Soviet discussion on enterprise incentives and methods of planning

For some years a discussion has been in progress among economists in the Soviet Union on methods of securing the active and positive participation of individual enterprises in a centrally planned economy. The main theme of discussion has been the problem: how to arrange the system of plan indices, prices, enterprise bonuses, etc. to encourage enterprise interest in higher plan assignments, introduction of new technology, and improvement of quality of output. On the following pages some excerpts from this debate are reproduced. However, since the problems discussed are now engaging also the Soviet political authorities, let us first quote a few sections from one of the many official statements made in this connection. The one we have chosen is from the report given by the Soviet Prime Minister N. S. Khrushchev at the CPSU Central Committee Plenary Meeting of November 19, 1962 (Pravda, November 20).     

日本国际标准综合战略研究

2006年末,日本发布了由首相亲自主持制定的《日本国际标准综合战略》。文章首先梳理了提出这一战略的背景和战略的主要内容;其后,基于中日两国战略环境和战略愿景的比较研究,剖析了该战略中值得关注和借鉴的方面,阐述了这一战略对于中国乃至世界范围内国际标准竞争态势的影响。     

大型整体迁建工程实施策划与组织技术

目前,真正意义上的整体迁建(原拆原建)工程并不多见。本文以某大型COREX炉整体迁建工程为例,重点阐述了COREX炉整体迁建工程从组织体系、作业资源、大型机具、施工技术、平面规划以及安全、质量、进度、成本等方面的策划组织,以期为类似工程提供参考。     

Japan

As a consequence of his personal triumph in the July elections, Mr. Nakasone's term as Prime Minister has been extended beyond October when on existing rules he was due to step down. This suggests no immediate change in the economic policy of liberalising markets, control of public spending and fiscal restructuring rather than simple demand expansion. It also implies that, notwithstanding the vociferous opposition of export-oriented industry, the case for a strong yen, as a means of re-orienting demand towards domestic markets and curbing the trade surplus, is accepted by the government. Thus, despite continuing pressure from the US, Japan did not cut its discount rate over the summer. Nevertheless, with the economy flat and forecasts for 198617 being downgraded, a package of measures is scheduled for this autumn.     

How UK universities engage with their local communities: a study of employer supported volunteering

• In 2000, the UK Prime Minister pledged that employers should be encouraged to release staff for 1 day a year to undertake volunteering activity. Many and varied programmes are being set up to assist employees to volunteer, whether during work hours or in their own time. This is called employer supported volunteering (ESV). This paper discusses the increasing use of ESV and aims to provide an understanding of the key concepts of this phenomenon. An E‐mail survey was completed of all 122 universities in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. University websites linked to volunteering for staff and students were also examined. Responses were received from 65 institutions (a response rate of 53%). This initial research reveals that university commitment to ESV varies across the sector. Many universities support staff volunteering and informally encourage links with the local community through voluntary activity but only seven institutions had developed a formal policy allowing staff time off work to volunteer. From this initial research, three best practice universities have emerged and their activities are discussed. The next stage in this project is to research the areas identified and to explore the extent of volunteering by university staff and staff attitudes to volunteering with a view to provide a full picture of ESV in the UK university sector.

Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

对大学生核心就业竞争力的理解和探索

当前大学生就业问题已经引起了全社会的广泛关注,中共中央政治局召开专门会议研究当前的经济工作和大学生就业问题,国务院也下发了关于促进大学就业的相关通知,在温总理的政府工作报告中也多次提及当前大学生就业问题的重要性,同时也有多为代表的提案是关于大学生的就业问题。由此可见解决好大学生就业问题是我党实践科学发展观的具体体现,是我国实现可持续发展的重要战略举措;解决好大学毕业生就业问题不仅是一项涉及千家万户人民群众根本利益的民心工程,而且能有效的促进我国高等教育事业的不断发展,具有现实的政治意义和深远的历史意义,本文就是在基于近六年从事一线大学生就业工作中总结的经验,经过系统的梳理整理出来的旨在寻求切实解决大学生就业瓶颈问题,最终形成大学生核心就业竞争力都具体体现。     

Education Vouchers—Evolution or Revolution?

