Management accounting,performance measurement and strategy in English local authorities

This paper analyses the results of an extensive survey of UK local government which explored the relationship between strategy, management accounting practices (MAPs), and performance measurement techniques (PMTs). The research investigated a resource-based view of strategic capabilities and Porter’s strategic typologies. PMTs and MAPs were shown to be associated with strategic capabilities. Strategic typologies, however, were found to be only weakly associated with the use of PMTs and MAPs.     

公共信用信息归集和使用的地方规则比较研究

公共信用信息的归集和使用是当前各地方政府社会信用体系建设的焦点问题。少数省、市在公共信用信息归集和使用规则制定上的经验值得借鉴。对江苏省和陕西省、杭州市和上海市的公共信用信息归集和使用的地方规则进行比较,从公共信用信息归集、使用、异议处理、管理机制几个方面进行总结并提出建议。     

Individual attitudes towards the impact of multinational corporations on local businesses: how important are individual characteristics and country-level traits?

We study the importance of individual characteristics and national factors influencing individual attitudes towards the impact of multinational corporations on local businesses. Our sample includes more than 40 000 respondents in 29 countries from the 2003 National Identity Survey conducted by the International Social Survey Programme. We find that individual demographic factors and socioeconomic status, such as gender, age, income and education, are strong predictors of their attitudes. For example, income and education are positively associated with favourable attitudes towards the impact of multinational corporations (MNCs) on local businesses while age is negatively associated with individual attitudes towards MNCs. In addition, hierarchical ordered logit model results show that approximately 8% of total variations in individual attitudes around our sample mean are not explained by differences in personal traits. Instead, they are due to country-level heterogeneity such as, but not limited to, different degrees of openness or different aggregate income.     

Turning values concrete: the role and ways of business selection in local currency schemes

Alternative consumption schemes require the selection of producers and traders according to criteria and through processes that should make alternative values concrete. The way values turn concrete is crucial for the effectiveness of such projects. This paper investigates the ways criteria and processes are defined and their real meanings and uses through the case of associative local currencies. Drawing on the framework of proximities, it analyses local currency schemes as combining proximities (geographical and non-geographical) and selection processes set up for providers wishing to join. Selection processes may be based on a charter, an approval committee and screening criteria. The objectives of the selection, its measures in principle, the way in which it is applied as well as the practical consequences are discussed. Even when charters and formal participatory schemes for selecting providers are established, proximities appear as the keystone of selection and trust.     

A STRUCTURAL RISK‐NEUTRAL MODEL FOR PRICING AND HEDGING POWER DERIVATIVES

We develop a structural risk‐neutral model for energy market modifying along several directions the approach introduced in Aïd et al. In particular, a scarcity function is introduced to allow important deviations of the spot price from the marginal fuel price, producing price spikes. We focus on pricing and hedging electricity derivatives. The hedging instruments are forward contracts on fuels and electricity. The presence of production capacities and electricity demand makes such a market incomplete. We follow a local risk minimization approach to price and hedge energy derivatives. Despite the richness of information included in the spot model, we obtain closed‐form formulae for futures prices and semiexplicit formulae for spread options and European options on electricity forward contracts. An analysis of the electricity price risk premium is provided showing the contribution of demand and capacity to the futures prices. We show that when far from delivery, electricity futures behave like a basket of futures on fuels.     

Local banking and local economic growth in Italy: some panel evidence

This article provides new evidence on the contribution of local banking to local economic growth (i.e. at county level – the Italian ‘province’) in Italy. A comprehensive data set is used, which includes control variables for social capital and human capital as well as indicators of the quality of local infrastructures and the production structure of the local economy. A linear within-estimator technique with fixed effects is applied to a modified version of the so-called Barro regression in order to address the well-known econometric issues of reverse causality and estimation bias resulting from unobserved district-specific influences.     

Firm location,political geography and environmental information disclosure

As the subjective and objective factors that influence corporate behaviours, political region and firm location are of great importance to environmental information disclosure (EID). With spatial and political geography as a research perspective, this article makes a study by using the samples of manufacturing listed companies from 2009 to 2011. As a result, we determine that regulatory distance and political geography had negative effects on EID, while political geography weakens regulatory distance’s function. After considering an enterprise’s administrative rank, we determined that when the rank is higher, regulatory distance has negative effects on EID; when the rank is lower, the effects are the opposite. Regarding political geography, it always weakened the regulatory distance’s function. Moreover, the effects are significant only when the enterprises had low governmental regulation. The study shows the effects that firm location and political geography have made on EID. At the same time, this study also gives theoretical and empirical evidence to the necessity of raising governmental regulatory effectiveness.     

Leisure in Living Local through Food and Farming

This article reflects on aligning leisure research with the local foods movement while placing the local foods movement into the larger framework of sustainability and the fields of leisure and recreation. The local foods movement has persisted during difficult economic times; growth in local foods venues and young people endeavoring to establish small-scale sustainable farms continues to flourish. Given the history of leisure research and its continued success alleviating participation barriers and constraints, the need for leisure researchers to focus on local food systems is imperative and timely. This essay highlights the notion of leisure in living through local foods and the serious leisure aspects of small-scale sustainable agriculture. This article also encourages leisure researchers to explore and assess the relationships between the local foods movement and small-scale farming as embedded in the larger framework of sustainability.     

农村宅基地使用权申请审批问题研究——基于地方立法文本的分析

地方立法中的申请审批条款在一定程度上决定着我国农村宅基地申请审批的实际状况。通过对地方立法文本中关于申请审批的立法模式和内容构成的统计分析，发现我国目前宅基地申请人的资格不一，审批中农村集体经济组织主体位置虚缺，而且宅基地立法层级很低，立法清理工作不及时。我国今后应明确农村集体经济组织成员的内涵，强化宅基地所有权人在审批中的作用，制定统一的《农村宅基地使用权法》。     

中国区域一体化协议发展的特点与战略研究

大国的经济外交时代已然到来，而外商直接投资在中国实现工业化和经济发展的过程中起着至关重要的作用。因此，应从中国自身的区域一体化协议的发展特点出发，将外商直接投资因素包含到制定区域经济一体化的战略过程中去，在此基础上研究并制定适合中国的区域一体化协议发展战略，主要是：有选择地开展与发达国家的区域一体化谈判，加强与西亚地区的区域经济合作和在区域一体化协议中重点突出服务业投资自由化。