Shoubo Xu

Significant changes have occurred in China's energy development strategy in the past 30 years since the reform and opening policy was put into effect. The strategy has been shifted from the Strategy of Exploiting Energy Resources (SEER) to the Strategy of Comprehensive Energy Efficiency (SCEE); this made it possible that the target of ‘Doubling guarantees Quadrupling’ set by the CPC in the 1990s become a reality 5 years earlier than the target time frame. For the new target of ‘Doubling Economic Development’ set for the new century by the CPC, this paper will attempt to provide ideas and recommendations to offer possible alternative views. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This paper is consisted of four parts. The first part argues that e‐commerce and e‐commercial affairs are two different concepts. The second part discusses the property of commodity; that is, a commodity is characterized by six important characteristics including material, flow, owner, region, time and information. The third part puts forward a theory on commodity material flows (MFs) in which the concept of ‘six essential commodities for production and living’ is proposed. It is the first time that the movement rules of ‘six essential commodities for production and living’ and ‘input‐production‐circulation‐consumption’ in the social economic development process was proposed. Commodity physical flow, commodity capital flow and commodity information flow are considered as the three different states of commodity MFs, and they must follow the rule of the entire commodity movement. The theory of commodity MF includes commodity physical flow theory, commodity capital flow theory and commodity information flow theory. The core is commodity physical flow theory. The fourth part further discuses three flows, i.e. commodity physical flow, capital flow and information flow, indicating that three flows are contradictory but complementary, suggesting the systems thinking of ‘three flows integration’, ‘three flows combination’ and ‘three flows incorporation’. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

In this paper, the author proposes a basic theory in technological economics—Theory of Six Forces of Essential Factors of Production (SFEFP) for the first time. This theory includes six principles: (1) the principle of material and value of six forces; (2) the principle of possession and consumption of six forces; (3) the principle of spatial unification of six forces; (4) the principle of common interactions of six forces; (5) the principle of inter‐replacement of six forces and (6) the principle of cooperative development of six forces. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A thorough study of X party material flow (XPMF), its theory and its applications is conducted in this research. The X material flow concept is an extension of the material flow (MF) theory. To further elucidate that XPMF is one type of MF service model with PMF (party, material, flow) fractal structure and the characteristics of XPMF, we develop the three-pyramid synergetic operational model of XPMF. Through the analysis of several cases, we believe that OIR (Objective relational grade, Information sharing grade, and Resource complementary grade) is the set of order parameters that control and determine the formation of XPMF new structure and its degree of being ordered. Therefore it reveals the mechanism of XPMF formation and evolution. We also provide the principles and the methods for XPMF control.

The paper puts forward a new Chinese concept of ‘Wu Liu’ (material flow) which is different from the concepts of logistics and physical distribution popular in the West and Japan in four aspects: characteristics, contents, properties and applications. The paper points out that the research on material flow science and technology in China has lagged far behind, especially in the application aspect of material flows which is not in line with the position that material flow holds as the third biggest backbone industry group of the national economy. The paper also discusses issues in researching material flow in economic development, social development, as well as natural sciences. At the end, a framework of material flow science and technology is proposed which includes four components: disciplines supporting material flow science and technology, engineering and technological disciplines supporting material flow science and technology, theoretical disciplines supporting material flow science and technology, and other disciplines supporting material flow science and technology. About forty disciplines are related to material flow science and technology which need to be either built or enhanced. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.