Developing an effective industrial cluster from strawberry farms： A case of Dahu Township in Taiwan

Dahu, a small township in northern Taiwan, is famous for its produce of strawberries. Near Dahu, there are some attractions, such as hot springs, native Taiwanese tribes and a national park named Shei-pa. In order to better support more small businesses in this area, the local government is eager to promote an industrial cluster of agriculture and tourism based on the well-developed strawberry farms. In this research, the authors investigated 200 strawberry farmers to examine forming factors of the cluster, and effects of cluster on organizational performance. The findings are firstly, capital resource is regarded as the most effective forming factor of the cluster. Secondly, institutionalization, interaction mechanism and knowledge flow positively intermediate the clustering effects on organizational performance. These findings have important implications for the local government and the businesses as well.     

Estimating the Economic Value of Statistical Life in China： A Study of the Willingness to Pay for Cancer Prevention

This paper reports the results of a Contingent Valuation （CV） study on cancer prevention where Multiple-Bounded Dichotomous Choice （MBDC） questions are asked of rural residents in China about their willingness to pay （WTP） for a hypothetical cancer vaccine which is expected to be effective for one year. The WTP data are analyzed with region-, age- and gender-specific cancer morbidity and mortality risk statistics; an upper and lower bound of the Value of a Statistical Life （VSL） are then estimated. The estimated VSL is between 481 and 814 thousand yuan （or 58 and 98 thousand US dollars） at 2000 constant prices, which is compatible with the results of previous studies.