Globalization frustrated: The case of white goods

This paper challenges the common view that mature industries are always ripe for global strategies. Based on data from the European Domestic Appliance industry, this paper shows how changing economic conditions can diminish the value of global strategies. Critical in these shifts were simultaneous rises in demand for variety (that eroded the benefits of scale and continental market share) and decreases in manufacturing scale (that permitted new supply options), which reduced the extent of the strategic market to national dimensions. They added complexity that decreased the profitability of the global players and increased that of national strategies. The fluctuating fortunes of leading firms are shown to have been caused primarily by choices of strategy, not by national factor costs.     

Polyhedral Combinatorics in Combinatorial Optimization

Polyhedral combinatorics is a subarea of combinatorial optimization of increasing practical importance. It deals with the application of the theory of linear systems and linear algebra to combinatorial problems. The paper is not intended as a survey on polyhedral combinatorics but it reviews some of the main concepts and proof techniques.     

基于复杂性科学观的区域创新网络研究

复杂性科学打破了新古典经济学的简单性、稳定性和线性的均衡范式,开创了一种建立在复杂性、动态性和非线性基础上的演化范式。区域创新网络由于具有非线性、动态性和不可逆性等特征,更适合纳入到复杂性科学的范式中来研究。根据区域创新网络的复杂性特征,归纳出其实质上是一种复杂性适应系统,进而运用复杂性科学对其进行了阐释,最后得出了基于高新区培育和发展区域创新网络的几点启示。     

Diversification and sophistication of livestock products: The case of African countries

This study assesses the level of sophistication of livestock products in Africa by evaluating technology intensity and economic complexity of each product. Using trade data from 1995 to 2012, livestock commodity exports are classified based on technology intensity. Employing a method of reflection in computing the economic complexity of export products, we find that one fifth of African livestock commodity exports are manufactured with low technology while the rest is composed of raw materials. The results also show that the ten most complex livestock commodities represent about a third of African livestock total exports while the world level is almost double this figure. Yet African countries spend a huge share of their wealth on importing complex products. The results imply that by exporting non-complex products Africa loses nearly a third of the total value of its livestock exports. To boost the value of livestock products, African countries should exploit their untapped potential while securing the domestic market to achieve import substitution. This can be done by integrating with global value chains or developing niche markets at the regional or international markets and improving productive capabilities.     

Towards the Development of a Tax System Complexity Index

Reducing tax system complexity is a common goal amongst policymakers; yet there is no commonly agreed definition of complexity. This paper seeks to fill this gap, by proposing the construction of an index of tax system complexity, conceived as a summary indicator of the overall complexity of a tax system at a particular point in time. If adopted, such an index would not only enable assessment of the changing level of a country's tax system complexity over time, but may also facilitate comparisons of the relative complexity of different countries' tax systems in future.     

Analysis of the complexity of writing used in accounting textbooks over the past 100 years

The Accounting Education Change Commission (AECC) and the large international accounting firms have all emphasized that accountants must be able to work with unstructured problems to be successful in today's business environment. Measures of this ability are essential if accounting educators are to assist students in improving their abilities to work with unstructured problems. However, there appears to be no measure that has been widely accepted as being the ‘best’ measure. This study considers whether two linguistic performance measures might be usable by accounting educators for this purpose. We use data obtained from a student assessment centre to consider two measures of linguistic performance, idea density and grammatical complexity. We incorporate five criteria in deciding whether these measures could be usable: (1) whether the measures are related to students' performance when solving unstructured problems; (2) whether the measures distinguish between the ability to work with unstructured compared to structured problems; (3) ease of obtaining necessary information from students; (4) ease of scoring, and (5) robustness of the findings after considering other variables that may have an effect. Our results indicate that subjects' linguistic performance as measured by idea density meets these five criteria. However, grammatical complexity is not related to performance for either type of problem. These results were found even after controlling for the effects of other variables such as grade point average (GPA), experience, and personality variables. Because the measures can be obtained from virtually any written work produced by students, the information to be scored is relatively easy to obtain. Scoring is also relatively straightforward.     

一种基于方向标记的有限反馈量化方法

随着天线数目和反馈比特数的增加,大规模多输入多输出（Multiple-Input Multiple-Output,MIMO）信道向量量化的复杂度大幅增加。为此,提出了一种基于方向标记的有限反馈量化方法。该方法将码本中码字进行分组,每组选取一个向量作为方向标记向量,在进行量化时,信道向量首先与各组方向标记向量进行比较,将与信道向量最接近的方向标记向量所在组选为待选码本组;在待选码本组内进行下一步量化,最终选出与其最接近的量化向量为最优码字。复杂度分析与仿真结果表明,所提方法缩小了待选码字的数量从而降低了计算复杂度,是系统性能与计算复杂度的一种折中。     

Profitability analysis in UK organizations: An exploratory study

Recent research into management accounting practices suggests that companies are now placing considerable emphasis on profitability analysis and consider it to be one of the most important management accounting practices. There is however little recent empirical research relating to the content and role of profitability analysis in companies. This paper will address this omission and report the findings derived from a survey of UK companies relating to information that is contained in profitability reporting, generated for managing the existing mix of a firm's activities. In particular, it focuses on the nature, content and role of profitability analysis carrying out some exploratory analysis and testing various propositions to explain the divergence in observed practices.A distinctive feature of the research is that, unlike some previous research, rather than focusing on the information that is accumulated within the costing system it focuses primarily on the information that is extracted from it for different purposes. Not surprisingly we find that different information is extracted for profitability analysis than for pricing purposes. The research findings also indicate that firms use a hierarchy of profit measures within the periodic profitability analysis statements and that profitability analysis is used mainly for attention-directing purposes for signalling the need for more detailed studies. For profitability analysis, the findings suggest that, in terms of what is considered the most important attention-directing measure, the use of some form of full costs based on arbitrary allocations is not as widespread as that suggested by previous studies. Evidence is also presented to suggest that the level of cost system complexity influences the observed practices.     

Visual complexity of eco-labels and product evaluations in online setting: Is simple always better?

Noticeable and comprehensible eco-labels are needed to promote sustainable products. So far, researchers have mostly studied consumers' evaluations of eco-labels, without analyzing eco-label's visual complexity. Through two experimental studies this paper proposes that consumers' evaluations of sustainable products increase when zoom-in feature provided in online stores, and they are labelled through eco-labels that have high design and low feature complexity due to increased perceptual fluency. The findings demonstrate that while design complexity increases consumer product evaluations due to increased perceptual fluency, feature complexity increases - instead of decreases – consumers' evaluations due to conceptual – and not perceptual – fluency. Consequently, it is advised to design and adapt eco-labels easy-to-understand, visually eye-catching and highly visible (i.e., in large size) to enhance ease of processing and increase product evaluations.     

复杂性科学观下的高科技企业成长机制与成长指数设刮

复杂性科学打破了线性、均衡、简单还原的传统范式，开创了一种非线性、演化、复杂系统的新范式。高科技企业的成长由于具有非线性、动态性和自组织等复杂系统的基本特征，更适合于纳入到复杂性科学的新范式中研究。本文从高科技企业成长机制的复杂性特征入手，分析其成长机理，构建高科技企业适应性成长机制模型，并采用成长指数对高科技企业成长性进行评价，试图进行这方面的一些开创性研究。