Scope of the Tourism Industry and its Employment Impact in Ireland

The vital role which tourism has been given within plans for national economic recovery in the Republic of Ireland is considered in this article. Its purpose is twofold: first, to review the current position of the tourism industry in Ireland in the context of current government expectations and, second, to report the findings of a recently published study by the State training agency for hotels, catering and tourism (CERT), of the scope, structure, employment profile and economic significance of the industry in Ireland. Conclusions are drawn about the industry's capacity to respond to growth expectations.     

现代流通中的利润空间分析

本文认为,流通业直接连接生产与消费,具有其他产业不可替代的职能,就业容量大,对国民经济贡献度高,已成为国民经济发展的重要基石;流通力与流通效率的提高是企业经济竞争力提升的核心问题;随着竞争的加剧,企业除要在技术、服务与品牌效应上继续争取优势外,还必须在现代流通领域内创造新优势,向流通过程要利润。     

Imports,Exports and the Firm Product Scope: Evidence From Turkey

By exploiting an original firm‐product level dataset for Turkish manufacturing, ‐way trading on firm product scope and innovation in a multiple treatment setting. Our evidence points at the prominent role of exporting, while no effect is found for importing only. Nonetheless, we corroborate existing evidence on the virtuous nexus between the two international activities and add to the literature by showing that joint firm involvement in exporting and importing fosters product innovation and quality upgrading.     

Networks,Entrepreneurial Orientation,and Internationalization Scope: Evidence from Chilean Small and Medium Enterprises

During the last 20 years, the literature on internationalized small firms discussed at length the speed of internationalization, illustrating the importance of born globals. The geographic scope of small firm internationalization and its implications for international business and entrepreneurship theories has however been overlooked, especially with regard to firms based in Latin America. This study expands the research agenda on the effects of networks and entrepreneurship orientation for the internationalization strategy of small firms by examining their effects on internationalization scope. It uses survey data from small firms based in Chile. The findings suggest that the greater the number of networks utilized, the more entrepreneurs are likely to target markets based in diverse regions of the world. The study has managerial and policy implications, suggesting that nurturing diverse international networks can help entrepreneurs reach a broader number of markets.     

Open Season：Foreign Banks Take Aim at China

Global consulting firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers （PWC） issued a report about foreign banks in China this May. According to the report, it was the great market potential and the ever-improving business performance in China that attracted more foreign investment rushing into the country.[第一段]     

Using AI Techniques in the Grocery Industry: Identifying the Customers Most Likely to Defect

The food retailing market has reached a mature stage where companies need to be competitive if they are to survive. Customers are ever more demanding and retailers need to design and introduce new ways of learning about their customers if they are to retain them (Leeflang & Van Raaij ). This article examines the efficiency of the LAMDA classifier (Learning Algorithm Machine for Data Analysis) (Aguado ; Aguado et al. ) in identifying customer's behaviour; specifically examining which customers are most likely to defect when a new retailer appears on the scene. The study carried out in this project is based on data gathered from a Spanish grocery chain: Supermercats Pujol, SA – ‘Plus Fresc’, winner of the 1998 Global Electronic Marketing Award, www.plusfresc.es     

Value Creation in the Video Game Industry: Industry Economics,Consumer Benefits,and Research Opportunities

In the past twenty years, the video game industry has established itself as a significant contributor to the global entertainment economy. Compared to more established entertainment industries such as movies and music, limited scholarly research in marketing has addressed the processes that create value for companies and consumers in the context of video games which are now available on multiple devices (e.g., consoles, portables, mobile devices) and through multiple channels (e.g., retail and online). The authors therefore develop a conceptual framework of value creation through video games, highlight important findings from extant research in marketing and other disciplines, and apply the framework to derive future research opportunities.     

