From Old Practices to New Governance Models: Contractual Schemes in Africa’s Political Development

Drawing on various historical documents, the article uses process tracing methods and analytic narratives to establish a relationship between historical contractual practices and state formation in nineteenth-century East Africa. I trace the process through which local political leaders historically sought to secure monopolistic deals over trade with foreign entrepreneurs through incomplete contracts for tangible economic goods (arms and slave trades, manufactured goods) and intangible political goods or services (security, knowledge, independence). By showcasing agents’ bargaining strategies in contractual agreements, the article sheds light on notions of sovereignty and independence articulated through public contracting in Africa’s political development. Historical understandings of notions of independence and sovereignty by procurement practitioners in East Africa provide seeds for thought in controversial debates about government outsourcing today. Is outsourced sovereignty always threatening? Can we outsource sovereignty and remain independent? These are perhaps the most important conceptual queries that make East Africa’s historical contractual experience pertinent today as new public-private partnerships for development, including government outsourcing, increasingly call for the use of private means to solve public problems in the developing countries.     

构建中国星级酒店竞争优势的途径--业务外包

本文认为中国星级酒店实施非核心业务外包,降低酒店总体成本,提高效率,进而推动整个旅游业的专业化分工协作,为真正实现集团化奠定基础。     

A quota for the outsourcing of television programmes: an economic analysis of its effectiveness

A European Directive stipulates that at least 10% of programmes broadcast by each European broadcaster must be produced by an independent producer. By stimulating independent productions the European Union and the Dutch government aim to improve the quality of television programmes. In 1997, the Netherlands increased this requirement to 25%. This paper evaluates the policy, using a unique Dutch dataset that includes all independent productions appearing on public television from 1996 until 2000. We show that: (i) the producers are highly specialised; (ii) programming is volatile; (iii) entry of new firms is substantially reducing average rates of turnover; (iv) the producers who lobbied for the higher quota were losing market share and were relatively well‐organised. Therefore, the outsourcing requirement does not lead to the desired levels of stable production by individual producers and it is unlikely to be an effective instrument.     

产业融合：旅游业发展趋势的新视角

本文从产业融合的理论视角对当前旅游业多业态现象进行了分析,指出旅游业正在与其他服务业、制造业和农业进行产业融合,产业价值链不断被解构和重组,并表现出生产性现代服务业特征。本文不仅对这种产业融合动因进行了具有旅游特质性的剖析,对融合情况进行分类,还指出其本质是一种创新。融合产生的效应反映在多方面：行业竞争格局发生演变,出现系统集成商和具有双边特征的平台企业,非物质资源取代自然资源推动旅游业发展,旅游业出现模块化迹象,跨行业人才成为稀缺资源等。     

论人力资源外包风险及其规避

人力资源外包已成为当今企业界的潮流。本文介绍了人力资源外包的概念,指出人力资源外包存在的风险有可能使企业产生损失,最后就如何规避人力资源外包风险提出了几点建议。     

Too precarious to be inclusive? Hotel maid employment in Spain

ABSTRACT

Hoteliers have steadily been able to reduce costs and increase employees’ workload as a result of mass unemployment sparked by the financial crisis, beginning in 2008, and associated legislative reforms by the Spanish government. Outsourcing has been hotels’ main instrument in this drive. Hotel chambermaids are among the groups most affected by this phenomenon. This article analyses the impacts of outsourcing on hotel maids’ working conditions, while questioning the possibilities for achieving inclusive tourism given the current outsourcing trend. It is based on 44 in-depth interviews with a range of informants, including 24 hotel maids who have experienced the process of outsourcing, in major Spanish tourism destinations. This study aims to understand the changes these workers have experienced and perceived in their working conditions. The research results highlight a marked deterioration in hotel maids’ working conditions in recent years, most notably involving (a) a reduction in their salary and the loss of professional categories, (b) work overload, (c) greater uncertainty in the duration of employment, timetables and work schedule, (d) de-professionalisation, (e) segmentation, division and an increase in competition between hotel staff, (f) the accentuation of health problems and (g) a decrease in the capacity of representation and the defence of workers’ collective interests.     

旅游服务外包的理论建构研究

旅游服务外包是旅游企业提升竞争优势和实现自身可持续发展的重要战略选择和旅游业产业升级及资源优化的重要方式。本文通过分析服务外包的概念及相关理论,厘定了旅游服务外包的内涵,构建了旅游服务外包理论模型框架,提出了旅游服务外包的分类及其特征。     

A centralized decentralization: outsourcing in the Turkish cultural heritage sector

Recently Turkey has experimented with reforming its highly centralized cultural heritage sector by outsourcing commercial activities at museums and archeological sites. We examine three outsourcing contracts executed in 2009–2010 and their implications for understanding New Public Management in Turkey’s cultural sector. The initial project at the Istanbul Archaeological Museum was soon superseded by a ‘monopoly’ model that outsourced gift shop and ticket collection services at over 50 museums and sites to single companies. All three projects have significantly increased visitor numbers and revenues for the revolving fund that controls commercial operations within the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Yet unlike countries such as Italy, where outsourcing has led to decentralization, increased private sector involvement in Turkey has increased the control of the central government. This ‘centralized decentralization’ is a distinctly Turkish approach that allows for modernization without disturbing a highly centralized administrative tradition.     

Quoting television: a cross-national analysis of regulatory intervention in the independent television production industry in the UK and Spain

In order to understand the advent and consolidation of the independent television production industry, it is necessary to consider the essential role that quotas have played. This article offers a comparative empirically grounded analysis of the impact generated by a variety of quotas applied to independent production in the UK and Spain. First, it describes how quotas originating from the Television without Frontiers Directive are implemented in different ways. Second, through a sample of prime-time television in both countries, and in-depth interviews, the article analyses the strength of independent producers, their regional diversity and, in the Spanish case, the volume of investment in them by broadcasters. The results highlight the limitations of quotas and the need to intervene in different areas with alternative tools if the objectives originally pursued by the Directive for this sector are to be achieved.     

Hong Kong under Chinese Sovereignty: Economic Relations with Mainland China, 1978-2007

A Hong Kong—based economic geographer presents an array of statistical data through 2007 that place Hong Kong among the world's leading financial, foreign trade, and air cargo handling centers. The paper's main focus is the economic relationship with Mainland China, which has grown and expanded since the change of the city's sovereignty in 1997. Included in the presentation is a review of economic integration before and after the handover by the UK to China, the pattern of cross-border investments and foreign trade, the growth of the logistics and tourism industries, and the challenges posed by changing economic relations, partly due to the rapid development of Hong Kong's hinterland. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: O16, O18, O20, R11. 2 figures, 5 tables, 64 references.