Rethinking the regional knowledge production function

The knowledge production function is a questionable device foridentifying the determinants of commercial patenting. Adaptedfrom firm level analysis, it implicitly assumes that some mechanismexists to transfer research and development inputs across institutionsto maximize invention output. Augmenting the approach with regionalstructure variables risks confounding causes and effects, becausethese conditions determine research and development in the firstplace. We contrast a knowledge production function and a regionalstructure model to identify the determinants of commercial patentingin US states in the period 2002–2004. Results show thathuman capital, specialized knowledge flows, urbanization andindustry dominance in technical advance drive commercial patenting.     

Organisational geographies of corporate responsibility: a UK-US comparison of retailers' ethical trading initiatives

Ethical trade, involving corporate codes of conduct for sitesof production, has become a key means through which labour inretailers’ global supply chains is regulated. Yet, thereis evidence to suggest that retail corporations vary markedlyin their approaches to ethical trade and that such variationis shaped, in part, by the national-institutional contexts inwhich retailers are based. This article explores this insightby evaluating the distinct roles played by multi-stakeholderinitiatives for ethical trade in the UK and USA. While the UK'score multi-stakeholder initiative, the Ethical Trading Initiative(ETI), encompasses retailers from a variety of sectors and takesa developmental and continuous learning approach to ethicaltrade, the US multi-stakeholder initiatives are focussed moreon corporate accountability based on compliance monitoring exclusivelyin the clothing sector. Given recent organisational attemptsto foster transnational dialogue between multi-stakeholder initiatives,though, we argue that the precise ways in which national-institutionalcontexts shape retailers’ ethical trading approaches arefluid and mutable. We contribute to the literature on the governanceof global supply chains, retailer power and corporate responsibilityby emphasising the political significance of national-institutionalenvironments. However, in line with notions of relational economicgeography, we understand these national-institutional environmentsas active and dynamic contexts, and accentuate the coalitionalways in which nationally based organisations evolve in theirhome countries and go on to shape broader transnational agendasfor ethical trade.     

Complexity thinking and evolutionary economic geography

Thus far, most of the work towards the construction of an evolutionaryeconomic geography has drawn upon a particular version of evolutionaryeconomics, namely the Nelson-Winter framework, which blendsDarwinian concepts and metaphors (especially variety, selection,novelty and inheritance) and elements of a behavioural theoryof the firm. Much less attention has been directed to an alternativeconception based on complexity theory, yet in recent years complexitytheory has increasingly been concerned with the general attributesof evolutionary natural and social systems. In this articlewe explore the idea of the economic landscape as a complex adaptivesystem. We identify several key notions of what is being calledthe new ‘complexity economics’, and examine whetherand in what ways these can be used to help inform an evolutionaryperspective for understanding the uneven development and adaptivetransformation of the economic landscape.     

近十年所出简牍之形制浅探

本文以近十年(1990—1999)新发掘出的简牍古文献实物为基础．探讨了简犊之长短、治竹木的方法、竹木之编连与书写、简与牍之区别等问题,力求以新的实物资料与前人研究相印证．并就简牍之形制作一番探讨。     

“仑”声字意义辨析兼论《诗经》和《礼记》的两处误读

“论”伦”等从“仑”得声之字,其取义均与其声符有关。前人虽有注意于此,但因其对“仑”之本义理解有误,故在典籍训释中颇多歧误。本拟从字源上对这些字作一番辨析,并更正部分献注释上的谬误。     

《艺文类聚》刊误（一）

主要以《十三经》及《楚辞》《选》作参照,考察《艺类聚》所引上述书之情况,结果表明：是书“以注充正“张冠李戴”等之失甚多,尤其是前更为严重。这一点,使用是书之校雠与辑佚尤当知之。否则,得之虽多,失亦不少。     

The far side of international business: local initiatives in the global workshop

This article presents a case study of the entry of two Norwegianlifeboat companies into the Chinese production system. Ratherthan merely studying the situation through the eyes of thesecompanies, it includes a perspective from the far side of internationalbusiness, i.e., the local competitors. The article argues thatto understand the dynamics and development of both internationalcompanies and localized production systems in a global economy,it is necessary to explore how international and local actorsreflexively evaluate and act upon each other. The article, thus,presents a model for studying the internationalization processand localized production systems.     

论20世纪资本主义发展的历史定位

根据社会生产力和实践第一的检验标准来考察资本主义在20世纪的发展类型,可以发现,在20世纪,出现了美、日、德、英法、欧洲联盟、北美自由贸易区、东亚经济区、其他发展中国家、苏联东欧转轨国家等不同类型的资本主义发展模式。在发展和停滞的两重趋势中,20世纪资本主义的主要趋势仍然是发展。     

海岱文化与中原文化

海岱化(亦称东夷化)在考古化特征上与中原化有着很大的相似性,它们之间有着频繁的交流。在古史传说中,传说所称出自东夷的颛顼——帝喾——帝舜一系实代表了中原农耕化的主体,海岱化是中原化的基层化。夏商周时期,东夷化逐渐融人中原化区的大范畴中,并丰富和充实了中原化。     

杨隋国号考说

今湖北随州市一带,先秦有随国;随国灭亡以后,历置随县、随郡、随州等。北周武成元年,杨忠以扬威汉沔,得随国公;忠子杨坚袭封,并进爵随王。及杨坚篡周,以“随”意不祥而改为“隋”。“隋”国号之种种改动,反映出中国古今文化的一大特色：名号情结。