Opportunity or threat? Finnish hunters’ attitudes to hunting tourism

This article examines elements of the social sustainability of hunting tourism development by scrutinising Finnish hunters’ opinions on three possible scenarios related to hunting tourism: the threat of an exclusion of local hunters, the threat of rising rents of hunting land and the threat to Finnish hunting customs and practice due to increasing numbers of foreign hunting tourists. Hunters’ positions on these three issues are mapped and the determinants of their attitudes are analysed using unique national survey data on Finnish hunters and their attitudes (N= 1193). The results show a clear ambivalence to hunting tourism among hunters. While a majority of hunters tend to view hunting tourism as a threat, a large minority relate to it more positively. These attitudinal patterns can be explained only partly by socioeconomic factors, whereas factors pertaining to hunting experience and hunting profile play a somewhat more prominent role in understanding the legitimacy that hunting tourism enjoys in the eyes of hunters in Finland. Age, rural residence and participation in wildlife management are also found important for some issues. The ambiguities revealed could pose major problems for social sustainability and hunting tourism management and development.     

Qualification as corporate activism: How Swedish apparel retailers attach circular fashion qualities to take-back systems

This paper explains how corporations can develop market-based activities to influence environmental policies. The empirical focus is on how Swedish apparel retailers qualify take-back systems for used clothes and textiles as steps toward creating circular fashion. An analysis of the qualities that retailers attach to take-back systems shows how qualification helps corporations feature fashion as potentially sustainable and able to develop circular material flows, with the aim to enroll staff, customers, and other stakeholders in new behaviors and patterns of responsibility. We apply the notion of corporate activism to demonstrate how corporations use qualification to engage in market-based activities with the aim of influencing the regulatory agenda.     

Volvo – A Force for Fordist Retrenchment or Innovation in the Automobile Industry?

The article deals with the question: What does the ‘Volvo model’ stand for’? Two car assembly plants within the Volvo Car Corporation are the main exponents of the ‘Volvo model’, namely the Kalmar and Uddevalla plants, which were innovative and successful. There has been an open atmosphere to new ideas in the company at the top level and innovative ideas were stimulated at Kalmar and Uddevalla. However, simultaneously there was no strategy for spreading the innovations within the company, and resistance to the new ideas within the other operative units was strong. Therefore the diffusion of internal, Volvo-generated innovations was taken on solely by individuals or groups of individuals who were already committed to the ideas. In the Volvo TWR joint venture Autonova AB, the principles of the Reflective Production System, once developed within the Volvo Uddevalla plant, are being further developed. So, Volvo still has a joker left in the pack…     

The burden of preserved ejection fraction heart failure in a real-world Swedish patient population

Objectives:

To evaluate resource use and associated costs in patients with a diagnosis of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HF-PEF) in Sweden.

Methods:

This retrospective study identified real-world patients with an ICD-10 diagnosis code for heart failure (I50) for the period between July 1, 2005 and December 31, 2006 from electronic medical records of primary care centers in Uppsala County Council, and in the Swedish patient registry data. Patients were categorized as having HF-PEF (left ventricle ejection fraction [LVEF] > 50%) during the index period. The study assessed medication utilization, outpatient visits, hospitalizations, and associated healthcare costs, as well as the incidence rates and time to all-cause and heart failure mortality following the index period.

Results:

The study included 137 HF-PEF patients with a mean age of 77.1 (SD?=?9.1) years. Over 50% of HF-PEF patients were female and hypertensive. Nearly all patients received ≥1 medication post-index. Patients had an average of 1.5 heart failure related hospitalizations per follow-up year. The average annual per patient cost for the management of a HF-PEF patient was found in Sweden to be Swedish Krona (SEK) 108,246 (EURO [EUR] 11,344). Hospitalizations contributed to more than 80% of the total cost. All-cause mortality over the 18-month study period was 25.5%, and more than 50% of these deaths occurred within 1 year of index.

Limitations:

Due to the limitations of registry data, it is not possible to confirm the HF diagnosis, and therefore the accuracy of registry records must be assumed. Other factors such as short follow-up time, the study-mandated LVEF assessment, and a lack of drug duration data may also have an impact on the study results.

Conclusions:

All-cause mortality was high in the HF-PEF population, with more than half of patients dying within 1 year of study follow-up. Study results also indicate that 60% of HF-PEF patients have ≥1 hospitalization during follow-up. Hospitalizations, especially heart failure related admissions, represent a substantial proportion of the total healthcare burden of patients with HF-PEF in Sweden.     

论跨国并购中合作型劳资关系的构建

由于文化差异和利益矛盾,企业跨国并购过程中容易产生劳资冲突的问题。合作型的劳资关系强调相互理解和适应,通过平等协商、参与管理和利益分享等机制和措施,实现外国投资方和东道国劳动者的双赢。     

中外石油企业税费制度对比分析及借鉴

随着石油领域国际合作的日益密切,税收政策对石油企业的影响逐渐增大。本文通过对中外石油税费制度进行分析比较,找出我国石油税费制度存在的诸多问题,提出完善我国石油税费制度的措施。