马克思社会再生产理论对我国宏观调控的启示

我国投资问题一直受到学术界的高度关注。通过运用马克思社会再生产理论,建立了投资率理论模型,系统地揭示了影响投资率大小的因素,以及这些因素对投资率的影响态势,并利用中国和美国的相关数据,比较分析了影响中美两国投资率高低的主要因素。最后结合实际,提出解决中国投资率过高的政策取向:降低转移不变资本占国民收入的比例及其增长速度,提高产业集中度以减少中间投入的比例,提高劳动者报酬占国民收入的比例,调整产业结构以降低生产资料生产部门的固定资产消耗的比例,以及转变政府职能。     

数字经济下相关市场界定面临的挑战及方法改进

信息通信技术和数字技术的深度融合与广泛适用,推动着数字经济高速发展,催生各类新业态、新产业、新模式不断涌现,给市场竞争模式、产业组织结构以及经营者具体商业行为带来翻天覆地的变化。数字经济下以平台为中心的商业模式扩展了相关市场上以商品基础功能为主的商品功能叠加竞争,双边或多边市场下的跨市场竞争与融合以及非对称性定价结构等情况越来越复杂,给现行的以单边市场上商品单一功能及其价格变化为主的相关市场界定方法带来诸多挑战,现有相关市场界定方法的局限性凸显。为及时回应数字经济下相关市场界定问题,应在厘清相关市场界定基本逻辑的基础上,回归对用户需求替代变量的检视,在价格变量逐渐弱化的同时,将用户注意力、数据及商品质量视为相关市场界定中的重要变量,并结合用户需求替代发生的具体场景,重视个案中相关市场界定的精准化分析。数字经济领域市场竞争方式逐渐由传统价格竞争转向用户注意力竞争和数据竞争,对用户需求的精准把握和持续争夺在很大程度上决定了经营者在相关市场的竞争优势及其维持,经营者为了在注意力竞争中获取竞争优势,必须高度关注用户需求,不断优化升级商品质量,增值叠加商品功能,因此相关市场的界定必须考虑以用户需求替代为基础的用户可转向范围和数据转移成本,以体现数字经济下个性化、定制化、精细化特征对反垄断法适用的影响,同时凸显用户偏好在需求替代分析中的重要性。     

Constructing the culinary consumer: transformative and reflective processes in Italian cookbooks

This paper explores how culinary texts operate in both performative and transformative senses in relation to wider societal norms of gender and cultural capital. As such, the paper explores changes to the way in which the culinary consumer is presented in British Italian cookbooks from 1954 to 2005. Across the period, we see a shift in the gendered representation of the culinary subject, from a housewife in the period 1954–1974, to a working mother from 1975 to 1986, and most recently as male or female cook from 1987 to 2005. We also see shifts in representation of cultural capital in these same periods from learning new cooking skills, to adapting existing cooking skills to displaying skills in shopping and product selection. In charting these changing discourses, we find that whilst reflecting wider culinary culture, these cookbooks also act in a transformative sense to promote (and indeed require) specific enactments of gender and cultural capital.     

A Nietzschean re‐evaluation of values as a way of re‐imagining business ethics

Whereas a range of business and management scholars have argued that business is in an ethical crisis, Nietzsche makes it possible to see that it is ethics itself that is in crisis, and that only as the crisis in ethics is dealt with can ethics in specific areas such as business be addressed. Nihilism is the name that Nietzsche gives to the crisis in ethics. The failure to fully appreciate nihilism and its pervasiveness as the root cause of the problem, as evident in the perpetual quest to obliterate nihilism through the creation of ethical frameworks and foundations, has plunged business and ethics scholarship in the field, ever deeper in the quagmire of nihilism. In response to nihilism, Nietzsche offers a re‐evaluation of all values. To re‐evaluate all values means to accept nihilism and see it as a basis for questioning taken for granted assumptions that have supported the notion of ethics or values in order to re‐imagine an ethics which is responsive to the crisis of nihilism. The paper thus proposes that rather than trying to invent new ethics or ethical foundations, or figuring out “how” to be ethical, we need to turn our attention on the “why to be” of ethics.     

