Joint ventures in the P. R. China

China is showing interest in joint ventures in the oil, coal and nonferrous metals sector, in electricity generation, steel and building materials production, in the mechanical engineering, textile and electrical industries, in the transport sector and in the hotel trade. Our article gives an outline of the problems which the future joint ventures in China will encounter.     

Introducing management models in service organisations in developed and developing countries

The aim of this paper is to examine the application of the European Foundation for Quality Management model for self-assessment as a means to introduce changes in management in services in higher education institutions (HEIs) in Spain and in Jordan. This paper uses the case study methodology on eight administrative services in a public university in Spain and seven university services in two Jordanian universities, a public and a private institution. The findings show the steps that an administrative service may follow in order to apply the questionnaire approach successfully in a reform process, the difficulties, the benefits and the success factors in both countries and the consequences of the changes introduced. The study provides lessons for decision makers and managers from other universities in developed and developing countries, who wish to introduce the practice of quality management by creative means. This paper extends knowledge on self-assessment (steps, difficulties, benefits, success factors and changes in management) to services in HEIs.     

Abnormal trading volume and autoregressive behavior in weekly stock returns in the Saudi stock market

This paper examines the relationship between the abnormal change in trading volume of both individual stocks and portfolios and short-term price autoregressive behavior in the Saudi stock market (SSM). Our objective is to investigate the informational role that trading volume plays in predicting the direction of short-term returns. We evaluate whether the abnormal change in lagged, contemporaneous, and lead turnovers affects serial correlation in returns. Specifically, we examine if and when the change in volume produces momentum (positive correlation) or reversal (negative autocorrelation) in consecutive weekly stock returns.We find a reversal in weekly stock returns when conditioned on the change in lagged volume in the SSM. Our results are consistent for the whole sample, the two sub-sample periods, and the large- and small-firm portfolios. The results are consistent with Campbell, Grossman, and Wang [Campbell, J. Y., S. J. Grossman, and J. Wang, 1993, Trading volume and serial correlation in stock returns, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 108, 905–939], who present a model in which risk-averse market makers accommodate the selling pressure of liquidity or non-informational traders. We also find that reversal is more pronounced with the loser portfolio as specified by filter-based methodology. The overall result of this paper is also consistent with the empirical findings of Conrad, Hameed, and Niden [Conrad, J., A. Hameed, and C. Niden, 1994, Volume and autocovariances in short-horizon individual security returns, Journal of Finance 49, 1305–1329.] and Gebka [Gebka, B., 2005, Dynamic volume-return relationship: evidence from an emerging market, Applied Financial Economics, 15, 1019–1029] in which they report price reversal for stock with high trading volume.     

Work Values of Turkish and American University Students

The first aim of this paper was to investigate how the traditional Protestant work ethic (PWE) and more contemporary work values (i.e., masculine, feminine, and entrepreneurship values) were related to one another, and differed across genders and two cultural contexts, namely Turkey and the U.S. The second aim was to elucidate the role of religiosity in PWE among the two cultural groups. Two hundred and sixty six American and 211 Turkish university students participated in this questionnaire study. The analyses examining cross-cultural differences revealed that Turkish university students reported greater scores in the PWE and all contemporary work values as compared to their American counterparts. For the Turkish sample, there were no gender-related differences in the PWE, whereas in the U.S. sample, men reported greater PWE scores than did women. With regard to gender differences in contemporary work values, our results showed that gender groups differed in feminine and entrepreneurship values in both cultural contexts; men emphasized femininity and entrepreneurship more than women in Turkey but the reverse was true in the U.S. Correlations between contemporary work values and the PWE illustrated that the PWE is associated with entrepreneurship and masculine values in both cultural contexts and with feminine values in the Turkish context. Finally, our results regarding the role of religiosity in PWE indicated that highly religious participants reported greater PWE scores than the less religious ones regardless of culture. Findings are discussed with reference both to differences in the two socio-cultural contexts and to recent change in the social structure of Turkish society. Zahide Karakitapoğlu Aygu¨n received her Ph.D. in social psychology from Middle East Technical University Turkey. She is currently an assistant professor at Bilkent University, Faculty of Business Administration. Her research interests concern values, commitment and justice. Mahmut Arslan (BSc, MA, PhD) is an Associate Professor received his graduate degree from Hacettepe University Department of Public Finance. He completed a masters degree in Business Administration at Hacettepe University Department of Business Administration and his PhD in Business at University of Leeds (UK). He has worked as a financial analyst and a research assistant. Dr. Arslan has also worked for the several reorganization projects as analyst and coordinator. He became Assistant Professor in 2000 and Associate Professor in 2003 at Hacettepe University Department of Business Administration. He teaches management and business ethics, organizational behaviour. He is also the director of Hacettepe University Centre for Business and Professional Ethics. Dr. Col. Salih Gu¨ney is an Associate Professor graduated from Hacettepe University Department of Sociology in Ankara in 1980. He received master's degree in behavioral sciences from the University of Istanbul, Faculty of Management in 1987. He finished his doctoral studies in behavioral sciences at the same university and received his PhD in 1988. He became an associated professor in 1997. He is currently the head of the behavioral sciences branch in the Turkish Military Academy. He teaches behavioral sciences, communication theory, introduction to sociology, and public relations at the Military Academy.     

