“Development strategies at station areas in southwestern China: The case of Mianyang city”

This paper analyses the possibilities for implementing a TOD model around a railway station in Mianyang City, in southwestern China, through a Node-Place model to determine the potential for developing the areas around railway stations to foster a sustainable economic and urban development. For this purpose, the implementation of a TOD model means an interesting sustainable way for smart growth, whose successful implementation will strongly depend on the context, where the Growth Pole Theory is being implemented through the Western Development Strategy to strengthen the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Zone. The Hukou system (household registration) and the current rapid urbanization and motorization trends are featuring the economic growth, creating inequities among urban population, informal settlements and problems in the accessibility of low-income residents. Therefore, not only does it lead to an analysis of the most important station areas in northeastern Sichuan Province but also of the socio-economic trends of one of the most underdeveloped regions of the country, yet with a high potential to be developed. Consequently, the real situation of the Northeast of Sichuan province is studied through fieldworks which complement the lack of reliable information, determining the most suitable features for achieving the best urban planning solution.     

From the Nation-State to a World Society: An Institutional Reading of Globalization

This article highlights the inadequacy of classical and neoclassical theories for understanding the set of changes experienced by economic systems in their process of development. The institutional dimension concerning the issue of well-defined rules (through the introduction of economic policies) and involving all stakeholders in the regulatory process (starting from the firm), seems to better interpret micro- and macro-economic aspects of the evolving capitalist model. This means questioning the complicated economic governance and society in the transition from the nation-state to a world society (or world state).     

Past price ‘memory’ in the housing market: testing the performance of different spatio-temporal specifications

Recent methodological developments provide a way to incorporate the temporal dimension when accounting for spatial effects in hedonic pricing. Weight matrices should decompose the spatial effects into two distinct components: bidirectional contemporaneous spatial connections; and unidirectional spatio-temporal effects from past transactions. Our iterative estimation approach explicitly analyses the role of time in price determination. The results show that both spatio-temporal components should be included in model specification; past transaction information stops contributing to price determination after eight months; and limited temporal friction is exhibited within this period. These findings highlight the decidedly non-linear temporal patterns of such information effects.     

Types of Word-of-Mouth Messages: Information Search and Credence-Based Services

Word-of-mouth communication (WOMC) has been recognized as a powerful marketing communication medium and a credible information-gathering tool. To date, the various types of WOM messages have not been adequately studied, especially in credence-based services (CBS). Using the individual interview technique, this study fills this gap by describing the three types of WOMC messages in CBS information-gathering. The results contribute to the ongoing development of WOMC theory and also advance management's understandings of the types of WOMC messages in the CBS information-gathering process.     

Updating Seminal Studies of Entrepreneurial Researchers in the 60's to the 90's

ABSTRACT

As early as the 1960's various researchers of African and Nigerian small business and entrepreneurship like P. Schatz, P. Kilby, J. Harris and M. Rowe, A. Ale, W. Nafziger, J. Wilde and others have been debating. Their argument is with attempt to trace and identify the factors which continue to stunt the growth and development of small and medium enterprises (SME's) and entrepreneurship in Africa and in Nigeria. The investigations carried out by these and other researchers on this subject should be accepted as pertinent and justifiable. This is especially so, in consideration of the abundant availability of both natural and mineral resources for use as raw materials within the continent. In addition, enormous amount of funds has been expended alongside immense attention and effort by governments towards the development of small-scale industries and entrepreneurship. A number of external factors therefore, like inadequate infrastructure, scarcity of machines, spare parts and equipment, lack of information, paucity of raw material supplies and problem with government policies and officials as well as cultural factors have been identified among the most serious obstacles. Internal factors such as poor organizational planning, problems of succession, inadequate re-investment of profits, lack of capital and poor managerial skills have also been noted by other researchers as main growth barriers. This research updated earlier work done by these different groups of researchers with reference to the small plastics manufacturing sector in Nigeria to see if there have been any changes in the last 10-30 years of study. The findings revealed that there has hardly been any significant difference in terms of improvement especially of external constraints observed between the 1960's and 1990's. However, the study found a number of progressive internal improvements being applied in other small plastic manufacturing businesses. Recently, some small plastics manufacturing entrepreneurs on their own initiative have learned to create and innovate various ways of coping with constraints facing their businesses independently.     

Diffidence Theorem, State-Dependent Preferences, and DARA

C. Gollier (The Economics of Risk and Time. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2001) has developed a standard technique based on the diffidence theorem. This theorem provides a very simple instrument to solve relatively sophisticated problems when preferences are state-independent. The object of this article is to show that the theorem is also very useful to derive significant results with state-dependent preferences. Using the reference set notion and an extension of the diffidence theorem, we establish formally necessary and sufficient conditions on the reference set, in order to obtain prudence and decreasing absolute risk aversion. Examples of DARA utility functions compatible with non-linear reference sets are presented in the Appendix.     

Mark-Choose-Cut Algorithms For Fair And Strongly Fair Division

This paper proposes a new criterion to evaluate algorithms for cake division, by the number of resulting pieces. Then, inspired by the idea of "cut-and-choose", we present "mark-choose-cut" algorithms for fair and strongly fair cake division problems. They are game-theoretic algorithms. The number of resulting pieces is bounded by 2 × 3n-2 + 1 and 4 × 3n-2 + 1, for fair and strongly fair division respectively.     

Everybody wins? A discourse analysis of competing stakeholder expectations in Social Impact Bonds

ABSTRACT

This paper explores how diverse stakeholders frame their expectations of Social Impact Bonds (SIBs). Using discourse analysis, the authors examine competing expectations in SIB press releases, showing how they differ between stakeholders, between institutional contexts, and how they evolve over time. The paper highlights how the prioritization of social finance and collaboration discourses privileges the role of private investors, which in turn diminishes the role of service providers as innovators.     

Regional trade and food security in SADC

A number of pertinent questions on regional trade and food security in southern Africa is addressed in this paper, namely: Should a country go it alone or should it belong to a regional trade bloc? Within the SADC region, should countries be content to be cereal importers? How can free trade be phased in? How can intra-SADC trade be expanded? Potentially sensitive agricultural products are listed and the sensitivity in grain milling and cereals is discussed in detail. The major conclusion is that trade in the region can contribute substantially to provide improved food security. There is also considerable scope for greater intra-regional trade in grain and other food products, and for greater cross-border investment in agriculture and agro-industry.