The Prime Minister, the Secretary of State for Education, the Chancellor of the Exchequer and other Ministers have spoken of the school voucher. The Secretary of State invited two organisations to comment on 'difficulties' raised by his officials. One, FEVER (Friends of the Education Voucher Experiment in Representative Regions), invited 15 of its advisers round the world to respond. This article is based on the reply from Professor E.G. West.     

Agenda for Competitiveness with Compassion

The January issue gave Sir Geoffrey Howe space to outline the philosophy of the Liberal Conservatives and the policies that emerged. His statement was assessed by four economists, to whom he responded. Here Dr David Owen outlines his philosophy and the policies of the alternative government. He is assessed by four economists, to whose reservations be replies. An editorial leader comments on these two complementary features. (The Prime Minister has recently accepted that her true opposition is the Alliance rather than Labour.)     

What about the leader? What should the Hungarian Prime Minister do after he lied?

This article shows how text analysis is used to investigate the role leadership characteristics (in the sense of how to behave) play in the media before and after a political leader has taken care of an event that has shocked a substantial part of the population in his country. Here this is a lie by the Hungarian Prime Minister that became public in September 2006. It turns out that after the event took place the leader has to demonstrate vision and has to keep or gain trust from the people.     

Japan

So far this year the yen has risen by around 10% to ¥108 to the US dollar. On 8 April Finance Minister Aso said that Japan was ready to take “necessary steps to protect the economy from currency volatility”, although currency intervention was not explicitly mentioned. The hosting by Japan of a G7 summit in late May is a political obstacle to currency intervention before then.     

现实主义视角下的“铁幕演说”文献解析

1946年3月5日,英国前首相丘吉尔在访问美国期间发表了题为《和平砥柱》的演讲,史称"铁幕演说"。"铁幕演说"在二战后历史中具有重要的文献价值,被认为是正式拉开了冷战的序幕,而其中的主要思想在一定程度上契合了现实主义国际关系理论的观点。     

State Spending out of Control?

Despite denials by the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, economists are beginning to wonder whether the Government has abandoned its commitment to contain state expenditure. Rosalind Levacic (right), of the Open University, examines the resistance of the bureaucracy to political attempts to restrict its growth.     

A Comprehensive Framework for Sustainable Project Portfolio Selection Based on Structural Equation Modeling

Project selection problems are inherently complex problems with multiple and often conflicting objectives. The complexity of project selection problems is due to the high number of projects from which a subset (portfolio) has to be chosen. Various analytical methods, ranging from the simple weighted sum to complex mathematical programming have been proposed to solving these problems. We propose an integrated approach for strategic and sustainable project portfolio selection, which is composed of two distinct but interrelated modules. In the first module, we use the strategic planning and sustainability concepts to select a set of promising projects. In the second module, we use a project portfolio selection procedure to choose among the promising projects identified in the first module. A structural equation model is used to analyze and explain the relationships among different factors in the proposed framework. More specifically, we investigate the effects of: (1) strategic level performance on sustainability, post‐implementation, and overall performance; (2) implementation performance on post‐implementation and overall performance; (3) portfolio selection performance on implementation and overall performance; and (4) post‐implementation performance on overall performance. A case study in investment banking is presented to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed model and exhibit the efficacy of the procedures and algorithms.     

陕南移民搬迁工程绩效评估指标体系构建

为了加强对陕南移民搬迁工程进行监测和评估,建立一套科学评估陕南移民搬迁绩效的指标体系十分重要。本文在广泛对移民搬迁进行调研的基础上,探讨了构建陕南移民搬迁工程绩效评估指标体系的设计原则,提出应遵循目的性、完备性与操作性、阶段性与时效性、综合性与区域性、系统性与层次性、定量与定性相结合的六大原则。设计了一套评估陕南移民搬迁工程绩效的指标体系,对指标体系的结构和具体指标进行了解释与分析。结合陕南移民生活的基本状况,运用定量分析与定性分析相结合的方法对指标进行等级划分,以期更好的对陕南移民搬迁工程进行绩效评估。     

A mass vaccination site selection problem: An application of GIS and entropy-based MAUT approach

