Come to Changchun for the NAITE Expo

The 4th China Jilin-Northeast Asia Investment and Trade Expo （NAITE） will be hold from September 2 to 6 in Jinlin Province in the northeast of China. With the approval of the State Council, NAITE is an international and comprehensive expo sponsored by National Development and Reform Commission and Jilin provincial government.     

AEBF,Responding to the Crisis

The 11th Asia-Europe Business Forum（AEBF11）,organized by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade（CCPIT）, was held at the China World Hotel in Beijing from October 21 to 23, 2008.With the theme＂Seize the Trend,Time for Action,and PublicPrivate Partnership＂, the business forum ran in parallel with the Asia-Europe Meeting Summit. In the context of an increasingly grave global financial crisis, the AEBF11 attracted the concern and interest of national leaders, a variety of enterprises, and the public.     

The global agglomeration of multinational firms

The explosion of multinational activities in recent decades is rapidly transforming the global landscape of industrial production. But are the emerging clusters of multinational production the rule or the exception? What drives the offshore agglomeration of multinational firms in comparison to the agglomeration of domestic firms? Using a unique worldwide plant-level dataset that reports detailed location, ownership, and operation information for plants in over 100 countries, we construct a spatially continuous index of agglomeration and analyze the different patterns underlying the global economic geography of multinational and non-multinational firms. We present new stylized facts that suggest that the offshore clusters of multinationals are not a simple reflection of domestic industrial clusters. Agglomeration economies including technology diffusion and capital-good market externality play a more important role in the offshore agglomeration of multinationals than the agglomeration of domestic firms. These findings remain robust when we explore the process of agglomeration.     

Summer Date with Zaragoza 2008

Expo Zaragoza 2008 regulated by the B.I.E. （the International Expositions Bureau） is an International Exposition adressing a ,specific theme＂Water and Sustainable Development＂.     

数码相机：即将退市的精品

如今新品数码相机的冲击会让这些老将们失去往日的光彩。不过,经典还是会给我们留下深刻的记忆, 如果您对哪款DC喜欢的话,如果您还想拥有它的话, 就趁最后的时机快快购买吧。     

时尚烛台燃起浪漫

在芬芳的花朵簇拥下的浮水蜡花朵,娇艳欲滴,在水中还可以继续燃烧;独特造型的蓝色海螺中,装着黄色的蜡烛,顿显浪漫情调;而香橙蜡烛点起来满室的甜蜜清香,更是让人久久不忍熄去。     

世界AIP潜艇大全

AIP是“不依赖空气推进装置"的英文缩写,如今它已为人们普遍接受。AIP 潜艇日渐风靡各国海军,并大有引领常规潜艇发展之势。     

北美车展：汽车设计与制造新潮

今年1月8日,北美最大的国际汽车展——底特律车展正式开幕。目前它已成为展示世界汽车设计与制造新潮的舞台。     

Evaluation of age‐related labels by senior citizens

The age‐related labels third age, elderly, 50+, senior, and retired were evaluated by a 40+ sample. Results of a qualitative and quantitative study showed that the labels third age and elderly evoked predominantly negative associations, and the evaluations of the latter three age‐related labels were generally positive. Cognitive age did not appear to add explanatory power, but group membership did (being retired or not, perceiving oneself as a senior or not). Moreover, a significant interaction effect between group membership and age emerged. When people did not belong or did not perceive themselves to belong to a given age group, the evaluation of the related label became more negative when the respondents approached the age to be eligible for group membership. After becoming or accepting to become part of the group, evaluations of the label increased again. On the basis of these results, an alternative‐stage model is proposed: status irrelevance, status rejection, status acceptance, and status championship. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The Use of Accommodation in Buyer–Seller Relationships: Encouraging or Controlling Opportunism in Business Markets Middle-grounds

ABSTRACT

Purpose: In the past decades, marketing researchers have explored different strategies to control opportunism in buyer–seller relationships. Accommodation, the cooperative response to partners’ exploitive behavior in exchange relationships, has received increasing attention from research on interfirm relationships. However, less is known about whether accommodation is an effective response strategy for controlling opportunism. Drawing on the self-enforcing agreement literature, this article focuses on exploring (1) what drives a firm’s accommodation response to its partner’s exploitive behavior, (2) how a firm’s accommodation helps govern its exchange partner’s opportunistic behavior, and (3) whether monitoring magnifies or buffers the effect of accommodation on the exchange partners’ opportunism.

Methodology: The survey data were collected from 173 seller-firms in Guangdong, Shanghai, Beijing, Wuhan, and Zhengzhou, representing the south, east, north, and middle regions of China. The initial questionnaires were distributed mainly by mail. By assessing the nonresponse bias and the potential bias of early and late responses, we detected no significant differences, implying that the aforementioned biases are not a concern. Because PLS can readily model both formative and reflective constructs, and accommodation is a formative construct, we deployed the SmartPLS software program to test our model.

Findings: This article enables a deeper understanding of accommodation as a response strategy in buyer–seller relationships. The data analysis offers supportive evidence that a firm’s level of accommodation is positively related to two exchange attributes: joint-specific investments and observability of the exchanges. Accommodation, as a cooperative response strategy, curtails opportunism in buyer–seller relationships, and such a curtailing role is magnified when accompanied with monitoring.

Originality/value/contribution: The authors develop a framework to examine previously untested relationships, which suggest accommodation is a cooperative response strategy to mitigate opportunism. We also contribute by exploring the antecedents of accommodation from the tangible transaction attributes perspective. Specifically, two exchange attributes, joint-specific investments and observability, can explain the emergence of accommodation. In addition, we examine the combined effect of competitive response strategies and cooperative response strategies on controlling partner opportunism. That is, competitive response strategies (i.e., monitoring) strengthen the governing effect of cooperative response strategies (i.e., accommodation).