Barriers to innovation and public policy in Catalonia

The present paper analyses the link between firms’ decisions to innovate and the barriers that prevent them from being innovative. The aim is twofold. First, it analyses three groups of barriers to innovation: the cost of innovation projects, lack of knowledge and market conditions. Second, it presents the main steps taken by Catalan Government to promote the creation of new firms and to reduce barriers to innovation. The data set used is based on the 2004 official innovation survey of Catalonia which was taken from the Spanish CIS4 sample. This sample includes individual information on 2,954 Catalan firms in manufacturing industries and knowledge-intensive services (KIS). The empirical analysis reveals pronounced differences regarding a firm’s propensity to innovate and its perception of barriers. Moreover, the results show that cost and knowledge barriers seem to be the most important and that there are substantial sectoral differences in the way that firms react to barriers. The results of this paper have important implications for the design of future public policy to promote entrepreneurship and innovation together.

Environmental concern and environmental behaviour among the Norwegian public

Current studies indicate that the most accurate predictor of actual buying behaviour is consumer attitudes (Glendon and McKenna, Human Safety and Risk Management , London: Chapman and Hall, 1995). This study seeks to investigate questions relating to the extent to which attitudes on safety and risk issues are critical to safety-related behaviour. The dispositional view of human behaviour implies behavioural consistency across different behaviours performed in different situations, as long as the behaviours are instances of the same underlying disposition. The present study tests this hypothesis in relation to health and environmental behaviour. Both direct and indirect effects are investigated. An additional aim was to test for gender differences as well as differences due to age and educational level. The results are based on survey data of a representative sample of the Norwegian population given self-completion questionnaires during the period 1997-98. A total of 1450 respondents replied to the questionnaire. Health attitudes and the Health Value Scale correlated strongly with health behaviour and environmental concern with environmental behaviour. Attitude towards illness prevention was important for both behavioural dimensions. Health behaviour influenced environmental behaviour in an indirect way, through health attitudes. The results imply that it can be useful to study dispositional concepts. When appropriately applied, they yield useful information. It is important to focus on specific attitudes and related specific behaviours in order to change behavioural practices. In addition, it seems possible to change environmental and consumer behaviour through changing health     

Greening the balanced scorecard

Environmental management issues have received an increased amount of attention in recent years, as have various performance measurement systems (PMS) such as the balanced scorecard (BSC). However, implementation of these systems is challenging due to the differences found amongst the companies and users of PMS. This study investigates how the presence of particular supporting factors served to facilitate a PMS change that incorporated environmental measures. Utilization of extant change models enables us to investigate different change factors like advancing and hindering forces, momentum, and the leaders of change. We found two models appropriate for investigating environmental management accounting change, even though the change factors can be either dynamic or static. The study also proposes that company culture should be carefully taken into account when companies are changing their PMS. Technical changes to PMS are far easier to accomplish than are changes to a dominant culture. Finally, we suggest that utilizing the BSC for the purposes of environmental management is a worthwhile pursuit.     

我国企业遭遇国外技术性贸易壁垒的标准化因素分析

本文从技术性贸易措施三要素中的标准角度出发,剖析我国企业遭遇国外技术性贸易壁垒的标准化原因,分析对外贸易中标准化工作存在的问题,旨在为政府及相关机构制定科学合理的规避技术性贸易壁垒措施提供有益的借鉴。     

国际绿色贸易壁垒发展新趋势剖析

本文探讨了国际绿色贸易壁垒发展的八大新趋势,认为今后几年,我国企业产品出口所面对的绿色贸易壁垒考验将更加严峻。     

论知识产权贸易壁垒及其法律形成机制

随着知识经济和经济全球化的发展,知识产权正成为国际贸易中一种重要的贸易壁垒,对我国出口贸易的健康发展构成一定的威胁。首先对知识产权贸易壁垒的内涵及其表现形式进行了探讨,在此基础上,对知识产权贸易壁垒的法律形成机制进行了探索性分析,最后得出了几点有益的结论与启示。     

基于动态化的市场进入壁垒模型探讨

进入壁垒作为决定市场结构的主要因素,一直是产业组织理论关注的焦点.从SCP范式到博弈论的应用,学者们对它的确切涵义并没有形成统一的认识.如果在研究市场进入壁垒的模型中引入不确定性,进行动态化分析将是一种新的尝试.在考虑了调整成本、时间依赖性等因素后,对进入壁垒的理解会得到进一步深化.国内外学者对相关产业所作的实证研究也能印证这一观点.     

我国童装出口遭遇的技术性贸易壁垒及应对措施

我国儿童服装在出口市场中屡屡遭遇技术性贸易壁垒,造成了很大的损失。本文主要通过对于儿童服装国内外不同行业技术要求、标准的对比及典型案例的研究和分析,得出了我国儿童服装出口频遭国外技术型贸易壁垒的原因,并针对各种情况提出了全面的技术性贸易壁垒应对措施。     

技术性贸易壁垒扩散效应分析

文章采用描述性统计方法和数据挖掘中的关联规则挖掘方法,分别从数量、商品类别和国家地区三个角度,研究分析了1998-2002年间国外技术性贸易壁垒条例出台扩散效应的特点和规律。为进一步把握条例出台的原因和趋势,找出条例间的关联关系,预测新条例的出台提供了有益的参考信息。     

国内技术性贸易壁垒研究评述:1990-2005

技术性贸易壁垒已经成为影响国际贸易的最重要因素,中国也面临着越来越多的技术性贸易壁垒约束。文章回顾了1990-2005年国内对于技术性贸易壁垒的相关研究,并对技术性贸易壁垒的形成、经济效应及其影响、应对及突破等问题作了较全面的评述,并对进一步的研究作了简要展望。