Indicators for assessing changing landscape character of cultural landscapes in Flanders (Belgium)

The increasing pace and scale of landscape change initiated a renewed interest in cultural and heritage values of the landscape. Efforts are made in inventorying, monitoring, and evaluating landscapes, needed for developing management and conservation plans, and also new concepts emerged. Landscape character became a new paradigm, as well as time depth and landscape change trajectory or path. Also, the use of landscape indicators for describing character and assessing changes has been widely tested. In Flanders, the rich landscape diversity is degrading rapidly due to extreme urban pressure and severe fragmentation by transport infrastructures. In this study a series of spatial data layers was used to describe and map the transformation of landscape character. Historical topographical maps and orthophotomaps from different periods were used to define landscape character types, which were mapped as polygons in a GIS. Map overlaying allowed analyzing the time depth and landscape constancy. The landscape character types were used as patches for the spatial and structural analysis and defining indicators of character change. A selection of class and landscape-based landscape metrics were used as such indicators, as well as the openness of the landscape. This selection was based upon the presumed relationship between the indicator and perceivable (visual) properties relating to landscape character. The landscape indicators express change very differently and several indicators are necessary to assess changes in the landscape character.     

Globalization drives strategic product switching

Using firm-level panel data for Estonia, we analyse the impact of international competition on firm dynamics, considering both firm closedown and product switches. We contribute to the literature in two important ways: first, this is the first paper to study the determinants of exit and product switching in an emerging market; and second, we consider explicitly the role of export opportunities. Our results indicate that globalization does not affect firm exit significantly but it is an important factor explaining why firms choose a different core product. Previous studies on industrial countries have shown that product switching has been a defensive strategy against low-cost imports. In contrast, our results suggest that Estonian firms change their core products as an offensive strategy to take advantage of the export opportunities created by a globalized economy.     

It's All About CareerSKILLS: Effectiveness of a Career Development Intervention for Young Employees

The aim of our study was to investigate the effectiveness of the CareerSKILLS program, a career development intervention based on career competencies and the JOBS methodology, which aims to stimulate career self‐management and well‐being of young employees. In a quasi‐randomized control trial, the effects of the program were tested in a homogeneous sample of young employees with intermediate vocational education (N_intervention = 112, N_{non‐intervention} = 61) and in a heterogeneous sample of employees from a special reintegration program (N_intervention = 71, N_{non‐intervention} = 41). Our results support the effectiveness of the intervention: participants of the CareerSKILLS program, versus a control group, showed increases in six career competencies (reflection of motivation, reflection on qualities, networking, self‐profiling, work exploration, and career control), self‐efficacy, resilience against setbacks, career‐related behaviors, perceived employability, and work engagement. These results provide empirical support for the effectiveness of the CareerSKILLS program. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Elite sport culture and policy interrelationships: the case of Sprint Canoe in Australia

In recent years, elite sport policy has received considerable research attention. However, to date the emphasis of such studies has been the examination of policies as stand-alone entities and the ways each policy may impact athlete performance rather than how policies influence each other. This study explores the elite sport policy interrelationships of Sprint Canoe in order to explain the dynamic links between policies and how they may affect performance. To explore these links in depth, interviews with coaches, high performance managers and athletes from Sprint Canoe in Australia were conducted. The findings of this study offer a contribution to the existing literature on elite sport policy and go beyond the mere exploration of sport and country-specific policy contexts. They showcase the role of a sport’s culture on shaping policy linkages and interrelationships. The practical implications of recognising where sport policies require attention and how to achieve improvements are discussed.     

The economic meaning of Data Envelopment Analysis: A ‘behavioral’ perspective

We reconsider the motivation of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), the non-parametric technique that is widely employed for analyzing productive efficiency in academia, the private sector and the public sector. We first argue that the conventional engineering motivation of DEA can be problematic since it often builds on unverifiable production axioms. We then provide a dual viewpoint and highlight the ‘behavioral’ interpretation of DEA models. We start from a specification of the production objectives while imposing minimal structure on the production possibilities, and construct tools to meaningfully quantify deviations of observed producer behavior from optimizing behavior. This brings to light the economic meaning of DEA, provides guidelines for selecting the appropriate model in practical research settings, and prepares the ground for instituting new DEA models. We also provide an empirical application that demonstrates the practical relevance of our arguments. We hope that our insights will contribute to the further dissemination of DEA, and stimulate public sector applications of DEA that build on its behavioral interpretation.     

What Determines the Decision to Implement EMAS? A European Firm Level Study

Empirical research on the characteristics of environmentally responsive companies has focussed on US and Japanese companies. For Europe, which is commonly considered as the greenest of the three major markets, similar research is lacking. This paper seeks to fill this gap by empirically investigating business and financial characteristics, stakeholder pressures and public policies to distinguish companies that have implemented the European Eco-Management and Audit System (EMAS) from a unique firm-level dataset of European publicly quoted companies. We find that the EMAS participation decision is positively influenced by the solvency ratio, the share of non-current liabilities, the average labour cost and the absolute company size as well as the relative size of a company compared to its sector average. The profit margin exerts a negative influence. We further find that companies whose headquarters is located in a country that actively encourages EMAS have a higher probability of participation. Finally, this paper suggests that rather than attracting other kinds of companies, a favourable institutional context succeeds in convincing more of the same kind of companies to participate. The authors thank anonymous referees for providing helpful comments and suggestions on earlier drafts of this paper.     

FDI spillovers in the Chinese manufacturing sector

This paper uses a new longitudinal dataset of more than 15,000 manufacturing firms to analyse the heterogeneous responses of firms to foreign direct investment in China. Domestic firms operating in sectors where foreign firms are also active have higher total factor productivity. However, the magnitude of such horizontal spillovers depends on the structure and origin of foreign ownership, the export status of firms and the characteristics of the special economic zones firms are operating in.