Traffic law enforcement in Hyderabad, India

The aim of the study was to understand traffic law enforcement (TLE) carried out by the police to reduce non-compliance with traffic laws on the roads of Hyderabad city in India for 2001-2003. The Traffic Police database of citations issued to drivers who violated traffic laws in Hyderabad was analysed for the years 2001-2003 to describe the TLE activities of the police, to describe and compare the TLE activities for the different types of vehicles and to compare the TLE activities for the 3 years. The violations were classified in five categories - those related to driving, parking, vehicle, document and others; and TLE into safety and other TLE. A total of 646 161 traffic-law violations were registered in 2001, 904 447 in 2002 and 964 275 in 2003 for Hyderabad. Driving and parking violations were the most common violations registered in all 3 years, with parking violations slightly higher in 2001 (43.5%) and driving violations slightly higher in 2002 (35%) and 2003 (36.4%). Auto-rickshaws (three-wheel commercial passenger vehicles) accounted for the highest violations registered in 2001 (41.4%) whereas motorized two-wheelers had the highest registered violations in 2002 (35.5%) and 2003 (33.2%). Safety TLE activity (detecting and registering driving violations) was only one-third of all the TLE activity performed by the police in the 3 years, and disobeying traffic signals was the most common violation registered under safety TLE. Indian rupees 50 (US$1.1) were collected by way of a fine in 87% of the cases registered. Age and gender of the violators were not recorded in the database. These data can be used for planning, monitoring and evaluating TLE in Hyderabad. These can help identify traffic control and human factors that could lead to traffic noncompliance, and help identify priorities for improving road safety. These data indicate a need to enhance the safety TLE activity of the police, to make TLE more visible in Hyderabad, and to assess the effectiveness of the current legal action as deterrence to improve road safety. Recommendations to enhance TLE within the given resources of the police are made. More effort is needed towards systematic collection and analysis of data on TLE in India to facilitate long-term improvements in TLE for safer roads.     

The role of experience in work and learning among design engineers

Taking an approach to learning in the workplace as a phenomenon situated and accumulated in the course of work activities and everyday practice, the purpose of this study was to investigate how workers (development engineers and designers) themselves perceive the role of experience in work and learning. The empirical material consists of interviews with 18 employees in two enterprises in Finland. Narrative analysis of the holistic core stories yielded four thematic categories. The categories indicate that learning from experience plays an essential part in coping and learning along with other people, in understanding holistic work processes and in creating a personal perception of one's work and the learning that takes place in its course. It is suggested that the essence of learning through experience in everyday practice challenges the employers, first, to pay attention to the maintenance of a collaborative working atmosphere, second, to arrange possibilities for the continuous analysis of tasks within working teams and networks and, third to see their experienced fellow workers as mentors in order to harness the know‐how embedded in teams and organisations to better benefit all workers.     

A critical review of primary health care reform in Bulgaria: impact on consumers

The Health Care System in Bulgaria is in a period of transition and is undergoing profound changes in financing, organization and ownership. A priority of this reform is to shift the focus of healthcare to the primary sector and to emphasize general practice. New legislation in support of this health care reform has been passed over the last few years. However, this legislation, although consistent with the global aims to be achieved, has proven to be contradictory in terms of its practical implementation. This has had a negative impact on health care consumers’ interests and rights. This paper evaluates the effects of primary health care reform in Bulgaria from the perspective of patient satisfaction. For this purpose, a major task to be fulfilled is to identify the contradictions emerging between the legislation outlining the reforms and the realities of practical implementation with respect to its impact on consumers. The methods applied include: a review of the legislation, a review of the practical progression of the reform process, and an assessment of the new developments in health care consumers’ interests and rights. Considerable contradictions have been found between the legal framework of health care reform in primary care and existing experiences, traditions and expectations. The legislation is inconsistent with the existing realities of healthcare provision. This is leading to turmoil in the health care system during its present transformation and is infringing upon consumers’ rights. Problems emerging in the process of reform need to be identified, and solutions need to be found and worked out as the reforms progress. An assessment system has to be developed to monitor the overall reform process and to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of the changes introduced. The impact on consumer and patient satisfaction should be an area of prime concern during these assessments.     

