Evaluating small firm performance in local context: A case study of manufacturers in Columbus,Ohio

This research approaches corporate restructuring from a place-based perspective, departing from firm or industry-specific analysis and focusing instead on the performance and problems of a local economy. The study systematizes data from a survey of small manufacturing firms in Columbus, Ohio, offering a methodology that can be used for comparative analyses of sectors within or among communities.We link the performance of firms and local context using a sampling strategy that represents local industry mix. We recognize the multidimensional character of performance and employ several indicators, stated in both static and dynamic terms. We use these indicators to identify patterns of firm performance, relative to both national and local standards. Discriminant analyses reveal variables that account for differences among groups of firms, identified by level of performance, industry, and mode of labor-management relations.Results indicate that small manufacturers in Columbus are relatively uncompetitive. The few high performing firms are investing more in labor than in capital, but most firms are investing more in capital than labor. These findings are consistent with American corporate tradition that deemphasizes workers. Effective restructuring entails more than technical change, which enables competitiveness but does not itself engender it.This project was funded by the Ohio State University Committee on Urban Affairs, #724520.     

“国际金融中心”需要怎样的城市形象广告片?——上海城市形象广告片的受众认知和态度比较研究

上海立志建设成为国际金融中心,打造这一城市品牌形象是一个系统工程,营销传播工作是重要的组成。本研究从广告效果空间论角度,对上海现有的四部城市形象广告进行了受众认知和态度效果的比较,并引入中外受众所代表的不同涉入度作为调节变量。我们根据结果绘制了四支广告在认知-态度二维图上的位置,并发现不同涉入度对认知效果没有调节作用,而对态度效果上则有调节作用。基于这些发现,我们提出了如何创作有效的国际金融中心城市形象广告的建议。     

Quality indicators for academic nursing primary care centers

ANCs, by definition, deliver more than clinical services to patients and communities. The unique identifier that separates ANCs from other primary care/ambulatory care centers is the educational service they offer to students and other faculty in the school of nursing to which they belong. Therefore, measuring the quality of an ANC must include a measurement of the educational properties that it possesses in addition to the usual quality measurements by such organizations as AAAHC, JCAHO, CHAP, and AAACN. Unless these properties are included and measured by an ANC, it becomes difficult to justify the existence of such a clinic within a school of nursing. ANCs are encouraged to develop quality evaluation programs aimed at evaluating the educational aspects as well as the administrative and clinical aspects of their operations.     

Curriculum assessment through a capstone course: a case study in hospitality and tourism programs

The purpose of this study was to develop a systematic process that other educational institutions and programs could follow to establish a consistent and accurate evaluation method for a capstone course. Hospitality industry professionals and hospitality management faculty were interviewed through focus-group discussions, and a post-focus-group survey was conducted to determine a weighted percentage for each of the nine determined content domains. A test blueprint for a hospitality management capstone course was developed to measure programmatic student learning outcomes based on the weighted domains determined through this study. The results provide a usable instrument for hospitality and tourism management programs to enhance their current assessment methodology.     

Oppression, emancipation, and volunteer tourism: Research Propositions

This paper develops research propositions for volunteer tourism using a combination of critical theory and social movement theory as a foundation. As is often the case with emerging areas of research, a theoretical foundation has been difficult to establish in volunteer tourism. The inherent contradictions of volunteer tourism, particularly concerning the interplay of oppression/emancipation, dependency/resistance and dominant hegemony/agency beg to be deconstructed with a critical theory lens. Social movement theory then in turn offers a tool through which researchers can look to break the hermeneutic circle by examining good practices in volunteer tourism, particularly concerning potential improvements for all stakeholders in self-efficacy, resource networks, and consciousness-raising experiences. The paper culminates with a proposition model based on these theoretical perspectives.     

Procyclicality of the comovement between dividend growth and consumption growth

Duffee (2005) shows that the amount of consumption risk (i.e., the conditional covariance between market returns and consumption growth) is procyclical. In light of this “Duffee Puzzle,” I empirically demonstrate that the conditional covariance between dividend growth (i.e., the immediate cash flow part of market returns) and consumption growth is (1) procyclical and (2) a consistent source of procyclicality in the puzzle. Moreover, I solve an external habit formation model that incorporates realistic joint dynamics of dividend growth and consumption growth. The procyclical dividend-consumption comovement entails two new procyclical terms in the amount of consumption risk via cash flow and valuation channels, respectively. These two procyclical terms play an important role in generating a realistic magnitude of consumption risk. In contrast to extant habit formation models, the conditional equity premium no longer increases monotonically when a negative consumption shock arrives because it might lower the amount of risk while increasing the price of risk.     

Strategic and Business Planning Practices of Fast Growth Family Firms

Fast-growth family firms were surveyed about their business and strategic planning practices. Of the 65 fast-growth family firms surveyed, the majority prepare written formal plans. The business plans are in sufficient detail to enable the business to tie planning to actual performance and to adjust management compensation accordingly. The majority of the firms regularly share information with employees regarding comparisons between actual company performance results and goals or planned performance. Further, the majority of the firms describe their business strategy as a high quality producer strategy rather than as a low-cost or time-based strategy. Further, when bringing new products to market, these fast-growth family firms adopt a first mover or early follower strategy. Implications of these findings for growth-oriented family firms are presented.     

Tourism Policy Making:: The Policymakers’ Perspectives

This research explores tourism policy making, from the perspectives of policy makers using grounded theory. It focuses on Leeds, a city in the North of England, which is characterized by its turbulent environment. The paper identifies themes around policy making, including low status, lack of clarity, uncertainty, lack of consensus and congruence and complexity. Its findings indicate policy making is essentially a social process, involving communication and negotiation between people in the context of wider change. It suggests a social conceptualization, and further research to investigate the communications involved in producing policy rather than the focus on the tangible outputs of the process such as a plan or a physical development.     

Liberalizing Services Trade In APEC: A General Equilibrium Analysis with Imperfect Competition

The paper studies services-sector trade liberalization in the Asia–Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) Forum using a global, multicountry, multisector applied general equilibrium model with an imperfectly competitive service sector. Reducing the service sector's nontariff barriers is modeled by eliminating the possibility for oligopolistic firms to price-discriminate between client countries within APEC and lowering the fixed costs of the firms doing service exporting business. The results suggest that services trade liberalization reinforces existing sectoral trade balances. Increase in demand for intermediate services tends to reinforce rather than counteract the role of primary factors in determining sectoral comparative advantage. The western APEC members received the greatest welfare gains from services trade liberalization, while the developing economies gained more if only tariffs were eliminated.