The Defense Industry Initiative: Ethics,self-regulation,and accountability

In 1986, President Reagan created the Packard Commission, a blue-ribbon commission to investigate defense contracting procurement fraud. The Packard Commission's major recommendation was for defense contractors to adopt ethics programs. Out of this recommendation emerged the Defense Industry Initiative (DII). This paper examines this Initiative and focuses on the DII's six principles. In particular, this paper explores the implications the DII has had with respect to (1) pursuing intra-industry cooperation and setting industry-wide standards; (2) monitoring compliance; (3) the paradox inherent to the DII as a facilitator for industry self-regulation; and, (4) why companies have enthusiastically adopted the directive. This paper concludes that the DII falls short of being an effective method of self-regulation because: (1) it does not achieve complete industry-wide cooperation; (2) it does not establish uniform standards of ethical conduct within the industry; (3) it does not hold the signatory companies accountable for creating a strong system of ethical conduct; and, (4) it does not relieve the organizational and market pressures to be unethical.Nancy Kurland is a doctoral student. Her research interests include ethics, values, and moral reasoning in business. She has published in theJournal of Business Ethics.     

台湾会计师行业监管:形成、发展与启示

如何对会计师进行有效监管始终是各国各地区会计监管部门所关心的问题,也是各国各地区会计师行业面临的重要课题。在促进证券市场健全发展的过程中,新兴市场往往借鉴发达市场的成熟经验,更多地是在本土化情况下加以创新,台湾地区会计师行业监管就是典型的例子,由专业管制专业便是一个最好的方式,会计师行业监管扮演着相当关键的角色。     

Retail Philanthropy: Firm Size,Industry, and Business Cycle

This article investigates the effects of firm size, profitability, industry affiliation, and the business cycle on retailer philanthropy. The importance of industry and firm effects on giving was analyzed with regression models using industry-fixed effects as well as firm strategy variables. The analysis included instrumental variables methodology to account for simultaneity in the charitable giving–profits relationship. Data were gathered from the IRS Corporate Statistics of Income Sourcebook, data that provide firm size class measures covering the entire firm size distribution ranging from small retailers up to large multi-national retail firms. Retailer philanthropy was measured as the ratio of charitable contributions to total receipts. Important findings include a cubic relationship between retailer philanthropy and firm size; industry effects stronger than those observed for retail profit; and the absence of business cycle effects. The empirical research relating retail charitable giving to firm attributes including firm size and advertising, industry and business cycle factors are unique in the business ethics literature. Prior studies regarding the importance of industry on charitable giving utilized data across broad sectors of the economy. Firms from different sectors could be expected to differ in philanthropic approach due to differences in public contact as well as differences in public relations exposure. The strong industry effects reported for this sample of exclusively retail firms, with similar public contact, provide strong evidence for the importance of industry in determining firms’ charitable strategies.     

我国服务外包业发展的现状、问题及对策

近年来我国服务外包业增长迅速,产业规模不断扩大、业务形式日趋多样、市场分布逐渐拓展,示范城市也发挥了一定的产业集聚和辐射作用;但是同时也存在着一些问题和不足,主要体现在理解认识、企业实力、市场环境三个方面;而科学系统、务实灵活的发展策略将有助于我国服务外包业水平的提升。     

“文革”宣传画的类型及其性别传播

“文革”宣传画是我们考察这段特殊历史时期的性别观念、政策及其传播,最为生动的文本载体。它大致可以分为“革命斗争”、“生产建设”和“教文卫体”三种类型。“革命斗争”类型画作中的女性形象畸形造作,反映了女性的男性化描绘;“生产建设”类型宣传画图画了女性与男性一道参与新中国社会主义实践的美丽图景,体现了男女在工作地位上的平等;“教文卫体”宣传画全方位地再现了妇女在新中国所担任的各种职业,生动地宣传了“妇女能顶半边天”的国家政策。这些类型都从各自的功能出发,服务于新中国建设发展的国家主义实践。     

A Subcultural Analysis of the Brazilian Knowledge Industry: When Nation,Industry, and Organizational Cultures Collide

