Future space. A new blueprint for business architecture

Although the Internet is an essential conduit for many business activities, it isn't rendering the physical world any less important, as the failures of many Web merchants demonstrate. People need social and sensual contact. The companies that succeed will be those best able to integrate the physical and the virtual. But that requires a new kind of business architecture--a new approach to designing stores, offices, factories, and other spaces where business is conducted. The author, a faculty member at Harvard Graduate School of Design, provides practical guidelines to help managers and entrepreneurs think creatively about the structures in which their businesses operate. He outlines four challenges facing designers of such "convergent" structures, so-called because they function in both physical and virtual space: matching form to function, allowing visitors to visualize the presence of others, personalizing spaces, and choreographing connectivity. Using numerous examples, from a fashion retailer that wants to sell in stores as well as through a Web site to a radically new kind of consulate, the author shows how businesses can meet each challenge. For instance, allowing customers to visualize the presence of others means that visitors to a Web site should be given a sense of other site visitors. Personalizing physical and virtual spaces involves using databases to enable those spaces to adapt quickly to user preferences. The success of companies attempting to merge on-line and traditional operations will depend on many factors. But without a well-designed convergent architecture, no company will fully reap the synergies of physical space and Internet technology.     

东北老工业基地经济转型中的失业特征分析

在经济转型过程中东北老工业基地出现了严重的失业问题,目前下岗职工再就业问题仍未从根本上解决,失业人数仍然在不断增加,新失业群体也不断出现,甚至在某些地区或行业还出现了群集现象,重点发展第三产业、民营企业、中小企业是破解就业问题的根本出路。     

Through the organizational looking glass: you can't plan tomorrow's organizations with today's assumptions

It's hard to imagine what our industrial society would be like if, for instance, there were no factories. How would things get produced, how would business survive? But are we, in fact, an industrial society? Are factories going to be the prime production place for a society that is conserving energy and doesn't need to travel to work because the silicon chip makes it more efficient to work at home? Who knows what the impact of energy conservation and women in the work force will be on future organizations? One thing we can be sure of, this author writes, is that whatever tomorrow brings, today's assumptions probably cannot account for it. We are, he asserts, entering a period of discontinuous change where the assumptions we have been working with as a society and in organizations are no longer necessarily true. He discusses three assumptions he sees fading--what causes efficiency, what work is, and what value organizational hierarchy has--and then gives some clues as to what our new assumptions might be. Regardless of what our assumptions actually are, however, our organizations and society will require leaders willing to take enormous risks and try unproved ways to cope with them.     

Measuring the distribution of material well-being: U.S. trends

Economists with a few exceptions have automatically assumed that the important measure of well-being is income. In contrast, economic historians have broadened the measure of well-being with particular interest in mortality, morbidity, nutrition, education and leisure. When one takes this broader view of the standard of living, there appears to be a strong trend toward more equality in the distribution of well-being since the industrial revolution.Gini coefficients calculated for the distributions of lifespan and educational attainment have declined dramatically since the mid-nineteenth century for the United States. Mortality and educational differentials have also declined. Inequality of leisure time and consumption, though not as consistently measured, also show trends toward equality over the twentieth century.These trends toward equality in well-being as measured by indicators other than income and wealth seem to be generated by provision of public goods, natural boundaries to lifespan, educational attainment and leisure, and by the growth in mean per capita income. The divergent trends in the distributions of income and the other measures of well-being caution against reliance on the distribution of income to interpret trends in inequality.     

产业链:内涵、特性及其表现形式

从不同角度出发,产业链有不同的分类方法.产业链表现为静态的、运动的和动力的基本特性.从不同视角看,产业链有不同的表现形式.     