Ingredients in the Early Development of the U.S. Biotechnology Industry

This paper explores the ingredients that stimulated the development of the biotechnology industry in the US and contrasts conditions with those in Europe. It examines relationships between established firms and new start-ups; the financing and managerial environment and the organizational environment, whereby firms were able to set up networks of alliances. Its main findings are that: 1) The funding of the medical science research base has been substantially more generous in the U.S. than Europe. It is the funding of the science base rather than of the biotechnology industry directly that has provided the foundations for start-ups to be created out of the science base. 2) It has been easier for U.S. academics to found start-ups, close to their research establishment, and to retain their academic posts and status as well as be involved in a commercial enterprise. In Europe, the scientific/academic and commercial worlds have a wider divide. 3) Start-ups have been concentrated in the therapeutics and agricultural fields, with strong scientific research inputs into their commercialization, in contrast to other sectors where downstream processing innovations have been more important, which have been undertaken in-house by the large incumbent companies. 4) Financing and managerial conditions have been significantly easier in the U.S. for start-ups, in terms of access to venture capital specialising in high technology, ability to use the stock market to raise capital, and access to people able to forge links between scientists and entrepreneurs, and to introduce managerial expertise into new companies. 5) There has been a greater facility in the U.S. than in Europe for alliances to be formed between incumbent companies and indigenous U.S. start-ups; European start-ups have not found similar backing from European incumbent companies.     

对高校后勤社会化改革的回顾与思考

成都理工大学后勤社会化改革取得了极大成绩。成绩的取得主要源于后勤工作坚持走改革创新之路,不断推进后勤社会化;坚持走持续发展之路,不断提高后勤凝聚力;坚持走服务至上之路,不断巩固后勤社会化改革新成果。当然在后勤社会化改革中也存在一些不足,为此我校后勤工作应进一步理顺甲乙方及大后勤管理职能,加强外聘员工聘用的过程管理、改进后勤服务实体的自主创新能力等。     

Retailing to the “grey pound”: Understanding the food shopping habits and preferences of consumers over 50 in Scotland

The number of older people is growing globally and therefore there is an implication for providing products and services to facilitate access to nutritious food, considered fundamental for maintaining health and independence. Historically, older consumers have been unattractive to marketers, however improved finances and lifestyles indicate the “grey pound” has the potential to become lucrative. This exploratory research seeks to identify the current expectation of Scottish older consumers in relation to the products and services available in the supermarket and food retailers. A questionnaire was distributed to participants aged over 50 years in Scotland to voice the opinion of the older consumer in relation to shopping experience and availability of product. The results support previous research indicating the improved lifestyles of older consumers, demonstrating that previous perceptions of older people as impoverished and immobile are not representative of this group. This study contributes to the demand for more information on older consumers׳ food shopping habits and preference in Scotland. It attempts to provide useful recommendations for supermarkets and food retailers in fulfilling the needs of this rising consumer segment. This research concludes that supermarkets could improve access to both products and services to meet the demand from this growing segment of society, through better understanding of their requirements in terms of customer service, shopping experience, product size, price, access and mobility.     

Transformation of Islamic Work Ethic and Social Networks: The Role of Religious Social Embeddedness in Organizational Networks

The aim of this study is to explore the influence of religious beliefs on social or work-related ties of managers who are member of organizational networks representing two different ideologies (religious and secular) in Turkey. In this research, the emergence of secular and devout entrepreneurs is considered as a phenomenon, and special attention is paid to religious transformation and secularism in Turkey. Social network analysis method is used to define the nature of communication links among 80 chairmen who are the members of two conflicting and dominant groups in Turkish business system. The findings show that Protestant work ethic suggested by Weber with regard to Christianity have attained a similar place over the past decade in Islamic organizational networks. The concern of political power in religion leads to organizational networks being nourished by religious norms and creeds in many developing countries. Especially in societies like Turkey where the state is dominant in the business life, organizations and managers prefer to be included in religious networks to make close contacts with the state. Another significant finding is that efforts of the members of religious networks—in spite of their relatively closed characteristics—in terms of being at the center of a network and taking the brokerage role, are highly developed on the contrary to the literature.     

