Are the BRIC countries overtaking intermediate countries in the race for international R&D? The case of Spain

The emergence of Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) as international locations for foreign direct investment in R&D is a sign that multinationals are relocating their technological activities to new territories. This trend may weaken the supremacy of the developed countries until now considered leaders in innovation, and may mean the loss of the competitive advantages enjoyed by the countries considered intermediate innovators. This paper examines the situation of Spain as a typical intermediate economy and compares it to its main competitors among the BRICs. Based on eight case studies of subsidiaries with R&D centres in Spain, we conclude that the policies adopted by certain emerging economies to develop their national innovation systems are proving effective and that these countries now pose a threat to intermediate economies. However, the BRICs still lag behind in terms of the security of their institutional framework; this situation leaves intermediate countries in an advantageous position.     

Forecasting economic activity from yield curve factors

This paper provides clear-cut evidence that the slope and curvature factors of the term structure of interest rates (yield curve) contain more information about future changes in economic activity than the term spread itself, often used in the literature as a predictive regressor of economic activity. These two factors reflect different information about future economic activity, which is smoothed out by the term spread. The paper shows that the slope factor has predictive power on future economic activity over longer horizons ahead, and thus may be interpreted as reflecting future business cycle conditions. On the other hand, the curvature factor, which enters the term spread with opposite sign than the slope factor, has predictive power on shorter movements of future economic activity which may be associated with changes in the current stance of monetary policy. These results hold for a number of world developed economies.     

Push or pull? Identifying rock climbing tourists' motivations

The aims of this research are to clarify the motivations of rock climbing tourists by using a push and pull framework and to investigate the relationship between tourist motivation and overall satisfaction. In a survey of 473 rock climbing tourists in the Geyikbayırı region in Antalya, Turkey, the most important push motivations were identified as ‘physical setting’ and ‘challenge’, while ‘climbing novelty seeking’ and ‘climbing tourism infrastructure’ were the most important pull motivations. Furthermore, the findings of this study indicated that overall satisfaction of rock climbers can be determined by their push and pull motivations. The results also showed that motivations of rock climbers differ according to their experience levels. The paper ends with theoretical contributions of the study and its managerial implications.     

The Risk Effects of Acquiring Distressed Firms

Existing research shows that bidder default risk increases following acquisitions due to a rise in post‐acquisition leverage and managerial risk‐taking actions offsetting the potential for asset diversification. This study examines whether the risk effects of acquiring distressed targets are fundamentally different and investigates possible explanations for any dissimilarities. Bidders often acquire relatively smaller distressed targets in domestic and related industries and have a higher initial target stake and more financial flexibility, thereby minimizing risk exposure. Controlling for several characteristics of bidder investment behaviour in both types of deals, however, we find that the increase in bidder default risk is substantially larger when acquiring distressed firms.     

Raising the bar (4)

This editorial summarizes and comments on the papers published in issue 11(4) so as to raise the bar in applied spatial economic research and highlight new trends. The first paper deals with common factors and spatial dependence in the error term specification of a production function model. The second paper sets forth a New Economic Geography (NEG) model with production activities that vary in their complexity, so as to analyse the impact on specialization patterns across different regions. The third paper measures the efficiency of local public investments using a relatively unknown econometric technique in which the time span over which the variables in the regression equation are measured is increased by one time period every run. The fourth paper adopts a conditional quantile regression approach to determine the impact of people employed in informal jobs on the wage distribution in Colombia and five of its regions. Finally, the last paper proposes and tests two new Bayesian variable selection approaches for spatial econometric models.     

语文教学中美育的实施

美育是素质教育的重要组成部分。本文就作者几年来在文学作品教学中的一点作法来谈一谈语文教学中美育的实施,即文学作品的美育因素,可以从意境美、语言美、人物形象美、结构美、环境美等五个方面来进行充分挖掘。     

高校教师亚健康状态及主观因素分析

目前,健康已成为公众普遍关注的热点和焦点,健康的重要性正被越来越多的人所认识。高校教师是社会人才培养者,是国家最宝贵的人力资本,他们的健康问题已成为制约教师自身和高校协调发展的重要因素之一。引发亚健康状态的原因是复杂的,但教师自身的心理调节能力、行为生活方式、人际关系、缺乏体育锻炼等因素是造成亚健康状态的重要因素。正确认识亚健康状态以及形成的因素,方可进行有效预防和治疗。     

The Significance of CSF Among Enterprises in Latvia： An In-depth Analysis

The present research paper is dedicated to the in-depth analysis of the significance of critical-to-success factors （CSF） among enterprises in Latvia. The goal is to distinguish and find key success factors of Latvian companies who survived the economic crisis, which started in 2008, and executed the enabling objectives of the paper. Research methodology involves the analysis of the existing theoretical literature, in-depth interviews with the top management representatives of large Latvian business entities were interviewed by GFK （Custom Research Baltic agency） on behalf of the authors of the paper. It is found out that 10 largest industries for the big companies are： fuel retail and wholesale, energetics, food retail and wholesale, chemical products, logistics, metal processing, financial services, information technologies service and production, passenger transportation, and telecommunication services. For medium companies such industries are： food retail and wholesale, logistics, fuel retail and wholesale, wood processing, automotive industry, construction, financial services, pharmaceutical products, metal processing, and beverage wholesale and production. The authors also scrutinised 72 articles of 38 Forbes magazine archiving from the years 2010-2014. Thirty CSF were defmed. The most significant CSF according to the Forbes interviews are specific market niche, export, technological innovations, and high quality of products and services. The in-depth interviews with the top management representatives prove the importance of the above mentioned factors. Relevant recommendations are provided in the end of the paper.     

大学英语教学中的情感因素

动机、自信和焦虑等情感因素对英语教学实践具有重要影响。必须运用合理的方法和途径实现情感因素的交流,促进课堂教学效率,提高大学英语教学效果。     

沥青路面水损坏现象的影响因素及防治措施

沥青路面水损坏是一个普遍存在的问题,也决不是一个过时的话题,特别是在中国南方地区。沥青路面水损坏问题的本质是沥青与集料在静、动水压力作用下的持续粘附能力,这也是该问题的核心。为此,文章围绕沥青路面水损坏的特性及成因进行了探讨,并结合实际工作经验总结了水损坏的预防措施。