Decoding the Development Strategy of a Major Retailer: Wal-Mart's Expansion in the United States

This research aims to provide insight regarding Wal-Mart's retail development strategy in its expansion across the continental United States. The study examines store location patterns and relationships between Wal-Mart's store and distribution center locations and markets. The study shows that, although radial expansion is broadly characteristic of the dense store patterns that have been well established for Wal-Mart at the national level, expansion patterns at the regional level are consistent with a selective process based on factors other than store density. These results provide a new perspective on Wal-Mart's expansion, providing insights of value to retail practitioners and local government.     

Locational Concentrations of Military Retirees in the United States*

This county-level study examines the locational concentrations of the 1.6 million military retirees in the United States. Maps and multiple regression analysis suggest a strong association between concentrations of military retirees in a county and amenity- and military-related factors. In particular, proximity to a military base, mild winters, and coastal locations attract the military retiree. When counties are grouped by the age of the retirees, the proximity to bases becomes more closely associated with the younger military retirees, while climate and amenity factors are more important for the older retirees. These findings could prove useful in projecting locational preferences of the older more mobile population of the United States.     

20世纪美国城市体系的演变及其对中国的启示

在快速城市化过程中,在规模不等的城市中城市人口将如何分布？这是制订中国社会经济发展战略必须考虑的一个重大基础问题。美国是世界上最大的发达经济体,城市体系成熟,100 年前的城市化水平和中国现在相当。研究20 世纪美国城市体系的演化特征,对中国会有所启发。采用美国人口普查数据,运用位序-规模法则等方法,分析了美国城市系统的演变过程。结果显示：在20 世纪前70 年美国城市化处于加速发展的中期阶段,大城市的人口增长明显快于中小城市,城市体系向非均衡化方向发展;20 世纪后30 年,美国城市化进入了稳定发展的后期阶段。与美国不同的是,处于城市化加速发展中期阶段的中国(1985-2000 年),小城市人口增长较快,城市体系趋于均衡。研究认为：未来我国大城市的人口集聚有较大潜力。     

Source Country Differences in the Spatial Distribution of Foreign Direct Investment in the United States

Statistical analysis of foreign direct investment in the United States reveals source country differences in interstate location. We relate these differences to the knowledge foreign investors have of the United States. Regression analysis indicates a significant concentration of foreign investment from individual countries in larger states and in border states. Worldwide investment in the United States does not show these preferences. Investment from Japan and Canada accounted for most of the interstate dispersal of foreign employment in the 1980s.     

企业并购投资区位选择机理与效应的研究进展

全球跨境与本土并购活动日益频繁,有效地促进了企业各类要素跨区域、跨部门流动,是产业转型与空间重构乃至重塑区域经济地理格局的重要动力。企业并购逐渐成为经济地理学界研究的重要内容。相关研究利用经典区位分析、企业组织及空间扩张、产业地理集聚、全球生产网络(GPNs)等经济地理学理论和方法,从企业自身组织与空间结构演化、企业间及地方多维临近性等角度,广泛探讨了企业并购投资区位选择的时空特征、形成机制及其空间效应等议题。主要研究结论为：①企业并购投资区位选择在不同空间尺度上均呈现“核心—边缘”结构,而企业所在区域和行业属性,企业间地理、组织、认知临近性,地方间经济社会联系等是其重要影响因素。②企业并购投资的空间效应主要体现在企业增长及其空间扩张、产业转型与空间重构,区域经济发展、劳动力就业、地方商业与制度环境、区域差异与区域一体化等方面。在总结国内外研究成果的基础上,本文指出中国经济地理学领域企业并购研究的不足和方向,以期为相关研究提供有益借鉴。     

Globalization and the Balkanization of States: The Myth of American Exceptionalism

Abstract

This paper proposes different strategies for teaching social studies in an integrated manner using Main Street as a laboratory. The paper consists of two parts. Part one is devoted to a discussion of the empirical study; the second part focuses on strategies for integrating Main Street into the K through 12 setting. Although data are presented from fifteen smalltown parish Main Streets, Abbeville and Columbia are discussed in detail around Francaviglia's time, space, and image elements. The suggested strategies for integrating Main Street into the curriculum are rooted in K through 12 teacher experiences from three Louisiana Geography Education Alliance (LaGEA) Summer Institutes held in 2001, 2002, and 2003.     

