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The prevalence of private tutoring is often noted in the literature on education in East Asia. Empirical evidence concerning the causes and consequences of private tutoring, however, is sparse, especially for China. In this article, we draw upon data from the 2010 China Family Panel Studies to explore whether children’s tutoring experiences are influenced by family background and whether private tutoring benefits children’s educational performance. Our empirical analyses show that higher parental education, higher family income, and fewer siblings are all associated with a higher likelihood of private tutoring and higher levels of spending on it. Furthermore, private tutoring and spending on tutoring are predictive of higher verbal and math performances, although the difference in math performance between children who received private tutoring and those who did not is statistically insignificant after controlling for family background. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industrial upgrading in China is rapidly increasing the competence requirements for employees on the shop floor. The institutional environment in China, however, does not seem very supportive: the quality of vocational education is often low and Chinese labor law provides strong incentives for companies to use temporary labor. This paper examines the competence development practices for blue-collar workers in automobile companies in China. Against expectations, automobile companies in China do not pursue ‘low road’ strategies but have designed intensive internal training programs and long-term career paths for blue-collar workers. Different theoretical explanations for the competence development approaches are discussed: human capital theory, high-commitment work systems theory, production systems theories, industrial relations and institutionalist theories. The paper is based on qualitative case studies of German, Japanese and domestic automobile manufacturers in China. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Chen K. and Guan J. Measuring the efficiency of China's regional innovation systems: application of network data envelopment analysis (DEA), Regional Studies. This study applies a relational network data analysis envelopment to the systematic evaluation of the innovation efficiency of China's regional innovation systems by decomposing the innovation process into the two connecting sub-processes, technological development and subsequent technological commercialization. The results show that only one-fifth of China's regional innovation systems are operating on the empirical best-practice frontier during the whole process from technological development to commercialization. Furthermore, it is found that substantial inconsistencies exist between technological development capacity and commercialization capacity in most regional innovation systems, and that downstream commercialization capacity plays a more important role in the innovation performance of regional innovation systems. Chen K. et Guan J. Evaluer l'efficacité des systèmes d'innovation régionaux en Chine: l'application de la DEA en réseau, Regional Studies. Cet article cherche à appliquer une analyse DEA (data envelopment analysis) relationnelle en réseau à l'évaluation systématique de l'efficacité innovatrice des systèmes d'innovation régionaux en Chine à partir d'une décomposition du processus d'innovation en deux sous-processus, à savoir le développement technologique et la commercialisation technologique qui en découle. Les résultats laissent voir que seulement un cinquième des systèmes d'innovation régionaux en Chine fonctionnent à la frontière empirique des pratiques d'excellence tout au long du processus qui va du développement technologique à la commercialisation. Qui plus est, il s'avère que d'importantes contradictions s'imposent entre la capacité de développement technologique et la capacité de commercialisation dans la plupart des systèmes d'innovation régionaux, et que la capacité de commercialisation en aval joue un rôle plus important quant à la performance innovatrice des systèmes d'innovation régionaux. Systèmes d'innovation régionaux?Processus d'innovation?Efficacité technologique?Analyse DEA en réseau?Amorçage?Chine Chen K. und Guan J. Messung der Effizienz der regionalen Innovationssysteme von China: eine Anwendung der Netzwerk-Dateneinhüllanalyse, Regional Studies. In dieser Studie wird eine relationale Netzwerk-Dateneinhüllanalyse auf die systematische Beurteilung der Innovationseffizienz der regionalen Innovationssysteme von China angewandt. Hierfür wird der Innovationsprozess in die beiden zusammenhängenden Subprozesse aufgegliedert: technologische Entwicklung und die anschließende technologische Kommerzialisierung. Aus den Ergebnissen geht hervor, dass nur ein Fünftel der regionalen Innovationssysteme von China während des gesamten Prozesses von der technologischen Entwicklung zur Kommerzialisierung an der Grenze der besten empirischen Praxis arbeiten. Darüber hinaus stellen wir fest, dass zwischen der Kapazität für technologische Entwicklung und der Kapazität für Kommerzialisierung erhebliche Unregelmäßigkeiten bestehen und dass die Kapazität der prozessabwärts angelagerten Kommerzialisierung für die Innovationsleistung von regionalen Innovationssystemen eine wichtigere Rolle spielt. Regionale Innovationssysteme?Innovationsprozess?Technische Effizienz?Netzwerk-Dateneinhüllanalyse?Bootstrap-Ansatz?China Chen K. y Guan J. Medición de la eficiencia de los sistemas de innovación regional de China: aplicación de un análisis envolvente de datos de redes, Regional Studies. En este estudio aplicamos un análisis envolvente de datos relacionales de redes para la evaluación sistemática de la eficiencia de la innovación de los sistemas de innovación regional de China descomponiendo el proceso de innovación en los dos subprocesos conectados: el desarrollo tecnológico y la posterior comercialización tecnológica. Los resultados muestran que solamente una quinta parte de los sistemas de innovación regional operan en la frontera