探讨香港-珠江三角洲的联系：跨界的制度多样性如何促进电子企业的竞争力

基于灵活性的假设下，香港和珠三角两地的企业问卷调查表明，为了应对商业环境变化对灵活性的需求，香港客户对珠三角供应商关系调整了管治模式，逐渐采取股权或非股权合作代替原先的完全控股。而在香港企业寻找新的客户、选择适当的生产合作伙伴方面，正式和非正式制度之间存在互补性。研究结果证实，在现有的正式制度框架内充分应用非正式因素，可提高企业更灵活应对政治和商业环境迅速变化的能力，以维持在全球市场的竞争力。     

Die Balanced Scorecard als Kennzahlensystem für Krankenkassen

The management options for sickness funds in Germany have been clearly extended over the last few years. However, apart from economic efficiency sickness funds are legally required to provide sufficient and effective health services. This complex system of strategic goals requires a comprehensive controlling system which is not implemented by many sickness funds yet. In this article a controlling system is developed which similar to the Balanced Scorecard concept incorporates quantitative as well as qualitative performance measures. Taking the legally defined system of strategic goals of sickness funds into account four partially interdependent financial goals are derived and further disaggregated into performance measures on three different levels. The article reveals that in spite of the complex system of strategic goals the development of a comprehensive controlling system for sickness funds is possible.     

An optimistic look at the year 1968

After almost twenty years of unparalleled economic growth, the Federal Republic of Germany has experienced a setback in 1967. The Federal Republic's Government is attempting to overcome this crisis with purposive economic policies. INTERECONOMICS had the opportunity of speaking to the Federal Minister for Economic Affairs, Professor Schiller, about development prospects for the German economy for 1968.     

Intermediation and (Mis‐)Matching in Insurance Markets—Who Should Pay the Insurance Broker?

This article addresses the role of independent insurance intermediaries in markets where matching is important. We compare fee‐based and commission‐based compensation systems and show that they are payoff equivalent if the intermediary is completely honest. Allowing for strategic behavior, we discuss the impact of remuneration on the quality of advice. The possibility of mismatching gives the intermediary substantial market power, which will not translate into mismatching if consumers are rational. Furthermore, we offer a rationale for the use of contingent commissions and address whether or not the ban of any commission payments is an appropriate market intervention.     

What drives competitive webrooming? The roles of channel and retailer aspects

ABSTRACT

Competitive webrooming, the phenomenon in which consumers gather product information online but ultimately purchase the product in an offline store of a competing retailer, has gained traction and become a major threat for retailers. To gain a deeper understanding of its drivers, we surveyed 1081 retail customers about their most recent consumer electronic product purchase to examine the impact of channel-related aspects as well as retailer-related aspects – a dual approach that has not been applied previously. A channel’s anticipated after-sales service and price level are the strongest predictors for webrooming. Moreover, retailer aspects determine whether customers simultaneously switch retailer when webrooming. A retailer’s assurance of delivery, including payment modalities, return policies, and product obtainment, as well as competitive product prices motivate consumers to switch retailer when webrooming. These results suggest that customers have a fundamental need for certainty within and after the buying process, which can be satisfied by both channel and retailer. Additionally, this is the first study to empirically test for interactions between channel and retailer aspects, as they are likely to occur in real shopping situations. We identified two interactions: First, a retailer’s assurance of delivery can compensate for an anticipated lack of a channel’s after-sales service, dampening the impact of the latter on competitive webrooming. Second, retailer’s price attractiveness acts in a similar vein. Hence, to steer customers into channels and/or keep them with the company, retailers should emphasize their price attractiveness as well as assurance of delivery.     

Measuring Individual Preferences for Rural Multifunctionality: The Importance of Demographic and Residential Heterogeneity

We propose an approach to conceptualise ‘rural multifunctionality’ and further investigate peoples’ preferences for it. We use an opinion survey concerning individual preferences for several functions that rural spaces should provide. We use the analytical hierarchy process approach to assess the relative importance of each function. The results show how the social weightings of these functions are balanced, confirming that society demands truly multifunctional rural territories. Nonetheless, differences are found in individual preferences. We explore the demographic and socioeconomic determinants of these individual preferences, paying particular attention to the importance of heterogeneity using seemingly unrelated regressions. In short, results from this research could be employed as a useful informative element for the future development of public policies related to rural spaces.     

What Blows in with the Wind?

The shift toward renewable forms of energy for electricity generation in the electricity generation industry has clear implications for the spatial distribution of generating plant. Traditional forms of generation are typically located close to the load or population centers, while wind‐ and solar‐powered generation must be located where the energy source is found. In the case of wind, this has meant significant new investment in wind plant in primarily rural areas that have been in secular economic decline. This article investigates the localized economic impacts of the rapid increase in wind power capacity at the county level in Texas. Unlike input‐output impact analysis that relies primarily on levels of inputs to estimate gross impacts, we use traditional econometric methods to estimate net localized impacts in terms of employment, personal income, property tax base, and key public school expenditure levels. While we find evidence that both direct and indirect employment impacts are modest, significant increases in per capita income accompany wind power development. County and school property tax rolls also realize important benefits from the local siting of utility scale wind power, although peculiarities in Texas school funding shift localized property tax benefits to the state.     

Privatization, Labor and Social Safety Nets

Privatization promotes economic efficiency and growth, thereby reinforcing macroeconomic adjustment. In the short run, however, it can lead to job losses and wage cuts for workers. This paper discusses these adverse impacts of privatization in terms of various methods of privatization and surveys the existing empirical evidence. It finds that public sales and auctions can have stronger negative effects on workers but maximize the government's revenue. Policymakers' options for mitigating the social impact of privatization are surveyed.     

Grain transport and rural credit in Mozambique: solving the space–time problem

This paper shows how credit market failures can lead to large welfare losses in grain markets by inducing increased transport for seasonal storage in locations with low credit costs. The burden of these welfare losses falls primarily on rural households. These conclusions are obtained from a spatial/temporal model solved using a mixed complementarity formulation that easily handles interest rate differentials across space. Efforts to address credit market failures and to improve the efficiency of rural storage should be given priority as opposed to the creation of large, formal sector grain collection centers.