Agreement based land consolidation – In perspective of new modes of governance

A comparative study on the performance of new modes of governance in selected Central and Eastern European countries stated the problem that the emergence of new modes of governance in environmental policy is impaired by weak governance capacities in state and civil society and lack of mutual trust among stakeholders (Börzel, 2009a). The purpose of this article is to draw attention to agreement based land consolidation for implementation of area based environmental policies. The article contends that land consolidation exclusively based on agreements can cope with capacity constraints in state and civil society and at the same time apply the principles of new modes of governance. The research questions are: (i) how are principles of new modes of governance applied in agreement based land consolidation? (ii) what are the incentives and the technique in agreement based land consolidation? and (iii) what are the capacity building requirements for an agreement based land consolidation approach? The Danish land consolidation procedure is used as an example of an agreement based approach. Transaction technique, planning technique, and incentives are exposed with reference to transaction cost theory. The impact on trust is illuminated with reference to theory on social capital. The wetland projects serve as an example of area based environmental projects and is illustrated by a case. Data, however incomplete, indicate that agreement based land consolidation has been and is used as an important implementation tool in land related environmental policies in Denmark. The article concludes that the agreement based approach displays key features of new modes of governance. The principle of voluntary agreements grants the affected non-state actors a strong position to influence the final policy outcome and they contribute with local knowledge and mediation. The approach avoids conventional enforcement. Agreement based land consolidation is possible but relies on demanding preconditions. The investment in incentives and capacity building can be justified by a broad range of benefits.     

‘Invisible’ constraints on 3D innovation in land administration: A case study on the city of Melbourne

Excitement about the potential of 3D technologies to support production and management of complex building information has extended to the land administration sector. Structural characteristics of high-rise buildings are compounding complexity in the design and layout of private, public and communal ownership rights, restrictions and responsibilities, leaving a legacy of ongoing management issues for urban communities. Despite the premise of 3D innovations and significant technical progress, widespread adoption remains elusive. Attention is turning to understanding the social and cultural influences – the ‘invisible’ constraints, otherwise regarded as institutional aspects, to explain deeply embedded attitudes and behaviours that are posing resistant to current change strategies. An interpretive case study in the city of Melbourne provides context for exploring institutional issues within the land administration sector regarding high-rise developments. The plan of subdivision is used to trace institutional influences, conceptualising these as regulative, normative and cultural-cognitive elements. These elements constrain stakeholders to current 2D ways of behaving, limiting movement towards 3D innovation. The findings suggest clear institutional ‘gaps’ that deliberate strategies will need to address, but also highlight the importance of understanding the interdependency between all elements for strategic response. Finally, the findings indicate that a new focal actor that is in a position to generate the required intention for change has not emerged and therefore, an industry-wide strategic response is not apparent.     

Collectively created opportunities in emerging ecosystems: The case of solar service ventures

This study suggests that in the entrepreneurial communities of emerging industries, individual entrepreneurs may simultaneously create opportunities that spill over to others and discover opportunities already created by others. Extant opportunity literature, focused on single actors and their personal networks or on the information function of market prices, is largely mute on the role of opportunities in value networks with distributed entrepreneurial efforts. Ecosystem theory, a literature stream that seldom intersects opportunity literature, contributes with a conceptual framework to study the question. The paper seeks to shed light on how opportunities are created or discovered by new ventures as they are involved in the interlinked endeavor of forming a new ecosystem.The study examines five case studies of US ventures in the early phase of the solar service industry, an industry in which entrepreneurs offer customers access to solar panels as a service rather than as a product. These ventures inadvertently created an industry ecosystem together, as they could not protect the value created by their business partners׳ new knowledge, or by the emerging social webs between partners. They shaped opportunities together, passing value back and forth amongst themselves. This paper offers fundamental observations on how opportunity creation and discovery is distributed among a community of entrepreneurs as a business ecosystem grows.     

Evaluating foreign market entry mode theories from a hotel industry perspective

This is a qualitative examination of the theories of new institutional economics (NIE) in the context of choosing between franchising and management contracts in the international hotel industry. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight high-level hotel executives. The primary objective of this study is to empirically examine which of the predominant theories of NIE are the most appropriate for examining the specific choice between franchising and management contracts when internationalising a hotel or hotel chain. Transaction cost economics and the resource-based view emerged as the most appropriate theories, according to the executives interviewed. Moreover, several other important considerations were suggested by the respondents, including the size of the organisation, the importance of intangible assets and the level of investment into these assets. Finally, host country factors, such as legal and political risk, as well as the availability of capable local partners, were suggested as important considerations.     