empírica de las mejores prácticas durante todo el proceso desde el desarrollo tecnológico hasta la comercialización. Asimismo se observa que existen considerables incoherencias entre la capacidad de desarrollo tecnológico y la capacidad de comercialización en la mayoría de sistemas de innovación regional y que la capacidad de comercialización desempeña un papel más importante en el rendimiento de innovación de los sistemas de innovación regional. Sistemas de innovación regional?Proceso de innovación?Eficacia técnica?Análisis envolvente de datos de redes (DEA)?Enfoque Bootstrap?China [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Design of Experiments is an effective optimisation methodology. It has been widely used for product and process optimisation design. This paper presents a solution to optimise one of the key quality performances, the isolation of the fused biconical taper wavelength division multiplexer, using Design of Experiments in a communications company in Tianjin, China. The optimum process parameters have been found by response surface optimisation and the isolation has been improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with making a forecast of the number of gold medals that China will win as host nation at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. Historical data reveal that China's achievement in the Olympic Games has shown considerable improvement by all commonly used performance measures. However, China's success is heavily dependent upon four key sports and the performance of its women athletes who significantly outperform their male counterparts. A review of previous research reveals that reliance on population and gross domestic product as predictors of Olympic success underestimated the performance in Athens 2004 of some nations taking a strategic approach to elite sport development. For these nations, regressing gold medals won over time produced more accurate predictions of actual gold medals won in 2004 than a multivariate regression based on macro-economic variables. Based on our analysis, we forecast that China will win 46 gold medals in Beijing 2008. In making our forecast, we sound a note of caution that in some sports China has little room for improvement and in others with high number of medals available, notably athletics and swimming, there is no current evidence of China developing significant gold medal winning capability. However, China's ambitions are underpinned by strong central government support, the extensive use of performance management principles, and seemingly little concern for the issue of value for money. Under these conditions, China's approach to developing medal winning capability suggests that the strategies of priority and diversity are not mutually exclusive. For nations which have stated ambitions about the level of success they wish to achieve in the future, the principles raised in this case study of China are equally applicable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current conceptualizations of employee job performance in the Western literature include task performance, organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB), and counterproductive work behaviour (CWB). Limited research has investigated the cross-cultural generalizability of these categories or their content. Convergence and divergence theorists present competing perspectives on the cross-cultural applicability of Western management practices. The growing role of China in the world economy makes this culture an important one to consider. The present study contributes to job performance research in two important ways. First, Study 1 investigates whether CWB in China is described by similar or different behaviours as in the Western literature. Second, Study 2 examines the importance that Chinese managers place on task performance, OCB, and CWB. Findings indicate that Chinese managers are similar to North American managers in the content of CWB. Furthermore, Chinese managers value all three groups of behaviours when rating overall performance, placing greater emphasis on task performance and less emphasis on CWB than North American managers. The results suggest that cross-cultural research on job performance needs to take both convergence and divergence perspectives into account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the productivity performance of China's industries 1987-2002, by means of a provincial panel. Productivity growth is decomposed into four components: technical progress, scale efficiezncy change, and improvements in technical and allocative efficiency. Although total factor productivity growth had been the second major contributor to industrial growth (after capital accumulation), it has been driven mainly by technical progress rather than efficiency improvement. The estimated stochastic production frontier function exhibits substantial economies of scale. Regional differences in technical progress are negligible, but differences in technical efficiency are statistically significant across regions. The restructuring of state-owned enterprises from the mid-1990s seems to have improved technical efficiency considerably, while the performance of allocative efficiency does not seem to be converging towards standard conditions for optimizing firms under perfect competition. Factor price distortions, like artificially cheap capital together with suppressed wage levels, might have been the driving forces behind China's capital-intensive industrial growth and technology-dependent productivity performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is widely perceived as having a problem in business ethics. One view holds that elements of Chinese culture tend to encourage unethical business decisions. Another perspective says that China has business ethics issues because its economy is in transition. The unclear rules of the game create opportunity for business ethics problems. The large amount of new wealth creates incentive to cut corners to get rich. Thus China, perhaps more than more developed economies, is seen as having business ethics problems. However, good