Food retailing strategies in the European Union. A comparative analysis in the UK and Spain

In this paper we analyse differences and similarities in the strategies adopted by the main food retailers operating in the UK and in Spain through the first half of the 1990s. We find seven main profiles of strategic behaviour in each market, including three which have been adopted in similar fashion in both countries (hypermarkets operating on a national scale, small local supermarkets and large supermarkets). We explore possible causes of the similarities and differences in strategic behaviour, and conclude that economic, demographic and cultural factors offer only a very limited explanation. The differences appear rooted in differences in the historical development of the retail industry in both countries, and in specific strategic choices linked to, but not necessary consequences of, those historical differences.     

Ethical Education in Accounting: Integrating Rules,Values and Virtues

Ethics in accounting and ethical education have seen an increase in interest in the last decade. However, despite the renewed interest some important shortcomings persist. Generally, rules, principles, values and virtues are presented in a fragmented fashion. In addition, only a few authors consider the role of the accountants character in presenting relevant and truthful information in financial reporting and the importance of practical reasoning in accounting. This article holds that rules, values and virtues are interconnected. This provides a sound approach to ethics in accounting, in which character and practical reasoning are crucial. Consequently, ethical education in accounting has to simultaneously include the knowledge of proper rules and principles and their correct application; values (understood as moral goods) and virtues, whose acquisition, in the view of the author, should be encouraged.     

Does East Meet West in Business Ethics: An Introduction to the Special Issue

This article introduces and summarizes selected papers from the first World Business Ethics Forum held in Hong Kong and Macau in November 2006, co-hosted by the Hong Kong Baptist University and by the University of Macau. Business Ethics in the East remain distinct from those in the West, but the distinctions are becoming less pronounced and the ethical traffic flows both ways. Gabriel D, Donleavy is Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Business Administration at the University of Macau teaching Business Ethics, Business Negotiation and Advanced Management. His work has been published in Critical Perspectives in Accounting, Corporate Governance, the Journal of Business Ethics, Advances in Applied Business Strategy, the Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, Long Range Planning and the Asian Review of Accounting which he co-founded. Kit-Chun Joanna LAM is Professor in Department of Economics of the Hong Kong Baptist University. She is also Guest Professor in the Centre for Business Ethics of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, China. She received her Ph.D. degree in economics from Harvard University. Her work has appeared in the Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Labor Economics, Canadian Journal of Economics, Economica, Journal of Comparative Economics, and Labour Economics. Simon S.M. Ho is Dean and Professor at the School of Business and Director for Corporate Governance and Financial Policy, Hong Kong Baptist University. He founded the Asia-Pacific Corporate Governance Conference and the world’s first master programme in corporate governance & directorship in 2004. He published over 40 academic refereed articles in leading journals such as Journal of Accounting, Accounting & Finance, Journal of Accounting & Public Policy, and Journal of Corporate Finance.     

