Recycling and extending product-life: an evolutionary modelling

This paper presents a model-based analysis of firms’ economic incentives to extend product life and market recyclable products. We address this problem by developing an evolutionary simulation model to describe the behavior of business firms as interacting with consumers and recyclers. Market structure, business firms’ R&D strategies and consumers’ preferences are found to have an important influence here. The simulation results show that improvement in recycling is necessary but not sufficient to solve the issue of increase in waste. Recycling will need to be backed up with an extension in product-life to face such an unwanted increase. Adopting such a strategy could be positive for firms and for the environment because it could lead to high economic performance, both in terms of profits and market share, and to high environmental performance, both in terms of product recyclability and product lifetime. Our results suggest introducing regulation policies aimed at encouraging firms to invest in developing green products, i.e. those which are easily recyclable and which have a long lifetime, and getting consumers to buy them. It would also seem crucial to lend support to innovation outlay for such firms and to favor their seeking to improve product performance.

Conditional ordering extensions

We produce a solution to the problem of extending a quasiordering conditional on a finite list of ex-ante comparisons between pairs. This constitutes yet another extension of the classical Szpilrajn’s theorem. Some examples of use of our result follow.     

城市金融吸引力评价系统构建

城市金融吸引力,是一个城市对欲进行区域突破的银行的吸引力。其评价系统主要包括指标体系和研究方法。指标体系可从多维度考察,分成核心指标体系、基本指标体系和扩展指标体系等。研究方法主要分成三类,即指标处理方法、指标权数赋予方法和综合评价方法。运用阀值法进行指标处理,并用修正德尔菲法进行指标权数赋予。在此基础上,可构建综合评价模型,对城市金融吸引力进行等级划分,衡量城市的金融可拓度,为银行决策提供信息。     

外贸对长三角地区经济增长的影响——基于1986-2007年数据的实证分析

本文利用长三角地区1986-2007年的统计数据,采用出口扩展型生产函数模型,实证分析了进出口贸易对长三角地区经济增长的影响.研究结果表明,长三角地区进出口贸易对经济增长有显著的促进作用,且产品出口对经济增长的产出弹性大于进口和进出口总额的产出弹性.     

论我国中小企业的技术创新战略

高的盈利率与高的市场份额并没有必然的联系 ,然而盲从市场份额的危害相当严重 ,企业应当走出认识的误区 ,不要一味迷信市场份额。     

福建省居民潜在国内出游力的地区差异综合评判

用可拓工程方法和主成份分析方法建立了福建省居民潜在国内出游力的综合评判物元模型,结果表明福建省居民国内出游力的地区差异大。综合评判得出福建省国内居民潜在出游力强弱可划分为4个不同级别;单指标测定出了各地区影响出游力的优劣势,为旅游供给者有针对地市场推广和发挥有限资金效用提供科学证据。     

Design of Digital Agricultural Extension Tools: Perspectives from Extension Agents in Nigeria

Given the marked heterogeneous conditions in smallholder agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa, there is a growing policy interest in site-specific extension advice and the use of digital extension tools to provide site-specific information. Empirical ex-ante studies on the design of digital extension tools and their use are rare. Using data from a choice experiment in Nigeria, we elicit and analyze the preferences of extension agents for major design features of ICT-enabled decision support tools (DSTs) aimed at site-specific nutrient management extension advice. We estimate different models, including mixed logit, latent class and attribute non-attendance models. We find that extension agents are generally willing to use such DSTs and prefer a DST with a more user-friendly interface that requires less time to generate results. We also find that preferences are heterogeneous: some extension agents care more about the effectiveness-related features of DSTs, such as information accuracy and level of detail, while others prioritise practical features, such as tool platform, language and interface ease-of-use. Recognising and accommodating such preference differences may facilitate the adoption of DSTs by extension agents and thus enhance the scope for such tools to impact the agricultural production decisions of farmers.     

基于改进SCOR的外向型企业供应链风险评价及应用

为了更系统地对外向型企业供应链风险进行识别,改进供应链运作参考模型,将模型目的由优化供应链流程以提高供应链绩效转变为识别供应链流程运作中潜在的风险因素。在改进模型的基础上,构建外向型企业供应链风险评价指标体系,采用信息熵确定权重的物元可拓分析法评价已识别风险的等级情况,并以案例的形式展开具体讨论。结果显示:案例企业的整体供应链风险是处于中等风险,在22种风险因素中有6种属于较高风险等级。针对评价结果,提出做好前期调研工作、强化对风险源的监控管理、完善交易契约的内容设计以及构建供应链突发风险应急管理机制等措施建议。     

Market structure and demand-side substitutability of chained urban hotel segments

This study analyzes how the demand in hotel markets is divided amongst chained hotel segments. Hypotheses regarding consumers’ switching behavior due to changes in income levels and relative prices are tested using data from 25 major urban markets in the United States, encompassing segments ranging from luxury to economy over 43 quarters. The effects of differentiation and market concentration are also investigated in this context. The results suggest that leisure and individual consumers of the low-scale segments may be trading “up” to higher scales when their income increase, but that upscale segments’ corporate consumers are not necessarily trading “down” when Corporate Income fall. In addition, only low-scale segments appear to be substitutes to upscale segments, but the inverse seems not to be true. Also, properties in mid-range segments are found to be the only ones benefiting from a high market concentration, while low-scale properties turn out to be the ones gaining from differentiation through price.     

Further participatory adaptation is required for community leaders to champion conservation agriculture in Africa

There is a recognized need for the participation of local communities in designing and implementing agricultural interventions for the sustainable intensification in smallholder systems. This study examines the perspectives of local community leaders towards the widely promoted, but not widely adopted, practice of Conservation Agriculture (CA) in African smallholder systems. Perceptions from 47 community leaders (both from traditional local authorities and farmer organizations) across six African countries are documented regarding how CA matches the wants, needs and capabilities of farmers in their communities. While community leaders generally perceived CA as potentially beneficial, they also indicated that CA is not currently perceived as feasible within their communities and hence has limited relevance. Three key themes were identified that limit both CA use and sustainable intensification more generally: [1] a perceived reluctance of farmers to engage with the community platform as part of a higher input, market-oriented production system; [2] informational constraints due to non-functional exchange mechanisms; and [3] a lack of local adaptation of CA underscored by the persistence of top-down, linear research and extension approaches. Through greater understanding of local perspectives, a clearer picture emerges of the need for greater participatory engagement and local adaptation if sustainable intensification of African smallholder agricultural systems is to be achieved.