Offshore outsourcing of professional services: A transaction cost economics perspective

This research utilizes the framework of transaction cost economics (TCE) to develop an understanding of how firms manage the costs and risks of offshore outsourcing of professional services. This research examines the perspectives of eight organizations through interviews with 10 high-ranking supply management executives. The paper first explores the rationale for offshore outsourcing among the organizations studied. Using the tenants of TCE, this paper postulates that fixed costs of establishing the relationship dominate the variable costs of day-to-day transactions, and that organizations will not offshore outsource areas where there is high perceived degree of unmanageable risk. The paper expands on themes provided by TCE and offers some lessons learned, and guidelines for managing and controlling offshore outsourced services relationships.     

Life cycle management: Integrated approach towards corporate environmental issues

An integrated approach towards environmental management, the concept of life cycle management, is presented. Life cycle management consists of three parts: (i) integrating environmental issues into the decision-making process of the company; (ii) optimizing the environmental impact caused by the product system during its life cycle; and (iii) creating a new organizational culture to support the decision-making process. The concept was developed during the compilation of an environmental management handbook for Finnish industry. The model combines a market-oriented environmental management approach, a circular value chains approach and an organizational culture approach.     

管理会计学视角下的交易成本测量

本文概述了近年来有关交易成本的概念界定及实证研究方面的研究成果,并站在企业这个微观层面对交易成本进行划分,指出交易成本测量在管理会计学分析方面的可行性和价值,强调了从总体测量与效率分析(主要是利用比较的方法)两个角度对交易成本进行分析.     

Life cycle assessment in the food supply chain: a case study

This research aims at assessing the environmental impact of the poultry supply chain from cradle to grave using case study research and also life cycle assessment (LCA). While a limited number of generic poultry production LCA studies have been published, fewer yet assess the whole process of a specific organisation, none comparing the increased impact of further processing. Our results show that irrespectively of the impact assessment method utilised, the process of producing portions is considerably higher in total environmental impact due to the extra raw material required to produce the same mass into retail. Our research contributes to the growing number of LCA studies and could be used by practitioners for comparison against national and international averages. From a theoretical point of view, this research provides new insights into the relationship between vertically integrated supply chains and environmental performance which has not been examined in the past.     

从演进经济学视角解读城市形成原因

从经济学演进变迁的视角,梳理不同时期经济学家对城市形成原因的不同解说,可以内在统一地解释城市的形成规律,也能给当前我国的城市发展和城市化进程以理论启示.     

Legislation to combat child labour: an international perspective

Child labour persists in alarming proportions in third world countries inspite of the adoption of elaborate legislative measures to combat it. here the author attempts to delineate the reasons for the poor performance of these measures and suggests ways in which the process of combating child labour might be hastened.     

“啄序理论”的资本成本视角

西方财务理论认为,由于风险和税收的原因,债权资本成本远远低于股权资本。因此,在其他因素一定的情况下,企业筹资应优先考虑债权资本。但实践中却存在着“悖论”现象:基于实证研究的“啄序理论”,留存收益排在债权筹资顺序之前。而这种“悖论”现象完全可以从资本成本的角度得到合理的阐释,是企业理财实践中的理性选择。     

2008年准备过“紧”日子

12月,美国那边连环减息“救火”,中国这边则重手加大宏调力度”降温”,如同冰火两重天。年底的一系列政策动作显示,2008年的资金供给肯定会比较紧。或者说远一点,未来五年经济新路将由以量取胜拐向以质取胜。换句话说,资源的利用效率要提高,资金的利用效率也得提高。大多数企业的经营,要继续过上一段紧日子。     

Comparative management accounting in Europe: an undergraduate education perspective

The article reports the results of a survey conducted in 86 undergraduate education institutions in 16 countries in Europe. The primary goals of the analysis are to provide information on management accounting courses in Europe and to investigate whether the most innovative topics in management accounting are taught. The survey targeted accounting professors across Europe, mainly members of the European Accounting Association. Data evidence similarities across countries inasmuch a very similar pool of topics is taught in different institutions in different countries. However, differences outweigh similarities when comparing the relative importance attributed to various topics within a course.     

Implementing property tax reforms in Bangalore: an actor-network perspective

Many municipal governments in developing countries are experiencing serious difficulties in dealing with the rapid growth of population in cities. Catalysed through processes of globalisation, the growth of cities, especially the so-called ‘mega-cities’, has not been matched by investments in infrastructure like roads and power due to the inability of local government organizations to collect adequate revenues from sources like property tax. Recognizing these difficulties, agencies such as the Asian Development Bank have initiated systems for property tax reforms in a number of Asian cities, including Bangalore. In this paper, we discuss the story of this reform process drawing upon the actor-network perspective on translations. We argue that such a perspective helps to go beyond studying innovation processes through the lens of ‘technology diffusion’, and provides a more interesting and insightful perspective of ‘technology translation’.     

Housing tenure transitions of older households: Life cycle, demographic, and familial factors

Understanding the housing choices of the older households will grow in importance as the baby boom generation starts to retire. This analysis utilizes a rich longitudinal data set (PSID) to provide insight into the reasons why older households make housing transitions. Because of the richness of the data, this analysis is able to control for life transitions, a household's income and wealth, and connection to one's children in predicting when a homeowner makes a housing transition. The results demonstrate that age is not related directly to housing tenure choice for older households. Instead, having lower health status and being a single head of household is the important predictor of housing tenure transitions. At the same time, very few life changing events immediately lead a homeowner to become a renter, although they do influence the decision to downsize or consumer home equity. Finally, living next to one's children lowers the probability of becoming a renter or downsizing, and having richer children increases the probability of downsizing and thereby consuming one's housing wealth.     

Determinants of corporate adoption of e-Marketplace: an innovation theory perspective

Despite the growing interest and attention from IT researchers and practitioners, empirical research on the adoption of e-Marketplaces has been limited. This study identifies the factors influencing e-Marketplace adoption from an IT innovation perspective. Innovation, environment, and organization characteristics were tested as determinants of the adoption of an e-Marketplace based on a survey of 39 manufacturing firms. The findings indicate that external pressure and organizational size have positive relationships with organizational adoption of e-Marketplaces. Contrary to the prior innovation research, however, relative advantages did not have a significant impact on the organizational adoption of an e-Marketplace.     

Understanding organizational justice and its impact on managing employees: an African perspective

The past decade has witnessed dramatic social and political changes on the African continent. The present article argues that these political and social changes may spill over in the workplace in the form of a quest for justice and empowerment. Based on the organizational justice literature, the article develops a conceptual framework that advocates the integration of justice concepts in managing African organizations. It also explains how African managers can anticipate this trend by developing and implementing fair organizational practices.     

城市管理分区制的经济和社会分析

系统分析了城市分区的综合成本、收益及其量变对比关系,探讨了城市管理分区制的可行性及其约束条件,特别是城市分区制在我国城市治理中的实践意义.