The Status of the Small Hotel Firm

This paper builds on research that was carried out in the early 1990s in order to assess the contemporary status of the small firm within the hotel industry sector. It raises debates concerned with definition and associated statistical constraints and limitations. While a fluid, grounded definitional approach is recommended as a means of more effectively accessing the ‘real world’ of small firms, challenges are recognised relative to its contribution to consistent and comparable research findings. The paper concludes that the status of the small hotel firm continues to weaken, operating at the periphery as broadly conceived. Furthermore, the final assessment is that too much remains unknown about this phenomenon.     

Duration Measures for Corporate Project Valuation

Sensitivity analysis is a very common exercise performed with the forecasting of project cash flows. In this article, a duration-type measure is generated that provides a single number for the assessment of project cash flows relative to changes in the discount rate (or adjusted for changes in a particular cash flow model parameter). The calculation is no more difficult than the duration measures that already exist for bonds. Yet, the calculation provides valuable insight that many times is lost when performing sensitivity analysis. Further, at a minimum, the measure provides a gauge for the consequences of misspecifiying the discount rate for a project.     

Sources of Subsectoral Growth in South Africa

Abstract

Although South Africa's growth performance has improved somewhat in recent years, it has generally been poor over the last few decades. This article uses Chenery's factor decomposition method to analyse the sources of growth in South Africa from 1970 to 2007. Using input–output data, the growth of each subsector is decomposed into components associated with export growth, import substitution, growth in domestic demand and growth in intermediate demand. The results highlight a dependence on domestic demand expansion as a source of growth since 2000, especially for manufacturing. Subsectors that relied primarily on domestic demand expansion generally performed relatively poorly. Technological change is the only component of growth with a consistently positive and statistically significant correlation with subsectoral growth. The analysis contributes to a better understanding of growth in South Africa, particularly in terms of subsectoral dynamics.     

A model and measure for quality service user involvement in health research

In the UK, researchers across the health professions are increasingly being encouraged by policymakers and research commissioners to ‘involve’ service users in research. A recent review shows there is some evidence that involving patients, carers, relatives, social or community groups directly and actively as part of the research process can improve the conduct of research studies and the impact of the findings. Yet, little is known about how involvement is played out within research studies and there is a need for more critical and consistent assessment of what constitutes quality involvement. The overall purpose of this paper is to support learning about quality service user involvement in health care research. The aim is to provide service users and researchers with a structured and consistent way to reflect and report on their experiences. A range of philosophical and social theories of power and empowerment were reviewed and synthesized to create a model of quality involvement. The analysis encompassed both service user factors (what a person feels able to do, whether they feel their potential is being fulfilled and their sense of being valued) alongside research factors (research relationships, ways of doing research, research structures). A model is presented (Quality Involvement Framework), which contributes theoretically informed perspectives about the meaning and assessment of quality service user involvement in research. The model is developed as a practical measure (a Quality Involvement Questionnaire) for researchers and service users to be more reflective about the constraints and possibilities of involvement. The tools presented here could help research teams to examine personal factors and the research contexts that influence the nature and quality of service user involvement in research. They may also help to identify reoccurring issues about quality which could inform future policy, practice and research.     

Non‐market valuation: usage and impacts in environmental policy and management in Australia

An extensive literature exists on environmental nonmarket valuation research. It appears that results from these studies should be useful inputs to decision‐making about environmental policy or management. Here, we investigate the extent to which this occurs in practice in Australian environmental management bodies. Nonmarket valuation experts were surveyed about their studies that they believed to have influenced policy. Then, decision‐makers in environmental bodies were interviewed about the level of influence nonmarket valuation has had on their decisions. We find that researchers' perceptions of the influence that nonmarket valuation has on decision‐making are overly optimistic. Interviews with decision‐makers suggest that nonmarket valuation is little used in decision‐making. Indeed, the majority of them are unfamiliar with nonmarket valuation techniques. Nevertheless, once the concept was explained to them, many decision‐makers believed it could benefit environmental policy. Researchers' perceptions of the reasons for low usage of nonmarket valuation are largely inaccurate. We suggest a range of strategies that economists can use to promote the use of nonmarket valuation in environmental policy and management decisions, including ways to improve communication and engagement with decision‐makers, and strategies to increase the capacity for decision‐makers to use nonmarket valuation results.     

石油金融探析

在全球经济产业生物链中,高端的国际金融资本无须与产业资本融合就可以实现财富的分配,实现财富的上缴和索取。而国际石油市场经过美国长期的经营和治理,早已成为金融资本索取财富的重要场所之一,其创新型的石油金融工具和创造性的石油金融工程不仅主导着国际石油市场定价,决定着实体产业项目的可行性,而且疏导着国际资本的流向。     

The work–life balance strategies of USDAW: mobilising collective voice

This article examines the articulation of member voice on work–life balance by USDAW at political, corporate and workplace levels. Despite eliciting favourable institutional responses at a political and corporate level, the necessary union role in policing and facilitating agreements at workplace level emphasises the interdependence of partnership and organising.     

Sectoral Structure and Change: Insights from Marx

ABSTRACT

At the time of Marx’s birth two centuries ago, the Industrial Revolution was well underway, and the economic and social changes which it wrought formed the backdrop to Marx’s own ideas. The advanced economies of the world were then industrialising, yet today most countries are deindustrialising. What light can a Marxist analysis shed on sectoral structure, sectoral specificity and sectoral change in the early 21st century? A Marxist approach is distinctive and valuable in how it approaches these sectoral issues, and the following interrelated aspects are discussed here: classifying activities in the first instance according to position in the circuit of capital rather than by sectors; a non-phenomenological approach to classifying activities; a non-physicalist conception of commodities; underscoring the extent of intra-sectoral heterogeneity; recognising the importance of manufacturing and of industrialisation; and implications for analysing changes in sectoral structure.     

Gender,Work Burden,and Mental Health in Post-Reform China

ABSTRACT

This study investigates how total work burden, including paid work and unpaid care work, affects the mental health of prime-age, employed women and men in urban China. Based on the 2010 China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), regression results indicate that total work burden is negatively related to the mental health of both men and women, consistent with the idea that additional work hours reduce time available for rest and leisure. Women have longer working hours and are more likely to be time poor than men, and this gender inequality in total work burden contributes to the gender gap in mental health. The relationships between the components of total work burden – paid and unpaid work – and mental health shed further light on the strength of gender norms and the barriers to redistribution of unpaid work from women to men necessary to reduce the gender gap in mental health.