The Location of Office Space in the Metropolitan Service Economy of the United States, 1985–1990

As the economic base of most American metropolitan areas relies increasingly on services, office industries have shifted to a more pivotal role in the new metropolitan service economy. Using primary office-space usage data of the time period 1985–1990, the changing spatial patterns of this new metropolitan service economy are investigated. It is found that the primary office activities are predominantly concentrated in a relatively small number of the largest metropolitan areas. However, an emerging spatial dispersion in primary office activities is also exhibited. Such dispersion is extremely strong at the upper end of the urban hierarchy. The Sunbelt-Snowbelt dichotomy fails to reveal any differences in the growth pattern of the new metropolitan service economy. A more diversified growth pattern of primary office activities is observed. Concentrated dispersion is the major spatial characteristic of this new metropolitan service economy.     

城市居民对居住区位的偏好：支付意愿梯度模型的估计

利用翔实的社会调查数据，本文考察了我国城市居民对居住区位的偏好和支付意愿，以及影响支付意愿相对水平的各项因素。首先，本文对影响居民对居住区位支付意愿高低（即支付意愿梯度）的因素进行了理论分析，将其分为两组，一组是家庭个体特征，一组是城市形态特征，同时分析了支付意愿梯度与这些因素之间的相关关系。在初步分析的基础上，本文建立了支付意愿梯度模型，利用北京、上海、广州、武汉和重庆五城市的调研数据对模型参数进行了估计。模型估计结果显示，高收入群体仍倾向于居住在距离市中心偏近的位置。另外，工作地点、对环境的偏好、城市规模和郊区基础设施完善程度都会从各方面影响支付意愿的梯度值。     

The Geography of Religious Diversity in the United States

Religious pluralism is an important and contested topic within the literature on religion. This article explores the spatiality of religious diversity in the United States. It opens with a summary of major conceptual perspectives on the causes and consequences of religious diversity. Second, to unpack the geography of U.S. religious diversity, the article uses Glenmary and Polis data for 2000 to construct four indexes of diversity and presents these results with both choropleth maps and Dorling cartograms. It explores the relation between the distribution of denominations and county population size. The analysis reveals that the most diverse regions include the Pacific Northwest, a broad belt stretching from Denver to Pittsburgh, and central Florida, and the least diverse parts are dominated by Mormons, Baptists, and Catholics. Indexes more sophisticated than the simple number of denominations per county are sensitive to the internal configuration of adherents and reflect a more complex relationship in which population size is not assured of generating greater degrees of religious diversity.     

西山岛旅游业现状与市场定位分析

西山岛具有良好的区位条件、比较丰富的旅游资源和较好的旅游服务设施，发展旅游业的潜力很大，克服交通的相对不便与周边著名景区的阴影，是西山岛旅游业发展的关键。提高服务水平，积极促销，扩大客源市场，以吸引周边地区中等收入者的旅游活动是可行的选择。     

The Nichols' Relief Model of the United States

Abstract

The agricultural system in West Pakistan is largely subsistence-oriented, and extensive areas are devoted to produce the low-value crops. Only a small portion of the total cropped area is used to raise cash crops. However, there are regional differences in cropland use in the province. The study focuses on regional variations in the cropping patterns in West Pakistan by establishing the crop combination areas. The crop combination areas also point out a land-use distinction between the areas. Also, the changes in some of the important crops in terms of their land occupancy in the area during the fifteen-year period have been analyzed.     

The Changing Location of Service Activities in the Copenhagen Region

Geografisk Tidsskrift, Danish Journal of Geography 97: 120–131, 1997.

The location of services in the Copenhagen region is described and analyzed. Six types of services are distinguished:

Local private and public services, serving the daily needs of the population, e.g. retailing, have suburbanized, closely following the distribution of population, though with a time-lag. The same goes for services which serve more special needs, e, g, hospitals.

Among producer services, some remain in the centre of Copenhagen, e.g. lawyer firms, partly for historical reasons, partly to minimize costs of face-to-face contacts with business partners. But contrary to traditional theory, most producer services are suburbanizing, mainly in order to find large sites and to improve their accessibility for cars. Some have shifted to the western suburbs to reduce costs (back offices) or to be close to the traffic arteries which connect Copenhagen with the rest of Denmark (wholesaling). Business services, e.g. engineering consultants, have primarily moved to the northern, amenity-rich suburbs, for reasons of prestige and of proximity to their high-status labour force. Still other services have located in a more hap-hazard way where they could find large areas, e.g. the airport and military establishments.     

