Conflict in Supplier–Retailer Relationships in the Brewery Industry in Cameroon

The authors develop a theoretical framework to explain conflict in supplier–retailer relationships. In addition to traditional influence strategy variables, the framework links conflict to retailer dependence and supplier formalization. The framework is empirically tested in the Cameroonian brewery industry. The findings support the view that channel conflict is inversely related to retailer dependence and supplier formalization. Contrary to expectations, the use of noncoercive influence strategies (information exchange and recommendations) has no significant effect on conflict, while, as expected, the use of coercive influence strategies (threats and promises) increases conflict.     

Developments in Consumer Protection in India

This paper surveys the major developments in the field of consumer protection in India since 1984, when the statutory provisions for regulating unfair trade practices were incorporated for the first time.Among the developments described in the paper is the strengthening of provisions for consumer protection through amendments to the Act regulating restrictive and monopolistic trade practices (the MTRP Act). Public-sector undertakings and co-operative societies have been brought within the purview of the Act, and consumers have obtained the right to participate in inquiry proceedings before the MRTP Commission.Consumers and their associations have been given the right to seek redress of grievances arising out of the violation of certain pieces of legislation, including the Drugs and Cosmetics Act. The Consumer Protection Act, 1986, was enacted in order to provide speedy and inexpensive redress of consumers' grievances. Redress can now be sought before any consumer court also for negligence or deficiency in medical services.The Bureau of Indian Standards Act, 1986, has strengthened the measures for the standardisation and quality control of manufactured goods.A Consumer Welfare Fund has been set up to provide financial assistance to voluntary consumer organisations and for the general development of consumer movement in the country. A spurt in voluntary consumer organisations in different parts of the country can also be observed.Other developments include the establishment of a separate Department of Consumer Affairs in the Union Government and the setting up of a Consumer Product Testing Laboratory.     

Recent advances in reinforcement learning in finance

The rapid changes in the finance industry due to the increasing amount of data have revolutionized the techniques on data processing and data analysis and brought new theoretical and computational challenges. In contrast to classical stochastic control theory and other analytical approaches for solving financial decision-making problems that heavily reply on model assumptions, new developments from reinforcement learning (RL) are able to make full use of the large amount of financial data with fewer model assumptions and to improve decisions in complex financial environments. This survey paper aims to review the recent developments and use of RL approaches in finance. We give an introduction to Markov decision processes, which is the setting for many of the commonly used RL approaches. Various algorithms are then introduced with a focus on value- and policy-based methods that do not require any model assumptions. Connections are made with neural networks to extend the framework to encompass deep RL algorithms. We then discuss in detail the application of these RL algorithms in a variety of decision-making problems in finance, including optimal execution, portfolio optimization, option pricing and hedging, market making, smart order routing, and robo-advising. Our survey concludes by pointing out a few possible future directions for research.     

Willingness-to-engage in technology transfer in industry-university collaborations

Formal collaboration between universities and industries is a recent phenomenon. Currently the role of an industry-university collaboration (IUC) is to close the gap between industry and academia. This study aims to analyze the willingness to engage in technology transfer (TT) in IUCs from the three vantage points of the technology transferor (university), the technology transferee (industry), and the TT intermediary institute. This study mainly observes the pairwise relationships between influencing variables and sub-variables and willingness to participate in TT in an IUC. From the vantage point of universities, this study shows that the “transferor's incentive” and “capability of transferor” variables positively influence willingness to participate in TT in an IUC. From the vantage point of industry, the results indicate that “capability of transferee” and “incentive for establishing technological resources” have major influences on willingness to participate in TT in an IUC. From the vantage point of TT intermediary institutes, the results show that “intermediary's fundamental resources” and “intermediary's transferring process” have a positive impact on willingness to participate in TT in an IUC.     

对我国安全生产问题的经济学思考

本文认为,对日益突出的安全生产问题,应用经济学观点加以解决。一是综合运用宏观调控手段,制定超前意识的安全生产规划,并纳入国民经济宏观调控范围内,同时运用财政、货币、产业和贸易等政策提高安全生产宏观调控能力;二是拓宽安全生产投融资渠道,强化安全生产投入主体责任制,建立健全多元化投资机制:三是提高安全生产的事故成本,在全社会达成提高安全生产赔偿底线的共识,法律法规明确规定安全生产事故的高标准赔偿;四是加强安全科学技术研究,并加快其成果产业化步伐,促进安全的科技进步;五是严格执行安全生产行政责任追究制度。科学管理和监督安全生产。     

Surveillance-based injury epidemiology in schools in Germany

The two objectives of this article are: a) to describe the German School Injury Surveillance System and b) to determine major trends and patterns of different school-associated injury indicators. The database covers all children and adolescents from nursery school through university during their time at school and day care, including their way to and from school. Presently, this results in 17.5 million insured young persons, or 21.2% of the German general population. The surveillance system includes two main informational sources: school accident and medical accident reports.In 2003 over 1.5 million school-related injuries received medical attention in Germany. This is an incidence rate of about 86 injuries per 1000 students. Between 1975 and 2003, the mortality rate declined from 23.4 to 7.7 per million. This is a drop of 67% in about 30 years.     

