The North American Free Trade Agreement and the Canadian Agri-Food Sector

In the past five years, Canada has negotiated and ratified three trade agreements: the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement (FTA), the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the multilateral free trade agreement now administered by the World Trade Organization (WTO). This paper focuses on the implications for agri-food trade of the NAFTA and its interface with the other two agreements. The provisions of the NAFTA are described and evaluated as they relate to market access, domestic support, export assistance, technical regulations and dispute settlement. Observations are presented on the NAFTA's potential effects on trade in red meats, grains and oilseeds, supply-managed commodities and horticulture. In addition, some of the shortcomings of the NAFTA are highlighted.     

异质性资产获取、商业模式创新与并购绩效：基于AT&T收购时代华纳的案例研究

本文通过AT&T收购时代华纳的纵向案例研究,试图揭示数字经济时代异质性资产获取型并购如何通过商业模式创新实现绩效提高.研究发现:异质性资产获取型并购在特定条件下可以提高并购方企业绩效,企业可以从新颖、互补、锁定和效率4个主题创新商业模式;而企业的动态能力有助于其识别、获取合适的异质性资产,推动并购后的商业模式创新和新的资源能力基础构筑,从而提高并购绩效.本文的研究对于数字经济时代企业异质性资产获取型并购如何通过商业模式创新提高绩效,以及运营商企业如何整合异质性资产推动商业模式创新和数字化转型提供了参考和借鉴.     

Forging Strategic Alliances in Canada's Agrifood Sector: Framework for Analysis and Action

In recent years, participants in Canadas agrifood sector have become more concerned about their competitiveness and have identified strategic alliances as being vital to becoming more competitive. This paper is a review of economics, strategic management and other social science literature examining several issues such as:

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  the types of objectives organizations should pursue using strategic alliances
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  the appropriate configuration for a strategic alliance, given its objectives
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  advantages and disadvantages of strategic alliances versus other types of business relationships
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  factors that enhance or inhibit organizations' abilities to forge alliances.

The latter part of the paper concentrates on what managers interested in pursuing strategic alliances can do to enhance their chances of success.     

What motivates users to hashtag on social media?

Hashtags (i.e., the # symbol) are gaining increased popularity among social media users. However, despite their intense use, little is known about their meanings. Only a few published studies have investigated fragmented aspects of hashtags and treated them as a functional means to structure content. In this study, we provide evidence that hashtags’ meanings go beyond structuring or spreading content and represent an integral element of contemporary communication via social media. In particular, this study presents a series of six empirical studies, following traditions in grounded theory and measurement theory research, to systematically assess motivations for using hashtags. The results uncover the existence of 10 different motivations for use (amusing, organizing, designing, conforming, trendgaging, bonding, inspiring, reaching, summarizing, and endorsing). In addition, we show how these motivations differ between platforms and also relate to different patterns of social media behavior. The results contribute to a better academic understanding of social media, provide managers with profound insights and can guide marketing tactics with hashtags.     

The Impact of Bank Mergers on Canadian Farm and Rural Communities

This paper initiates a discussion on the probable impacts of bank mergers on farms and rural commu- nities in Canada. Motivated by the early 1998 merger announcements by four of Canada's largest banks, this paper identifies the economic drivers behind merger activity, and then addresses specific issues related to agriculture. Although the proposed mergers were canceled by the end of 1998, our research and analysis indicates that the overall effect would not have been grossly negative and in many aspects would have been positive. Subsequent attempts to merge banks are likely, and the discussion and analysis of this paper provide a basis to analyze and discuss the merger issue.
Nous examinons les impacts éventuels des fusions bancaires sur les fermes et sur les collectivités rurales au Canada. Inspirés par les projets de fusion fails au début de 1998 par quatre des principales banques du pays, nous dégageons les forces économiques sous-tendant ces projets, pour ensuite nous arreter sur les questions qu'elles impliquentpour le secteur agricole. Même si ces projets n'ontpas eu de suite dans l'immédiat, nos recherches et notre analyse montrent que les conséquences génerales de telles fusions n'auraient pas été catastrophiques et que même, sur de nombreux aspects elles auraient été positives. Comme d'autres tentatives de fusion bancaire verront très probablement le jour, la présente analyse apporte d'ores et déjà une base d'examen de toute la question.     

A house price index based on the SPAR method

Within the European Union there has been a push to provide European governments and the European Central Bank with the statistics they need for monitoring the owner-occupied sector. This paper reports on the results of a project to develop a house price index for the Netherlands. From January 2008, Kadaster, the Dutch land registry office, and Statistics Netherlands began jointly publishing house price index numbers for the whole country and for some specific dwelling types and regions. A number of special institutional features of the situation in the Netherlands contributed to the choice of index construction method. The indexes are computed using the Sale Price Appraisal Ratio (SPAR) method, which utilizes the ratios of transaction prices and previous appraisal values. We describe the SPAR method, compare it with repeat sales methods and assess the reliability of the official Dutch appraisal values. Empirical results for January 1995–March 2009 are presented. The SPAR method performs well compared to repeat sales, and the results reported will be of interest to other countries that have, or could instigate, institutional arrangements similar to those in the Netherlands.