The service triad: modelling dialectic tensions in service encounters

Models of service encounters are often fraught with reductionism, describing business relationships as mathematical combinations of dyadic constellations. Metaphors of ideal social relationships (marriages or friendships) are highlighted to stress normative aspects of equal, balanced and long-term business partnerships. However, these approaches are limited in their analytical sensitivity, as they cannot address the complexity of multipart relationships, where meanings, roles and relationships are continuously constructed and reconstructed. In order to understand the ambivalent quality of business interactions, this article analyses the corporate travel market by applying Simmel's depiction of the triad as a specific social form. Triadic constellations and more complex service networks involve dialectic tensions, simultaneously exhibiting loyalty and disloyalty, trust and distrust, empowerment and disempowerment. It is argued that a qualitative methodology is a more adequate approach to grasp such dynamic and contextual social realities, because (opposed to a quantitative approach) it is not confined to operate with mutually exclusive analytical categories.     

Regulatory Uncertainty and Financial Contagion: Evidence from the Hybrid Capital Securities Market

This paper examines the negative market impact that resulted from the insurance regulators’ potential reclassification of 140 hybrid capital securities in spring and summer 2006. It illustrates how financial contagion can spring from a regulatory policy change that lacks transparency. We investigate the impact of the uncertainty surrounding the regulators’ true classification criteria by measuring the effect of the reclassification announcements on hybrid new issue volume, cumulative average abnormal returns, bid‐ask spreads, and yield spreads. The financial contagion adversely affected the entire hybrid capital securities market for six months. The effect was most pronounced among those hybrids that were eventually reclassified as common equity equivalents. It was greater for Yankee Tier 1 hybrids, which had been more popular with insurance firm investors prior to the reclassifications, than among non‐Tier 1 hybrids.     

基于政府参与情形的混合巨灾债券设计与实证分析

我国是属于自然灾害多发的国家,但由于保险市场与资本市场相对落后,目前对于巨灾的管理仍然主要依靠政府事后的财政拨款与民间捐赠。本文借鉴并改进了国内外相关研究结论,构建了由保险市场、资本市场以及政府所组成的巨灾风险分担模型。在该模型的基础上,以熵测度为准则,设计了一种有政府参与的混合巨灾债券,这种债券是传统的简单巨灾债券与...     

基于改进TOPSIS法的第三方物流供应商选择

确定了合理的评价指标体系,并在此基础上将熵权法和TOPSIS法相结合对第三方物流供应商进行综合评价。在评价过程中,利用熵权法科学地确定各评价指标的权重,通过TOPSIS法对各第三方物流供应商进行定量排序,从而作为选择的依据。最后以湖州某知名的童装生产商为例,说明该方法的实用性。     

基于TOPSIS法的辽宁省经济水平评价

考虑到经济水平评价问题的重要性,以辽宁省14个市为研究对象,选取了人均生产总值、职工平均工资等七个反映经济水平的指标,通过熵值法确定各个指标的权重,并利用TOPSIS法客观合理地对辽宁省的14个城市2009年的经济水平进行了综合评价,并给出了排名。     

乡村生态振兴成效评价指标体系构建研究——基于江苏省、浙江省、安徽省的对比

[目的]乡村生态振兴是乡村振兴的重要方面,构建乡村生态振兴成效评价体系有利于衡量乡村生态振兴程度,甄别制约因素,并为乡村生态尽快振兴指明方向。[方法]文章以江苏、浙江、安徽3省为研究对象,基于PSR (压力—状态—响应)模型,构建了包含三大子系统、24项指标的乡村生态振兴成效评价体系。采用熵权法确定具体指标权重以及各子系统权重,并采用熵权TOPSIS法对3省的乡村生态振兴成效分层面和整体进行评价比较和等级判定。[结果](1)乡村生态环境状态系统对评价乡村生态振兴成效的重要程度最高,压力系统次之,响应系统最末。畜禽养殖、地下水资源量、当年造林面积分别对三大系统评价有较大影响。(2)在考察期内,从各子系统看,浙江乡村生态环境状态达到良好水平,在压力和响应层面的表现达到中等水平;江苏在压力、状态、响应系统方面的成效都为中等水平;安徽在压力、响应系统方面表现达到中等水平,但在状态系统方面表现较差。(3)总体上,浙江乡村生态振兴成效达到优秀水平,江苏为中等水平,安徽为较差水平。[结论] 3省在各层面各有优劣,主要差距集中在状态系统层面,但总体上江苏与安徽在乡村生态振兴方面仍有较大的进步空间。构建的乡村生态振兴评价指标体系具有一定的科学性和可行性。各省应从自身薄弱环节出发,加强资源保护、污染治理、基础设施建设,以推进乡村生态振兴。     