The relationship between accounting and spatial practices in the factory

During the eighteenth century, tobacco production in the Royal Tobacco Factory (RTF) of Spain moved from the San Pedro Factory located in downtown Seville to the purpose built New Factories outside the city walls. This paper examines the relationship between accounting practices and spatial practices in these two radically different factory premises. The paper explores how the intervention of detailed accounting calculations into spatial configurations and the intertwining of accounting and spatial practices provide discipline in the factory by yielding calculable spaces and accountable subjects. The spaces produced by architects in the New Factories were subsequently mediated through administrative arrangements that rendered enclosure and partitioning more disciplinary. Moreover, accounting practices were developed as a coding system to reconfigure factory space by classifying it into cost centres, quantifying activities carried out in these cost centres, and rendering spaces visible and subjects accountable. In this context, we argue that accounting practices have the capacity to function as time–space ordering devices, and, through networking with spatial practices, provide the scope for managers/administrators to enhance employee surveillance and overall factory discipline.     

The futurists' social responsibility

The fatalistic view that [the future] is unforeseeable and inevitable is being abandoned. It is being recognized that there are a multitude of possible futures and that appropriate intervention can make a difference in their probabilities. This raises the exploration of the future, and the search for ways to influence its direction, to activities of great social responsibility. This responsibility is not just an academic one, and to discharge it more than perfunctorily we must cease to be mere spectators in our own ongoing history, and participate with determination in molding the future. It will take wisdom, courage, and sensitivity to human values to shape a better world. But the time is short, for events move ever more rapidly. Now is the time to commit ourselves fully to the problems of the future of our society.¹     

国内主题公园对区域经济的影响——以大连“发现王国”为例

随着经济水平的不断提高和人们对生活质量要求的提升,国内城市居民已步入大规模休闲度假旅游的消费阶段,主题公园形成了众多消费者的偏好,成为一项极具投资前景的产业。本文以大连"发现王国"这一主题公园的成功典范为例,详述主题公园如何带动当地经济发展以及其他一些主题公园存在的问题。这对于城市及区域发展与建设具有很大的借鉴价值。     

A report of TRUSTNET on risk governance--lessons learned

During the 1990s, the current regulatory frameworks and decision making processes in the European Union for hazardous activities such as nuclear and chemical waste management, hazardous industrial facilities, food production, and genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in agriculture and health care, were confronted at both national and local levels with significant difficulties in trying to meet the different concerns of the various categories of stakeholders involved. The TRUSTNET concerted action was established to assess these difficulties and their consequences and to propose more coherent, comprehensive and equitable approaches for evaluating, comparing and managing health and environmental risks. This paper presents the outcomes of this programme. A European network of some 80 participants was established comprising an interdisciplinary team of regulators, experts and stakeholders with experience of industrial, natural and medical risks. The participants identified the main challenges to the governance of hazardous activities on the basis of a detailed analysis of some 11 case studies, and determined criteria for assessing what can be considered as 'good' governance of hazardous activities. As a result of these investigations, an interdisciplinary model describing the available approaches to governance of hazardous activities is proposed in the form of two main paradigms: Top-Down Governance and Mutual Trust Governance. Using this model the difficulties encountered by current approaches to risk regulation are interpreted. The new perspective describes how the two paradigms can interact in the continuous social dynamic to allow the maintenance of social cohesion.     

非营利组织财务管理目标选择研究

非营利组织财务管理目标的确定一直是非营利组织财务管理的难点,本文从非营利组织财务管理活动及其对财务管理的要求出发分析非营利组织财务管理的最终任务,提出将社会贡献最大化作为非营利组织财务管理的目标,并给出年社会贡献的计算公式及实现财务管理目标的具体要求。     

