Most-favoured-nation treaty in service of trade? Case: early trade policy relations between Finland and Japan and their impact on the sales networks of the Finnish forest industry

This article scrutinises the significance of the most-favoured-nation (MFN) treaty in promoting the development of commercial activity and its results in transnational trade. As cardinal agents of trade policy, governments act as ‘umpires’ in formulating and guarding the rules of international trade, while the ‘players’ are private corporations which conduct commercial operations in the playing field of international trade. Within the framework of Finno-Japanese trade relations, the players established and developed their trade networks (corporate interconnections) regardless of the umpires and their official rules, meaning the commercial treaties. Through a close examination of the early trade policy relations between Finland and Japan along with the formation and development of the Finnish forest industry’s sales networks into the Japanese market in the early twentieth century, this study demonstrates that there was no explicit causal connection between MFN treaties and the evolution of the Finnish forest industry’s export efforts – and their results.     

Trust as a key for strategic management? The relevance of council–administration relations for NPM-related reforms in German local governments

This paper contributes to the discussion about varieties in the implementation of New Public Management (NPM) ideas. The example of strategic management in German municipalities is used to point out the relevance of council–administration relations for the implementation of NPM-related management concepts. Based on ideas from institutional theory and public-service bargain models, a concept of trust is used for the analysis of implementation processes. Results are drawn from qualitative research in five case studies. It is shown that trust is a useful concept for understanding the implementation of management instruments in the public sector.     

试析建国初期毛泽东国际战略思想

毛泽东国际战略思想是中国共产党集体智慧的结晶,在国际上具有深远的影响。新中国建国初期受各种势力的影响,中国国际关系比较紧张,毛泽东实事求是地提出了具有战略指导作用的思想,这在很大程度上巩固了我国国家主权的独立,维护了国家的发展。     

A multidimensional analysis of supply chain integration in canadian manufacturing

Supply chain management is a key element in companies' competitiveness. We surveyed 512 Canadian manufacturers, most of which were small or medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). Our survey was structured around four dimensions of supply change integration, namely: nesting, collaboration, financial incorporation, and distancing. In this paper we describe the use of supply chain management practices and show that their use is dependent on the nature of the business partners (i.e., upstream or downstream positioning of partnership in chain logistics of businesses studied), business field (i.e., sector of activities in which the business operates), and organizational size. Our findings suggest that supply chain practices were used more intensively with clients than with suppliers. They also show that practitioners and scholars need to qualify the concept of integration which is often used in a one‐dimensional perspective. Copyright © 2010 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

New forms of labour contract and labour flexibility in Russia

This paper assesses the claims that employment in the new Russian private sector relies heavily on informal and unregistered labour agreements and that the violation of existing labour law by new private employers is driven by their need for more flexible working arrangements.
The paper shows that these claims are unsupported on every count. The new private sector does not rely heavily on informal or illegal forms of employment and there is no evidence that it uses labour more flexibly, in any of the usual senses of the term, than the traditional sectors of the economy. The conclusion is that there is no economic justification for the systematic violation of the existing labour legislation. It is suggested, therefore, that enforcement of the existing law is a precondition for its effective reform in those areas in which it might be a barrier to restructuring.     

雇佣关系稳定性研究——心理契约期望视角

文章从心理契约的期望内容角度出发,探索研究其期望内容对员工心理契约的影响特点,以及由此对其态度和行为产生的影响。并从这四条途径探索改善组织雇佣关系中现存困境,保持员工雇佣关系稳定的有效方法。     

中国经济失衡根源在于国民经济初次分配制度的缺陷——基于人的发展经济学视角

中国实行社会主义市场经济后生产关系发生了很大的变化，社会产品分配出现了多因素决定的情形，国家需要遵循以人的发展为目的发展的经济规律，通过制定合理的国民经济初次分配制度，就此作出有利于人的全面自由发展和资本效率的制度安排，从而保障生产与消费的基本平衡。因这些问题没有受到应有的重视，加上出口拉动、区域差异发展、决策的城市倾向等政策的偏差，使得根源于国民经济初次分配制度缺陷的中国经济失衡问题日益严峻。文章认为，只有遵循以人的生存和发展为目的发展的经济规律、在有利于促进每一个个人都获得全面自由发展的原则下调整和理顺生产关系、完善国民经济初次分配制度，才能从根本上解决中国的经济失衡问题。     

生产力标准新论

研究生产力标准问题，一要坚持唯物主义原则，科学表述标准；二要运用辩证的科学方法，具体分析标准。生产力标准既是真理标准又是价值标准，既具有一元性又具有多样性。这要求既要处理好自然生产力与社会生产力之间的辩证关系，又要处理好自然生产力与社会生产力系统内部各要素之间的辩证关系，既反对人类主义又反对自然主义，既重视生态建设又发展社会生产，既狠抓物质生产又狠抓精神生产，同时又要抓好人才生产。     

Renewable Energy Policy Instruments and Market Power

Markets for green certificates allow generators with market power to squeeze the margins of their competitors, as a generator that is vertically integrated into network activities might do. We analyze this issue in a stylized electricity industry in which a dominant producer of both conventional and renewable energy is facing a competitive fringe of renewable‐energy producers. We demonstrate that whether or not a dominant firm is vertically integrated into network activities, it can disadvantage the fringe producers by distorting certificates prices, thereby inducing cost inefficiency in the generation of renewable energy. We compare green certificates to a system of feed‐in tariffs, where a similar margin squeeze is not possible.