Optimization Modeling for Logistics: Options and Implementations

Logistics optimization has significantly grown in popularity over the last few decades. Improvements in computing power, modeling software, and the willingness of companies to invest time in the modeling effort have allowed models that were once too unwieldy to solve to optimality to be solved quickly. This has led to a more wide‐spread recognition by logistics managers of the potential advantages of using optimization. The scope of logistics optimization in companies and organizations has expanded to address strategic, tactical, operational, and collaborative decision making. Spreadsheets, an analytical tool familiar to managers, have played a crucial role in the expanded modeling efforts of companies. Although optimization’s role in logistics has grown tremendously, there still are areas that remain to be explored that will allow it to achieve an even larger and more successful role in the management of companies. Additionally, there are some models that are still too large or too complex to currently solve to optimality, despite the advances in computing power and modeling/solving software.     

商贸流通服务业影响力政策分析

重新认识和充分发挥商贸流通服务业的影响力已成为新世纪国内外关注的重大前沿问题,更是践行科学发展观、转变发展方式、落实中央一系列战略意图的全局性问题。商贸流通服务业影响力是商贸流通服务业直接贡献和间接贡献(外溢效应或外部性)的总称。以往商贸流通服务业影响力被低估,与忽视其溢出效应有直接关系。商贸流通服务业的外溢效应对于提高国民经济运行质量、优化国民经济流程、调整国民经济结构、扩大国内需求、增进社会总福利等全局性的潜移默化的影响能力,可能远远大于它所提供的直接贡献,低估这种外溢效应是长期以"来重生产、轻流通"的真正原因之一。     

The emergence of new Islamic economic and business moralities

This article aims to explore the sources of the observed transformation in the embeddedness of economic, business, and financial practices of Muslim individuals in comparison to premodern period Muslims. It argues that the predomination of instrumental reasoning in modern times, as opposed to substantive morality in everyday practice, is one of the main reasons behind the transformation of embeddedness of Muslim individuals. Instrumental reasoning, being the dominant methodology, leads to diminished submergence in social relations; that is not limited to interpersonal relationships, but further extended to the core religious acts. How such an emergent economic and business morality is reconciled with the Islamic substantive morality is examined. It is argued that “transformation of exception into norm” is the main method used to reconcile instrumental reasoning with Islamic law in fulfilling religious obligations, at least in terms of fulfilling the form and in complying with the necessities of modern life. This has led to the emergence of new economic and business moralities.     

Leveraging the Diaspora for Africa’s Economic Development

ABSTRACT

African countries need to engage their diasporas in industrialized countries to provide much needed human, social, and financial capital to help with their economic development. For Africa’s economies to successfully transition from their current state of commodity-dominated production to high value-added production, governments in the continent must design and implement strategies to harness their grossly underutilized diaspora in developed countries. For the most part, the diaspora’s contribution to development has been viewed only in terms of remittances that go primarily to support families. In this paper, we provide a broad overview of some of the diaspora friendly policies that can help engage the African diaspora in the economic development of their respective countries of origin (COOs). Governments in the COOs need to move beyond seeing the diaspora as simply a source for remittances, and engage them in a meaningful way to provide them with a sustainable competitive advantage in the global battle for talent. There needs to be a move beyond simple calls to patriotism, and into engagement that leads to a mutually beneficial relationship between the diaspora and its COO. We conclude by pointing out some of the steps that can be taken in this regard to engage with the diaspora in a mutually beneficial relationship.     

