Commercial aquaculture in Southeast Asia: Some policy lessons

Globally aquaculture has been increasing rapidly and already accounts for nearly half of all food fish consumed. For developing countries, which produce 90% of the world’s output, aquaculture is a source of protein, employment, income and of foreign exchange. Southeast Asia is an area which has experienced this “blue revolution”. Total aquaculture output in the region increased from less than two million tonnes in 1990 to more than eight million tonnes in 2006. Moreover, the region’s pace of expansion has accelerated. Annual average growth rates in output from 2000 to 2006 were more than double those from 1990 to 2000. Already more than a quarter of food fish in Southeast Asia comes from aquaculture.     

Max weber revisited: Some lessons from East Asian capitalistic development

Weber's thesis of the incompatibility of the Confucian ethos and rational entrepreneurial capitalism has been challenged by the economic miracles of many East Asian countries. One thesis presented here is that Confucianism is compatible with and has facilitated Asian capitalism by its influence on managerial values and practices. According to Weber, the release of tensions created by Calvinism was an important motivating force in the development of capitalism in the Occident. Confucianism offers a parallel mechanism to the profit-seeking drive in Western capitalism. We show that, in Confucian societies, there also exists tensions — in this case, between ideals and reality. These tensions are released through the Confucian concept of a ceaseless pursuit of renovation, a motivational mechanism for the development of capitalism in East Asian societies that parallels the West. Weber held that the classic model of bureaucracy, with impersonality at its core, is essential to the development and continuation of capitalism. Our second thesis is that humanism is an important element in Confucian bureaucracy and that humanistic bureaucracy can be both effective and efficient for the development of capitalism.     

Food shopping orientations in Turkey: Some lessons for policy makers

Modernization of food retailing systems will continue to be among the major public policy problems facing the governments of developing countries. Throughout the developing world efforts are instigated by central and local governments to increase the efficiency of distribution systems. Unfortunately, many decisions are made without due regard to an understanding of consumers' food shopping orientations. The article first seeks to determine the grocery shopping habits and life-style orientations of a representative sample of female Turkish grocery shoppers. Second, the implications of the study are presented for policy makers who view introduction of large self-service supermarket-type stores as a panacea of Turkey's food retailing system.     

Europe's lessons for the U.S

President-elect Clinton can learn a lot from this continent about health care and how to revitalize cities. But industrial policy is another story.     

发展中国家能从自由贸易协定中获得什么?

卡耐基报告:"兔死狐悲" 的初衷是给美国正在极力推动的美洲自由贸易区的建立及美国与其他中南美及加勒比海国家之间的合作提供经验,正当美国热衷于建立一个″全面民主和繁荣的西半球″的时候,这篇报告确凿无疑地提出了一个现实的问题:在自由贸易协定中,发展中国家与发达国家的全作能否双赢?     

A meta-analysis on the comparative effectiveness of devil's advocacy and dialectical inquiry

The use of meta-analysis allows us to draw stronger inferences from past research than are possible from traditional literature. In this paper the general purpose of meta-analysis is discussed, and it is used to resolve a dispute regarding a collection of studies in strategic management dealing with devil's advocacy and dialectical inquiry. The use of meta-analysis leads to different conclusions from those drawn in an earlier review of these studies. At the end of the paper the limitations and potential uses of meta-analysis in strategic management are discussed.     

从教训中思考中国棉花市场

2003/2004年度棉花市场剧烈的波动相信使每一个棉花市场的参与者都刻骨铭心,大多数人可能都是一场痛苦的经历.但痛定思痛,需要有所感悟.下面是我本人对中国棉花市场的几点思考,提出来供大家参考.     

