The world strike wave

The years since 1969 have seen a major increase in strike activity in nearly all the countries which collect and publish data on strikes. This wave of strikes has largely been caused by strikes over pay, probably connected both with higher rates of price inflation and a higher incidence of direct taxation on households. In some cases, the changed level of strike activity has also led to substantial changes in the structure of strikes, as we shall show for the United Kingdom and Australia, two countries which have suffered most from the strike wave.     

Food manufacturing: The future prospect

This article provides an analysis of the environmental factors which are likely to influence the nature and level of activity in Britain's food industry over the next 10–15 years, and in particular planning for human resources. The article covers the historical perspective: the present market position and the consequences of misplaced optimism; examines the prospects for the medium and longer term in relation to the world food problem and the industry's opportunities: and considers some of the manpower implications.     

神舟上市穷途

“未来中国市场上,联想第一,神舟第二;甚至神舟第一,联想第二。”在中国IT界,常出惊人之语的吴海军,往往给人以激情甚至狂妄的印象。其创立的神舟电脑也曾高举“价格屠刀”,横扫二三线电脑市场,风光一时。然而,7年内4次冲关资本市场,3次铩羽而归,吴海军在中国企业IPO史上同样写下了一段另类的传奇。     

The World Bank and third world development

The speaker summarizes the increasingly important role played by the World Bank Group in international development financing in the last decade and describes the most important contributions of the Bank to development literature.     

拍卖理论的研究内容、方法与展望

自从1956年Friedman发表了第一篇关于拍卖理论的文献以来,拍卖理论得到了长足的发展.1964年Vickrey提出的基准点模型和收入等价原理成为了拍卖理论研究的基石.经历了近50年的研究,拍卖理论的研究体系已经形成,研究成果相当丰富,特别是随着电子商务的发展,各国学者把更多的精力放在了网上拍卖理论的研究.该文将在系统分析、介绍拍卖理论的基础上,提出网上拍卖理论的研究内容与方法,以与有兴趣从事该领域研究的学者共同建立一个认识框架.     

The managed care world order. The revolution is here

What are the belief clashes caused by the shift from a fee-for-service medical setting to a managed care environment? Right now, most physicians are enculturated in the old world order that emphasizes physician autonomy, control, security, and specialness. Physicians feel squeezed--by third-party payers wanting to be involved in the decision-making process of care delivery and by a new focus on teams versus the captain of the ship role. When traditional expectations clash with a changing reality, most people feel stressed. Physicians are no exception. If physicians have clear and realistic expectations, they can better cope with the uncertainties they face. And, the only realistic expectation in the medical profession is increasing uncertainty. Here are 10 predictions of what is happening in the health care industry--a list of the belief clashes that are so unsettling to those practicing medicine.     

The physician executive in a changing world.

Physicians are losing their historic franchise as sole and primary providers of medical care. In addition to eroding moral and scientific authority, physicians are also losing income and status. It is no wonder that physicians are retrenching--confused and angry about the increasing marginalization of their profession and about society's changing expectations. Physicians are caught in a transition zone between the world that was and the one that will soon be. This is destabilizing and causes great anxiety. Rather than being buffeted by changing social and cultural definitions of health care, physicians must become proactively involved in the future of their profession. Physicians can only do this by offering a better mental model of health, medicine, and the community. This cannot be a defensive retreat from engagement. Rather, it must be an imaginative vision, vigorously set forth--a vision that will enlist the support of all constituencies involved in the effort to improve the health and well-being of all members of our society. The physician executive needs to work with physicians to orchestrate this effort to create a new vision of health in the 21st century.     

Working women in the European community—The future prospect

EEC regulations direct that as well as equal pay for equal work, women should have equal access to employment. However, obvious distinctions between male and female employment still abound in European countries—though they vary from one country to another—and the difficulties in implementing the legislation are further compounded by the effects of the recession. Business and government will have to plan for the growing demand of women to work and the authors examine the major problems which have to be addressed.     

Industrial policy: The case for national strategies for world markets

This article considers the objectives of an industrial policy that would develop national strategies for world markets. It describes the tools used to implement such strategies and how the strategies would be organized. The author also considers some of the advantages and disadvantages of developing national strategies for world markets.     

