全球金融服务外包产业发展最新趋势及中国策略

经济危机使全球服务外包产业深受影响。规模最大、发展最快的金融服务外包领域出现巨额合同交易显著减少、辅助性后台外包需求加快释放、国际金融机构海外自营中心外部化以及部分发展中国家和新兴市场出现反向式增长等新趋势。经济衰退背景下,国际金融机构加快业务转移和重组趋势明显,对外开放和竞争加剧也将加快释放国内金融机构的外包需求,跨国服务商的示范作用有利于本土服务商迅速提高综合竞争力加之中国具有的多种竞争优势,后危机时代有望支持其成长为新的全球金融服务外包中心。为加快产业发展,应在全面培育市场主体和积极改善外部环境等方面做出更多努力。     

Services advertising: showcase the customer!

The research presented in this article focuses on the effectiveness of advertising strategies used in services communication. For this purpose, a quantitative study of 50 magazine advertisements for services in tourism and banking/insurance was conducted with a sample of 249 respondents. This research shows that, for both sectors, certain advertising strategies are more effective than others, and that the most effective advertising strategy is one that showcases the service customer. This strategy is more effective than those highlighting competitive advantage, contact staff, a physical representation of the service or the company’s brand image.     

Evaluating how we evaluate success: Monitoring,evaluation and adaptive management in Payments for Watershed Services programs

Payments for Watershed Services (PWS) programs have become an increasingly popular policy mechanism both in the U.S. and abroad. These programs are used to meet a variety of objectives, including improving the quality and quantity of water supplies, protecting endangered species, and advancing rural livelihoods. Monitoring, evaluation and adaptive management are important for filling fundamental knowledge gaps and improving the efficacy of PWS on the ground. However, relatively little work has evaluated how programs themselves monitor and evaluate their impacts and whether adaptive management is utilized. Here, we seek to improve understanding of the factors that contribute to the adoption of monitoring, evaluation and adaptive management practices through a literature review and a survey of PWS programs. Based on qualitative and logistic regression analyses, financial, technical and institutional capacity and leveraging broad stakeholder coalitions emerged as important factors contributing to systematic PWS monitoring, evaluation and adaptive management. This research underscores the importance of investing additional resources to support such capacity and coalition- building in PWS to ensure programs can meet their desired objectives.     

我国生产性服务业对出口产品竞争优势的影响研究

作为与现代制造业紧密联系的生产性服务业正逐渐成为国民经济的重要组成部分。随着近年来我国制造业成本优势的消失和外资企业的纷纷撤离,如何利用生产性服务业,在世界市场中提高出口产品的竞争优势,是转变产业结构布局、提高经济增长质量的重大问题。本文基于1995~2014年我国30个省份的数据,利用空间计量模型,考虑出口产品竞争优势的空间相关性,生产性服务业的空间作用及非线性作用,研究出口产品竞争优势和生产性服务业的关系。结果表明,在生产要素、环境因素的影响逐步减弱的情势下,科技进步和生产性服务业对出口产品竞争优势有着显著的正向影响。其中,生产性服务业聚集存在一定的负向的空间交互作用,同时也存在非常显著的正向的非线性影响,且后者的影响更大。鉴于生产性服务业对经济的空间重构作用,合理的调整和发展生产性服务业的空间布局,将有利于加强其对出口产品竞争优势的提升作用。     

基于VAR模型的广州经济增长的影响因素分析

本文在VAR模型的基础上,采用1987～2008年广州市的GDP、出口、服务业的有关统计数据,综合运用单位根检验、协整检验、格兰杰因果检验等实证分析方法对其进行比较研究。分析结果表明:出口和服务业对于经济增长都有促进拉动的作用,都具有正向效应。但是,相对于出口来说,服务业对于经济增长的作用更明显、更持久。这符合经济发展的规律,符合当今世界发达城市的发展规律,为广州市经济决策提供参考依据。     

Implementing new financial regulation: actuaries and UK with-profits funds

One feature of the UK Financial Services Authority's (FSA) approach to regulation is the involvement of private actors in the regulatory process. This paper explores the introduction of ‘Principles and Practices of Financial Management’ (PPFM) for the management of with-profits funds of UK life insurers, and reports the experience of actuaries as private actors having a key role in implementing the FSA's PPFM framework. Actuaries reported experiencing considerable challenges in implementing the PPFM framework and, while accountability had increased, actuaries expressed scepticism about the ability of consumers and policyholders to make use of the increased amount of publicly available information.     