基于改进TOPSIS法的乡村振兴评价及地区比较

[目的]乡村振兴战略是破解"三农"难题,是实现农业现代化、农村繁荣、农民富裕的治本之策。而实现乡村振兴,农村繁荣,首先需要使用科学的方法对昆明市乡村振兴水平进行定量测度,并纵向与云南省和全国进行比较,通过科学测度和比较,充分了解当前各个目标任务的实现程度及差距,以便为指导下一步的工作方向提供依据。[方法]文章基于产业兴旺、生态宜居、乡风文明、治理有效和生活富裕5个乡村振兴战略目标任务,选取22个细化指标,运用层次分析法、熵权法和TOPSIS法对昆明市、云南省和国家2016―2022年(共6年,无2021年预测值)的乡村振兴程度进行定量测度和比较。[结果]从综合贴近度来看,昆明市各年的综合贴近度均高于云南省和全国;根据平均增长法测度的云南省综合贴近度高于全国,但现实情况是云南省低于全国平均水平,说明当前云南省还应加快乡村振兴步伐,否则可能实现不了2022年的目标。[结论]昆明市乡村振兴发展态势较好,部分二级指标贴近度的现实值超过了目标值,但要进入全国前列还需努力;云南省乡村振兴发展水平总体滞后,需加快推进力度以带动昆明市的进一步发展。     

Bayesian selection of technology assumptions for the transformation from supply-use to input–output tables

ABSTRACT

In the construction of input–output models from supply-use tables, technology assumptions disambiguate how an industry uses inputs in the production recipe of multiple outputs. This paper uses Bayes' theorem to select technology assumptions, taking into account empirical observations. The paper presents a formulation to explore hybrids between product and industry technology assumptions in product-by-product tables. We then present Markov chain Monte-Carlo techniques to implement the Bayesian method for selecting technology assumptions. We apply the method in a case study using Eurostat supply-use tables of 2004 and 2005, exhibiting a volume of secondary products of less than 13%, and 59 products and industries per country. The results show that the choice of technology is not important, given that there is no strong evidence in favour of any of them.     

Fuel consumption for various driving styles in conventional and hybrid electric vehicles: Integrating driving cycle predictions with fuel consumption optimization*

Improving fuel economy and lowering emissions are key societal goals. Standard driving cycles, pre-designed by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), have long been used to estimate vehicle fuel economy in laboratory-controlled conditions. They have also been used to test and tune different energy management strategies for hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs). This paper aims to estimate fuel consumption for a conventional vehicle and a HEV using personalized driving cycles extracted from real-world data to study the effects of different driving styles and vehicle types on fuel consumption when compared to the estimates based on standard driving cycles. To do this, we extracted driving cycles for conventional vehicles and HEVs from a large-scale U.S. survey that contains real-world GPS-based driving records. Next, the driving cycles were assigned to one of three categories: volatile, normal, or calm. Then, the driving cycles were used along with a driver-vehicle simulation that captures driver decisions (vehicle speed during a trip), powertrain, and vehicle dynamics to estimate fuel consumption for conventional vehicles and HEVs with power-split powertrain. To further optimize fuel consumption for HEVs, the Equivalent Consumption Minimization Strategy (ECMS) is applied. The results show that depending on the driving style and the driving scenario, conventional vehicle fuel consumption can vary widely compared with standard EPA driving cycles. Specifically, conventional vehicle fuel consumption was 13% lower in calm urban driving, but almost 34% higher for volatile highway driving compared with standard EPA driving cycles. Interestingly, when a driving cycle is predicted based on the application of case-based reasoning and used to tune the power distribution in a hybrid electric vehicle, its fuel consumption can be reduced by up to 12% in urban driving. Implications and limitations of the findings are discussed.     

一般竞争战略理论论战、观点流派与研究展望——从割裂到融合

一般竞争战略理论对企业战略决策具有广泛而深远的影响。学者们对一般竞争战略的割裂观和融合观一直争执不休，众多研究呈现出多角度、多证据、结论矛盾和研究混乱的局面。文章通过对相关理论回顾和梳理，揭示出一般竞争战略理论割裂观存在的问题和困境，呈现融合观的理论与实证证据，提炼出混合战略的三个流派，并揭示混合战略研究的脉络和趋势。文章揭示出融合是竞争战略的趋势，实现不同战略类型的融合和竞争战略的多维体系构建，有助于厘清竞争战略研究的混乱和矛盾，打破根深蒂固的“骑墙战略”禁区思维，为企业的战略决策提供系统和多维的视角，并推动一般竞争战略从割裂化向融合化演进，特别是对现阶段的中国企业战略制定具有重要意义。