The trade-offs between economic efficiency and job creation in olive grove smallholdings

Cooperation among farmers is an effective alternative to reduce production costs in smallholdings of traditional olive groves and increase their low profitability. However, an increase in efficiency reduces working hours and the labour required for the management of farms. This fact can lead to negative effects in rural areas, especially considering the importance of the social aspect of the crop. Therefore, to contribute to the global discussion on the transition towards more sustainable farming, it is important to know, ex ante, what level of employment is generated by olive groves and what could be lost under more competitive and efficient scenarios. The purpose of the work is to quantify the expected impact on employment by the implementation of cooperative management methods in order to generate true and accurate information that can be used in the design of future policies that aim to increase the economic profitability of small olive farms. The results make clear that this way of managing farms, by increasing the efficiency of agricultural work, has a significant negative impact on employment. However, this management formula does encourage the professionalisation of the sector by generating quality employment, in addition to contributing to the preservation of small farms and the socio-cultural and territorial benefits they generate.     

职业教育中校企合作的SWOT分析

本文以云南机电职业技术学院为研究单位,采用企业战略管理中常用的SWOT分析法对学院汽车技术工程系校企合作发展的现状进行分析,并根据分析结果总结校企合作重点及需要注意的问题,并对未来校企合作发展进行展望。     

How important is fiscal policy cooperation in a currency union?

By constructing a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model, which assumes a currency union consisting of two countries with nontradables, we study the importance of fiscal policy cooperation. As shown in the previous studies, we find that the role of fiscal policy is important in maximizing social welfare. However, we have a contrary result for fiscal policy cooperation. While the previous studies highlight that fiscal policy cooperation has a nontrivial effect in maximizing social welfare, we show that fiscal policy cooperation has no benefits, regardless of the share of nontradables. Self-oriented fiscal policy can replicate social welfare under the cooperative setting.     

俄罗斯科技型初创企业:值得关注的中俄科技合作伙伴

在实施以创新为核心的国家发展战略的背景下,俄罗斯涌现出一批致力于前沿科技研发及高科技产品的科技型初创企业。这些科技型初创企业发展的主要原因在于俄罗斯政府的作用:出台法律法规,鼓励科研单位和高校创办企业;搭建平台,推动重点领域科技研发;拓展资助渠道,为创新项目提供定制化金融服务;实施专项计划,重点支持应用研究的发展;启动知识产权私有化,推动智力成果的实际应用;等等。该类企业大多具有2个突出特点:在创始人或项目参与者中,年轻人比重较大;主要从事信息通讯、生物医药、节能和能源、航天技术等战略性技术领域的研发。通过研究俄罗斯科技型初创企业的发展原因及突出特点,对中俄在高技术和创新领域的合作提出了具体建议。     

Is brand alliance always beneficial to firms?

In this research, we develop a fresh analytical model to examine the impact of brand quality on the firms’ performances when two firms selling substitute products form a brand alliance. Our results indicate that when two products have equal brand qualities, brand alliance is always a beneficial strategy for two firms to employ. However, when two products have different brand qualities, brand quality differential shows a positive relationship with the profit of the firm with the low-quality brand but demonstrates a negative relationship with the profit of the firm with the high-quality brand in the brand alliance. Our results also show that brand quality differential has a greater effect on the profit of the firm with the high-quality brand than on that of the firm with the low-quality brand. In addition, we find that brand alliance becomes much more valuable to the firm with the high-quality brand when the brand quality differential decreases, but the value of brand alliance has a concave relationship with the profit of the firm with the low-quality brand when the brand quality differential increases.     

The logo matters: the effect of the logo type on the attitude towards co-products

ABSTRACT

This study investigates the effect of the type of logo used to promote co-products. In the case of an added logo, the logos of the constituent brands are lined up next to each other. An integrative logo is composed of the elements of both original brand logos. A novel logo does not contain any elements of the original brand logos. We found that the use of an integrative logo results in more favourable perceptions of brand cooperation, higher perceptions of co-product quality, more positive feelings and a more favourable attitude towards the co-product compared to the use of an added or novel logo. For a novel logo of co-products, consumers reported feelings of irritation and frustration and a less favourable attitude compared to an added logo.     

Obstacles to achieving cross-border tourism governance: A multi-scalar approach focusing on the German-Czech borderlands

This paper aims to identify distinctive obstacles to the establishment of tourism destination governance in both transnational and within-country borderlands. Analysis of the German-Czech borderlands, a region also incorporating within-country borders between three German federal states, indicates the multi-scalar and political contestations of cross-border tourism collaboration. Local tourism projects are generally successful, both on a transnational German-Czech level and between the German states of Bavaria, Saxony and Thuringia. However, structural cross-border destination management does not exist because of (transnational) multi-scalar institutional alignment problems and (internal) tourism-specific destination-level power contestations. Understanding destination management processes in borderlands, therefore, requires: (i) explicit multi-scalar analysis; (ii) recognition of both transnational and within-country contexts; (iii) more cross-pollination between tourism planning and cross-border governance research.     

推进校企合作,提高办学质量

校企合作是实现培养高素质技能人才的关键环节,要广泛的开展校企合作,充分发挥校企的潜力,就必须进一步解放思想,进一步提高认识,政府部门要充分发挥自己的组织、协调、统筹优势,进一步完善相关的法律、制度,为校企合作的良性发展创造良好的外部环境,为提高办学质量打下坚实的基础。     

HOW COOPERATIVE ARE SAVINGS AND CREDIT COOPERATIVES IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES?: AN ANALYSIS OF DATASETS FROM UGANDA

Building successful savings and credit cooperatives (SACCOs) that actually embody the cooperative principles is a challenge to development agencies. Although SACCOs form the majority of microfinance providers in many developing countries, the most recent literature on microfinance governance and performance has given little reference to the longstanding body of relevant cooperative literature. SACCO representation in microfinance datasets is biased. Drawing on so‐far unexploited datasets of Ugandan SACCOs and savings groups, this paper empirically analyses policy debate regarding SACCO‐ and savings group regulation. The findings point to the relevance of practically implementing the principle of ‘cooperation between cooperatives’ to ensure effective governance at SACCO level. Moreover, the paper introduces two new measures, based on members' savings and shares, which could become useful tools to track the application of cooperative principles in developing countries, and hence improve evidence‐based policy‐making for SACCOs.