Export of environmental technologies by publicly owned companies: approaches,drivers and obstacles among Swedish municipal companies

This article focuses on the export of environmental technology by publicly owned companies. The export of such technologies has the potential to contribute to economic competitiveness and environmental sustainability. However, research on this emerging topic has so far largely focused on privately owned SMEs compared to publicly owned companies. Using interviews with 12 Swedish municipally owned companies which develop such systems and a survey with 36 others, we analyse their approaches, drivers for and obstacles to export. These companies use a combination of different approaches such as subsidiaries, independent projects, licensing and private-public partnerships to engage in export. However, in contrast to private companies which are often driven by internal factors such as extra sales, these municipally owned companies are largely motivated by external factors such as customer requests and opportunities to contribute to environmental sustainability. Furthermore, their main export barriers relate to differences between the business culture and political systems in their home and target markets. Their export experiences are influenced by their municipal ownership, the types of technologies they develop and the institutional contexts within which they operate. This study reveals an actor type struggling to find a balance between domestic obligations and commercialization in international markets.     

The Formation of Swedish Independent Local Lists, 1990–2015.

In this comparative case-study, elements of diffusion theory are used to examine local conditions conducive to political organization in terms of independent local lists (ILLs). Empirical evidence supports the formulation of three hypotheses for future and more systematic research into the problem: a hypothesis of size, an elite-hypothesis and a mobilization-hypothesis. Although several factors are likely to play a role, the results suggest particularly that ILLs are less likely to occur in localities lacking historical legacies in terms of popular mobilization.     

略论体育文化的空间扩散——兼论我国足球俱乐部的地理分布规律

从地理角度来看,扩散是一种创新进行空间传播或转移的过程。本文认为自然环境以及距离位势是体育文化扩散起源和扩散的地理基础和根本原因。体育文化扩散受比邻扩散和等级扩散作用的共同影响。我国足球俱乐部制和职业化在国内扩散与城市等级和产业密集度有关,在小空间尺度上以比邻扩散方式为主,在大空间尺度上呈现比邻扩散和等级扩散交替进行的规律,以此研究为依据,作者建议尽快研究和制定我国足球俱乐部特许经营制度。     

Reconstructing the Space-Time Structure of the HIV/AIDS Epidemic for the Countries of Western Europe

This paper applies a compartmental epidemic modelling system to the estimation of HIV infection transfers between the nations of Western Europe for the period 1973–98. This multiregional model imitates the formation of disease contacts by both local and international travel, where the latter is assumed to have the lower sensitivity to the effects of spatial separation. This system is calibrated in two stages: first, disease parameter sets are found to best fit the timing of recorded AIDS incidence in each nation; and second, these sets are entered into a multiregion setting to identify the travel parameters that support the lags between these series. The outputs include estimates for the first year of HIV incidence in each country and the subsequent pathways of infection transfer that connect these dates. The results indicate the contrasting roles of the southern and northern countries within the continental epidemic and point to national variations in the recent delaying effects on AIDS incidence of drug combination therapies.     

北京入境旅游流分级扩散模式及动力机制分析

在总结我国入境旅游流空间流动模式的基础上,依托市场调查和权威部门统计数据,以北京入境旅游流为研究节点,对其分级扩散模式和动力机制进行了分析。从结果来看,北京入境旅游流的一级扩散受到旅游者动机及我国旅游形象的影响,主要流向陕西、上海、辽宁和广东等省市;北京入境旅游流的二级扩散主要表现为两个方面特征,一是东部沿海地区的二级扩散旅游流主要流向为直接出境,二是西部内陆地区的旅游流主要扩散方向为东部沿海口岸省市;总体来看,目前以北京为口岸的入境旅游流还依托着我国传统的精品旅游线路进行扩散和流动,其他新兴目的地对入境旅游流的吸引作用还相对较弱;北京入境旅游流扩散主要受到内驱力、推力、拉力和阻力的共同作用,其中内驱力最为明显,而随着旅游流的扩散的不断延续一级时间的推移旅游流动力因素逐渐减弱,阻力因素不断增强,总体呈现出旅游流流势的距离、时间衰减效应。     