Location of hazardous materials plants in Israel

The study described in this article examines the distribution of hazardous materials plants in Israel during 2002–2010. In particular, it focuses on densely populated areas destined for future urban expansion, areas in proximity to rivers and water sources, and main transportation arteries. The survey identified certain hazardous materials plants (representing 10% of all such plants in Israel) as highly dangerous owing to the kinds of substances they contain, the nature of their industrial activities, and potential environmental hazards. The location of hazardous plants showed a correlation between population density and industry, with the highest concentration of plants found in Tel Aviv (30%), Haifa and adjacent industrial areas (25%), and Ashdod (12%). Significant concentrations of hazardous plants were also found in Ramat Hovav, Netanya, and Acre (Akko). From 2000 to 2010, the number of hazardous materials plants known to the Ministry of Environmental Protection increased by 62%, with most of the increase concentrated in such coastal cities as Haifa and Tel Aviv, the rest in Israel’s northern and southern (Negev) regions. Further analysis of these data revealed problems resulting from the proximity of these sites to potable and irrigation water sources and to transportation arteries. The main purposes of the study were, first, to develop a geo-tool for informed decision-making regarding the location of hazardous materials plants, and, second, to examine the distribution of such plants in Israel in order to prevent future industrial accidents. This article is part of a comprehensive study on the role of environmental policy in the planning of hazardous materials plants in Israel.     

Risikomanagement bei der Professionalisierung des Frauenfußballs

Out of economic view sports are products, which compete with other leisure activities for different stakeholders (sportsmen, spectators, media and sponsor). To professionalize one kind of sport it is important to create a high (individual) utility for these four groups. It is shown, how with the help of a chronological model – called “chain of success” – by developing of the relations, network architectures can be established, which can help a kind of sport “to the break-through”. The risks arising with the professionalization are analyzed and the management of these risks is discussed. At the end we derive from the analysis a risk-management-manual for the professionalization of one kind of sport, which is applied to women's soccer in Germany, which wants to be established after large successes of the soccer clubs and national teams on a more professional level.     

Retirement,home production and labor supply elasticities

A standard life cycle model with home production implies a tight relationship between key preference parameters and the changes in time allocated to home production and leisure at retirement. We derive this relationship and use data from the ATUS to explore its quantitative implications. The key finding is that the intertemporal elasticity of substitution for leisure and the elasticity of substitution between time and goods in home production are approximately equal, in contrast to what is commonly assumed.     

Decomposing Inequality Changes: Allowing for Leisure in the Evaluation of Tax and Transfer Policy Effects

In this paper, we present two alternative methods of accounting for changes in leisure time in decomposing the inequality effects of tax and transfer policy changes. Three components are identified: tax policy, labour supply responses to tax policy changes and other population effects. The methods are used to decompose inequality changes in Australia between 2001 and 2006. Inequality is first defined in non‐welfarist terms as a function of disposable income: the independent judge places no value on leisure. Then, this is modified to allow for evaluations using a weighted geometric mean of disposable income and leisure. This is seen to modify the evaluation of changes in important ways. The results are found to differ from those obtained using a ‘welfarist’ evaluation in terms of money metric utility, where separate labour supply effects cannot be isolated.     

小企业需要怎样的金融服务——以义乌箱包行业为例

小企业金融服务是长期探讨和研究的话题,但很少有人会从小企业具体运行的业务模式和资金流向去分析探究其资金需求的特点,本文以具有准入门槛低、劳动就业容量大、生产涉及面广等特征的义鸟的箱包行业入手去分析小企业的金融服务需求,先分析了箱包行业的业务模式、再分析箱包行业的资金特征和对应的资金需求,再是银行可根据这些资金需求开展哪些业务创新,最后得出银行做好小企业金融服务的关键点是:寻求可靠的风险控制点,把可能产生的各类风险通过合理、规范的设计进行转移消除这个结论.     

Second-best tax policy and natural resource management in growing economies

This paper investigates the exploitation of natural resources in a growing economy within a second-best fiscal policy framework. Agents derive utility from two types of consumption goods—one which relies on a natural resource input and one which does not—as well as from leisure and from natural resource amenity values. We connect second best policy to essential components of utility by considering the elasticity of substitution among each of the four utility arguments. The results illustrate potentially important relationships between amenity values and leisure. When amenity values are complementary with leisure, for instance when natural resources are used for recreation, optimal taxes on goods produced with natural resources generally increase over time. On the other hand, optimal taxes on goods produced from natural resources generally decrease over time when leisure and amenity values are substitutes. Under some parameterizations, complex dynamics leading to non-monotonic time paths can emerge.     