外资寿险公司在中国的区位分布与区位选择研究

中国的保险市场历来被国际保险业公认为是下一个最具开发潜力的市场。加入WTO以来,外资寿险公司在中国的投资进入快速扩张期,区位分布范围不断扩大。本文回顾了外资寿险公司在华发展历程,总结了其区位分布特点,并对其区位选择因子进行了实证分析。结果表明,外资寿险公司的保费收入与区域人均城镇收入水平正相关,而与区域第三产业发展水平和FDI呈负相关。未来外资寿险公司将向经济发展水平较高而市场发育程度相对较低的区域发展。     

The geography of elderly minority populations in the United States

A tremendous amount of attention has been given to the aging of population that is occurring in many parts of the world. However, very little work has focused upon the aging of minority populations. Because minority populations often have greater needs for health care and fewer resources to pay for it, it is important to assess the demand for services. This paper takes an initial step in that direction by focusing upon the geographic distribution of elderly minority populations in the United States. The study is carried out at several spatial scales, and it is concluded that elderly minority populations tend to be even more segregated than their non-elderly counterparts.     

无锡都市区制造业的区位决策影响与适宜性分区

通过对制造业区位决策的影响要素分析,讨论各区位因子对制造业适宜性分区的控制作用。以经济发达的无锡市为例,综合考虑生态约束、开发引导和相关空间因素,分别选择生态服务功能、灾害易损性、水环境风险进行生态约束要素分区评价;选择交通、集聚规模和土地潜力指标进行开发引导要素分区评价;同时考虑城镇和基本农田的分布状况。在此基础上,运用GIS空间分析方法,综合评价全市域制造业的适宜性分区,作为制造业空间区位决策的依据,其中生态环境约束较弱、开发引导较强的地区可以适当布局制造业项目,而生态环境约束较强、或开发引导较弱、或人口相对稠密、或优质农田分布的地区需要严格控制乃至禁止制造业项目的建设。     

The Changing Electoral Landscape of the Western United States

The Western periphery constitutes one of the primary electoral sections of the United States in presidential history. The Western periphery, although at times volatile, emerged as a Republican stronghold beginning with Dwight Eisenhower's regional electoral sweeps in the 1950s. This electoral epoch of Republican popularity in the West has been referred to as the new Western normal vote. Despite long-sustained presidential successes, since the 1988 presidential election, Democratic presidential candidates have been able to win certain states in the Republican-dominated region. This research examines the historical dynamics of Republican support in the West by identifying shifts in voting behavior between past and present epochs. We attempt to explain recent changes by exploring the historical character of the West, its demographic dynamics, and the recent turbulence within the Republican Party. County-level election returns from 1952 to 2016 are used, along with traditional and folded T-mode factor analysis, spatial regression modeling, and cartographic analysis. We conclude that the region's normal vote is deteriorating, a new electoral pattern is emerging, and these developments correspond with increasing volatility within the Republican Party.     

The Evaluation System and Application of the Homestay Agglomeration Location Selection

The location of the homestay agglomeration is closely related to its proximity to the resources environment and the humanities and social environments. From the macroscopic and microscopic aspects, this study uses the analytic hierarchy process and the expert consultation method to construct a relatively comprehensive evaluation system including economic and environmental factors, tourism development factors, geographical environment factors, supporting facilities and operating conditions. The evaluation index system consists of 20 evaluation indexes and 35 evaluation factors. Taking the Baileqiao in Hangzhou and Qianjiadian Town in Beijing as examples, the evaluation indexes are verified and applied. The results show that the main factors affecting the location of the homestay agglomeration are the economic and environmental factors. The evaluation index system is composed of a target layer, a comprehensive evaluation layer, a factor evaluation layer and an index layer. The target layer takes reasonable location of the homestay agglomeration as the overall objective; the comprehensive evaluation layer includes economic and environmental factors (0.4396), tourism development (0.3039), geographic and environmental factors (0.1405), and supporting facilities (0.0545). The comprehensive evaluation scores of Baileqiao and Qianjiadian homestay agglomerations are 92.644 and 88.734, respectively, indicating that both are reasonable homestay sites. This study is helpful for promoting the understanding of the homestay agglomeration location selection and the development and construction of homestay agglomeration sites.