business ethics help a society as a whole, and some say that good ethics can be a source of competitive advantage for an organization. Steps can be taken to improve Chinese business ethics at the societal level, at the individual level, and, importantly for this paper, at the organizational level. In addition to ethical leadership, we believe that one key to improving ethics at the organizational level is human resource management. Improvement can be made in the areas of recruitment, selection, performance appraisal, performance management, compensation, and benefits. Personnel policies can help ensure ethical conduct within the organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines cross-national differences in the perceived attributes of employee performance using a multi-country sample drawn from Canada, China (Hong Kong), Finland and the UK. Significant country differences were found in the relative importance individuals attach to internal versus external causes of their performance. Respondents in Canada, Finland and the UK considered internal factors to be the most relevant. This was in contrast to their counterparts in China (Hong Kong) where a combination of both internal and external factors are believed to influence performance outcomes. Understanding these East–West differences is essential to managers grappling with the design and implementation of performance management systems in cross-border settings. The present study also paves the way for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study investigated the attitudes of Chinese workers towards individually based performance-related reward systems (IBPRRS). Participants were 106 white-collar workers employed in a Chinese new state-owned enterprise. In line with hypotheses, attitudes towards equality and equity-based rewarding were negatively and positively related, respectively, with attitudes towards IBPRRS. Also in line with expectations, both concern for loosing face ('Mianzi') and the belief that performance evaluations are affected by interpersonal relationships ('Guanxi') were negatively related to the attitude towards IBPRRS. However, in contrast to hypotheses, participants reported a more positive attitude towards equity than towards equality-based rewarding. Furthermore, in sharp contrast to the relevant hypothesis, the attitude of participants towards IBPRRS was positive. Ad hoc interviews with middle managers corroborated these findings and, furthermore, suggested that Guanxi and Mianzi were indeed impacting evaluations of performance, especially where there was an absence of objective performance criteria. The implication of the study is that although the views of Chinese employees towards IBPRRS are in principle positive, the cultural characteristics of China, and in particular Guanxi and Mianzi, must be taken into account for the successful design and functioning of such systems in the Chinese organizational context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The timeliness of annual reports has received serious attention by the Chinese regulatory and professional bodies in recent years. Using 8294 company reports from the Chinese listed companies during 1993–2003, this paper analyzes the timeliness of annual reports by first examining the trend of reporting lags, separating the effects of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ news on timeliness, and then by using a multivariate regression to identify the determinants of reporting lags. It is found that there is a significant improvement on timeliness of reports although the shortening of reporting lags shows a U-shape over the data period. There is strong evidence that reporting lags were related to firm performance as bad news tended to hold back timely release of corporate reports. It is interesting to note that government policies have also played an important role in improving timeliness of corporate annual reporting in China but much more work needs to be done to make sure that listed companies provide more timely and reliable reports to investors and regulatory authorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evolution of market-based building environmental assessment methods is explored to show how they are influenced by, and subsequently influence, other systems. Two contexts are considered – Hong Kong and North America – where there are two or more voluntary systems operating in the same market. The dynamic interactions of the coexisting systems are the primary focus rather than the evaluation of the characteristics, strengths and weaknesses of each method individually. While it is clearly difficult to predict how building environmental assessment systems will evolve in the future, or whether coexisting systems will be effective in furthering green building practices, a number of valuable observations can be made. The coexistence of systems can potentially offer a powerful driver for excellence and ease of use or, if there is no clear differentiation, it can confound the market. In practice, the organizational and market context in which the systems operate, the financial and political support they receive, and personal interests and biases are all complicit in their market acceptance and influence. There is a need for a greater understanding of the evolution and relationship between coexisting assessment methods, and for a strategic approach to evaluating changes in the marketplace as a result of their presence. L'auteur étudie ici l'évolution des méthodes d'évaluation environnementale des bâtiments basées sur le marché pour montrer comment elles sont influencées et, par conséquent, comment elles influencent d'autres systèmes. L'auteur étudie deux contextes – Hong Kong et l'Amérique du Nord – où l'on compte au moins deux systèmes volontaristes sur le même marché. Les interactions dynamiques des systèmes coexistants sont plus intéressantes que l'évaluation des caractéristiques des points forts et des points faibles de chaque méthode prise individuellement. Alors qu'il est très difficile de prévoir comment des systèmes d'évaluation environnementale de bâtiments