从世界电力体制改革中吸取教训

今年2月19日,国电动力经济研究中心邀请美国斯坦福科技能源集团公司原总经理余序江教授(美籍华人)介绍美国加州电力危机,他在报告中谈了应当从加州电力危机中吸取的教训是:     

Problems and lessons of Japanese technology policy

Statistics on Japanese R & D reveal various problems of policy and implementation. Some difficulties of Japanese technological development and possibilities for overcoming them are discussed. Among others a fundamental problem is the generation of technology with less reliance on Western support. The relationship between the need for self-generated technology and the fact of excessive reliance on technology imports is discussed in regard to superiority, inferiority and appropriateness of Japanese technology. Innovation in the Japanese automobile and iron and steel industries is characterized as integrative or combinatory innovation associated with managerial innovation. The conditions under which integrative innovation is effective are identified, and these conditions are expected to be valid for many other sectors. Finally, the mechanism of government–industry cooperation in Japan is identified as an informational control system in contrast to the financial control system in Western countries, and the major medium of control by the Japanese government is identified as technological forecasting information.
These characteristics of Japanese technology management can be held up as valuable lessons for other countries given certain conditions which are expected to hold in many fields.     

Key account relationships: An exploratory inquiry of customer-based evaluations

The management and retention of key accounts is imperative in facilitating a firm's long-term viability. Previous examinations of key account relationships have revealed valuable insights into the factors facilitating key account management and driving relationship strength. However, account managers often fail to recognize weaknesses within their existing key accounts and the sources of their relationship vulnerabilities. Utilizing an exploratory inquiry of in-depth interviews with 99 executive decision makers across 52 key accounts cases, the authors assess customer relationship evaluations prior to contract expirations for account retention opportunities valued at over $1.3 billion. Unique positive and negative drivers of key account relationship evaluations are identified in a thematic categorization, along with a subsequent content analysis highlighting their patterned associations with positive and negative relationship evaluations, future business intentions, and business referral behaviors. These patterned associations reveal that positive and negative perceptions of relational drivers often affect outcomes in a differential manner, resulting in a classification of conventional constructs, prevention constructs, and promotion constructs. The results indicate that the desire of a supplier to maximize positive relational outcomes or minimize negative relational outcomes is driven by distinct underlying associations and allow for insights into resource allocation strategies within key account relationships.     

Rising food prices and undernourishment: A cross-country inquiry

Households’ welfare in developing countries has been hit by dramatic food prices increases which occurred between 2005 and 2008. In this paper, we adopt a partial equilibrium approach to analyze the short-time effects of a staple food price increase on nutritional attainments, as a measure of welfare. The analysis consists of first approximating complete food-demand systems and then performing household level micro-simulations. Instead of focusing on a single country profile, we provide a more complete snapshot by comparing the evidence through a cross-country assessment made possible by the use of nationally representative household surveys. Comparability is assured by the adoption of the same methodological choices in the treatment of the micro data. We find that food price spikes not only reduce the mean consumption of dietary energy, but also worsen the distribution of food calories, further deteriorating the nutritional status of populations. We also discovered that access to agricultural land plays a significant role in ensuring adequate nutritional attainments in rural areas, and surprisingly, even in urban areas.     

National nutrition planning: lessons of experience

National nutrition planning has failed to fulfill its initial promise because of inadequate consideration of political and administrative obstacles to applying the methodology. The political and operational contexts within which multisectoral nutrition planning has occurred are reviewed in order to draw insights and lessons from the experience of the last 10 years. Considered are the political process, macro and micro planning, the multisectoral approach, integration with agricultural and health planning, nutrition interventions, community participation, cost benefit analyses, and information systems evaluation, management and organization. Emphasis on the multisectoral causation of malnutrition has contributed substantially to nutrition programming and remains indispensable for improving nutrition, but requires more thoughtful response to practical implementation problems. Integrating nutrition concerns more effectively into health and agriculture systems offers a more promising approach than efforts to attack malnutrition by encouraging multisectoral nutrition coordinating agencies and national plans.     

Impact of outsourcing on business-to-business marketing: An agenda for inquiry

Increasing globalization has made companies focus more on their outsourcing decisions. Moving beyond the tactical companies have begun to incorporate outsourcing as a strategic weapon in their armory. This article expands on this theme by highlighting the need for understanding this key issue from business marketing and sales perspective and pointing to some interesting research issues on the topic. The article also introduces this special issue, briefly discusses the six special issue articles and provides a framework that integrates their contributions to our understanding of strategic outsourcing.     

