经济分权与县域经济增长:以浙江省为例

本文尝试定量分析地方经济分权对县域经济增长的影响,发现浙江省逐层推进的省管县体制改革可以作为识别经济分权政策效果的一个"准自然实验",基于该样本并利用双重差分模型研究经济管理权限下放对县域经济增长的影响。研究结果表明,经济分权改革有助于扩权县的经济增长,固定资产投资、城乡居民储蓄水平、人口密度、工业化程度对浙江县域经济增长有显著正向影响。本文的研究为地方政府分权改革的合理性提供了必要的证据。     

The Ethics of Advising on Regulatory Compliance: Autonomy or Interdependence?

Many companies are now implementing ethics and regulatory compliance programs. The growth of employment of both lawyers and specialist "compliance professionals" to advise on and facilitate implementation of these programs has expanded concomitantly. This paper examines the ethical role that should be played by these advisors. Traditional ways of conceptualising corporate lawyers' ethics are shown to be inadequate because they see the legal advisor as an autonomous adversarial advocate or an independent and aloof counsellor. Instead interviews with compliance practitioners are used to show that a superior conceptualisation of the compliance advisor's role is emerging. Compliance practitioners identify explicitly with business and, at the same time, identify with a broader ethical community of other compliance professionals, regulators and stakeholders in order to play a transformative role within the organisation. This conception recognises the interdependence between compliance advisor and corporate client.     

乡村旅游者旅游动机研究

不同的乡村旅游者的旅游动机是有差异的。乡村旅游动机由主到次可归结为"缓解压力"、"交际"、"求知"和"怀旧"四大类。必须对乡村旅游者的旅游动机进行研究,这样对指导乡村旅游产品开发和完善乡村旅游服务体系是具有重要意义的。     

Finding Generators for Markov Chains via Empirical Transition Matrices, with Applications to Credit Ratings

In this paper we identify conditions under which a true generator does or does not exist for an empirically observed Markov transition matrix. We show how to search for valid generators and choose the "correct" one that is the most compatible with bond rating behaviors. We also show how to obtain an approximate generator when a true generator does not exist. We give illustrations using credit rating transition matrices published by Moody's and by Standard and Poor's.     

Women's Magazines: Construction of Identities and Cultural Consumption in Hong Kong

Consumption is an integral part of contemporary capitalistic society. By means of a textual analysis of letters to the editor of a women's magazine in Hong Kong, as well as in-depth interviews with readers and editors, this paper examines how women's cultural consumption creates, constructs and circulates women's identities. Results reveal that the processes of identification can be constructed on three equivalent consumption levels. Firstly, women readers identify certain "imaginary communities" through reading the magazine, and by modeling the behaviors and styles of the communities they feel they are sustaining their relationship with them. Secondly, women identify with an idealized community-constructed beauty and seek to consume products which collectively suggests this idealized beauty for them. Thirdly, women regard the "communities" as providing shelter for rapport and comfort from the emotional and relational problems of real life. In sum, structured identification-consumption has shaped working class women into an identity, which conforms to society's dominant capitalist logic. Despite these findings, however, there are always a few women who attempt to seek alternative lifestyles.     

利用最小冗余最大相关和SVM的SAR图像海上溢油识别

近年溢油事故频发,海洋污染日益严重。利用合成孔径雷达（SAR）卫星可以有效跟踪由海上溢油事故导致的油膜扩展情况。利用最大冗余最小相关-支持向量机（mRMR_SVM）算法进行SAR图像溢油识别,为溢油事故决策支持提供重要前提。首先采用mRMR提取最优特征向量集,对输入值进行降维; 然后采用SVM算法解决油膜图像分类问题,同时选择径向基函数（RBF）为核函数;使用训练集训练该模型,调整模型参数;以测试集特征向量作为输入,利用训练好的模型进行溢油识别。实验结果表明,mRMR_SVM模型对SAR图像的油膜和类油膜识别有效,准确率为96.875%.     

