Assessing Systemic Importance With a Fuzzy Logic Inference System

Three metrics are designed to assess Colombian financial institutions' size, connectedness and non-substitutability as the main drivers of systemic importance: (i) centrality as net borrower in the money market network; (ii) centrality as payments originator in the large-value payment system network; and (iii) asset value of core financial services. An aggregated systemic importance index is calculated based on expert knowledge by using a fuzzy logic inference system. We use principal component analysis to calculate a benchmark index for comparison purposes. Overall similarities between both indexes put forward that expert knowledge aggregation is consistent with that based on a purely quantitative standard approach. Specific non-negligible differences concur with the nonlinear features of an approach whose intention is to replicate human reasoning. Both indexes are complementary and provide a comprehensive relative assessment of each financial institution's systemic importance in the Colombian case, in which the choice of metrics pursues the macroprudential perspective of financial stability. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Internationalization through foreign listing: A review and future research agenda

This paper reviews and synthesizes literature on foreign listing from international business, management, and finance disciplines. A systematic review of 66 studies from 25 journals indicates fragmentation of the literature across the macro and firm-specific perspectives and a limited usage of current international business theories in research on foreign listing. We propose multiple developmental paths including use of institutional theory, especially institutional distance and institutional evolution to provide more comprehensive understanding of antecedents and contingent factors for foreign listing; supply-chain disaggregation of cross-border capital flow; integrate financial and strategic implications of foreign listing; and advancement of emerging market specific theories.     

美国学前教师职前培训体系演进之路省思与启示

美国是世界上学前教育最发达的国家之一,非常重视学前教育师资的培训和质量的提高,高素质的幼教师资主要通过职前培训这个途径来实现。本研究对美国学前教师职前培训体系发展历程进行了梳理,分为学徒制时期、培训学校时期、师范学校时期、师范学院时期和综合大学的教育学院和文理学院的教育系时期。反思不同时期美国学前教师职前培训的经验与教训,结合我国国情,在培训目标、课程设置、质量保障机制、教育实践等几个方面对我国学前师资的职前培训体系进行展望。     

Quantifying land-use change impacts on the dynamic evolution of flood vulnerability

Recently, dramatic flood disasters have occurred incrementally in several regions of the world. Land-use change as one of the main affecting factors becomes a key component in flood risk management. This study strives to deal with quantifying how changes in land use to affect the dynamic evolution of flood vulnerability. The floodplains of Wuhan, which are located in the Yangtze River Basin, have been selected as an example. In this paper, we use GIS to gather different historical geometric data as sources of land-use information. By proposing the Simpsons-dominance index and location index to analyze the characteristics of land-use changes, and building a quantitative model to measure flood vulnerability, a series of flood vulnerability maps demonstrate differential flood vulnerability of floodplains of Wuhan in three inundation scenarios and four historical periods. Finally, the non-parametric correlation is used to reveal the interactive effect of land use and flood vulnerability. Based on this study, comprehensive flood disaster management strategies for land-use planning are proposed for government decision-makers to reduce the flood vulnerability of Wuhan in future.     

Customer Roles in Self-Service Technology Encounters in a Tourism Context

This paper reports on a study which explored the customer perspective on their roles in SST encounters in a tourism context, through the theoretical lens of service-dominant logic. The study employed short qualitative interviews with airline passengers at an international airport. The findings suggest that customers can assume six roles in an SST encounter which can be viewed as either positive or negative in terms of value creation. Therefore, a key contribution of this paper is the development of a role–experience continuum which depicts the variations in customer experiences of value creation in a tourism context.     

我国未来几年技能型紧缺人才状况与趋势分析

通过我国目前技能型紧缺人才的现状分析,对未来几年技能型紧缺人才的状况与演变趋势加以研究和讨论,进一步提出我国的技能型人才的短缺已成为制约我国经济发展的瓶颈。     

电子审计体系研究

国家十二五规划纲要提出建设和完善电子审计体系。本文通过对电子审计体系的研究,提出了电子审计体系的顶层设计、总体规划和效能目标三个特性,以及电子审计体系在国家电子政务体系中的地位和作用;提出了审计业务信息化、审计管理数字化、电子审计标准化和审计队伍信息化的电子审计体系框架;提出了电子审计体系的功能演进,包括从重点查处违纪违规问题到重点促进公共财政管理规范的转变、从重点关注财政财务收支审计到重点关注国家经济安全审计评价的转变,从传统审计方式到现代审计方式的转变。     

Live and let die: A survival analysis of foreign R&D units in Swedish MNEs

This paper develops and tests a set of hypotheses regarding factors that influenced the longevity of foreign research and development units in Swedish multinational enterprises over the period 1992–2012. The results reveal an underexplored aspect of the R&D internationalization—the volatility of foreign R&D laboratories. During the investigated period, more than 40% of the R&D units in the sample had been terminated. The results substantiate earlier research regarding the negative effects of mergers and acquisitions on R&D in acquired units but show that these effects are not immediate. They appear – if at all – with a time lag of several years. The hazard of closure for an individual unit seems to be more strongly related to its role and position within the MNE than to local country characteristics. It was smaller for strongly locally embedded units and units with global mandates, but – contrary to expectations – the hazard was greater for units highly integrated with the rest of the MNE.     

An Epistemological Reflection on Social and Solidarity Economy

Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) is emerging as life affirming solutions to the global crises through the multiple ways people locally reinvent economic life on the margins of the capitalist system based on values of solidarity, reciprocity and sustainability. Although the SSE builds on a strong foundation of real practices and institutions of economic transformation as the way forward for us, this paper argues that this world of practice is in need of its theory to frame discourses and engage with the bigger picture with confidence as an alternative to the dominant economic paradigm. The author argues that the orthodox economics, with its ontological construct of the homo economicus, Cartesian dichotomy and logical positivist epistemology severely constrains our abilities to understand and appreciate economic alternatives based on ‘other’ rationalities. Hence, there is a need for an epistemological revolution to construct a coherent theoretical framework from the wreckages of the neoclassical economics for the SSE. This paper seeks to outline the basic structure and the key elements of the ontological and the epistemological framework for this ‘science-in-the-making’ as a step to stimulate further debate for a paradigm revolution.     

On the Differential Effects of European Patents

Since the invention of the European Patent System, national patent systems have continued to co-exist, although they did lose appeal. How have the different national systems been affected in view of their characteristics? In order to answer this question a constant-market-share (CMS) analysis is carried out. While on a theoretical level, the different elements adding to the appeal of each patent system are discussed, the CMS-analysis reveals the importance of country size in that the national systems of smaller countries lose.