Dynamics of Firm Profitability and Growth: Do Knowledge-Intensive (Business) Services Persistently Outperform?

This paper explores the persistence of profitability and growth for firms operating in the Greek service sector, paying special attention to knowledge-intensive services (KIS) and knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS). The generalized method of moments is used on a rich panel of firms over a recent nine-year period. Quantile regressions are complementarily applied for KIS and KIBS industries. The key results from both growth and profit dynamics suggest that firms in KIS and KIBS industries persistently outperform firms in less knowledge-intensive service industries, pointing to strategic advantages of the former. Importantly, KIS and KIBS seem to be able to sustain their growth and profitability persistent trends even in times of crisis. Further insight into these issues is provided by the quantile analysis, the exploration of the profitability and growth inter-linkages, and the investigation of differences among various size groups in KIS and KIBS.     

服务贸易、非对称开放与全球失衡:一项跨国的经验研究

文章从贸易内部结构出发，分析非对称开放条件下，服务贸易兴起与全球失衡之间的关系。并利用全球59个主要贸易国家2000-2014年双边贸易数据对两者之间的关系进行计量分析，实证结果显示：第一，服务贸易净值与经常账户余额之间存在显著的负向关系，服务贸易净值提高100万美元，经常账户余额减少98.7万美元。在引入交互项之后这种关系依然显著成立。因此，服务贸易的非对称开放是造成全球失衡的重要原因。第二，技术进步和利率上调可以扭转服务贸易对经常账户的抑制作用。第三，金融危机之后，服务贸易和经常账户的负向关系进一步强化。后危机时代，全球失衡现象有可能继续恶化。第四，分位数回归发现，在低点位处服务贸易净值对经常账户的影响更为强烈。文章的研究为理解中国的服务贸易逆差提供了新的视角，并为扭转服务贸易逆差奠定了理论基础。     

“Community developed and farmer delivered.” An analysis of the spatial and relational proximities of the Alternative Land Use Services program in Ontario

In Canada, the Alternative Land Use Services (ALUS) program aims to support conservation projects by financially compensating farmers for ecosystem services. The program advocates a bottom-up approach that allows farmers to decide which projects to implement. In this respect, ALUS distinguishes itself from more traditional agri-environment schemes, which are often managed in a top-down fashion. Other unique features of the program include a governance structure based on stakeholder confidence; the provision of annual compensation to members for supplying ecosystem services; and a private, community-based approach to conservation. Using the proximity analysis framework, our research explores whether this model can reshape the values of farmers and encourage them to adopt and maintain environmentally friendly practices. Our results reveal a close proximity among ALUS members in terms of their values, both environmental and economic. However, the ALUS program fails to take full advantage of the geographic and organized proximity of its participants. Specifically, individual projects are not integrated into a spatially coordinated, collective strategy that could have a greater environmental impact. While ALUS has been successful in encouraging farmers to adopt new practices, it mostly attracts participants who already agree with the values it promotes. In this regard, the program is not very different from standard agri-environment schemes.     

Impact of marketing activities on relationship quality in the Malaysian banking sector

The current study investigates the impact of marketing activities on relationship quality in the Malaysian banking sector. Analysis of survey results show that greater client and employees' relational orientation yields higher relationship quality and results in better relationship continuity. Results also show that committed client relationships lead to client satisfaction, loyalty, positive word of mouth and promotion However, mutual disclosure was found to have no significant relationship with relationship quality.This may indicate that bank customers in Malaysia do not feel that having close relationships with the bank will have any positive impact on relationship quality. This particular finding may serve as a warning signal to practitioners and scholars alike that thorough research must be carried out on the use of relationship marketing prior to implementation.