The internationalization of new and small firms: A resource-based view

This paper seeks to enhance understanding of the internationalization of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The study focuses upon the following issues: Can the characteristics of principal founders, businesses, and the external environment at one point in time be used to `explain' at a later date whether a firm is still an exporter or a nonexporter, whether exporting firms are larger in size than nonexporting firms, whether exporting firms report superior performance than nonexporting firms, and whether exporting firms are more likely to survive than nonexporting firms? To address these questions, this study draws upon a sample of 621 manufacturing, construction, and services businesses located in twelve contrasting environments in Great Britain surveyed first in 1990/91 and then re-interviewed in 1997.A resource-based view is reviewed to identify the range of factors encouraging some owner-managed SMEs to enter export markets. Four categories of human and financial capital are examined: general human capital resources, the principal founder's management know-how, the principal founder's specific industry know-how, and a principal founder's ability to obtain financial resources that can act as a buffer against random shocks. Variables relating to resource availability in the external environment were also collected and considered control variables. Previous studies have highlighted substantial industry differences in the propensity for businesses to enter export markets as well as to survive. The principal industrial activity of each business in 1990/91 was, therefore, considered a control variable.Variables collected during the 1990/91 survey were selected to explain variations in the propensity to export reported by surviving independent firms in 1997. After elimination of missing values, the working sample was reduced to 116 independent firms for this study (86 nonexporters and 30 exporters in 1997). In addition, the 21 variables were selected to explain variations in business size in 1997, profit performance relative to competitors reported in 1997, changes in employment over the 1990/91 to 1997 period, and business survival over the 1990/91 to 1997 period (213 survivors and 395 nonsurvivors).Multivariate statistical analysis confirmed that previous experience of selling goods or services abroad is a key influence encouraging firms to export. Businesses with older principal founders, with more resources, denser information and contact networks, and considerable management know-how are significantly more likely to be exporters. Further, businesses with principal founders that had considerable industry-specific knowledge are markedly more likely to be exporters. Businesses principally engaged in the service sectors and those located in urban areas are significantly less likely to be exporters.A key finding of this study is that the explanatory variables significantly associated with the propensity to export sales abroad are not the same as those significantly associated with selected size and performance measures. The resource-based explanatory variables selected fail to significantly detect employment-growing firms over the 1990/91 to 1997 period. They also fail to significantly distinguish surviving independent firms from nonsurviving firms.Results from this study will provide policy-makers and practitioners with additional insights into the key resource-based factors associated with the decision by new and small independent firms to export sales abroad. Practitioners and policy-makers can focus upon the characteristics of principal founders, businesses, and the external environment to predict the subsequent propensity of an independent firm to be an exporter. Policy-makers and practitioners who want more new and small firms to export outside their local areas may prefer to target their resources and assistance to the relatively smaller proportion of firms that have the business and principal founder profiles that are significantly associated with a firm being an exporter.     

Negotiating Effectively: Justice in International Environmental Negotiations

Are negotiators who rely on justice principles in the process of bargaining and drafting agreements more—or rather less—effective than others? This article examines whether adherence to principles of procedural and distributive justice in negotiations contributes to more effective results, with a focus on international environmental negotiations. Effectiveness is defined in terms of the extent of agreement (among parties and on issues), time to reach agreement, and comprehensiveness of the agreement. A set of hypotheses is evaluated on a selection of bilateral and multilateral cases of environmental negotiations, using statistical methods. The analyses reveal that adherence to principles of procedural justice contributes to more effective results in multilateral environmental negotiations. These principles are found to hinder effectiveness in the bilateral cases. On the other hand, adherence to principles of distributive justice is only moderately related to effectiveness in both the bilateral and multilateral cases.     

Prevention of drowning in home pools – lessons from Australia

As an affluent and warm weather country, Australia faced an epidemic of drowning in children under five as the popularity of home pools increased in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In one state child drowning rose by 6.62 per 100,000 in the five years from 1968. Variation across jurisdictions in actions to regulate domestic pools has resulted in Australia representing an unfortunate natural experiment in interventions to prevent child drowning in pools. Mechanisms adopted by various authorities were analysed in detail to identify factors that contributed to success and failure in regulating domestic pools. Despite early identification of the problem and development of what were later demonstrated to be effective interventions, best practice solutions were not established in any jurisdiction until 2002, 25 years after identification of the problem. Key failures in intervention were found to be: failure to act in a timely way, flawed regulation, blockage of timely action and repeal of effective state regulation under political pressure, and blockage of effective standards. Lessons are identified as: inherent weaknesses in the standard setting process, failure of interventions to address major risk categories, failure to act before the hazard grew, failure to consider lesser interventions for tactical reasons, failure to pay attention to advocates, and the need for continuing effort. The paper argues that analysis of the identification of the problem, development of interventions and implementation of mechanisms of prevention illustrate where systemic changes are required and indicate lessons that should be applied in developing and implementing future interventions.