提高石油企业质量体系认证的有效性

指出提高质量体系认证的有生应从以下两方面入手：首先要提高质量体系的有效性，应从质量体系的建立、宣贯、实施、保持、完善等五个方面作细致的工作，并且还要搞好内审及管理评审；其次要提高认证工作的有效性，要选择适合石油企业的认证公司，还要求认证公司要有熟悉石油相关专业的审核员及技术专家，认证公司要有一定的知名度及敬业精神，能为认证的企业负责，使认证企业的质量体系逐渐完善和提高。     

建立和运行一体化管理体系的初步尝试

对质量管理体系、环境管理体系、职业健康安全管理体系进行合理整合，形成一个综合管理体系即QEO一体化管理体系。认为：QEO一体化管理体系是建立方针和目标并实现这些目标的相互关联或相互作用的一组要素、组织机构、管理、程序过程和资源，它比多个管理体系更能有效达到依据方针所制定的目标。详细介绍了建立QEO一体化管理体系的过程。     

在中国开展森林认证工作势在必行

鉴于当前我国林业在国民经济建设和社会可持续发展中的重要地位以及中国森林认证工作与世界的差距,从森林认证的起源、内涵、国内外发展趋势的对比、社会责任、国际竞争力等多角度阐明在我国积极开展森林认证工作的必要性。     

The organic industry in Australia: Current and future trends

Accurate information is critical for investment, policy alignment and to support agricultural development. In Australia information relating to the size, growth, current and future value of the organic sector has been incoherent and, in some cases, contradictory. This study seeks to address this gap by synthesising industry and government data with the results of an online quantitative survey as well as a series of in-depth interviews to capture the value added component of the organic industry in Australia. By sub-dividing the total organic industry into thirteen categories which makes for meaningful analysis and interpretation, we aimed to estimate the compound average growth rate, the current value added and future trends in the Australian organic industry. This has resulted in some interesting findings, hence the methodology could potentially serve as a benchmark for the reporting of organic food growth globally. The findings also have important implications for various stakeholders including, growers of organic products, investors, land use policy makers and industry operators.     

Reducing tourism's threats to biodiversity: effects of a voluntary sustainability standard and training program on 106 Latin American hotels,lodges and guesthouses

The tourism industry can negatively affect wildlife, plants and natural ecosystems through habitat destruction, pollution, over-exploitation of natural resources and visitor impacts to sensitive ecosystems. One approach to mitigate such threats is the application of voluntary sustainability standards, supported by training of tourism enterprises and verified by external audits. The Rainforest Alliance standard defines 78 criteria (requirements) for sustainable environmental, social and business practices, and has been adopted by over 600 tourism enterprises – including hotels, lodges and tour boats – in 12 countries. We examined the performance of 106 hotels in six Latin American countries against 29 of the sustainable tourism criteria most directly related to biodiversity conservation. Independent audits were used to assess hotel performance at baseline followed by a repeat assessment after training, about two years later. Mean conformance with the 29 biodiversity criteria increased significantly during this interval, from 44% to 58%. Improvements were greatest for businesses in the lowest third of performance at baseline (laggards) and smallest for hotels in the highest third (leaders). The results indicate that a voluntary sustainability standard and training program can serve both to recognize existing good actors and to drive incremental improvement in enterprises that were previously less sustainable.     

Conversion subsidies for organic production: results from Sweden and lessons for the United States

Organic conversion subsidies used in Europe are less likely to be politically acceptable in the United States, where organic agriculture development is market‐driven. Persistent barriers to conversion in the United States include limited availability of and access to production and market information, training in management systems and cost of conversion‐related investments. By determining whether these factors affect the requirement of a subsidy to convert, we can suggest whether U.S. policy makers need to provide subsidies to encourage conversion and identify policy variables consistent with market‐based approaches that could stimulate conversion. A utility difference model is used with Swedish data to analyze factors that determine whether a subsidy is required to motivate organic conversion. The results show that farmers requiring subsidies manage larger less‐diversified farms and are more concerned with organic inspection, quality, and adequacy of technical advice. Access to more market outlets and information sources substitutes for payment level in the farmer's utility function, indicating that services rather than subsidies may be used to encourage organic agriculture. To the extent that conditions are similar in the U.S. organic sector, market‐based programs such as cost‐sharing for conversion and market access improvement should stimulate growth of this industry.     