The Puzzle of the Diffusion of Central-Bank Independence Reforms: Insights from an Agent-Based Simulation

The emergence of an ever‐widening sphere of global public policy is a new reality in a world characterized by the blurring of boundaries between the national and the global; by flows of ideas, people, and commodities; and by new global risks and opportunities. In this context, this article explores the empirical puzzle of the sudden outbreak of reforms leading to central‐bank independence. How can we best understand the outbreak of reforms in the 1990s? It is suggested here that the reforms were diffused in a contagious and uncoordinated manner in a global policy process that may best be captured by Kingdon's policy stream model. We develop an agent‐based model to evaluate the effects of three little‐explored aspects of the diffusion process. These are (i) the likelihood of the outbreak of reform, (ii) the rate of adoption of the reform, and (iii) the time to outbreak. We find that the likelihood of outbreak depends on the saliency of a problem, in conjunction with the length of time that a problem has been on the public agenda. We also find that an increase in the size of the environment surveyed before a decision is made increases the rate of adoption but also the time to outbreak. The more global the information available for agents, the longer is the time to outbreak, but outbreaks unfold much faster.     

The changing shape of island epidemics: historical trends in Icelandic infectious disease waves, 1902–1988

Iceland's centuries-long history of epidemics with its unusually complete disease records has attracted study from several disciplines. But detailed spatial data of particular interest to historical geographers date only from 1895 and were consistently maintained for about a century thereafter. Within this period, this paper concentrates on morbidity records of reported cases of infectious diseases for an 87-year window which was open between 1902 and 1988. In this time slice, spatially detailed data for seven demographically important infectious diseases allow the geography of 131 discrete epidemic waves with a recorded total of 529,000 cases to be tracked. Changes in the behaviour of the seven diseases over the period are analyzed and related to both epidemiological theory and to the changing historical geography of the island. The paper complements earlier Icelandic work by the authors on the historical geography of single diseases (measles, influenza and poliomyelitis) by extending the range of diseases, and by considering their common spatial behaviour and their interrelationships.     

Shifting Winds: Explaining Variation in State Policies to Promote Small‐Scale Wind Energy

States have increasingly taken leading roles in U.S. environmental policymaking over the past two decades. As laboratories of democracy, states have developed different levels and mixes of policies to address climate change, nonpoint source pollution, alternative energy, and other challenging environmental issues. Policy scholars have sought to explain variation in state environmental policy through two primary theoretical lenses: internal determinants and regional diffusion. While our understanding of state environmental policy adoption has grown to identify which variables are most important, less is known about how these variables interact in particular states to influence policy adoption. This study examines the interactions of variables from both theories to explain how state policies for small‐scale wind energy promotion were adopted in three U.S. states. Our results highlight the nuanced role of citizen ideology, which may be important in contexts at either end of the ideological spectrum but less important in the middle—where economic development is more critical. Results also indicate that interstate competition may be over environmental as well as economic leadership. Interestingly, strength of the wind resource is not necessarily correlated with policy adoption for small‐scale wind energy promotion.     

Moves and Countermoves: Countermovement Diffusion of State Constitutional Amendments

Policy diffusion literature generally studies the adoption of similar policies across jurisdictions, but often overlooks how opposing policies or legal constraints may influence the enactment of rigid state constitutional amendments. The current study models the spread of state constitutional amendments designed to prevent future policy change. Using conditional event history analysis on all states from 1999 to 2011 the empirical models analyze the spread of same‐sex marriage prohibitive amendments across the United States. Findings suggest that the nearby adoption of opposing policies encourage state legislatures to introduce prohibitive amendments. The regional diffusion effect suggests that policymakers “protect” their jurisdiction from nearby diffusion forces or seek electoral gains by symbolic protection by committing an already existing policy into the rigid state constitutional framework. Regional policy diffusion may, therefore, be explained by a countermovement mechanism unique to the state constitutional amendment process. This protective strategy among state legislatures and citizens may explain why many policy areas are frequently codified in state constitutions.