Marketing as an Investment in Shareholder Value

We present resource‐based and capability‐based arguments of marketing investment intensity to offer a strategic view of marketing as an investment in shareholder value. We find that marketing investment intensity has a U‐shaped quadratic effect on shareholder value creation (Tobin's q) that calls for marketing investment to be protected and increased, not surrendered. We show how marketing investments interact with investments in R&D, human capital and operations to reveal how strategic co‐investments can alter the shareholder value of marketing. Finally, we show how competitive intensity and failings in the firm's investment productivity (its ability to convert investment expenditure into sales) point to malaise in the firm's own strategic architecture as a fault for perceived poor returns from marketing investments. Our findings suggest that marketing investment should not be scapegoated when its contributions to shareholder value are not as expected. When invested in strategically and in combination with other investments, marketing can unlock exciting improvements in shareholder value.     

Data‐Driven Supply Chain Orientation and Financial Performance: The Moderating Effect of Innovation‐Focused Complementary Assets

Drawing on the complementary assets framework, this study explores the moderating effect of innovation‐focused complementary assets (CA‐I) on the relationship between a data‐driven supply chain orientation (DDSCO) and firm financial performance. To test the moderating effect, survey data gathered from 329 manufacturing firms in China were analysed using a moderated regression analysis. The results indicate that DDSCO has a significant positive effect on financial performance, and that capabilities for product and process innovation function as complementary assets moderating the DDSCO–performance relationship. The findings suggest that innovation‐focused complementary assets are performance differentiators when paired with a DDSCO and explain why some firms obtain financial benefits from the development of a DDSCO while others do not. Specifically, competitive advantage from a DDSCO may not be realized unless CA‐I and potentially other complementary assets are harnessed, thus providing useful practical guidance to managers. Hence, the study provides empirical support for the complementary assets framework.     

Quality_Family Deployment: A New Perspective in Determining Priority Importance for Improving Work Performance in Organization

Determining priority importance is a matter of concerns among the organization to improve their performance. One of the important aspects that should be considered by the organization is management of human resources, comprising of members who have their own family life. In this paper, we deliver a new perspective for organization to provide priority importance for their members with respect to family matters in order to inculcate the sense of belonging in the organization. To be effective in considering family matters in the organizational policy making, closer look of family characteristics are required. The idea of translating several family characteristics as quality variables and applying the quality function deployment (QFD) method to these variables could present a new way of improving the decision making in the organization by considering the process of decision in the family. Quality function deployment for family (QFDF) produces a friendly interpretation of a highly complex and intangible matters around family life; thus, making the assessment of a family easier. QFD is applied on the data gathered from a questionnaire survey based on 1,213 families in West Malaysia, Malaysia. Twelve variables are identified as voice of family, where seven of them are found to have the highest priority of importance. These variables could also be translated into quality variables in the context of organization, the strategy of improvement for the family could be interpreted as strategy for improvement in the organization. Furthermore, the results of this study provide suggestion to improve actions for managing human resource. In the discussion, three most high ranked variables from both perspectives of family and organization are considered.     

Racial Disparities in Early Criminal Justice Involvement

Criminologists have long reported the existence of racial disparity in the criminal justice system, but the important question is why. While some argue that observed differences are a consequence of more criminal behavior among minorities, the weight of the evidence indicates that this is but a partial explanation. In this paper, we study data from a sample of juveniles to examine how racial differences in early police contact, and important social environments—family, school, and neighborhoods—affect later contact and arrests, controlling for self-reported delinquency. We find that early (in middle school) contact with police is an important predictor of later (high school) arrests. Also we found that, in addition to being male and living in a low-income family, children who have parents who have a history of arrest, who have experienced school disciplinary actions, who have delinquent peers, and who are in networks with deviant adults are more likely to have problems with law enforcement. These factors help to explain racial differences in police contacts and arrests.     

对我国住房抵押贷款证券化若干问题的思考

该文介绍了住房抵押贷款证券化的概念及其在我国的发展情况 ,论述了住房抵押贷款证券化是我国住房金融发展的必然趋势 ,同时分析了我国实行住房抵押贷款证券化存在的几个问题并提出了一些新的观点。     

Why should you write about Eastern Europe,or: Why should you write about “the Other”?

Much recent cultural criticism points out the ways in which “writing about ‘the Other’” perpetuates, justifies and participates in the creation of “real-life” relations of domination and oppression between the “authors” (located in the center(s) of power and knowledge) and their “subject matters.” This paper takes a different approach and explores theliberating potentials of “writing about ‘the Other.’” Completed in the spring of 1991, in the wake of changes in Eastern Europe from the fall of 1989, this paper gives a loose mapping of the nascent Eastern European cultural constellations, as well as an elaboration of the position of a “native” intellectual, in order to circuitously come to the point from which it can articulate the ways in which “Western” writing about “Eastern Europe” can create liberating interventions in the struggles going on in Eastern Europe.     

人类环境困境的哲学思考

环境问题的主要矛盾是人类欲望的无限膨胀与自然资源的有限.这种矛盾具体表现为在市场经济的条件下由于竞争而产生的对自然资源的无序掠夺.用停止发展的方法和用禁欲主义的道德教化都不能解决环境问题,单纯用科学技术的方法也不能解决环境问题.解决环境问题的关键是要改变人类社会中人与人的生存竞争方式,发展人与人相互协作的和谐关系,实行有计划的社会生产,对自然资源实行有计划的分配,改变现有以物质财富的积累为目的的社会发展模式,加强自然科学与社会科学的合作.     

加强实践教学环节 提高人才培养质量——北京林业大学生物学基地教学改革与实践

实践教学是培养学生创新意识、创业精神和科学实践能力的重要环节。该文介绍了北京林业大学理科(生物学)基地建设以来在加强实践教学条件建设,深化实践教学改革,完善实践教学体系,着力培养高素质本科人才等方面的思路与做法,为基地和其他专业的建设提供了借鉴。     

用科学发展观指导高校教育改革的实践

该文阐述了科学发展观的内涵,即全面发展、协调发展和可持续发展,并阐述了如何利用科学发展观指导高等学校的发展和教育教学改革,即以人为本、结构优化、统筹发展,提高教学质量,全面实现教学的协调发展。