Impacts of sustainability certification on farm income: Evidence from small-scale specialty green tea farmers in Vietnam

Sustainability certification for small-scale farms has gained considerable momentum in developing countries. However, evidence on the economic benefits of certification schemes in the context of domestically consumed foods and beverages is scarce. This paper addresses this gap by evaluating the impacts of sustainability standards on the selling prices, sales, costs and net income of small-scale specialty green tea farming in Vietnam. We analyze original survey data on 401 smallholder green tea farmers and employ propensity score matching to mitigate self-selection bias. Our estimates reveal that certified green tea producers are able to obtain a higher average selling price and sales value. In addition, although certification leads to a dramatic increase in the costs of hired labor, net farm income is still significantly improved.     

Chinese consumers’ preferences for food quality test/measurement indicators and cues of milk powder: A case of Zhengzhou,China

Many food regulations focus on test/measurement indicators, such as hazard analysis and critical control points (HACCP) and traceability, etc. Other than these indicators, the food industry uses various cues such as product origin as indicators of product quality. However, in an environment where consumers’ confidence in food safety is low due to frequent food safety scandals, little is known about the efficiency of these test/measurement indicators and cues. This paper used the primary data collected in Zhengzhou (China) to estimate consumers’ preferences for test/measurement indicators and a new cue of “own farm” for milk powder. Our results show that country of origin is the most important cue attribute, followed by price and own farm. The importance of test/measurement indicators such as organic, traceability, and HACCP certification is relatively low. Also, the individual parameter estimates show that consumers’ preferences for test/measurement indicators currently in the market are weak and fragile. Interestingly, price has an inverse-U-shaped relationship with consumer utility, implying that Chinese consumers may perceive low-price milk powder as low quality. The results of this study provide important insight for regulatory authorities and the food industry to develop more effective policies and programs to improve consumer preferences for milk powder.     

Did victories in certification contests affect the survival of organizations in the American automobile industry during 1895–1912? A replication study

Research summary: We successfully replicate the highly influential study: “The social construction of reputation…,”(Rao, 1994 ) which reports that cumulative victories in certification contests are negatively associated with firm failure. The replication is robust to the inclusion of additional controls. As in the original, tests of whether the theory is most powerful under higher uncertainty are not supported. Further, placing second, third, or merely participating in races also negatively predicts firm failure, and there is insufficient information in the data to tease out the importance of these predictors versus race victories. We discuss the assumptions under which the evidence can be interpreted as supportive of a more general argument of “loose coupling”, where affiliation with certification contests reduces firm failure. Managerial summary: We successfully replicate a study that related victories in races to the survival of early automobile firms. This result was interpreted as evidence that rank‐order certification contests legitimized firms and led to survival. We then demonstrate that there is insufficient information to tease out the relative importance of victories, as opposed to placing second, third, or merely participating in predicting survival. Our result is consistent with an argument that affiliation with certification contests, not only winning them, increases a firm's chances of survival. It is also consistent with an argument that firms with better quality automobiles won races and survived. An implication of our work is that there is insufficient evidence to determine if firms in new industries should expend finite resources on participation in certification contests or improvement of product quality.     

浅析区块链技术对小微企业信用认证及融资的作用

随着经济社会的全面发展,经济全球化已经成为全新的发展趋势,紧随其后的是后金融危机时代的到来。区块链是一种特定的数据技术,它在安全和便捷方面一直被业内人士所看好。论文围绕区块链技术对小微企业信用认证及融资的作用展开讨论分析,通过讨论分析有助于实现小微企业成功融资,为我国小微企业提供强有力的保障与支撑。