The nature of economic development zones in China:an empirical study based on data from the Yangtze River Delta

Development zones, born in the course of China’s economic transition, are the carriers of both the favorable institutions and the foreign advanced technology. They are now at the stage of transferring from the concentration of firms to being industrial clusters. Based on data of firms in development zones along the Yangtze River obtained through micro-level investigation, this paper studies the effects of local factors special to development zones as well as the influence of technology promotion on the economic performance of those firms “locating” in development zones, and thus discloses the nature of firms concentrating into development zones and their trend of transferring into industrial clusters. The empirical study suggests that firms locating on development zones mainly aim at obtaining “policy rents”, which results in that firms concentrating in development zones do not possess the industrial cluster effect in the general sense: the benefits of closing to the supply or demand market. However, although firms in a develop zone do not necessarily concentrate with related firms in space, their technology and market activities are inevitably to produce relations with factors such as local governments and related industrial elements and thus affect the economic performance of firms and nurture the clustering effects of development zones. Therefore, as “policy rents” fade away due to industry transfer and adjustment of favorable economic policies, the key to keep development zones sustainable is to enhance their clustering effects.development zones along the Yangtze River, spatial concentration of firms, industrial clustering effect, technology promotion, policy rents

Diversification and reduction of loss of food: a business plan for production of avocado oil in Kenya for the Chinese market

This business plan aims to provide a guidance for the production of avocado oil in Kenya for the Chinese market. On one hand, there are abundant avocados in Kenya, but most of them are consumed locally or exported as fresh fruits with a great deal of wastage. On the other hand, avocado is now new favourite in China as a nutritious fruit often referred to as the “cream in forest”. Avocado oil is more and more popular in babies’ food supplement since the cancellation of One Child Policy. A lot of avocados produced in Kenya are sold to local markets or to the few exporters available. Those thrown unsold or rejected fruits due to size or shape are exactly excellent raw material for producing oil. Therefore, the production of avocado oil in Kenya for the Chinese markets will be a win-win trading by decreasing food loss and creating new jobs in Kenya and, at the same time meeting the ever-growing demands of healthy food for the up middle class population in China. Besides, agro-processing is a crucial part in the Kenya’s Vision 2030 economic plan. Producing oil from Kenyan avocado is a case of diversification of avocado products which has not been available in China so far. Hence, it is an attractive venture for a Chinese start-up to grow and fill in that niche market.Este plano de negócios visa fornecer uma orientação para a produção de óleo de abacate no Quênia para os mercados chineses. Por um lado, há abundantes abacates no Quênia, mas a maioria deles é consumida localmente ou exportada como frutas frescas com muito desperdício. Por outro lado, abacate é agora apreciado na China como uma fruta nutritiva, muitas vezes referida como o "creme da floresta". O óleo de abacate é cada vez mais popular como suplemento alimentar para bebês desde a abolição da One Child Policy. Muitos abacates produzidos no Quênia são vendidos para mercados locais ou para os poucos exportadores disponíveis. As frutas descartadas ou não vendidas devido ao tamanho ou forma são excelentes matérias-primas para a produção de óleo. Portanto, a produção de óleo de abacate no Quênia para os mercados chineses será uma negociação Win-Win diminuindo a perda de alimentos e criando novos empregos no Quênia e ao mesmo tempo, atendendo às crescentes demandas de alimentos saudáveis para a população da classe média na China. Além disso, o processamento agrícola é uma parte crucial no plano econômico da Visão 2030 do Quênia. A produção de petróleo a partir do abacate queniano é um caso de diversificação de produtos de abacate, que até agora não estava disponível na China. Por isso, é um empreendimento atraente para uma start-up chinesa crescer e preencher esse nicho de mercado

Technology capacity, product position and firm’s competitiveness: an empirical analysis

