织交易成本内部化趋势,集中体现为：信息提升强化了组织运行的不确定性、频繁更替成员企业促使了组织内部合作的交易化、规则化约束强化了资产专用性的锁定。进一步地,厘清了交易成本内部化而引起的模块化组织边界变动的实质,即组织会在交易契约与协作契约之间进行二次选择,直到最优契约组合模式的出现。最后,对模块化组织边界变动下的治理问题进行了探索性分析。     

Randomized Stopping Times and American Option Pricing with Transaction Costs

In a general discrete-time market model with proportional transaction costs, we derive new expectation representations of the range of arbitrage-free prices of an arbitrary American option. The upper bound of this range is called the upper hedging price, and is the smallest initial wealth needed to construct a self-financing portfolio whose value dominates the option payoff at all times. A surprising feature of our upper hedging price representation is that it requires the use of randomized stopping times (Baxter and Chacon 1977), just as ordinary stopping times are needed in the absence of transaction costs. We also represent the upper hedging price as the optimum value of a variety of optimization problems. Additionally, we show a two-player game where at Nash equilibrium the value to both players is the upper hedging price, and one of the players must in general choose a mixture of stopping times. We derive similar representations for the lower hedging price as well. Our results make use of strong duality in linear programming.     

Knowledge-intensive business services in transition economies

Knowledge-intensive business services accounted for a rapid growth in transition economies after 1989. The growth in value added outpaced growth in employment, which indicated increasing labour productivity in this sector. Studies based on input–output tables found that development of business services was closely related to development of communication services in advanced EU member countries. The input–output analysis did not confirm this relation for Slovakia and the Czech Republic and found a medium to strong level of correlation for Hungary. Development of a market economy was likely to be a major factor behind development of business services. This assumption was tested on empirical data. The use of communication and business services could be a proxy for introduction of new technologies in production functions. The functions indicated that these industries made a significant contribution to economic growth both in advanced and transition economies. Output elasticity coefficients were quite similar in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia and the EU member countries.     

Optimal Investment and Consumption With Two Bonds and Transaction Costs1

An agent can invest in a high-yield bond and a low-yield bond, holding either long or short positions in either asset. Any movement of money between these two assets incurs a transaction cost proportional to the size of the transaction. the low-yield bond is liquid in the sense that wealth invested in this bond can be consumed directly without a transaction cost; wealth invested in the high-yield bond can be consumed only by first moving it into the low-yield bond. the problem of optimal consumption and investment on an infinite planning horizon is solved for a class of utility functions larger than the class of power functions.     

Internationalisation and innovation in the knowledge-intensive business services

This paper aims to analyse the link between the distinct degree of internationalisation and the innovation activities of Knowledge-Intensive Business Services (KIBSs). The empirical results suggest that there are differences between the groups of KIBS analysed, particularly with regards to their characteristics, innovation activities, use of source of knowledge, use of advanced technologies and value-added practices, and innovation outputs. However, these differences are not always systematic. There is a noticeable tendency for domestic establishments to perform more weakly with regards to innovation-related activities and innovation outputs than international establishments, but also between KIBS that have different degrees of international activities.     

本地市场规模、交易成本与生产性服务业集聚

本文在城市经济学理论的基础之上,尝试性地提出生产性服务业集聚的理论框架,并以全国247个城市的面板数据进行实证检验.理论分析表明,本地市场规模、工业企业平均规模(需求因素)以及交易成本、生产性服务业的专业化程度与竞争程度(供给因素)等因素共同促使了生产性服务业的集聚.实证检验证实,虽然生产性服务业主要集聚于具有较大市场规模和更优经济地理位置的中心城市,但我国不同区域引致生产性服务业集聚的关键性因素存在差异,东部城市表现为本地市场规模,而中西部城市则是交易成本.实证结果还表明,规模大的工业企业具有明显的服务外包化倾向;同时生产性服务业存在MAR溢出,专业化有利于提高集聚度.为此,本文提出了加快生产性服务业聚集的政策建议.     

物流外包的交易成本理论分析

物流外包（第三方物流）近年来在全球得以快速发展，除却第三方物流的产业技术经济优势外，还有着深层次的经济理论根源。运用交易成本理论，本文主要分析了物流外包的交易成本构成、纵向一体化与物流外包边界、物流外包的优势等问题，并从社会分工角度探讨物流外包的优势。     

Cash Stream Valuation In the Face of Transaction Costs and Taxes

The usual notion of every future cash stream having a net present value determined from a single term structure breaks down when transaction costs are taken into account, especially the sizable costs associated with short-borrowing. the difficulties are compounded by taxes, which can lead to paradoxes of disequilibrium if elementary NPV is assumed to be a rational basis for decision making. This paper systematically develops a theory of valuation which overcomes these shortcomings by accepting the multiplicity of no-arbitrage term structures that may be present for each tax class of investors, and uses the entire set of them to impute both a "long price" and a "short price" for every cash stream, regardless of the sign of the future payments. the valuation operators giving these prices are nonlinear but readily calculated from linear programming formulas.     

农户要素禀赋、交易费用与农户农地转出行为——基于江西省农户调查

在农地流转过程中,愈是具有从事非农要素禀赋的农户,转出农地的可能性愈大,转出的面积愈大。农地交易费用虽然对农户农地转出的可能性和流转面积有负向影响,但是它并没有构成农户农地转出行为的最主要影响因素。