蒙克顿：加拿大的缩影

蒙克顿位于加拿大东部沿海,属于大西洋四省之一的NewBrunswick省,按照加拿大的标准,我市是一座中等城市。蒙克顿市区常驻人口12万,作为地区经济中心,周围50～70公里范围到市区上班者为数不少。北美土著人——密克马克人很早就在这里定居。公元1600年,法国人开始定居这里。被称为acadia人。这里一度成为法国和英国的争夺范围,英国殖民者和法国acadiens之间剑拔弩张,最终英国人赢得了统治权。1755年,acadiens人被驱逐出境,然而许多人却躲到森林里逃难,其余的于1763年后返回。随后一部分宾夕法尼亚人和德国蒙克顿人开始定居这里,…     

Is There a Public Sector Training Advantage? Evidence from the Workplace Employment Relations Survey

Using matched employer–employee data from the Workplace Employment Relations Survey (2004), we find a significant training ‘advantage’ exists for public sector workers over private sector workers even after accounting for differences in the composition of the two workforces. This finding is robust to all but one change in specification, designed to account for worker sorting effects which can lead to unobserved workplace‐based effects being correlated with individual worker characteristics. Using the average characteristics of workers within an establishment as a control for these sorting effects all but eliminates the estimated public sector training advantage, which has otherwise been an empirical regularity of many individual‐based training models.     

Trade Union Responses to zero hours work in Ireland

This paper examines the strategies adopted by Irish unions in responding to zero hours work in four sectors. It concludes that rather than adopting either a passive or a uniform approach, unions have pragmatically varied their strategies to curtail zero‐hours work through actively combining both bargaining and regulatory approaches.     

Entrepreneurial Opportunities of Refugees in Germany,France, and Ireland: Multiple Embeddedness Framework

International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal - Recently, the entrepreneurial potential of refugees has received growing attention from scholars and policymakers. However, the literature on...     

Consumer Perceptions of the Antecedents and Consequences of Corporate Social Responsibility

Perceptions of a firm’s stance on corporate social responsibility (CSR) are influenced by its corporate marketing efforts including branding, reputation building, and communications. The current research examines CSR from the consumer’s perspective, focusing on antecedents and consequences of perceived CSR. The findings strongly support the fact that particular cues, namely perceived financial performance and perceived quality of ethics statements, influence perceived CSR which in turn impacts perceptions of corporate reputation, consumer trust, and loyalty. Both consumer trust and loyalty were also found to reduce the perceived risk that consumers experience in buying and using products. From these significant findings, we draw several conclusions and implications, including the importance of enhancing firm focus toward its ethical commitment and long-term reputation.     

Discovering and Evaluating Collaboration Engineering Opportunities: An Interview Protocol Based on the Value Frequency Model

Collaboration Engineering (CE) is an approach to designing collaborative work practices for high-value recurring tasks and transferring those designs to practitioners to execute for themselves without the ongoing intervention of professional facilitators. Because CE projects can entail considerable cost, it would be useful to have a way to predict whether a group would be likely to adopt a collaborative work practice were one developed for them. In this paper we present an interview protocol for that purpose. Using the logic of the Value Frequency Model (VFM), we derived the protocol with two layers of questions. The first layer is for discovering potential collaboration engineering opportunities; the second is for evaluating the degree to which practitioners might be willing to adopt a new work practice were one offered. We used the protocol in two field studies; one with a team of experienced collaboration engineers working in the headquarters of a large multi-national organization, and one with a group of students with no CE experience working with a variety of for-profit and non-profit organizations in their community. The qualitative and quantitative outcomes of these studies suggest that the interview protocol may be a useful means for discovering and evaluating CE opportunities. Outcomes also provide support for VFM, the theory from which the protocol was derived.     

Global developments in the competition for land from biofuels

The potential global demand for biofuels and the implications of this for land use and its interaction with food agriculture is reviewed. It is expected that biofuels will form an important element of global transport energy mix (in the order of 20–30% of total requirement) over the next 40 years and beyond. Over this time, there will be a transition from so called first generation biofuels, based on commodity agricultural crops with food/feed uses, to advanced biofuels, sometimes called second and third generation biofuels, based primarily upon lignocellulosic feedstocks. It remains unclear whether these advanced biofuels, based on lignocellulosic materials, will entirely replace first generation or if second generation will be supplemental to first generation. This expansion in biofuels will be coupled to a substantial increase in alternative fuels (electricity, hydrogen, biogas and natural gas) and modal shifts. Biofuel production from agricultural commodity crops that exhibit strong sustainability criteria will remain important (e.g. sugarcane) with supportive and competitive aspects for food security.Land requirement projections estimated for a range of potential biofuel development trajectories range widely and are inherently uncertain. Under the most active scenario that delivers substantive greenhouse gas reductions in transport by 2050 (relative to 2005 levels), approximately 100 Mha of additional land is projected. In the ‘business-as-usual’ scenario, in which transport energy demand rises by 80% by 2050 from present levels, a land use requirement of 650 Mha is projected.Significant potential exists for producing biofuels that possess high productivity and sustainability profiles through continued research, development and demonstration. Policy and regulation at a global level, that focuses biofuel development on these goals in ways that are synergistic with food agriculture, will simultaneously help to decarbonise transport and maintain a diverse and financially robust agricultural (and forestry) sector.     

An economic efficiency study on different regions of Ghana via Slack-based data envelopment analysis and regression analysis

In this article, we evaluate the efficiency of the 10 different regions of Ghana using slack-based data envelopment analysis, a nonparametric linear programming technique. Furthermore, we analyse the variable effects on the efficiency of the regions by various regression models using bootstrap sampling technique. The data come from the 1991/1992 and 1998/1999 Ghana Living Standards Survey. Our results show that wealth is not strongly related to efficiency. For example, the study indicates that the Brong–Ahafo region is the most efficient region but not the most wealthy in Ghana. Generally, urban regions are not found to be among the most efficient regions due to the high expenditures. The regression analysis shows that female heads of household have an overall positive effect on efficiency. In addition, any form of education obtained is also found to have a significant positive effect on efficiency.     

SME Internet use and strategic flexibility: the moderating effect of IT market orientation

Abstract

One of the most important topics in the marketing literature has been the concept of market orientation. However, questions remain as to the dynamics of how market orientation translates into intermediate capabilities. This study explores relationships among different types of Internet usage, IT market orientation (the extent to which IT is aligned to manage customer and competitor information and internal activities), and strategic flexibility (firm capability to respond to the need for change). Specifically, use of the Internet for communication with relevant stakeholders, owing to its market-sensing potential, should be positively and significantly related to strategic flexibility for SMEs with more IT market-oriented alignment. The market-sensing potential of Internet communication to impact strategic flexibility positively for SMEs is likely to be lost under low IT market-oriented-alignment conditions. In contrast, IT market orientation should not moderate the relationship between Internet use for transactions with relevant stakeholders and strategic flexibility, given that the typical order taking and processing is a static, routine function for SMEs. Results supported hypothesised relationships. By delineating the type of Internet usage and required IT alignment that contribute to leveraging the Internet effectively, findings hold implications for future research by clarifying boundary conditions for Internet effects. Specifying how and when Internet use promotes strategic flexibility, an important enabler of competitive advantage, helps small business owner/managers better utilise their limited resources.