The U.S. listing gap

Relative to other countries, the U.S. now has abnormally few listed firms. This “U.S. listing gap” is consistent with a decrease in the net benefit of a listing for U.S. firms. Since the listing peak in 1996, the propensity to be listed is lower for all firm size categories and industries, the new list rate is low, and the delist rate is high. The high delist rate accounts for 46% of the listing gap and the low new list rate for 54%. The high delist rate is explained by an unusually high rate of acquisitions of publicly listed firms.     

Agglomeration,city size and crime

This paper analyzes the relationship between crime and agglomeration where the land, labor, product, and crime markets are endogenously determined. Our main theoretical findings are the following: (i) better accessibility to jobs decreases crime in the short run but may increase crime in the long run; (ii) the per-capita crime rate increases with city size; (iii) when allowing for endogenous policing, lower commuting costs make the impact of police on crime more efficient.     

尺度重构视角下国家战略区域的空间生产策略——基于国家级新区的探讨

全球化背景下,生产组织方式的变革以及资本和技术的快速转移,使区域成为重要的国家生产空间,并引致了国家—区域的治理回应。近年来逐渐出现了沿用尺度重构的理论视角来探讨区域空间生产策略,尺度重构被视为大多数国家应对区域发展问题的重要手段,而国家级新区就是这样一种具有"中国特色"的尺度重构工具。文章回顾了国家级新区设立、发展的逻辑演变,认为其是国家战略性选择的结果,将政策和优势导向特定的空间尺度,引领了区域的发展。近年来,中央政府更是加大了通过设立"国家级新区"来重塑区域空间生产策略的行动。最后,文章讨论了国家战略区域空间生产策略体系,并从制度建构、治理重构、规划整合和财税安排等四个方面对善用这种尺度重构工具提出了建议。     

Toward a better understanding of corporate accelerator models

Corporate accelerator programs—accelerators managed by or directly sponsored by one or multiple established firms—are becoming an integral part of startup ecosystems and an important startup engagement vehicle for established firms. Previous research focused either on independent accelerators or on corporate accelerator programs that one established firm operates internally. However, new accelerator models emerged recently, making the corporate accelerator phenomenon more diverse. The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of the different types of corporate accelerators, along with their objectives and characteristics in order for managers to better understand which type best fits their organization. Our insights on corporate accelerators emerged from secondary data and interviewees from companies and accelerator programs. We used these insights to categorize the programs into four corporate accelerator models that vary according to number of participants and the accelerator’s management structure and explain how companies can select the right model for their objectives.     

The summer of the Spirits: Spiritual tourism to America’s foremost village of spirit mediums

The historic Spiritualist village of Lily Dale, New York, is a popular summer tourist destination in America, attracting approximately 20,000 visitors per year. This research argues that many of these visitors are “spiritual seekers”. Spiritual seeking is an important movement in the west. To date, however, there has been insufficient attention paid to the specific places in which this spiritual questing is undertaken. This research uses the concept of spiritual tourism to understand the summer journey to this part of America. Drawing on a range of ethnographic data, it finds that affective destinations play an irreducible part of many people's spiritual lives; it may only be through travel to dedicated places that seekers’ aspirations can be fully realized.     

预期、混合菲利普斯曲线与中国通货膨胀动态特征

将货币因素与输入性因素（如汇率、国际石油价格等）引入新凯恩斯混合菲利普斯曲线框架构建高阶滞后的混合菲利普斯曲线模型,并利用1995年第1季度至2013年第2季度的数据进行实证分析,结果显示：总需求变化对我国通货膨胀率的影响很小,而货币因素与输入性因素（如汇率以及国际大宗商品价格变化）成为影响我国通货膨胀率的重要因素;我国通货膨胀主要受到前瞻性预期的影响,而通胀惯性对通货膨胀水平的影响不大;相对而言,货币因素对我国通货膨胀具有最重要的影响。