ABSTRACT

This exploratory research seeks to better understand the relationship between national and industry culture, concentrating particularly on the case of the Brazilian knowledge industry. Perceptions of real and ideal corporate values were obtained from 98 professional and managerial staff from Brazil and 40 from the United States. The results were also compared to those of a multi-industry Brazilian sample reported in Nelson and Gopalan (2003 Nelson , R. E. , and Gopalan , S. ( 2003 ). “Do Organizational Cultures Replicate National Cultures?” Organization Studies , Vol. 4 , pp. 115 – 152 . [Google Scholar]). The Brazilian knowledge industry respondents' view of their organizational culture was much more favorable than the US knowledge industry respondents' perceptions. The Brazilian knowledge industry sample also contained unique subcultures that varied by employment regime and favorably reflected on the industry's ability to adapt to modern trends. This configuration of results does not clearly favor any of the major theories of organizational culture but suggests a complex pattern of interaction between country, industry, industry position, and employment regime. The results do, however, suggest that interaction effects of country by industry may be much stronger than the main effects of either industry or nation.     

旅游业的要素禀赋、产业集聚与本地市场效应:中国的经验证据

文章梳理旅游产业组织演化规律,分析旅游业中要素禀赋、产业集聚与本地市场效应的相互关系,基于新贸易理论的基本假设,利用旅游和经济社会发展数据,验证中国旅游本地市场效应的存在性。研究发现:中国旅游全行业和旅行社行业不存在明显的本地市场效应;旅游景区在不同模型中均存在本地市场效应;旅游饭店及其他行业只有在考虑要素禀赋的模型中显示存在本地市场效应。研究表明,在旅游市场化的背景下,中国部分旅游行业已受到规模报酬递增影响,出现旅游产业集群化趋势,要素禀赋的比较优势和本地市场效应的规模经济同时存在于旅游景区、旅游饭店及其他行业,本地市场效益将逐渐代替要素禀赋成为中国旅游业持续增长的新动力。     

企业成长阶段及其划分标准:一个评论性回顾

企业成长阶段理论已有近半个世纪的发展历程,但关于成长阶段划分标准及阶段数目直到今天都还处于无休无止的争论之中。探讨相关文献中有关成长阶段理论的起源、各种划分标准及相应阶段数目做了一个评论性回顾,指出了各种标准的优点和缺点,以及今后应该解决的问题。     

Movements, bandwagons, and clones: Industry evolution and the entrepreneurial process