The influence of retailing trends on the food industry

This article is concerned with retailing trends and the food industry with reference to countries of the EEC, Sweden and the U.S.A. The author examines trends in various sectors of the food market, relating U.S. and European activity and considers the influences of the future growth of mass merchandisers on manufacturers and suppliers.     

The potential for recall insurance to improve food safety

This paper explores the food safety implications of insurance products that compensate for business losses when food contamination causes a processing firm to initiate a recall. Discoveries of meat and poultry product contamination, in particular life-threatening pathogens, are increasing. The financial losses that follow a recall can be substantial as illustrated by several recent U.S. cases—Hudson Foods, Bil Mar, and Thorn Apple Valley Inc. Additionally, contaminated food product that escapes the current recall system poses a threat to consumer safety. The conceptual analysis presented here suggests that insurance underwriters could motivate earlier recalls and more diligent implementation of Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP). With sound underwriting, these changes could ultimately reduce the incidence of illness and death from foodborne pathogens.     

The safety–quality dominant view of food chain integrity: Implications for consumer-centric food chain governance

Food chain integrity demands strengthening the position of end consumers in the food system. Shaping this consumer-centric agenda leads to a multi-dimensional quest where actors in the food chain need to remodel their production, processing and disclosure norms by focusing on end consumers’ expectations. Food chain integrity so far has largely been explained using the angles of fraud and criminality to mainstream the criticality of curbing intentional contamination in food chain operations. However, the view which accounts for how food safety and food quality expand the understanding of food chain integrity remains underdeveloped. Addressing this concern, we conceptualize the interaction space between the notions of food chain integrity, food safety and food quality using a unifying lens of supply chain governance in the food chain. In doing so, we outline the safety and quality-oriented arcs of food chain governance that are instrumental in creating consumer-centric processes. Drawing from systematic reviews, a multi-disciplinary article set is constructed involving the scholarships of food sector management, logistics and supply chain management, marketing and general management. The key findings outline five principal themes to notionally characterize the targeted interaction space and set the foundation of consumer-centric supply chain governance for food chain integrity. Besides discussing diverse governance areas such as industrial co-regulation, newer emphasis areas for internal/external chain integration and the need for consumer integration in food chain processes, the thematic leads are distilled further to outline macro- and micro-level arcs of consumer-centric food chain governance along with strategic pathways for future research.     

Corporations and economic inequality around the world: The paradox of hierarchy

Using time-series data from the US since 1950 and from 53 countries around the world in 2006, this chapter documents a strong negative relation between an economy's employment concentration (that is, the proportion of the labor force employed by the largest 10, 25, or 50 firms) and its level of income inequality. Within the US, we find that trends in the relative size of the largest employers (up in the 1960s and 1970s, down in the 1980s and 1990s, up in the 2000s) are directly linked to changes in inequality, and that corporate size is a proximal cause of the extravagant increase in social inequality over the past generation. We conclude that organization theory can provide a distinctive contribution to understanding societal outcomes.     

The developing world to 1990: Trends and implications for multinational business

The strategic postures of multinationals in the Third World are affected by three broad environmental variables. They are political-legal, economic-technological, and socio-cultural variables. In this article, past and future trends and implications of these variables for the multinationals are discussed.     

资本市场非线性理论研究综述与展望

资本市场种种“异象”的涌现和大量实证研究结果表明,有效市场假说和以之为基础的 现代资本市场理论体系与资本市场的实际情况存在着矛盾和冲突,在此背景下出现了一些研 究资本市场的非线性理论. 文章对分形、混沌、突变、行为金融学、协同市场假说等非线性理论 在资本市场的研究方法进行了论述,提出了当前它们存在的问题,并对资本市场非线性理论的 发展做出了展望     

Energy resources and world economic growth

Must we opt for zero growth as the alternative to catastrophic exhaustion of the world's natural resources? Can energy come to the rescue? The author attempts to assess the various quantities involved and discusses the prospects of finding solutions to the problems.