Navigating wasta in business practices in Lebanon

Faced with severe social, political, and economic challenges, Lebanon is described as a weak state. Argued to be a key factor weakening the formal institutions there, is the prevalent practice of wasta. This article seeks to answer two questions: (1) Why is wasta prevalent in a business environment characterised by weak formal institutions, such as Lebanon? (2) How can managers navigate the use of wasta in the Lebanese business context where it prevails, avoiding its negative outcomes while utilizing its positive outcomes? Fourteen semi-structured interviews were conducted of managers from the Lebanese industrial sector. The findings highlight that wasta is used due to the networked nature of Lebanese society, economic hardship, widespread corruption and to maintain power. It was found that wasta could be beneficial in securing jobs, removing red tape, and gaining employment for humanitarian reasons. Finally, the negative outcomes of using wasta were found to include the employment of unqualified individuals, a reduction of organizations' productivity and a further weakening of formal institutions.     

Owner's Factor in Value-Based Project Management in Construction

Owner/client is a significant contributing party within the management of a project in construction. In addition to the payment of the bills related to the project, owner/client has duties and responsibilities such as selecting the professionals, making his requirements understood clearly by other parties, making decisions to recommendations and placing orders. Owner/client has to perform these duties and responsibilities at the right times and in correct ways to have the required quality and value for his/her investment. In performing his/her duties and responsibilities owner could introduce positive and negative contributions to the value of the constructed facility. Value-based project management concerns with owner's/client's value system and helps owner/client in performing his/her duties and responsibilities for the optimum positive contributions to the value of the constructed facility in construction. This paper highlights the principles of value-based project management in construction and investigates the impact of owner contributions to the value of a constructed facility in practice.     

Golder's historical method in research in marketing

This article reviews a seminal article in the historical marketing literature — “Historical Method in Marketing Research: With New Evidence on Long-Term Market Share Stability” (Golder, 2000). The present study uses citation analysis and commentary to consider the contributions of Golder (2000) to the marketing discipline. This review explores why the article is seminal and how Golder's article influences marketing historical research. Golder's article is important for two main reasons. First for its findings, which contradict commonly held beliefs about long-term market share stability, though the relevant literature largely ignores these findings. The literature does recognize Golder's (2000) second contribution of the historical method: his article offers clear guidelines to new and emerging research in historical marketing.     

Healthy Investments in Investing in Health

This article discusses socially responsible investing (SRI) and tobacco. SRI allows investors, both institutional and individual, to express their concerns and make their social and ethical stands known to the companies they invest in and patronize. The tobacco industry is active in every country on the globe and generates huge profits, while tobacco use is responsible for 4 million deaths every year.The authors explore past and current views on investment in tobacco, partly based on a survey conducted by the Tobacco Free Initiative of the World Health Organization (WHO). There is clearly a trend toward divestment from tobacco for both ethical and financial reasons. Tobacco-free investments can be both ethically sound and financially profitable.     

河南农村金融改革初探

河南省农业现代化发展亟需金融支持,但是正规金融体系支农服务不到位、民间资本支农服务渠道不顺畅、农村资产入市缺乏盘活机制。推动农村金融改革,河南省政府应以农村产权制度改革为重点,积极推进改革试点工作,大力发展农村金融市场;完善农村金融组织体系,加快农村金融产品创新;加大金融惠农支持政策,提高农村金融服务水平;构建与河南省情相适应的多层次、多元化农村金融体系,使金融业成为推动河南农村经济发展的主要动力,实现农村金融改革的稳定有序发展。     

Regional Patterns in Gasoline Station Rationalization in Canada

The number of gasoline stations in Canada fell by 40 % over the 1990s. Over the same period, the industry evolved from a large number of small stations with full service and automotive service bays, to large self serve stations with car washes and convenience stores. Demand and cost related theories of rationalization can explain the nationwide trends, but seem less able to explain city level variation in the timing and magnitude of rationalization. In this paper, we make use of a brand-level panel data set of station counts, shutdowns and characteristics for 12 Canadian cities from 1990 to 2005 to examine the relative importance of different region-level events and changes to the evolution of gasoline retailing. We find that market structure events and regulations are more strongly associated with the shutdown patterns of independent gasoline retailers than refinery-brand stations.     

