Implementation of the forest expansion policy in the Netherlands in the period 1986–2007: Decline in success?

The current study explains why Dutch forest expansion policy is at risk of failure. To study the forest expansion implementation process we have chosen to further operationalize Matland's policy type implementation model to an extended and comprehensive typology of relevant implementation characteristics. In addition, a case study methodology with mixed-method design was used to collect and analyze the data. The Dutch forest expansion policy is currently an example of symbolic implementation. The symbolic implementation is a consequence of the absence of central guidance, the legislative complexity, the low policy stability, the lack of supporting conditions for policy innovation, the lack of regulatory responsiveness and the latent policy at state level and in many provinces. Nevertheless, the transferable development rights method of the province of Limburg is a promising innovation and forest expansion still happens, which is mainly the result of a good internal and external communication, an effective actor network of forest expansion advocates and the willingness to realize negotiated project aims that lead to a win–win situation for all actors involved. Nonetheless, it is expected that the forest expansion targets will be not reached, unless most of the above shortcomings are solved.     

新能源汽车产业培育政策体系评估研究——基于上海市相关数据

本文从多层级政府模块、政策体系模块、政策体系实施效果评估模块三个维度构建了新能源汽车产业培育政策体系评估框架;其中多层级政府模块包括中央政府、省级地方政府和基层地方政府,政策体系模块包含政策目标组合、政策工具组合和政策客体组合,政策体系实施效果评估模块是指技术创新产出指标的完成情况。本文以上海市为样本,对该框架进行了详细的分析,阐述了政策体系对新能源汽车产业创新发展的培育机制,构建了产业培育政策体系综合指数,验证了其对新能源汽车产业创新产出具有显著的正向影响。     

Revenue management in a multi-level multi-channel supply chain considering pricing,greening, and advertising decisions

This paper explores coordinated decisions regarding a multi-level multi-channel supply chain considering the price of sale channels, the advertisement level, and the green policy of the products. The main objective is to maximize the total profit of the Supply Chain (SC) by considering the profitability of entities. In this regard, two kinds of selling channels (i.e. online and in-person) are extended to enable all the entities to sell the product through their own channels. Demands in both types of channels depend on price, greenness, and advertisement. In the studied SC, the manufacturer not only produces the products and sells them to the distributor and the customer but it also decides on the greening and advertising levels. As a contribution, the demand functions simultaneously consider environmental and financial issues. Besides, since each member has its own selling channel, it should determine the price based on three criteria: advertising costs, greening costs, and other members' pricing decisions. For this purpose, three models including Centralized Supply Chain (CSC), Decentralized Supply Chain (DCSC), and Modified Centralized Supply Chain (MCSC) are developed and then solved to cope with various real-world situations. Based on the findings, although the SC gains the most profitability under the CSC model, the manufacturer faces a considerable loss. To overcome this issue, the MCSC model ensures the manufacturer's profit while keeping the price, greenness, and advertisement competitive. Also, the profitability of the MCSC model is more than that of under the DCSC model. The proposed models' performance for different situations is corroborated using several examples and various analyses, along with a real case study. The results acknowledge the applicability of the models and give practical insights for experts.     

Cross-national research and international business: An interdisciplinary path

Comparative cross-national research is among the oldest approaches of scientific inquiry in the social sciences. We investigate the foundations of published works in cross-national research (CNR) in international business (IB), sociology, and psychology with an eye on leveraging their rich traditions for future IB research. Our approach aims to contribute and address repeated calls for taking an interdisciplinary approach in IB. We examined published CNR in 106 scholarly journals and identified 817 articles with 51,738 citations in IB, 477 works with 30,017 citations in sociology, and 835 articles with 54,519 citations in psychology. We use metric multidimensional scaling to examine the co-citation data for each field and identify knowledge and approaches commonplace in sociology and psychology to propose future research paths in IB. In particular multilevel analysis, which is scarcely used in IB, offers the potential of unfolding new dimensions within the field. Based on the emergent results from our MDS solutions, we recommend multiple future paths for CNR, particularly with respect to IB relationships, market entry, and related domains.     

Cross-level information and influence in mandated participatory planning: Alternative pathways to sustainable water management in Germany's implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive

State and non-state actors increasingly work across scales to address complex environmental problems. Prior studies of stakeholder participation have not fully examined how collaborative processes play out in multi-level policymaking. At the same time, multi-level governance studies do not adequately investigate the impacts of stakeholder participation. This study examines the cross-level interactions of influence and information in the participatory implementation of the European Union's Water Framework Directive. This directive is an example of mandated participatory planning, a relatively new approach that engages grassroots collaboration through a top-down structure with nested policy cycles. A case analysis of three collaborative planning units in the Land of Lower Saxony, within the federal governance structure of Germany, finds limited influence and information transmission across levels via formal planning and implementation processes. However, the collaborative efforts did yield alternative pathways for achieving substantive progress toward the directive's aims via learning, coordination, and buy-in among participants.     