河北省高校毕业生就业供需匹配研究

毕业生就业实质是高校人才培养与社会需求匹配的过程。本文将河北省高校毕业生就业问题放在河北省产业结构优化升级的大环境中来进行阐述和分析,从河北省高校就业结构出发分析其就业结构偏离度。进而根据河北省高校毕业生就业专业相关性不高、主要集中在民营企业、灵活就业居多、就业稳定性差等就业现状,从市场需求出发,着眼于高校教育供给、毕业生就业能力培养和畅通就业市场人才流动三个方面,分析河北省高校毕业生培养类型、学历层次、学科专业、通用就业能力和劳动力市场分割等方面与市场需求之间存在的矛盾。基于此,从三个方面提出破解河北省高校毕业生就业市场供需矛盾的思路：一是对河北省高校毕业生培养方向进行调整,二是加强大学生就业能力培养,三是加快京津冀劳动力市场一体化建设进程。     

Intellectual Property Rights in Agriculture and the Interests of Asian‐Pacific Economies

This paper describes recent and ongoing processes of technological change in agriculture, which has become a highly R&D‐intensive sector in many countries of the Asia‐Pacific region. It also considers the role of various forms of intellectual property rights (IPRs) in promoting such technological changes and in affecting their diffusion through the region. A central part of the discussion is a review of how these various IPRs operate and are protected in major economies of the region. There is an assessment of the economic interests of key countries, including the United States, Canada, Australia, China, Japan and the Republic of Korea, in global and regional policy evolution in agricultural IPRs. These interests are a mix of comparative advantage in farming, which is quite distinctive among these countries, and the technological basis of production, which is more convergent. A review of available measures of innovation in the region suggests that all of these economies are active in developing new agricultural technologies, although there is considerable specialisation in the types of processes developed. Given this mix of divergence in comparative costs and convergence in technology interests, it is difficult to describe sharply the preferences these economies may have in continued globalisation of agricultural IPRs. However, the analysis points to some areas in which countries may continue to specialise – thereby retaining the ability to remain in specific areas of farming – and other fields in which international collaboration may be sensible.     

论黑龙江新农村建设中的金融供求问题

目前,黑龙江的金融供给表现出总量的奇缺性、结构的割裂性、机制的掠夺性特征.农村金融供求失衡的原因在于供求双方.但供给方是主导方面,主要是:思维层面的金融发展观偏离;经济层面的商业化改革中逐利主义;制度层面的农村金融领域制度创新严重滞后;文化道德层面的金融业社会责任感重大缺失等.应采取理念创新、机构创新、产品创新、技术创新和制度创新的途径,以解决黑龙江省农村金融供求问题.     

Computer Aided Education

The computer is a tool to be used in the service of people and now more and more people are using computers throughout the world. The evolution of semiconductor technology in the 1960s, laid the foundation for the development of personal computers. The advent of personal computers has revolutionized the application of computers in science, engineering and business. The computer like other products of man's ingenuity, can be of benefit to education. Educational institutions from primary school to universities use personal computers to teach writing, reading, arithmetic, art, science, mathematics, music, history, geography, economics, business, architecture and engineering. As in most counties, computers are also used to improve education in schools in Turkey. The education system in Turkey in the secondary schools has more or less the same problems most developing countries face. There is a great expansion in numbers of pupils at all levels, resources available for education are very limited and effective teaching is hampered by the quality of instructional material and textbooks. The concept of enhancing the quality of both teaching and learning through new information technologies has been the main goal and policy of the Ministry of Education in Turkey and has been tackled in a serious manner. In this paper the present education system in the secondary schools in Turkey is explained and how computers can be implemented in Turkish secondary school education and strategies to be followed are discussed.     

