Expectations of Working Relationships in International Buyer–Seller Relationships: Development of a Relationship Continuum Scale

This study is an attempt to develop a scale to measure expectations of buyer–seller working relationships on a cross-cultural basis in the hospitality industry. The focus is on North American and Asian hotel salespeople. The scale development drew from previous research in guanxi relationships, purchasing, and selling strategies. While the results did not support a reliable unidimensional scale that could distinguish between transactional and collaborative working relationships, the methodology did create a framework for further scale development.     

Can the North–South trade regime explain intra- and inter-country productivity differences?

The literature identifies North–South disparities in Total Factor Productivity (TFP), which, in turn, justify the bulk of international income differences. By building a dynamic, general equilibrium model of North–South technological-knowledge diffusion with scale-invariant growth, we extend the literature in several directions: (i) growth is driven by Schumpeterian R&D and by high and low-skilled human-capital accumulation; (ii) three trade regimes are considered; (iii) sectoral and aggregate TFP measures are computed; (iv) the extent to which the North–South trade regime explains intra-country TFP and inter-country TFP differences is evaluated. In particular, the results suggest that intra-country TFP differences increase and inter-country TFP differences fall when countries are more interdependent.     

INTEREG: A Twenty-region Input–Output Model for Italy

Since the regional scale turns out to be the scale at which fiscal devolution is likely to be accomplished in Italy, and that at which trade and growth interdependencies as well as regional convergence can be most conveniently investigated, a new 20-region input–output model for Italy seems to be a useful tool of analysis. Although various regional and interregional models have been constructed since the 1950s, none has been implemented for the whole system of 20 Italian administrative regions considered in their tight mutual dependence; also, the pool approach has not been greatly favoured, even in situations where direct information on regional trade is lacking. The main purpose of this paper is to report on the structure of the model, the rather complex procedure used in the model construction and the adopted solution technique. Some space is devoted to the problems encountered in handling regional trade endogenously in an input–output setting and to a comparison between the pool approach, used in the Italian model, and other current techniques. The paper also reports on some preliminary results regarding the regional impact of fiscal policy.     

学校社会工作应对新时期高校学生问题的潜力

新时期高校学生工作中存在若干棘手的问题,文章通过对学校社会工作的工作理念、工作职能、工作方法等方面与目前高校学生工作进行对比,来剖析挖掘学校社会工作应对新时期高校学生问题的潜力。     

论小企业财会工作存在的问题及治理对策

及时更新管理思想,提高财会人员工作质量,全面健全财会工作机制,积极创造财会人员就业环境,致力于培养合格的财会人员,对小企业的健康发展与壮大至关重要。文章针对小企业发展过程中财会方面存在的问题,辨证地分析问题产生的原因并提出解决对策。     

Flexibility in the gig economy: managing time on three online piecework platforms

Gig economy platforms seem to provide extreme temporal flexibility to workers, giving them full control over how to spend each hour and minute of the day. What constraints do workers face when attempting to exercise this flexibility? We use 30 worker interviews and other data to compare three online piecework platforms with different histories and worker demographics: Mechanical Turk, MobileWorks, and CloudFactory. We find that structural constraints (availability of work and degree of worker dependence on the work) as well as cultural‐cognitive constraints (procrastination and presenteeism) limit worker control over scheduling in practice. The severity of these constraints varies significantly between platforms, the formally freest platform presenting the greatest structural and cultural‐cognitive constraints. We also find that workers have developed informal practices, tools, and communities to address these constraints. We conclude that focusing on outcomes rather than on worker control is a more fruitful way to assess flexible working arrangements.     

A study on the deployment of high-speed broadband networks in NUTS3 regions within the framework of digital agenda for Europe

This paper investigates the high-speed broadband situation in the EU and its prospects. It uses a deployment model to estimate the investment required to meet the Digital Agenda for Europe (DAE) broadband targets set by the European Commission in its Europe 2020 strategy at different stages: as of 2016, after expected operators’ deployment, after public subsidies and leveraged investment, and as expected in 2020. The model uses data at the NUTS3 level, which is the most granular level that has data available on the status of broadband deployment, to arrive at a coherent and comparable framework. From the different perspectives on the investment to meet DAE targets, the paper concludes on the need for an appropriate combination of incumbent and alternative operators investments, public subsidies and leveraged investments, and new investments, both public and private and non-existing as of 2016, examining their feasibility and the impact of different regulatory, technical, and policy strategies.     

Hydrochloric acid tank explosion

Explosions in hydrogen chloride storage tanks are very rare. However, we have experienced one. The explosion was so powerful that the tank with a capacity 250 kL, 60% filled with 33% HCL, took off from the ground went up to 8–9 m high in air and landed around 50 m away. The contents of the tank sprayed all over the nearby area. Though the tank was surrounded by other plants and equipment, fortunately, it landed in a barren area. This averted loss of life and property that would have otherwise resulted. © 2009 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Process Saf Prog, 2009     

Impact of commuting by workers on household dietary diversity in rural India

Drawing insights from the literature on transformation of rural non-farm employment, pathways from agriculture to nutrition, and linkages between migration and nutritional status of household, we seek to understand differences in dietary diversity across three mutually exclusive types of rural Indian households: where all members work in rural areas, at least one member commutes to urban areas, at least one member has no fixed place of work. Our analysis is based on a nationally representative data set from India for the year 2009–10 and we use propensity score matching methods. We find that as compared to households with no commuters, households with rural–urban commuters have higher dietary diversity; whereas households with no fixed place workers have lower dietary diversity. We also find differences in dietary diversity across households which differ by their primary source of income.     

Incentives for cattle producers to adopt an E. Coli vaccine: An application of best–worst scaling

E. coli O157:H7 is an important source of foodborne disease. The E. coli pathogen occurs naturally within the rumen of livestock (including cattle) and does not affect the health of the cattle, however, can be a source of cross-contamination during food processing or environmental contamination of drinking and irrigation water supplies. A vaccine to reduce the risk of cattle shedding E. coli is licensed for use in Canada and the US, however, adoption of the vaccine by cattle producers has been extremely low. Using data from a survey of cow–calf producers in western Canada, the influence of a set of thirteen incentives to encourage adoption of the vaccine is examined using Best–Worst Scaling. Incentives include policy interventions, market/supply chain incentives, production protocol incentives, and producer reputation incentives. Heterogeneity in producer responses to the incentives is evident and is further explored with a Latent Class Cluster analysis. Results suggest that a ‘one size fits all’ policy to encourage adoption of an E. coli vaccine by cattle producers may be challenging.