Breakthrough thinking from inside the box

Companies often begin their search for great ideas either by encouraging wild, outside-the-box thinking or by conducting quantitative analysis of existing market and financial data and customer opinions. Those approaches can produce middling ideas at best, say Coyne, founder of an executive-counseling firm in Atlanta, and Clifford and Dye, strategy experts at McKinsey. The problem with the first method is that few people are very good at unstructured, abstract brainstorming. The problems with the second are that databases are usually compiled to describe current--not future--offerings, and customers rarely can tell you whether they need or want a product if they've never seen it. The secret to getting your organization to regularly generate lots of good ideas, and occasionally some great ones, is deceptively simple: First, create new boxes for people to think within so that they don't get lost in the cosmos and they have a basis for offering ideas and knowing whether they're making progress in the brainstorming session. Second, redesign ideation processes to remove obstacles that interfere with the flow of ideas--such as most people's aversion to speaking in groups larger than ten. This article offers a tested approach that poses concrete questions. For example, what do Rollerblades, H?agen-Dazs ice cream, and Spider-Man movies have in common? The answer: Each is something that adults loved as children and that was reproduced in an expensive form for grown-ups. Asking brainstorming participants to ponder how their childhood passions could be recast as adult offerings might generate some fabulous ideas for new products or services.     

Wage differences between Austrian men and women: <Emphasis Type="Italic">semper idem?</Emphasis>

In most OECD countries, the wage gap between men and women has narrowed during the past two decades. Developments of the last 20 years, e.g., increased labour market attachment of women or the introduction of equal pay laws, may have reduced the gender wage gap. We investigate the extent, persistence, and socio-economic determinants of the gender wage gap in Austria, for the years 1983 and 1997. Using wage decomposition techniques, we find that the average gender wage gap was almost as high in 1997 as it was in 1983. Not accounting for differences, the gender wage gap dropped from 25.5 to 23.3% of men’s wages. Taking observable differences between men and women into account, we estimate that the mean gender wage gap that cannot be explained, i.e., discrimination against women, dropped from 17 to 14% of men’s wages. A decomposition of the gender wage gap over time indicates that both returns to human capital and less discrimination were responsible for the narrowing of the gender wage gap.

网络嵌入、绿色动态能力与企业绿色创新——环境规制和管理者环境注意力的调节作用

基于动态能力理论、社会网络理论和制度理论等,探讨网络嵌入对企业绿色创新的影响,并进一步考察绿色动态能力在其中的中介作用以及环境规制、管理者环境注意力的调节作用。运用多元回归和Bootstrap方法进行实证检验,结果显示：结构嵌入和关系嵌入对企业绿色创新均具有显著影响;绿色动态能力在结构嵌入、关系嵌入与绿色创新之间起中介作用;环境规制、管理者环境注意力均正向调节绿色动态能力与绿色创新间关系。     

基于偏离-份额法的河南制造业竞争力分析

制造业是地区工业的重要组成部分,也是国民经济发展的支柱.本文运用偏离-份额分析法对河南制造业的发展状况进行分析,并与全国的发展状况进行比较,从结构和竞争力两个角度分析了制造业内部问题所在,以探讨河南制造业发展的重点,并结合实际为河南制造业的健康发展提出建议.     

国家主体功能区规划实施的几个关键问题

全国主体功能区规划已获得国务院通过并开始实施。作为一项国家空间战略布局规划,主体功能区规划的实施必将作为“十二五”时期及今后一段时期内经济社会工作的重点。为推动主体功能区规划的顺利实施,各级政府需要对主体功能区规划实施的关键问题形成共识。在主体功能区规划实施中,对主体功能区的认识、主体功能区规划实施的主体、主体功能区的划分、主体功能区的协调与调整、主体功能区的监测与评价、主体功能区政策措施落实、主体功能区的考核、主体功能区实施的组织保障、主体功能区规划实施的技术支撑、主体功能区实施的挑战与机遇等是需要重点关注的问题。     

Chinese dietary culture influences consumers' intention to use imported soy‐based dietary supplements: an application of the theory of planned behaviour

The over‐saturated dietary supplement (DS) market in developed countries such as the US spurs the need for foreign market expansion, and the Chinese market provides a great potential for the foreign soy‐based DS industry. This study examined Chinese consumers' intention to use imported (US‐made US‐brand) soy‐based DS based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). Two alternative models were also examined in which Chinese dietary culture variables, including soyfoods favourability and dining‐out sociability, as well as their interactions with attitudes, were integrated into the TPB model. A cross‐sectional, self‐administered survey was conducted with a sample of 215 subjects (137 females; 78 males) in Shanghai, China. The TPB variables attitude, subjective norm, perceived behaviour control and behavioural intention, as well as the Chinese dietary culture variables: soyfoods favourability and dine‐out sociability were measured. Multiple linear regressions were used to analyze the three models. The statistical results indicated that all three models were statistically significant to predict intention (Model 1: R² = 0.473, P < 0.001; Model 2: R² = 0.505, P < 0.001; Model 3: R² = 0.525, P < 0.001). The results also showed that attitude, perceived behavioural control, and dine‐out sociability were significant (positive) determinants of intention. Soyfoods favourability acted a significant (negative) moderator of the relationship between attitude and intention. Subjective norm had no significant impact on intention. In conclusion, the TPB model was useful to predict Chinese consumers' intention to use imported soy‐based DS, but not all the TPB components weighed significantly in exploring DS consumption in China. The selected Chinese dietary culture variables were much more important predictors than subjective norm. This study makes a significant contribution in the application of the TPB model and in market strategy development for imported dietary supplements in China.     

Consumer coping strategies: a study of consumers committed to eating local

This paper deals with consumer coping strategies when consumers experience difficulties in implementing an innovation. The particular setting for exploring this issue is a group of consumers in Michigan who are committed to eating local. The paper explores how these consumers cope or balance their commitment to eating local with the constraints they face on buying and preparing local food Following a literature review of coping strategy and consumer coping strategies in relation to innovations, the paper presents the results of three focus groups conducted with members of a Student Organic Farm, a food cooperative and a Slow Food Convivium. The consumers we interviewed mostly adopt problem‐centred, confrontative strategies: they change their food‐consumption habits including shopping, purchasing, cooking, storing and obviously, eating. None of these changes are easy to implement, and most require re‐allocations of time as well as trade‐offs to overcome time and cost barriers. In return, some of these consumers feel empowered. This study allows us to offer a working hypothesis that the process is dynamic: the more committed consumers are, the more they adopt problem‐centred, confrontative strategies and forget more fatalist emotion‐centred or avoidance strategies. These findings contribute to literature on consumers' coping strategies and suggest future research avenues.     

《工程合同管理》课程教学方法与手段

针对本人所讲课程采用的教学方法,提出多种有效可行的教学方式,在课程教学中,努力突出工程管理专业的特色,注重工程实践,使学生综合素质得到了提高,为就业奠定了基础。