保险公司信用评级的非财务分析

随着金融改革的深入,作为金融三大支柱之一的保险业将在中国居民的经济生活中发挥越来越重要的作用,就非财务因素分析对保险公司信用评级的重要性、非财务因素所含内容,以及度量非财务因素的框架体系进行了分析,希望能为加入WTO的保险业的可持续发展提供有益的参考。     

Bribery in International Business in Post-Soviet Union Countries

Data from 1996 to 2016 on perceived levels of bribe taking in 15 post-Soviet Union countries indicate three distinct groups—Russia and seven contiguous countries are most prone to bribe taking, a set of four countries in the southwest less so, and the three Baltic nations are the least corrupt. Public officials in countries that have high economic freedom and human development, are democracies, and proactively adhere to global anti-bribery treaties are less likely to take bribes. The findings show that despite a common recent history, the countries have evolved differently following the breakup. Implications for international businesses are discussed.     

Advertising in English in Nonnative English-Speaking Markets: The Effect of Language and Self-Referencing in Advertising in Romania on Ad Attitudes

As a potent symbol of globalization, English has become one of the most popular foreign languages used in advertising in many nonnative English-speaking markets. This study aims to explore the effect of language used in advertising (English versus local) and self-referencing on consumers' ad attitudes in Romania, a country where the population is not necessarily speaking English fluently. The results indicate that multinational brands benefit from using English in advertising, whether a high or a low level of self-referencing is used. For local brands, different language formats do not vary in their advertising effectiveness. However, if English is to be used to advertise a local brand to give a “modern” flavor to the product, a high self-referencing format should be used.     

Causal Ambiguity in Lean Production Implementation in Malaysia

The success of the lean production system in Japan has led other companies to attempt to adopt it. Yet lean production system initiatives have seen a low success rate. This study draws on the theory of causal ambiguity and its role in the transfer of knowledge to argue that causal ambiguity can impede interfirm transfer of knowledge during lean production system implementation. The authors argue that causal ambiguity undermines motivation during lean production system implementation. Several variables are proposed as moderating the relationship. The findings of a survey are presented here.     

Refuting fear in heuristics and in recycling promotion

This paper deals with emotions in order to demonstrate that recycling behavior is associated more with positive emotions than with cognitions. The resulting model displays a marked contrast to the classic cognitive paradigm in the sense that this perspective highlights the idea that consumers act on the basis of their affective reactions, with cognitive factors playing a minor role. In addition, showing alternative routes to achieve both recycling involvement and behavior depending on both the emotional and cognitive characteristics of individuals within the hedonic process.     

Women in Management in Thailand: Advancement and Prospects

Thailand has experienced rapid economic growth over the past two decades. Economic expansion has contributed to an increase in demand for managers and professionals. Changes in legislation to promote gender equality in employment and educational opportunities for women have been implemented. These changes have contributed to Thai women's improved status. The aim of the paper is to assess this progress of women in management in Thailand. There is some evidence suggesting that social class, in addition to education, may play an important role in explaining Thai women's advancement to managerial positions. The contribution examines the changes in legislation and the influence of cultural values, education, and gender on women's access to managerial positions. It identifies the barriers to women's progress and pays attention to social class as another key determinant of women's advancement in management.     

Change in climate for foreign invesment in India

In 1991, India's Socialist economy hit its nadir. The pressures of the Gulf War had prompted a run on Indian foreign exchange reserves and forced Indian to seek loans from the IMF and World Bank to bail out the economy. Since then, economic and structural reforms have strenghtened India and made it more attractive to foreign investment. The convertability of the rupee, higher thresholds for foreign ownership, lower customs duties and the abolition of industry licencing have eliminated old investment stumbling blocks. These reforms have made India, says Thomas, an even better investment prospect than China, India's new rival.     

Contemporary Developments in Employee Relations in Food Retailing

Over the past decade considerable attention has been focused upon the changing nature of the retail food sector. While some attempts have been made to detail the implications for employee relations, the majority of studies have chosen in-depth qualitative research. While all such study is to be welcomed, it is necessary to place such focused research into the context of sectoral change. This article provides an overview of the major developments within food retailing and details their impact upon contemporary employment relations.