Individual adoption of convergent mobile phone in Italy

The present study integrates the technology acceptance and convergence streams of research to develop and test a model of individual adoption of convergent mobile technologies. Adopting structural equation modelling, we hypothesize that relative advantage, effort expectancy, social influence and facilitating conditions affect directly individual attitude and, indirectly the intention to use convergent mobile technologies. The model explains a highly significant 53.2% of the variance for individual attitude, while individual attitude accounts for 33.9% of the variance in behavioral intention. Authors are listed alphabetically.     

“L” is for Looking Again

This paper focuses on an important aspect of the Showtime television series The L Word: its exploration of the representation of gender and sexuality in contemporary visual art. The program presents a sophisticated feminist perspective on the histories of female and lesbian representation, and it uses the work of particular contemporary artists, who are known for their engagement with questions of female, lesbian, and/or queer representation, to advance its critique of a long history of erasure, misrepresentation, and objectification. Simultaneously, while foregrounding its awareness of the contradictions of trying to create new forms of representation in a thoroughly commercial and commodified context, the program uses works of art to present the possibility of inventing alternative images or of redefining existing ones. The show's consistent attention to innovative art constitutes a formal device that offers a counter-discourse to those conventions of representation required by the show's need to appeal to a broad audience. In this way, The L Word offers attentive viewers new ways to look at and think about apparently familiar images and narratives.     

The role of deliberate and experiential learning in developing capabilities: Insights from technology licensing

We discuss the interdependencies between deliberate and experiential learning in developing a dynamic technology licensing capability, which was termed ‘desorptive capacity’ in earlier conceptual work. We use new three-year lagged data from two surveys of 79 firms to examine the role of dedicated licensing employees and prior licensing experience in developing firms’ sensing, seizing, and transforming capacities in technology out-licensing. The findings emphasize capabilities’ multidimensionality and critical trade-offs due to interdependencies between deliberate and experiential learning in developing capabilities. Besides interdependencies with experiential learning, deliberate learning strengthens sensing and seizing capacity, but it negatively affects transforming capacity based on inertia.     

A review of RFID technology and its managerial applications in different industries

Radio frequency identification (RFID) is an emerging technology that is increasingly being used in supply chain management. RFID technology plays an important role in supporting logistics and supply chain processes because of their ability to identify, trace and track information throughout the supply chain. The technology can provide suppliers, manufacturers, distributors and retailers precise real time information about the products. This accurate knowledge of the inventory would result in lower labor cost, simplified business processes and improved supply chain efficiency. If properly used, it has the potential to cut ordering lead time and cost on inventory control, increase the accuracy of inventory information, help avoid stockouts and boost the number of inventory turns. In this paper, we provide an overview of the current state of RFID applications in different industries and its impact on business operations. We provide extensive literature survey and develop a framework for future research areas in this field.     

Wage and Productivity Differentials in Japan: The Role of Labor Market Mechanisms

This paper aims at explaining two stylized facts of the Lost Decade in Japan: rising wage inequalities and increasing firm‐level productivity differentials. We build a model where firms can choose between efficiency wages with endogenous effort and competitive wages, and show that it can replicate those facts. Using Japanese microeconomic data, we find support for the existence of efficiency wages in one group of firms and competitive wages in the other group. Based on those results, a simulation shows that the share of firms using efficiency wages has declined, within sectors, during the Lost Decade, as predicted by the model.     

BOOK TRANSLATIONS AS IDEA FLOWS: THE EFFECTS OF THE COLLAPSE OF COMMUNISM ON THE DIFFUSION OF KNOWLEDGE

We use book translations as a new measure of international idea flows and study the effects of Communism's collapse in Eastern Europe on these flows. Using novel data on 800,000 translations and difference‐in‐differences approaches, we show that while translations between Communist languages decreased by two thirds with the collapse, Western‐to‐Communist translations increased by a factor of 4 and quickly converged to Western levels. Convergence was more pronounced in the fields of applied and social sciences, and was more complete in Satellite and Baltic than in Soviet countries. We discuss how these patterns help us understand how repressive institutions and preferences towards Western European ideas shaped the international diffusion of knowledge.     

TRADE QUOTAS AND BUYER POWER,WITH AN APPLICATION TO THE E.U. NATURAL GAS MARKET

We consider a market in which domestic buyers negotiate contracts with foreign sellers, and explore how trade quotas can help to increase the buyers' countervailing power. We use the Shapley value to describe bargaining power and the distribution of the trade surplus in such a bilateral oligopoly. By exploiting strategic externalities among the buyers, bilateral trade quotas can improve the buyers' bargaining positions. In contrast, aggregate trade restrictions on all buyers' trade never improve buyer surplus. Minimum quotas on imports from fringe suppliers can benefit nonaffected buyers, as these enjoy positive externalities. We apply these insights to the E.U. market for natural gas and show that the effects of trade quotas on E.U. gas importers' power can be significant.     

SALES AND COLLUSION IN A MARKET WITH STORAGE

Sales are a widespread and well‐known phenomenon documented in several product markets. This paper presents a novel rationale for sales that does not rely on consumer heterogeneity, or on any form of randomness to explain such periodic price fluctuations. The analysis is carried out in the context of a simple repeated price competition model, and establishes that firms must periodically reduce prices in order to sustain collusion when goods are storable and the market is large. The largest equilibrium profits are characterized at any market size. A trade‐off between the size of the industry and its profits arises. Sales foster collusion, by magnifying the inter‐temporal links in consumers' decisions.     

晚清民国华人翻译圣经译本研究

圣经在中国的翻译始于汉语圣经译本,两百多年来,基督教一直持续不断推陈出新各种译本。     

对《涉外民事关系法律适用法》的“两点论”评析

已于2011年4月1日正式施行的《中华人民共和国涉外民事关系法律适用法》从我国实际情况出发,改变了以往我国国际私法立法体系分散、法律规定不明确、相关制度规定不科学的状况,进一步完善了我国涉外民事关系法律适用制度。无论在立法体系,还是在编排体例、相关制度方面该法都体现了“两点论”的指导原则和影响,既充分借鉴了当今世界国际私法制度的先进理念,同时又从中国经济发展的实际情况出发,一定程度上体现了中国特色。