Entrepreneurship research has paid insufficient attention to the context in which new businesses are started. Consequently, efforts to identify factors that consistently lead to entrepreneurial success have failed. This is because what works in one context will not necessarily work in another. Even worse, factors that lead to success in one context may lead to failure in another.This article addresses this problem by drawing from the concept of industry evolution to identify three broad but distinct organizing contexts—emerging, growth, and mature industries—and demonstrating how each context presents a different set of entrepreneurial challenges. An industry is defined not as a group of firms producing close substitutes, but instead, as a group of firms of the same organizational form. Industry evolution is understood therefore as the diffusion of an organizational form, with emerging, growth, and mature stages corresponding to the creation, exploitation and erosion of competitive advantage. Defining an industry in this manner makes it possible to overcome the problem of shifting industry boundaries and enables us to distinguish between entrepreneurial activities that shake up existing industries by creating new and competing organizational forms and entrepreneurial activities that replicate well-known organizational forms and drive an industry toward equilibrium. It also enables us to draw from the work of industrial organization economics, strategy, and population ecology.Entrepreneurship is defined as the creation of new organizations and is viewed as a context-dependent social process. New organizations are enacted as critical stakeholders change their behaviors in ways that allow the organization to emerge. The process is successful when the short-term existence of a new organization is no longer at risk. A typological theory of entrepreneurial success is developed by examining how the fit between context and four other critical dimensions cause successful foundings. The theory is multiplicative and probabilistic. It is multiplicative in that all dimensions need to fit for a founding to be successful. Poor fit in any one area can lead to failure. It is probabilistic in that the better the overall fit, the better the odds of success.In addition to context, the dimensions we examine are entrepreneurial networks, entrepreneurial confidence-building behaviors, the motivation of stakeholders, and organizational structures and strategies. In terms of entrepreneurial networks, we examine whether entrepreneurs have weak-tie or strongtie networks, and whether their networks are homogeneous or include subgroups that are unrelated. In terms of confidence-building behaviors, we explore the use of informal (e.g., repeated personal interaction) versus formal (e.g., contracts) mechanisms. With respect to stakeholder motivations, we ask whether stakeholders are driven by social or instrumental motivations. In terms of structure and strategy, we consider two issues. First, we explore whether the emerging organization is market or hierarchy based, and we consider the extent to which the organization is innovative versus imitative. We argue that these various dimensions come together in three logical configurations, that we label movements, bandwagons, and clones.EMERGING INDUSTRY ORGANIZING: MOVEMENTSMovements are the organizing processes through which new organizational forms are created. Pioneers of new forms of organizations have unique personal networks that enable them to see the potential of bringing the factors of production together in new combinations. They have strong ties to two or more nonoverlapping networks. To succeed, they must overcome problems associated with lack of legitimacy. Theentrepreneur is joined by highly committed stakeholders who are motivated by social factors. Belief in the venture's success is achieved through informal confidence building, such as incremental personal exchange and third-party reputation. In this manner, stakeholders develop personal familiarity with the form and make positive assessments about the entrepreneur's competence and trustworthiness. The organizing structure is market based with participant commitments being secured through flexible, cooperative agreements. The strategic emphasis is on innovation and experimentation. The belief in the importance and viability of the new organizational form serves as a loose ideology for controlling and coordinating the actions of participants.GROWTH INDUSTRY ORGANIZING: BANDWAGONSBandwagons are organizing processes that seek to exploit the potential of a newly legitimated form. The strategic challenge at this stage is to prosper newly legitimated form. The strategic challenge at this stage is to prospeamidst rapid growth and change. The successful entrepreneur has an extensive network of high status individuals that can be tapped to quickly mobilize resources within a narrow window of opportunity. Stakeholders are motivated less by social factors, than by a desire to secure the benefits of being early movers. Formal confidence-building mechanisms dominate. In an effort to achieve efficiencies, develop sources of competitive advantage, and preempt the competition, more value-chain activities are developed in house. The strategic posture remains entrepreneurial; however, more emphasis is placed on following the example of other firms.MATURE INDUSTRY ORGANIZING: CLONESClones are the organizing processes that replicate existing forms and incorporate all that has been learned about a given industry and type of business. Strong competition along with stable demand and technology make it difficult to find a source of competitive advantage in a mature industry. At this stage, the successful founder is someone with extensive industry knowledge and contacts who is capable of extracting operating efficiencies and/or identifying some underserved market segment. Expected returns are modest and stakeholders need to be motivated partly by social factors. However, the large amount of information now available about the form and the market itserves enables stakeholders to base their participation decisions on a rational assessment of expected future benefits. Given increased experience with the form, the relationships between the organization and its stakeholders are more predictable and as a consequence, subject to greater formalization. Models exist showing how to structure theserelationships, facilitating greater use of more specific contracts and guarantees. With tight margins and the need for efficiency, greater use is made of hierarchy in an attempt to manage costs. These same highly competitive conditions also make mistakes very expensive. The organization needs to draw upon the knowledge that others have learned about the form. Consequently, it adopts a more conservative strategic posture and is less likely to deviate from established practice.IMPLICATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCHIf we are ever to understand what leads to entrepreneurial success, we must pay more attention to the context in which organizing occurs. Our typology suggests that fundamentally different processes may be at work at different stages of industry evolution. In addition to empirically testing our theory, an opportunity exists to reexamine the existing entrepreneurship literature through a new conceptual lens, asking how our interpretation of the research would differ if context was considered explicitly. Our theory also has the potential to inform questions about the role of organizational foundings in the diffusion of competitive advantage and to examine the impact of.founding conditions on long-term strategic adaptation.     

The U.S. Carpet Industry: History,Industry Dynamics,and a Simple Model for Short-Term Forecasting

This article presents a simple model that can be used to assess the current situation of the carpet industry and develop a short-term outlook for it. Using quarterly data over the time period 1999:Q1–2016:Q2, we build a regression model of U.S. carpet industry shipments. We find that the recent leveling-off of shipments is likely to persist. While housing recovery will aid the demand for carpeting, increases in income are likely to be offsetting, as the switch to alternative floor coverings will be ongoing.