Multi-level framework of open source software adoption

Numerous studies examine potential facilitators and inhibitors of open source software (OSS) adoption at the firm level. This study represents the first attempt to propose and test a multi-level framework, examining the effects of five country-level variables and two under-explored firm-level factors on firm OSS adoption. The findings suggest that a country's uncertainty avoidance orientation has a positive impact on OSS adoption, whereas power distance orientation and economic development have a negative impact on OSS adoption. In addition, uncertainty avoidance at the country level sets boundaries for the effect of firm-level IT-based networks in a way that the impact of proprietary IT-based networks becomes stronger, but that of open IT-based networks becomes weaker when uncertainty avoidance is high rather than low. The study also develops public policy implications from these findings.     

我国多层次资本市场的现状与发展

2013年全国证券期货监管工作会议提出了"加快多层次资本市场建设,将扩大‘新三板’试点范围"的工作要求和目标,反映了我国资本市场和金融市场的发展方向。在我国经济转型升级、各领域深化改革的过程中,发展的动力将被不断地释放出来,资本市场必须抓住机会,通过资金的更高效运转,在改革创新中实现平稳发展,为经济的进一步持续健康发展提供有力的支持。     

Spatial plans as relational data: Using social network analysis to assess consistency among Bucharest’s planning instruments

Globally, planning instruments help shape the development of places under uncertain future conditions. In the context of a multi-level planning system, both land-use and strategic spatial plans are available, mandated by different policies and adopted by various authorities. Notwithstanding the excellent support consistency among such plans can provide for their transformative capacity, studies analyzing how plans interact, forming complex relationships, are rare. Treating plans as relational data gives insights into the outcomes acquired by a network compared to the transformations enabled by a single plan. As the theory of networks prevails for handling relational data, we applied social network analysis to evaluate external consistency among 10 plans of Bucharest, Romania and the surrounding region. All plans are currently in force, have spatial implications, and refer to different administrative levels and sectors, from the metropolitan to the sub-district level and from land-use and transportation to environmental plans. We first developed a framework for consistency assessment, covering four categories of external consistency. Second, following these categories, we extracted relevant plan statements from all plans. Third, we assigned one-way, symmetrical and contradictory relationships between the plan statements. Fourth, using directed and valued network analyses we assessed consistencies, inconsistencies and contradictions between plans. Finally, we validated the results by applying questionnaires to local experts. Our results indicate that consistency among Bucharest’s plans is high on a temporal scale regarding issues and general measures, but low for spatialized planning intentions on both vertical and horizontal scales. We discuss consequences of these findings for the transformative capacity of plans and the effectiveness of plan-implementation.     

GIS科学与人才多层次培养研究

万千事物的时空印记是GIS科学建立的基础。如火如荼的GIS人才培养面临多层次培养任务的分工。GIS基础理论和方法方向的人才培养任务应由科研院所与高校的专门GIS专业来承担,基础GIS平台方向的人才培养应该由有能力的GIS软件服务企业来承担,国家可以适当进行管理规范。行业GIS应用型人才培养可以通过各自专业的高等教育课程设置,行业培训等来完成。这样,各有侧重,相互协作,互为补充,中国21世纪的GIS人才队伍计划将会有条不紊地逐步壮大,实力逐步增强。     

Direct and indirect contribution of HRM practice to hotel company performance

The research problem is the measurement of direct and indirect HRM contributions to hotel company financial performance. The theoretical multi-level model developed in this paper is based on Resource Based View theory, the Motivation–Ability–Opportunity framework and a universalistic, contingency and configurational approach to measurement relationships. It investigates whether HRM results measured at an individual level (employee engagement, skills, attitudes and behaviour) and at an organisational level (consequences of employee loyalty) mediate in the link between HRM practice (quantitative and perceived data) and hotel company financial performance and whether hotel company ownership and size are moderating the link. Data was obtained from HR managers and employees in hotel companies in all regions of Croatia. The results suggest the key HRM activities which make the largest contribution to employee engagement, skills, attitudes and behaviour, loyalty and hotel company financial performance. Management implications of the results are discussed and avenues for further research are proposed.