Comparative Ethical Report Card: A Study of Australian and Canadian Manager's Perceptions of International Marketing Ethics Problems

This research study sought to identify and categorize international marketing ethical problems that confront business managers in Australia and Canada. The study focused on ten major ethical problems developed from previous exploratory research. Managers from both countries indicate that the most frequently cited ethical problem is "gifts/ favors/entertainment" and the most important ethical problem is "large-scale bribery". However, there exist significant differences in terms of rankings and mean values of frequency and importance ratings for other ethical problems.     

Green Marketing: Multiplier for Appropriate Technology Transfer?

The effectiveness of "reward and reinforcement" strategy used in marketing activity is compared to a strategy of "mutual coercion mutually agreed upon" as a means for accelerating acceptance of environmentally appropriate production and consumption technologies. The risk and reward consequences of green marketing tactics are traced to identify their implications in pursuing globally sustainable development. Together, reward and reinforcement strategies and coercive regulatory activities are more promising for attaining sustainable development than either one alone.     

FOCUS: Business as a Community of Purpose

"We need to start by recognising that the company is a contributor to the moral order of society." Only then can we really and accurately identify the role of business in today's society. The author of this important study is Principal Lecturer in the Business Studies Department, Manchester Metropolitan University.     

Inferring Market Structure from Customer Response to Competing and Complementary Products

We consider customer influences on market structure, arguing that market structure should explain the extent to which any given set of market offerings are substitutes or complements. We describe recent additions to the market structure analysis literature and identify promising directions for new research in market structure analysis. Impressive advances in data collection, statistical methodology and information technology provide unique opportunities for researchers to build market structure tools that can assist real-time marketing decision-making.     

Making the Most of B2C Wireless

Companies in Europe and the US have made little effort to explore the potential of wireless devices (mobile phones and personal digital assistants) as a communication channel with consumers. This is mainly because of their uncertainty about the wireless "killer applications" and the timing and capability of next-generation wireless technologies. This article argues that they are being too cautious and that the best way to approach the opportunities is not to find a single "killer application". Rather, companies need to identify what the authors call a "killer experience". This should be designed around customer needs (rather than an existing industry value chain), supported by a multichannel platform. It should make the most of wireless's unique time and location advantages and involve wireless-specific features. Existing technologies are already sufficiently advanced to make this possible. The article is based on research earlier this year.     

Thinking Creatively about Your Market: Crisps, Perfume and Business Strategy

This article starts from the premise that "identifying a market is, in effect, identifying a business". Bringing together economics, marketing and strategy, it seeks to extend the ways that managers can identify and develop existing and new markets – and therefore businesses. It concludes by setting out a three-stage process by which managers can distinguish which business opportunities to select.     

Ethics, Governance and Risk Management: Lessons From Mirror Group Newspapers and Barings Bank

While corporate failures, such as Enron and WorldCom, have focused attention on issues of business ethics, corporate governance and risk management, there is nothing intrinsically new in the reasons behind their collapse. Neither is there anything fresh in the media's rush to identify a scapegoat. An examination of the financial collapse of Mirror Group Newspapers and Barings Bank, demonstrates failures within both these companies' corporate cultures and management systems, which allowed, if not encouraged, unethical behaviour by key individuals. It is argued that a combination of legislation, regulation, effective risk management and appropriate sanctions are needed, if such unethical behaviour, and resulting corporate failure, is to be prevented in future.     

Does poverty lead to non-fatal unintentional injuries in rural Vietnam?

The aim of this study was to identify associations between poverty at the household level and unintentional injury morbidity. A cohort consisting of 24,874 person-time episodes, representing 24,776 people living in 5,801 households (classified into rich, middle income and poor by local authorities in 1999) was followed during 2000, in order to identify and assess non-fatal unintentional injuries. Incidence rate ratios were calculated using a Poisson regression model. The results showed that poverty was a risk factor for unintentional injuries generally. When looking at different types of injury, poverty was a risk for home, work and "other" injuries, protective for school injuries, while the risk of traffic injuries was not affected. The results also showed that communes in mountainous areas were at higher risk for home, work and other injuries. Overall, poverty was associated with unintentional injury morbidity. However, the relationship varied by sex, age and type of injury. Specifically, poverty increased the risk for children and elderly people being injured at home, and for adults (15-59 years) being affected by work injuries.     

