绿色文明促动农药革命

随着绿色文明的深入人心，生态农业、绿色食品渐成气候，但我国农药产品却无法满足新形势的需要。本文介绍了我国农药目前面临的局面，对农药革命的紧迫性和可行性进行了客观分析，同时借鉴发达国家及农药巨擘成熟的产品战略，探讨我国农药发展的未来方向，提出了农药升级换代的可行之道。     

中国如何应对日益扩大的“数字鸿沟”

本文分析了中国面临的三大”数字鸿沟”及其产生的原因，认为缩小“数字鸿沟”的战略意义在于促进中国实现由信息大国到信息强国的飞跃，逐步建立利用知识和信息促进发展的模式，是中国追赶发达国家的重要途径。因此，必须采取针对“数字鸿沟””的国家治理，其政策核心是促进资源流向能够促进经济发展和知识发展的领域。     

When memes program the genes: What managers need to know about the emerging genetic revolution

Many industries and their offerings have fallen victim to managerial shortsightedness. Firms often believe they are invincible and see themselves as immune to threats from seemingly unrelated technologies. There seemed to be no apparent link between bound paper books and the emerging internet, no discernible ties between the video rental business and streaming technologies, and no obvious connections between photography and cellular phones. When these associations were established by means of other, newer technologies, major incumbent firms such as Barnes & Noble, Blockbuster, and Kodak came crashing down. CRISPR is the technology of the moment, one that will enable the programming of evolution. While we might think about gene editing in terms of cures for diseases, its repercussions will impact almost every domain of human and planetary development, and sooner than one might think. In this installment of On The Horizon, we adopt an evolutionary perspective to understand the impact of the genetic revolution on firms regardless of industry.     

The Goals of Carbon Peaking and Carbon Neutrality and China’s New Energy Revolution

Based on the full consideration of both domestic and global environments and conditions, the adherence to the conviction that lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets, and the comprehensive weighing of pros and cons, the Chinese government has made a major strategic decision to achieve the goals of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, which is crucial to the overall green transformation of the economy and society and the long-term benefits of the Chinese nation. With the new energy revolution and energy mix diversification driven by the carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals, nonfossil energy sources centered on photovoltaic energy will gradually dominate the energy mix, while the status of electricity and hydrogen energy will be significantly enhanced and the consumption of coal and petroleum will decline significantly. Carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals are both challenges and opportunities for China. Specific challenges are embodied in the large pressure of economic and energy restructuring, the rising manufacturing costs, the difficulties in withdrawing coal-fired power stations, the possibility of unstable grid operations due to large-scale integration of photovoltaic and wind power into the power distribution network, and the supply risks of key metals, while specific opportunities are emerging in the strong competitiveness of photovoltaic and wind power equipment, lower dependence on foreign petroleum and gas supply and accelerated low-carbon green transformation. China should strengthen the top-level design of the path to achieve carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, encourage innovation of green low-carbon technologies, accelerate economic and energy restructuring, strictly restrict the construction of new high-emission and energy-intensive projects, and steadily promote the adjustment and withdrawal of the existing high-emission and energy-intensive projects.     

Editorial introduction: Retail innovation in the 4th industrial revolution

Innovative technologies in Industry 4.0 are transforming retail environments and encouraging the digitalization of the retail process. From the retailer's point of view, the adoption of revolutionary technologies has led to the expectation of cost savings and increased revenue. Furthermore, various technological innovations, such as automation, are creating more valuable experiences for consumers. New technologies have also impacted the academic study of retailing through enabling researchers to employ new and more advanced research methodologies. The purpose of this special issue is to address the following question: What is the impact of 4th industrial revolution technologies both in the retail industry and academia? To find out the answer, 58 empirical and theoretical articles were received and reviewed, and 11 articles were finally accepted for inclusion in the special issue. We believe these 11 articles have contributed to the understanding of the theories and practices in the retail industry under the ongoing 4th industrial revolution.     