Airport futures: Towards a critique of the aerotropolis model

It is predicted that the twenty-first century will be dominated by air transport, both for domestic and international carriage of passengers and cargo. Thus the airport, as a driver of regional growth, is expected to become more than merely a regional gateway. Rather, it will function as city in itself, with living spaces for workers and their families, factories relying on airborne inputs and service industries located around the airport, with major road and rail infrastructure connected to it. However, the ‘aerotropolis’, as this hub for industry and driver of economic development has been called, has not yet been critiqued adequately, especially from a long-term public policy and planning perspective. This article raises concerns about three different dimensions to the aerotropolis regarding its long-term sustainability, viz., energy provision, the security of critical infrastructure and export pathways. In particular, this article argues that air transport will not replace existing components of international economic development. The authors contend that the three dimensions need to be explored in order to arrive at a more balanced view of the aerotropolis and its place in an increasingly complex global future.     

Does It Pay to Be Socially Responsible? Evidence from Spain's Retail Banking Sector

This paper extends the research on the relation between financial performance and corporate social responsibility in two respects. First, it develops a model of strategic competition that includes consumer perceptions with respect to firm social performance. It is shown that in the presence of a positive valuation of social responsibility practices by consumers, a firm that endorses this responsible behaviour may obtain a better strategic position in the market, along with higher margin, demand, and profit. Second, the model's predictions are tested with a sample of Spanish banking firms. The empirical analysis confirms that consumers significantly value other features apart from price in making deposit and mortgage decisions, particularly a financial institution's social responsibility. A more disaggregated analysis shows first, that not every CSR dimension has relevance for consumers and second, that customers equally value activities that can have a direct impact on their well‐being (e.g., culture and leisure), as well as other activities that can be viewed more generally as public goods (e.g., heritage and the environment). These conclusions are of interest in the debate about a firm's social or ethical activities. It is shown that, provided that consumers value corporate social responsibility activities, firms can improve both their competitive position in the market and their profits by behaving in a socially responsible manner. Therefore, the design and implementation of corporate social responsibility practices could confer upon firms an initial competitive advantage over their competitors.     

Perception of technological risk: insights from research and lessons for risk communication and management

Technology has become a familiar companion in all areas of life. Production consumption, administration, education, communication, and leisure activities are all shaped by the use of technologies. However, people often associate with the term ‘technology’ attributes, such as catastrophic and potentially dangerous, and tend to take the benefits of technological products for granted. This asymmetry in risk–benefit perception is one of the main reasons why many consumers are concerned about ‘hidden’ risks of technologies and why they demand stringent regulatory actions when they feel unduly exposed to potential emissions or waste products associated with the lifecycle of technologies. This situation is often aggravated by social amplification processes, by which even small risks receive high media attention and are blown out of proportion in the public arena. At the same time, however, one needs to acknowledge that many technologies have the potential to harm the human health and the environment. The purpose of this article is to review our knowledge about risk perception with respect to technologies, in particular emerging technologies, and to suggest possible strategies to use this knowledge for improving our risk management practice. Technological risk perception is defined in this article as the processing of physical signals and/or information about a potentially harmful impact of using technology and the formation of a judgment about seriousness, likelihood, and acceptability of the respective technology. Based on the review of psychological, social, and cultural factors that shape individual and social risk perceptions, we have attempted to develop a structured framework that provides an integrative and systematic perspective on technological risk perception and that may assist risk management and regulation in taking perceptions into account.     

International Banking Centers, Geography, and Foreign Banks

This essay reviews much of the recent literature on international financial centers from both economics and geography and critiques the thesis of an "end of geography." Banks have dispersed from traditional centers those activities involving frequent routine, standardized, and small-scale transactions. At the same time, the banks have kept in the international financial centers those activities involving innovative, customized, and large-scale transactions. In all of this, place still matters, but different places matter for different activities. Finally, foreign banks make their greatest contribution to their host center when the presence of foreign banks enhances domestic competition and innovation. The innovation that the rivalry between institutions induces makes the environment in international financial centers a turbulent one.