Research Productivity in Business Economics: The Case of Marketing

Abstract. The German Economic Review ( GER ) recently published a paper by Fabel, Hein and Hofmeister about research productivity in Austrian, German and Swiss universities. The authors derive the rankings of institutions and subject areas by analyzing an impressive and comprehensive dataset, which captures the research output of business administration departments. While these rankings might hold at an aggregate level, they lack face validity at a subject-specific level. This lack of validity is demonstrated in the case of marketing by analyzing the research output of the top-ranked institutions in top-ranked journals. A number of proposals to overcome these kinds of problems are provided.     

基于循环经济的环境财务分析指标体系构建

目前我国的经济增长与自然环境之间的矛盾十分突出,需要大力发展循环经济,而建立环境财务分析指标体系,有助于推动企业循环经济的发展。本文介绍了循环经济的基本理论,简要回顾了国内外关于循环经济的理论研究成果。在此基础上,分析了循环经济对传统财务分析指标的影响,主要体现在主体多元化、目标多元化和指标多样化上。并根据3R原则设计了若干环境财务分析指标,指出了这些指标在沃尔评分法中的应用。     

R. J. Chambers on Securities and Obscurities: Making a Case for the Reform of the Law of Company Accounts in the 1970s

This study examines the contribution of Raymond J. Chambers to the British inflation accounting debate in the early‐to‐mid 1970s, from the perspective of the reception of his book, Securities and Obscurities: A Case for Reform of the Law of Company Accounts, published in 1973. To structure the empirical narrative, drawing on previously unpublished documents from the R. J. Chambers Archives, we employ Czarniawska and Joerges’ ( 1996 ) notion of the ‘travel of ideas’, and Mumford’s ( 1979 ) observation of the existence of ‘inflation accounting debate cycles’. The result is a narrative that traces the environmental and material circumstances that led to Chambers’ book having a lesser impact on the British inflation debate than one would expect based on the international exposure of his ideas, his influence at the time, and the empirical rigour of his proposal. The purpose of this exercise is to assess how contextual factors, such as the choice of publisher, use of promotional material, and distribution methods, can be as (or more) important than the substance of the proposed ideas, arguments, and solutions.     

China's Transport Infrastructure Investment: Past,Present, and Future

China has been heavily investing in transportation infrastructure since the 1990s. Consequently, connectivity has been significantly improved, both within China and between China and other countries. Such large‐scale investments have been made possible by various financing mechanisms from the central government, local governments, and the private sector. Research findings generally indicate that these infrastructure investments bring economic prosperity to the country, affect the distribution of economic activities, reduce poverty to a certain extent, and promote economic integration. The future trends of connectivity changes in China and relevant policy recommendations are also discussed in this paper.     

跨国公司专利技术的信息化研发趋势

本文以1970年代至今不同时期发达国家专利技术的相关数据为分析基础,研究了发达国家,尤其是跨国公司为主体的技术研发趋势。进一步认识到信息产业技术创新的不同阶段的发展重心,并且不同发达国家有着不同优势,东亚国家、尤其是韩国在近几年来在信息技术上的赶超趋势明显。通过比较,指出跨国公司是技术创新基础上知识创造的重要力量,并且在组织、管理、研发等领域的广泛创新是信息战略的综合作用。中国应学习日本从专利模仿到自主申请专利,同时,注重基础研究的跟进与实践。     

Trade costs, firms and productivity

This paper examines the response of U.S. manufacturing industries and plants to changes in trade costs using a unique new dataset on industry-level tariff and transportation rates. Our results lend support to recent heterogeneous-firm models of international trade that predict a reallocation of economic activity towards high-productivity firms as trade costs fall. We find that industries experiencing relatively large declines in trade costs exhibit relatively strong productivity growth. We also find that low-productivity plants in industries with falling trade costs are more likely to die; that relatively high-productivity non-exporters are more likely to start exporting in response to falling trade costs; and that existing exporters increase their shipments abroad as trade costs fall. Finally, we provide evidence of productivity growth within firms in response to decreases in industry-level trade costs.     

城网10kV交联电力电缆的寿命评估模型

针对城网中的10k V交联电力电缆线路,依据制造标准试验项目的性能指标,进行了综合试验研究。建立了评估模型和试验模型,结合各项试验结果及理论分析对线路评价及风险管理等问题进行了分析,并提出了若干建议。     

Relationship between city size and firm productivity – A new interpretation using the Chinese experience

This paper contributes to the literature on the relationship between city size and firm productivity by focusing on agglomeration, selection (market competition), and sorting (presence of firms with diverse productivity) effects using Chinese firm-level data for 1998–2013. Contrary to the existing literature, our parametric regression estimates from nearly two million firms show that when the selection effect is controlled, productivity advantage in big cities is reversed. This outcome is explained through a quantile regression showing the existence of left-sided sorting (inefficient firms sort themselves to larger cities) in big cities which is not captured in existing empirical literature. We further find that (1) left-sided sorting is stronger in exporters than non-exporters; (2) is also generated mainly in enterprises with high asset-liability ratios; and (3) selection has a positive effect on firm productivity, suggesting that market competition is key in an explanation of the rapid growth of big cities in China.