Factor prices and induced technical change in the industrial revolution

Using historical data for the 1700–1914 period, this paper analyses the nature and direction of technical change in Britain. The evidence in this paper indicates that, over this long period, labour-saving technology adoption was a major response to changes in relative factor prices, thus supporting the hypothesis that ‘induced innovation’ was a major driver of technical change during the British industrial revolution. Labour saving was made possible and sustained by capital-augmenting and energy-augmenting technical change coupled with continuous capital accumulation and abundant energy supplies. This process placed the British economy on a higher capital–labour ratio equilibrium, and was the primary force driving sustained productivity growth, which further raised wages and living standards.     

从工业革命看私有林补贴制度的形成机制

工业革命是人类历史的分界点,而有关私有林的补贴政策也在这样特殊时期提出、应用。早期人类的主要能源是薪炭,但后来却被煤炭所取代了,并且煤炭乃是工业革命得以迅猛发展的能源基础,煤炭取代薪炭是历史的必然趋势。本文以英国为例,利用资源经济学和福利经济学的研究成果,对这个问题展开了论述。     

风景园林与公共卫生：共识、分野与融汇 ——2次公共卫生革命视野下的学科关系审视

面对新型冠状病毒(COVID-19)所引发的肺炎疫情，基于“学科演进”这一特殊视角，关联性地审视“风景园林学”所面对的公共卫生和公众健康问题。在概述风景园林和公共卫生简史的基础上，重点结合第一次和第二次公共卫生革命，依据相关时间序列和历史事件梳理、勾勒出“风景园林-公共卫生”两大学科关联演进的大体脉络和历史图景。研究表明，正是第一次公共卫生革命，使现代风景园林和现代公共卫生从共识走向分野；而第二次公共卫生革命，又使现代风景园林和现代公共卫生从分野走向融汇。     

Fuelling the urban economy: A comparative study of energy in the Low Countries, 1600–1850

What was the role of energy in shaping modern economies and fuelling the transition to sustained economic growth? In the historiography on the industrial revolution, the transition to fossil energy carriers plays a central role. Despite recent efforts to gather new empirical evidence, long-term comparative studies on energy transitions and their economic impact before and during the first industrial revolution remain rare. As a contribution to this literature, this article presents new quantitative data on energy consumption from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries in the Low Countries. To explore differences in the chronology and impact of energy transitions, we compare the total levels of energy consumption, the energy mix, and the prices of fuels between two cities in the northern and southern Low Countries: Leiden and Ghent. This analysis enables us to explore more clearly which factors played a key role in the interaction between energy, economic growth, and industrialisation. The transition towards a cheap-energy economy in Holland was associated with economic growth, but not with mechanisation. On the other hand, the rapid mechanisation process in Ghent was associated not with a cheap-energy economy (relative to that of Leiden), but more specifically with a cheap-coal economy.     

Human–machine trans roles conflict in the organization: How sensitive are customers to intelligent robots replacing the human workforce?

In organizations facing digital transformation, intelligent technologies are starting to replace the human workforce. At present, managers delegate tasks to an artificial agent and rarely consider the customer reception of such decisions. This arouses tensions between the main stakeholders of the organization. This paper shows that the rash adaptation of the digital workforce may be perceived as an irresponsible innovation that brings negative consequences for companies. If a task is regarded by customers as dedicated to humans, and managers delegate it to machines, a new type of conflict – human-machine trans roles conflict (HMTRC), appears. This paper intends to show that customers are sensitive to HMTRC. This research uses quantitative methods and consists of three stages. First, people were asked to indicate which tasks in an organization should be performed by (a) humans and (b) machines. According to these results, two leaflets for customers were designed (low vs. high HMTRC). In the second stage, standard procedures were used to construct a scale measuring customer reactions to HMTRC on three dimensions: cognitive, emotional and behavioural. Ultimately, the scale and two leaflets were used to check how customers react to different intensities of HMTRC. The research results show that customers are aware when HMTRC occurs and perceive it negatively (cognitive response). Moreover, it evokes negative emotions (emotional response) and prompts customers to take action against the company in which this conflict takes place (behavioural response). The practical contribution of this research is the three-dimensional scale. It may predict customers' reactions to task delegation with different intensities of HMTRC and help build a technologically sustainable organization.