Business strategies and the small professional firm: Evidence from the conveyancing market

This paper examines the use of business strategies by firms of solicitors in England. Although still often seen as the epitome of the traditional profession, recent deregulation and liberalisation of the legal services market has forced solicitors to consider the use of more business-like approaches to the operations of their firms. Using the framework provided by John Kay, it is possible to identify distinctive capabilities among some firms in the provision of conveyancing, despite the fact that this is a relatively routine service provided mainly by small professional firms. The use of reputation is crucial here. Analysis of the conduct of sample firms suggests that business strategies can be identified with respect to pricing and advertising, and that the advertising behaviour of law firms closely matches the predictions of relevant economic theory. The paper concludes that it is meaningful to speak of strategy among at least some small professional firms.     

In search of the meaning of entrepreneurship

This paper is an attempt to build a bridge between the popular and the academic usage of the terms entrepreneur and entrepreneurship, and to identify the raw materials needed to construct an interpretive framework capable of illuminating the nature of entrepreneurship and its role in economic theory. We review briefly the contributions made to this topic by Cantillon, Schumpeter, Schultz and Kirzner. We advance a synthetic definition of the entrepreneur as someone who specializes in taking responsibility for and making judgemental decisions that affect the location, the form, and the use of goods, resources, or institutions. We then conclude with some observations on the basic choice confronting economics regarding the place of entrepreneurship in economic analysis.     

Determinants of Small Business EDI Adoption: An Empirical Investigation

Given the importance of widespread adoption for the success of electronic data interchange (EDI) and the "much-slower-than-anticipated" growth of EDI adoption in small businesses, in this study we aimed to identify the key determinants of small business EDI adoption. Based on prior research on IT/EDI adoption in large/small organizations, a model that incorporates 7 factors that are hypothesized to have influence on the EDI adoption decision was developed and empirically tested against data collected from 627 small businesses, with 38% of them having already adopted the technology. The findings suggest that in the eyes of small businesses, EDI still is not considered as something that enables a business to gain major strategic benefits or competitive advantages. Although perceived costs are found to be major impediments to adoption, small businesses tend to have an "unbalanced" treatment between direct and indirect benefits, focusing more on those that are immediate and direct rather than on long-term, indirect benefits. Furthermore, prior EDI experience and perceived level of support from the vendor are also important determinants of EDI adoption in small businesses. Implications to Internet-based EDI systems are also discussed.     

中非贸易发展现状分析

中非贸易经过半个世纪的发展,近年以40%左右的增速呈现快速上升的趋势。同时,中国与非洲的贸易占各自对外贸易总额低、中国与各个非洲国家和地区的贸易水平不均衡、进出口结构单一的等问题也不容忽视。通过从世界贸易组织发布的《国际贸易统计年鉴(2009)》和国家统计网得到的权威数据数据,从总体贸易水平、进出口结构、贸易集中度等方面对中非贸易进行分析,揭示了中非贸易的现状及发展趋势,并找出与中国贸易往来最密切的非洲国家,可作为后续研究的重点关注对象。     

'The Extraordinary Self': Gothic Culture and the Construction of the Self

The Gothic culture of consumption centres on the dark in its various aesthetic and fashion manifestations. These cultural forms include a particular horror and romance genre (Shelly, Stoker, Poe and Rice) as well as a distinctive Victorian vampire chic costuming ritual. Syncretic introspection concerning my own cultural engagement leads me to identify Gothic consumption as an exemplar of "extraordinary self-construction" whereby the reality of mundane experience is transcended by self-authorship of an aspirational, fantastic narrative bricolage. The construction of a Gothic history and relegation of everyday insecurity and fear to a past era is the first stage in this self-authorship and parallels the Victorians' attraction to fairies and the "X-Philes" preoccupation with the supernatural and bizarre.