Optimum location and the theory of the firm under demand uncertainty

This paper presents a formal mathematical model to investigate the theoretical impacts and implications of demand uncertainty on the optimum location decisions of the firm in linear space. It will be shown that the results and implications of optimum location under uncertainty will be different from that applicable to the state of certainty.     

Comparative Analysis of Ownership Transformation and Performance Relationship among Major and Regional Banks in Australia

This article attempts to clarify existing doubts with respect to the performance of private and privatised banks versus public banks; that is, it is an attempt to clarify the ownership–performance relationship. The analysis takes explicit account of the privatisation transformation, including its intermediary stage, and the status of the economy. The ownership–performance model is estimated using cross‐sectional time‐series data and is used to test the influence of ownership changes on performance. Alternative performance measures are considered. The empirical findings show that ownership transformation in the case of regional banks has resulted in improved performance, whilst the benefits in the case of major banks were not significant, even though these banks have become more competitive.     

The Influence of Japan’s Unsecured Overnight Call Rate on Bull and Bear Markets and Market Turns

This paper examines influence of interest rates on bull and bear markets in Tokyo stock exchange. Japan implemented a zero interest rate policy (ZIRP) from February 1999 to August 2000 and quantitative easing (QE) from March 2001 to March 2006. Because the relationship between Japanese equity price and interest rates apparently is inconsistent, it is needed to identify whether and how interest rates might affect a current market trend or initiate a market reversal. This study examines whether changes in Japan’s policy interest rate-the unsecured overnight call rate-prompt changes in the Tokyo Stock Price Index (TOPIX). The question we seek to answer is how TOPIX was affected by policies such as ZIRP and QE from bubble era until today. This paper shows that the call rate altered the direction of the TOPIX, market peaks and troughs appeared after call rates changed, and Japanese equities reacted more strongly to call rates during the 2000s.     

Technology choice under duopoly

This paper presents a conjectural variation approach to demonstrate that competing firms will often distort their cost structures away from strict cost minimization for strategic reasons. In particular, it is shown that the nature of the desired distortions of production technology depends critically on the magnitudes of the firms' conjectural variations with respect to outputs as well as the firms' conjectural variations with respect to technology. These results are in sharp contrast to the conventional wisdom based on monopolized or perfectly competitive markets.     

石墨炉原子吸收法测定玩具微量涂层中痕量铅

本文建立了石墨炉原子吸收光谱仪测定玩具微量涂层中痕量铅的方法。用正交实验确定了实验参数,测定方法的精密度为9.03%,方法的回收率在93.8%～101%之间,测定方法扩展不确定度为测定结果的21%,测定方法稳健。     

Do culture-dependent response styles distort substantial relationships?

Survey data are frequently distorted by answering tendencies, such as acquiescence, disacquiescence, midpoint and extreme response style. Cross-cultural research projects may be particularly vulnerable to misinterpretations. This paper provides empirical insights into the manner and degree to which culture systematically distorts findings from survey data. The study is based on data from 1027 respondents from Austria, France, Germany, India, Mexico, Russia, Spain, and the United States. The investigation firstly demonstrates that Hofstede's and project GLOBE's cultural dimensions explain variations in response styles across different countries. Secondly, and most importantly, the paper explores the impact of culture-dependent response styles on findings. Remarkably, the extent of distortion in correlation analysis and mean comparisons is less severe than expected. Nonetheless, cross-cultural researchers would be well advised to control at least for (dis-)acquiescence before analyzing and interpreting their data.     

Marketing capability—A key success factor in small business?

This article focuses on the marketing problems of small manufacturing companies. The principal thesis is that marketing is generally perceived from too narrow a perspective. A more comprehensive and yet detailed view of marketing should benefit small business management. The authors develop a marketing capability framework which can be used as a qualitative tool for examining the “state‐of‐the‐art” of marketing in small manufacturing companies. This marketing capability framework is employed in examining the performance of 36 Finnish and Swedish companies using case study analysis.     

Cross-country analysis of secular cash trends

This study documents a pronounced secular upward trend in cash holdings which is almost systemic across seven industrialized countries over 1991-2008, with France exhibiting a modest rise and Japan a substantial decline. However, the driving forces underlying the cash pattern are not uniform across countries. While the evolution in firm characteristics necessitated elevated cash balances, the time-varying firm attributes explain the cash trend only in Canada, France, UK and the US. The agency motive plays a role in the rise in cash balances in Germany. Our analysis highlights that the functioning of the financial system is crucial to corporate cash policy as Australia’s cash pattern is driven by shallow private credit markets that curbed cash reserves earlier on and the decelerating cash trend in Japan is ascribed to financial reforms. While there is a degree of commonality in the determinants of cash policies, we find some divergence in cash practices.     

Optimal Trade Policy under Homogeneous Bertrand Competition*

In a seminal paper, Eaton and Grossman (1986) conclude that an export tax is optimal if firms produce heterogeneous products and engage in Bertrand price competition. In particular, they made a comment that could be interpreted to mean that even in the case of a homogeneous product, the optimal policy is still an export tax. This paper has re‐examined the case and found that the optimal export policy can be an export subsidy, free trade, or an export tax, depending on the marginal cost differential between the domestic and the foreign firms. Moreover, if government intervention entails a cost, free trade becomes the only optimal policy.     

一种改进的基于3D-BN-GRU网络的行为识别算法

行为识别是计算机视觉研究一大热点，为了改善其计算量大、识别率低的问题，提出了一种基于三维卷积神经网络(3Dimension Convolutionnal Neural Network，3D-CNN)与门控循环单元网络(Gated Recurrent Unit，GRU)相融合的行为识别算法。该算法采用keras框架，首先对3D-CNN结构进行优化，采用把大的卷积核用若干个小的串联起来的Block结构；然后在每层卷积层后采用批量归一化处理，并添加Dropout层以提高网络泛化能力；最后与GRU网络融合，使用Softmax进行分类得出结果。实验结果表明，所设计的融合网络有较高的识别率，达到94.5%。