Using firm-level data from a 2009 survey conducted in Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province, China, this paper examines impacts of technology capacity and value-chain position on firm’s product competitiveness. Both technology capacity and product competitiveness are self-assessed relative to other firms and products in the same industry. The position of value-chain is measured relative to if a firm is an original brand manufacturer or not. Our empirical results show that competitiveness rises with firm’s technology capacity and its position in the global value chain. This finding is consistent with the theoretical prediction. The paper also investigates determinants of technology capacity and value-chain position, including firm’s size, R&D spending, location dummies, education level of technical and management personnel, wages of technical and management personnel, and enterprise ownership. Bootstrapping, Probit, and linear probability regression models are employed.Technology Capacity; Original Brand Manufacturer; Competitiveness; Global Value Chain; Bootstrapping

An Investigation of the Influence of Intrinsic Motivation on Students’ Intention to Use Mobile Devices in Language Learning

This study examines the relationships among intrinsic motivation, critical variables related to technology adoption, and students’ behavioral intention in Mobile-assisted language learning (MALL). To test the hypothesized model through a path analysis, 169 survey responses were collected from undergraduate students who were foreign language learners of English in a Chinese research university. The results indicated that although intrinsic motivation did not have a direct influence on students’ behavioral intention in MALL, it had a positive influence on students’ behavioral intention through the two intervening variables, perceived usefulness and task technology fit. Perceived ease of use, however, was not associated with students’ behavioral intention directly, nor was it predicted by intrinsic motivation. The findings suggested proper instructional design that is aligned with and supports the language learning task was important to increase students’ behavioral intention to adopt mobile devices for language learning

Learning Outside of Classroom: Exploring the Active Part of an Informal Online English Learning Community in China

This study explored how the GRE Analytical Writing Section Discussion Forum, an informal online language learning community in China, functioned to support its members to improve their English writing proficiency. The Community of Inquiry (CoI) model was used as the theoretical framework to explore the existence of teaching presence, cognitive presence, and social presence in the GRE Analytical Writing Section Discussion Forum. The transcript analysis of postings in the GRE Analytical Writing Section Discussion Forum was used to find the existence of teaching, cognitive presence, and social presence, and an adapted CoI survey was sent to members to measure their perceived teaching, cognitive, and social presences. The results showed strong evidences of teaching presence, cognitive presence, and social presence, and high levels of perceived teaching, cognitive, and social presences in the GRE Analytical Writing Section Discussion Forum. The well-designed technological environment, distributed teaching presence shared by moderators and members, and extensive evidences of social presence in the discussion forum worked together to support learning in the GRE Analytical Writing Section Discussion Forum

Using Social Annotation Tools to Foster Collaborative Learning

Social annotation (SA) allows learners to highlight and comment on web pages and share annotations with each other online. Despite its potential in promoting collaborative learning, how to integrate it into educational settings has not been fully studied. This study aims at introducing and exploring three different ways of incorporating SA-based activities into an online course: (a) peer review; (b) annotated discussion; and (c) collaborative reading. Students participated all three SA- based activities and took a survey at the end reporting the effectiveness of these activities. In this proposal we reported the initial findings of student participation in the three collaborative learning activities

Study of Polarization in B -> VT Decays

In this paper, we examine B -> VT decays (V is a vector and T is a tensor meson), whose final-state particles can have transverse or longitudinal polarization. Measurements have been made of B -> \phi K_2^*, and it is found that fT/fL is small, where fT (fL) is the fraction of transverse (longitudinal) decays. We find that the standard model (SM) naively predicts that fT/fL << 1. The two extensions of the naive SM which have been proposed to explain the large fT/fL in B -> \phi K^* -- penguin annihilation and rescattering -- make no firm predictions for the polarization in B -> \phi K_2^*. The two new-physics scenarios, which explain the data in B -> \pi K and the \phi (\rho) K^* polarization measurements, can reproduce the fT/fL data in B -> \phi K_2^* only if the B -> T form factors obey a certain hierarchy. Finally, we present the general angular analysis which can be used to get helicity information using two- and three-body decays.Comment: 15 pages, latex, 3 figures (enclosed), several changes made, conclusions unchanged, publication info adde