Suchergebnisse

Preface -- Contents -- Abbreviations -- List of Cases -- 1 Stem Cell Tourism Phenomenon in China: An Introduction -- 1.1 Reasons for Stem Cell Tourism Phenomenon -- 1.1.1 Values of Human Embryonic Stem Cell (HESC) Research -- 1.1.2 Inconsistency HESC Related Regulations Across Jurisdictions Leads to Stem Cell Tourism in China -- 1.1.3 TRIPS Agreement Cannot Assure Symmetrical Coherence Between Moral Provision Within Patent Law and Moral Provision Outside Patent Law -- 1.1.4 Inadequate Regulation of HESC Research in China -- 1.2 Purpose and Focus of the Book -- 1.3 Conceptual Framework

This study of Chinese politics, economics, society and culture is intended to contribute to better understanding of the contemporary reforms in China. This task was not easy due to the facts that China has not been open to direct observation, and its policies were influenced by unpredicted changes. This thesis is concerned with the reforms and changes that occurred during the years starting 1978 up to the present time. In 1978, the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Communist Party of the Chinese Central Committee in Beijing, marked the beginning of the reforms in China. The Chinese leaders made efforts to get the country out of the chaos left by the Cultural Revolution, trying to reach new equilibrium between economic and political development. There are three elements for the new equilibrium: incentives needed for the population to produce goods and services needed by the society, certain new channels through which citizens could express discontent to the government, and social order sufficient to enable the pursuit of production-oriented activities. But accomplishment of such an equilibrium is not easy to achieve. For the purpose of Chinese economic development, the Chinese Communist Party decided to limit its control over political and economic affairs, granting more power to lower levels of administration. Through the experiment of enterprise autonomy, factory directors were given certain power to decide on their own affairs concerning production; but the experiment is not successful. Chinese traditional ideology and political culture become the major factors preventing the reform success. The political attitude of dependency orientation toward interpersonal relations is deeply rooted among Chinese people. This has been the source of Chinese government. The Lun Yu cites a saying of Confucius which reflects the Chinese philosophy of government. "Govern the people by regulations, keep order among them by chastisement, and they will flee from you, and lose all self-respect. Govern them by moral force, keep order among them by ritual, and they will keep their self-respect and come to you of their own accord." (Rubin, 1976, p.65) Political structure and traditional ideology have defined the political behavior in China within a certain pattern. Superior-subordinate relationships have always remained strictly hierarchical. Social problems in China are seen as capable of being resolved within this pattern, which is described as being central to Chinese conceptions of social order. The extent of reforms thus has been limited by the Confucian and Marxist ideologies; both stress the importance of authority by the elites, and respect for authority. Under such circumstances decentralization will be very difficult. The present reforms will continue on the track set by the central government. It is early to evaluate the success or failure of these reforms. The results of economic and political reforms take a long time to materialize. This study is organized as follows: Chapter One deals with the purpose and scope of the reform. Chapter Two is devoted to the political and economic reforms in China while Chapter Three concentrates on discussing the Chinese political-administrative system and the problem of reforms. Chapter Four discusses dependency versus autonomy and Chapter Five presents conclusions.

AbstractA supplier sells a product through a retailer to the market with uncertain demand. The retailer has a signal useful for updating the forecast of market uncertainty, while the supplier can offer a payment to acquire the retailer's signal, termed information sharing. Due to differential means of market access and methods of data analysis, the supplier and the retailer hold diverse beliefs about market conditions. A firm is more confident about market conditions as it perceives the market to be less uncertain. The supplier can be either aware or unaware of the retailer's market belief. In the former case, the supplier correctly predicts the retailer's belief‐based response and makes decision accordingly. In the latter case, the supplier infers the retailer's market belief from the retailer's decision about signal disclosure. We unveil the concrete circumstances where the supplier gains access to the retailer's signal, which would not occur when they held the same accurate market belief. Moreover, with the actual profit performance as the measure, the firms can benefit from holding diverse market beliefs, albeit not simultaneously. The supplier's knowledge of the retailer's market belief can facilitate information sharing but can have detrimental effects on the firms' actual profit performance. Given the opportunity, the retailer may report a market belief that is less confident than its real market belief in communicating with the supplier, which can deter information sharing but has intricate effects on the firms' profits.

AbstractWe investigate operations impacts of consumer‐initiated group buying (CGB), whereby consumers voluntarily form buying groups to negotiate bulk deals with retailers. This differs from regular purchasing whereby consumers visit retailers individually and pay posted prices. Upon the visit by group consumers, a retailer decides to forgo or satisfy their demand in its entirety. Turned down by a retailer, group consumers continue to visit other retailers. In the case where their group effort fails to conclude a deal, some group consumers switch to individual purchasing provided they receive a non‐negative utility by doing so. Even after a successful group event, the group consumers who forgo the event out of utility concern may switch to individual purchasing as well. Retailer competition, group size, and the chance that group consumers switch to individual purchasing upon unsatisfaction are crucial to how retailers adjust operations to deal with CGB. With retailer competition, the rise of CGB results in every consumer paying the same reduced price when group size is small but makes group consumers pay more than by purchasing individually when group size is large. This has mixed consequences on the profits for retailers in both absolute and relative terms.

The article examines the role of multinationals and reallocation in productivity growth in the Canadian manufacturing sector in 2001–2010. It finds that foreign-controlled enterprises were more important than domestically controlled enterprises in overall labour productivity growth for 2001–2010, but the contribution of foreign-controlled enterprises declined after 2006 as a result of an increase in the exits of large and productive foreign-controlled firms during that period. Restructuring in the manufacturing sector intensified after 2006. During 2006–2010, there was an increase in reallocation to enterprises that are more productive and an increase in reallocation of labour to industries that are more capital and intermediate input intensive. The effect of new enterprises displacing exitors also increased after 2006, mostly because of the increased effect of domestic entrants displacing exitors while the effect of foreign entry and exit declined. Offsetting those positive effects of reallocation on labour productivity growth is the negative effect of reallocation of labour to the firms with lower relative capital and intermediate intensities within the same industries. Finally, the article finds that the decline in labour productivity growth after 2006 was partly due to a decline in the productivity contribution of foreign-controlled enterprises as a result of an increase in the exits of large and productive foreign-controlled firms during that period.