Comparison of attitudes towards school lunch by elementary school children in Japan,Korea and Thailand

The attitudes of elementary school children towards school lunch among three Asian countries, namely Japan, Korea and Thailand, were compared. More school children in Japan felt that their teachers gave them advice during the school lunch programme. Japanese and Korean teachers advised their children to eat as much as possible of the lunch. Korean children may be a little more obedient with regard to heeding the advice. However, few teachers in Thailand gave the children advice over eating lunch, and the Thai children looked forward to and enjoyed the school lunch. The different responses between Thailand and other two countries may be attributed in part to the differences in the teachers' instruction in the programme. Elementary school teachers, especially in Thailand and Korea, have to take more classes in food and nutrition in universities or colleges, and positively take part in the school lunch programme.     

从智猪博奕理论看民营企业跨国并购策略

进入21世纪以来,作为国际并购市场上一支新兴的力量,中国民营企业开始尝试国际化的发展战略。但与国外达国家企业一百多年并购的历史和经验相比,中国民营企业无论在经验还是规模和实力上都有较大的差距。中国民营企业跨国并购的成功率实际上是比较低的。根据智猪博奕理论,在并购竞争中处于劣势地位的中国民营企业应在并购目标、并购区位和并购方式的选择上避强就弱,并组建并购战略联盟等策略发挥自身的优势与特点,才能在激烈的并购博奕中占有一席之地。     

The canada-U.S. free trade agreement

This article examines the forces that caused Canada and the United States to negotiate the free trade agreement, its principal provisions, the projected welfare gains, and estimated labor adjustments. Focusing on the latter, the impact on manufacturing employment is expected to be positive but small in the United States and negative but small in Canada; with the agriculture and resource sectors losing employment shares in both countries. The impact on services will be negligible in the United States and positive in Canada. Focusing on specific industries, nonferrous metals sector appears vulnerable in the United States, while textiles, clothing, furniture and fixtures, electrical and nonelectrical equipment and machinery, nonmetallic mineral products, and fabricated metal products appear vulnerable in Canada. However, actual job losses could be significantly circumscribed by moderate growth and employee turnover, and within vulnerable Canadian industries, there are pockets of significant strength such as in office furniture and telecommunications equipment.     

“十五”期间山东省旅游业人才发展状况分析

建设高素质的旅游人才队伍,是旅游业实现快速发展的有力保障。"十五"期间,山东省旅游业发展十分迅速,除了具有丰富的自然生态和历史人文资源外,积极进行旅游人才的开发和培养起到了重要作用。通过2006年对山东省17地市旅游行业从业人员状况的抽样调查,分析了2000-2005年山东省旅游业人才总量、结构和素质的发展状况。研究表明全省旅游业人才发展仍然面临总量不足、结构短缺、薪酬水平偏低、人才地区分布失衡等主要问题,为此制定人才培养的目标和对策,为旅游人才发展和开发提供科学依据和指导。     

外国直接投资、加工贸易利益分配:U形价值链模型

文章指出,价值链各环节利益与市场结构和竞争力有关,一个国家在特定行业竞争力越大,就越能占据具有垄断优势的战略环节,提供价值链上越多的价值增加量。文章将企业价值链活动分为上游、中游、下游三个环节,并假定委托方为发达国家的跨国公司,代理人为发展中国家的加工企业,装配加工企业的产品通过加工贸易方式全部出口,加工贸易委托方决策服从收益最大化或成本最小化原则,从而建立了加工贸易U形价值链模型。分析表明,加工贸易利益的分配轨迹呈U形曲线,且会随着代理方数量的增加变得越来越陡峭,使代理方净贸易条件趋于恶化;跨国公司运用转移价格手段使U形曲线变得更加陡峭,代理方利益受损。这正是我国在国际分工中处于U形曲线底端的原因,我国贸易条件的变化与外国直接投资流入以及加工贸易发展有较大关系,单纯依靠数量扩张来改善收入贸易条件的空间越来越小,我国应把利用外资的主要目标放在外资的技术含量和产业结构调整上,应对成本动机的外国直接投资予以高度关注并给以必要的政策引导。     