Unlocking the potential of Italian broadband: Case studies and policy lessons

A number of regional initiatives have recently revived the Italian broadband sector, although their fortunes vary depending on governance, market and geographical issues. However, all these initiatives jointly succeeded in sparking a heated debate on how public–private interplay can facilitate the deployment of broadband networks in a country still lagging behind European frontrunners such as Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands. In the light of European Union regulation and recent case law, the paper examines three regional initiatives (Progetto Banda Ultra Larga Lombardia, Trentino Network and Lepida Emilia Romagna) by using the conceptual model on public private interplay developed by Nucciarelli, Sadowski, and Achard (2010). Thereafter, the paper elaborates on initiatives' ups and downs to focus on conditions and trigger events that have made them a success or a failure story. Lessons learnt conclude.     

Sustainability research in business-to-business markets: An agenda for inquiry

Corporate interest in the topic of sustainability has increased in prominence. Most of the research on sustainability has a business-to-consumer focus, with limited research emphasizing sustainability in the context of business-to-business marketing. The paper examines research on sustainability, published in the journal Industrial Marketing Management, where thirty-eight articles have appeared in the past twenty-seven years, the majority on supply-chain research. Research on sustainability in business-to-business markets is sparse, and some of the fundamental research questions in this area have gone unaddressed. This paper addresses three interrelated research issues associated with sustainability in business-to-business markets. First, what research is available to researchers and practitioners? Second, what framework can be used to examine sustainability research in business-to-business markets? Third, what subareas of sustainability research need focus and deeper examination, and what are the associated research questions? Overall, the findings from this paper suggest the need for additional research in the area because of its substantial implications for theory, research, and practice.     

Consumer spending behavior and telecommunications services. A multi-method inquiry

Despite the enormous capital and marketing investments anticipated by telecommunications providers and policy makers alike, there is a surprising lack of understanding about how consumers are likely to behave in the brave new world of telecom offerings. Drawing on innovative perceptual mapping, conjoint, and respondent-adjusted-demand techniques, this study presents an in-depth, multi-faceted picture of the US telecommunications consumer. Key questions are addressed such as: is there a limit to telecom spending? where does telecom fit within consumer priorities? who are the likely telecom spenders? and what types of offerings are most likely to succeed?     

Reexamining some management lessons from military history

Military history has provided a number of useful metaphors for management, such as positioning, blue ocean strategy, defensible perimeters, and fighting the last war, among others. In spite of this rich tradition and the detailed writings on the military, management research has actually made a rather truncated use of military history. This includes the selective use of military metaphors, and a limited number of individual and comparative case studies on diplomatic and military scenarios. It is argued that much more can be learned from military history, though certain well-known metaphors and lessons drawn from major events do not convey what military history actually teaches about those events. To learn from military history, historical events must be studied carefully so proper lessons can be derived from them. This paper examines two major episodes in 20th century military history from World War I and the subsequent interwar period, and how themes derived from these events and used in the management field are not consistent with what the historical record teaches about them. We suggest that a fuller and more careful rendering of historical events and their lessons would be potentially beneficial to management research, and suggest ways in which they can be researched.     

美国政府促进非常规天然气勘探开发的政策与经验

美国非常规天然气开发已有100多年的历史,但最近30多年是美国非常规天然气快速发展的时期。美国政府在取消价格管制、实行市场化机制的同时,还采取矿权费减免、税收减免、勘探开发技术研究和转让等鼓励非常规天然气勘探开发的政策和措施,并设立了非常规天然气研究项目,对致密气、煤层气和页岩气等非常规天然气资源的评价研究给予资助。这些政策和措施使得美国非常规天然气产量在2009年达到3307．8亿立方米,占当年全国天然气产量的54％;也使联邦和地方政府的税收增加了几十亿美元,使消费者因低气价获益1000亿美元;同时形成了一批非常规资源勘探开发新技术和新理论。美国政府促进非常规天然气开发的政策与经验对中国天然气工业的发展具有十分重要的参考和启示作用。