évolueront dans l'avenir ou de savoir comment des systèmes coexistants seront efficaces dans la promotion des pratiques de bâtiments ‘verts’, l'auteur fait un certain nombre d'observations précieuses. La coexistence de systèmes peut être un facteur puissant d'excellence et de facilité d'utilisation ou, s'il n'y a pas de différenciation précise, elle peut être un facteur de confusion pour le marché. En pratique, le contexte organisationnel et commercial dans lequel ces systèmes fonctionnent, le soutien financier et politique qu'ils reçoivent et les intérêts et les partis pris personnels sont tous complices dans leur acceptation et leur influence sur le marché. Il est nécessaire de mieux comprendre l'évolution et les relations entre des méthodes d'évaluation coexistantes et de disposer d'une approche stratégique pour évaluer les changements sur le marché du fait de leur présence. bâtiments, méthodes coexistantes, évaluation environnementale, Amérique du Nord, Hong Kong [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on the 2005 Biennial Conference of the International Academy for the Study of Tourism (IAST) that was held in Beijing, China. IAST is a self-recruiting group of scholars following the honoured traditions of British clubs. Fellowship is not open to any fee paying associates. It can only be achieved by invitation of the confreres after a finicky selection process that includes a highly qualified quorum of affirmative ballots. IAST, founded in 1988, was one of the harbingers of the growing demand for excellence in tourism research and has tried to keep true to this goal since. At any rate, only active IAST fellows are invited to participate in the sessions, although each one of them has the right to invite one guest if the latter contributes a paper to the proceedings. IAST fellows have many different academic backgrounds and a plurality of research strategies. This makes a second specialty for IAST conferences. In order to accommodate a number of papers with no common focus, their leitmotiv has to be as encompassing as the one for this Ninth Biennial Session in Beijing.

This article introduces the most advanced form of electronic chart display and information systems (ECDIS) which complies with the performance standards for ECDIS established by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and International Hydrographic Organization (IHO). It also describes the key features and the important functions of ECDIS, which we developed. This system is different from the productions developed by C-map, Seven-cs, offshore, and others. It is more suitable for China Marine Safety Administration Bureau to manage the navigation marks real-time. Using this system charts were located and accessed rapidly, and displayed smoothly. This article also discusses in ECDIS application system how to dynamically access and desert charts data in a limited memory (limited computer memory and resource). We constructed a tridimensional structure to manage a large amount of charts data. Vertically, according to the scale range, all charts were divided into eight levels, and a data structure called as “Multiple Scale Quad-tree” was constructed. And horizontally, a grid (every unit has a fixed size) was given to a certain scale level. We call this data structure a “Regular Page.” We explore the implementation of such a structure on the worldwide charts management utilizing quad-trees. Then we discuss the future development of ECDIS and its application system in marine agencies in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing from a cultural values perspective, we investigate the effects of country origins on HR (human resource) practices of firms from the United States, Great Britain, Japan and Hong Kong operating in Hong Kong. In general, results supported hypothesized differences in HR practices of firms from different countries. In addition, results indicated that HR practices, specifically structural training and development and retention-oriented compensation, were related to various measures of firm performance. Of further interest was the finding that country origin moderated relationships of HR practices with firm performance; in general, relationships of structural training and development and retention-oriented compensation were stronger for Hong Kong firms. Implications of the results are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction industry is commonly believed to have slow growth in labour productivity. This belief is partly due to the labour intensive nature of the construction process and partly due to the inherent difficulty the industry has in adopting labour saving technologies such as the production line technique due to the one-off nature of construction projects. The 'fragmented' structure of the industry and its apparent stagnant technological progress further strengthens this belief. However, on the other hand, it can also he argued that a 'fragmented' structure facilitates the division of labour and therefore enhances the productive efficiency of labour. Furthermore, the labour intensive nature of the construction process simply means that output (in value added terms) per unit of labour, at any point in time, is likely to be lower than that in the economy. This however does not necessarily imply that growth in labour productivity in the construction industry over time will be also lower than that of the economy. Whether labour productivity growth in the construction industry compares favourably with that in the economy is purely an empirical question which this paper attempts to investigate. It presents a simple method of estimating the relative labour productivity (RLP) trend of the construction industry (labour productivity of the construction industry relative to that of the economy) from national accounting data. The method is then used to derive the trend of RLP in Hong Kong's construction industry. The results do not support the common belief that labour productivity in the construction industry grows at a slower rate compared with that in the economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]