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was recognized in December 2019 and spread very severely throughout the world. In 2022 May, the total death numbers reached 6.28 million people worldwide. During the pandemic, some alternative vaccines were discovered in the middle of 2020. Today, many countries are struggling to supply vaccines and vaccinate their citizens. Besides the difficulties of vaccine supply, mass vaccination is a challenging but mandatory task for the countries. Within this context, determining the mass vaccination site is very important for recovering, thus a five-step approach is generated in this paper to solve this real-life problem. Firstly the mass vaccination site selection criteria are determined, and secondly, the spatial data are collected and mapped by using Geographical Information System (GIS) software. Then, the entropy weighting method (EWM) is used for determining the relative importance levels of criteria and fourthly, the multiple attribute utility theory (MAUT) approach is used for ranking the potential mass vaccination sites. Lastly, ranked alternative sites are analyzed using network analyst tool of GIS in terms of covered population. A case study is conducted in Gaziantep city which is the ninth most population and having above-average COVID-19 patients in Turkey. As a result, the fourth alternative (around the Şehitkamil Monument) is chosen as the best mass vaccination site for the city. It is believed that the outcomes of the paper could be used by city planners and decision-makers.     

Selecting Sites for New Facilities Using Data Envelopment Analysis

This paper develops a mathematical programming model for obtaining a best set of sites for planned facilities. The model is concerned with those situations where resource constraints are present. The specific setting for the paper involves the selection of sites for a set of retail outlets, wherein the ratio of aggregate outputs to inputs for the selected set is maximal among all possible sets that could be chosen. At the same time, the model guarantees that the only sets of stores allowable are those for which the available resources are used to the maximum extent possible.     

解读日本2010年度最畅销商品——辣椒油

近年来日本经济低迷,在此背景下2010年却掀起了一场辣椒油热,商品一度紧俏供不应求。文章将从产品再定位的营销策略及合理的市场竞争等方面来解读这一现象的出现原因。     

The selection of supply chain management projects: A case study approach

Organizations undertake strategic supply chain initiatives through project implementation. However, selecting the right supply chain projects can be difficult due to high levels of organizational risk and technical complexity. Although the literature is rich in quantitative and qualitative methods for project management, prior research into best management practices specific to supply chain management (SCM) project selection is limited. This paper examines the methods used in evaluating and selecting SCM projects used by the management at three publically held multi-national organizations. The primary objective of this research is to identify a set of generalizable good practices in the selection and evaluation of SCM projects. Nine useful business practices in SCM project selection have been identified based on cross-case comparisons and a close examination of the literature. Eight practices had been previously identified, but were scattered throughout the literature on ERP, IT management, and R&D management. A new practice calls for the consideration of supply chain partners’ return-on-investment (ROI) in the project selection process. Highest preference should be given to win-win projects for the organization and its partner(s). The practices identified here sho`uld provide the foundation of practical guidelines that can be used during the planning stage of SCM projects. This paper reduces the knowledge gap in SCM project management by analyzing organizations with significant supply chain experience and synthesizing these results with the current related literature.     

The Carbon Neutral Public Sector

Abstract

This paper argues for research into the effectiveness of government strategies for a ‘carbon neutral public sector’. We review initiatives in three OECD countries: New Zealand, Australia and the UK. In all jurisdictions, government agencies have consistently stressed ‘leading by example’ as a rationale for adoption. ‘Direct mandate’ by the Prime Minister (NZ); ‘organic development’ from wider central government sustainability initiatives (UK); and a more ‘laissez faire’ approach by Australian Federal and State Governments, were identified as the general pathways leading to implementation. Our assessment indicates: a lack of understanding of the implementation process for carbon neutrality; a need to identify and critically examine the ‘offset threshold’ at which mitigation efforts cease and offsetting is adopted; an absence of any evaluation of the ‘leading by example’ rationale; a lack of inter-country comparisons; a gap in understanding the relationship with economic and social aspects of sustainability; and a need to evaluate the utility of core government departments as the focus of carbon accounting. We urge colleagues to consider research in this area with a view to contributing to the interdisciplinary solutions which we believe are required.     

An empirical assessment of IT project selection and evaluation methods in state government

This study uses a survey of U.S. state government information technology (IT) project management practitioners to investigate the utilization of IT project selection and evaluation methodologies—financial and qualitative—and to assess the empirical relationship between the chosen methods and several measures of perceived project success. The analysis presents evidence that financial project selection and evaluation methodologies appear to be important in obtaining better control over project costs.