How the Fall of the Iron Curtain Has Affected Consumers' Perceptions of Urban and Rural Quality of Life in Romania

Summary

Marketing and quality of life (QOL) literature is reviewed to conceptualize a model of the impact of marketing activity on QOL. This model outlines how the four elements of the marketing mix affect the life domain of shopping, dealing with the acquisition, possession, use, and consumption of goods. In turn, four strategic considerations/indicators connecting this life domain with QOL are identified: the four A's linking marketing with QOL -i.e., appearance of goods in the market, and awareness, availability, and affordability of goods for consumers. A large-scale field study in urban and rural Romania, a country undergoing rapid marketization, was conducted to test hypotheses and to validate secondary data findings relating availability and affordability of goods with QOL for urban and rural consumers. The findings support the predictions that availability and affordability are positively related to QOL. Secondary data findings concerning changes in the availability and affordability of goods and services, and hypotheses concerning changes in the QOL in Romania between the years 1989 and 1993/1994 were also validated and supported. The findings indicate that availability has improved during this period, whereas afford-ability has decreased. Overall, as hypothesized, these changes have resulted in the deterioration of QOL in Romania in today's marketizing economy, as compared to the planned economy, before the revolution. Finally, urban versus rural differences in the impact of marketization in terms of changes in the availability and affordability and in QOL are also studied.     

Institutions,Entrepreneurship, and Growth: Biomedicine and Polymers in Sweden and Ohio

This paper examines the role of institutions in explaining the differences in performance with respect to entrepreneurship and growth in two industry clusters in two countries: the biomedical/biotechnology and polymer-based industry clusters in Sweden and Ohio. Both clusters are about twice as large in Ohio as in Sweden, even though the industrial history and the composition of industrial output in general are quite similar in the two regions, and even though the Ohio economy is only about 25% larger than that of Sweden.Four types of institutional factors are examined: The science base and mechanisms of technology transfer; the density of networks and the role of business support services and companies in related industries; the entrepreneurial climate, especially the availability of finance; and the policy environment and other infrastructure.Major findings are that the science base plays a different role in the two clusters and that the regions differ in the absorption of new technology, partly due to the differences in the size and structure of firms, that bridging institutions have contributed significantly to connectivity of networks in Ohio, and that the greater availability of venture capital and entrepreneurial management skills makes the Ohio environment for entrepreneurship more supportive than that in Sweden.     

晚间娱乐休闲活动消费特征研究——以杭州为例

开展晚间娱乐休闲活动是延长游客逗留时间、提高市民生活质量的有效手段。本文以杭州晚间娱乐休闲活动为样本,通过问卷调查、走访、实地考察等多种方式,初步摸清杭州市民晚间娱乐休闲活动的偏好、影响因素、消费规律、满意度评价等消费特征,针对消费活动中呈现的需求特征、行为特征和趋势特征,相应提出了基于消费观念、消费环境及消费形式等不同层面的对策和建议。为发展杭州晚间娱乐休闲活动,乃至对我国旅游城市的晚间娱乐休闲活动开展有一定借鉴作用。     

The role of small firms in Indonesia

During the last two decades small firms in developing countries have received more and more attention from researchers and policy makers. For this, several reasons have been brought forward. The decline in labour absorption in agriculture and the slow growth of employment opportunities in the other sectors of the economy, combined with the fact that the growth of the labour force has accelerated, have led to un- and under-employment problems in many of these countries.Small firms are generally viewed as a useful means of alleviating these problems, because medium and large firms only would not help to solve the problems. However, from this study it can be concluded that the medium and large firms in the manufacturing sector in Indonesia are doing better in employment and income than generally anticipated.The purpose of this study is to examine the relative pattern of change and development of small firms in the manufacturing sector in Indonesia in the last two decades and possible factors affecting their growth. Also the relative importance of small firms in terms of income generation will be assessed.The study will use national data collected from the Department of Industry and Central Bureau of Statistic in Indonesia. Further, the study will be based, for its theoretical analysis, on relevant literature on the subject and on some empirical studies in Indonesia as well as in other developing countries.