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Open Access
Article
Publication date: 12 October 2021

Renzhong Ding

The relationship between man and nature varies with different stages of the development of human society. The destructive consequences brought about in the early stage of…

2379

Abstract

Purpose

The relationship between man and nature varies with different stages of the development of human society. The destructive consequences brought about in the early stage of industrialization sparked serious concerns about ecological and environmental issues.

Design/methodology/approach

The worldwide controversy aroused by The Limits to Growth published in 1972 made people realize that the carrying capacity of the ecosystem was limited, as were the resources. In the long run, scientific and technological progress can constantly discover new energy and resources.

Findings

However, in every specific stage of human society, the energy and resources crises are always a severe challenge that human beings should face. It is the core contents of sustainable development to change the old economic growth model and explore a new economic growth model.

Originality/value

The relationship between man and nature is one of the most fundamental relationships in human society and economic development. How to deal with it is also one of the most fundamental issues in human society and economic development. From the perspective of the historical process of human society, the relationship has roughly gone through the following stages.

Details

China Political Economy, vol. 4 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2516-1652

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 31 December 2004

Cheng Wang

A core employment market based on modem information and communications technology (ICT) and human resources (HR) management can fundamentally overcome the shortcomings of a…

Abstract

A core employment market based on modem information and communications technology (ICT) and human resources (HR) management can fundamentally overcome the shortcomings of a traditional employment market, in which the problems of an imbalance in the relationship between employers and employees are antagonistically alleviated by independent trade unions and other similar means. Core employment means the portion of total employment closely related to modem entrepreneurial innovation - the employment of directly or indirectly aiding in conducting, promoting, protecting and expanding innovation with entrepreneurship. The severe industrial conflicts existing currently in Korea and China can probably be resolved by economic and social measures other than confrontational trade unions, as long as the efforts are made in an expansion of core employment by the government, enterprises and individuals.

Details

Journal of International Logistics and Trade, vol. 2 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1738-2122

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 3 September 2020

Hemad Hamedi and Amir Mehdiabadi

The purpose of this paper is to find and prioritize human factors affecting entrepreneurial resilience.

2192

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to find and prioritize human factors affecting entrepreneurial resilience.

Design/methodology/approach

The statistical population consists of prominent Iranian university professors in this field, and the statistical sample is ten of them randomly. A researcher-made questionnaire was used for data collection. After a comprehensive review of the theoretical foundations, the research model was formed with 5 main indices and 21 sub-indices. Fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL)-based (DANP) technique and MATLAB software was used for analysis.

Findings

Indicators of Values and Beliefs (A3) and Motivation Index (E5) as Influential Indicators and indicators of personal attributes (S1), formal and informal relationships (R2) and human capital (C4) are effective indicators of entrepreneurial resilience. In the final rankings, formal and informal relationships had the highest weight with 0.263 and the lowest with priority and motivation index with 0.080. In addition to the final rankings of the sub-indices, the indicators of first-hand experience, recognition of opportunities and consulting services were given the highest weight.

Practical implications

This study proposes that resilience is a real-life process and not just a list of each characteristic. All human beings have an innate ability to be resilient, but resilience is a learned and learned behavior, and the emphasis of experts is on the learning of various resilience skills.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the field of entrepreneurship by examining the institutional backgrounds of entrepreneurship resilience.

Details

Asia Pacific Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, vol. 14 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2071-1395

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 16 April 2018

Chonticha Kaewanuchit and Yothin Sawangdee

The occupational stress is a disadvantage resulting in mental health illnesses that have been found when looking at those migrants who were young adults and migrated to work in…

1738

Abstract

Purpose

The occupational stress is a disadvantage resulting in mental health illnesses that have been found when looking at those migrants who were young adults and migrated to work in the urban areas, leaving behind their aging parents to live alone at home. The purpose of this paper is to compare the causal relationships of job stress between Thai immigrant employees with and without rearing aging parents.

Design/methodology/approach

The research was a cross-sectional survey. The sample for this study included 600 Thai immigrant employees (300 cases per group) in 2016. Measures included individual characteristics, working conditions, and a Thai Job Content Questionnaire (Thai-JCQ) on related job stress. The model was verified using a path model by Mplus software.

Findings

The distance traveled between the house and the workplace, wages, working conditions had a direct effect on job stress. Working conditions among Thai immigrants employees with rearing aging parents had the most direct effect on job stress with a standardized regression weight of 0.552 (p-value <0.05) as well as working conditions among their without rearing aging parents had the most direct effect on job stress with a standardized regression weight of −0.292.

Originality/value

This research demonstrated that working conditions were an important factor.

Details

Journal of Health Research, vol. 32 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2586-940X

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 18 April 2024

Mohamed Ismail Sabry

This paper investigates the effect of state-society relations on the industrially-related growth paths of developed countries.

Abstract

Purpose

This paper investigates the effect of state-society relations on the industrially-related growth paths of developed countries.

Design/methodology/approach

It introduces a novel theoretical framework, the state-business-labor relations (SBLR) framework, where four main actors are identified: the state, big businesspersons or tycoons, owners and managers of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) or Entrepreneurs and labor. Different SBLR categories or modes are introduced depending on levels of coordination and power relations between the studied actors. The paper then investigates how these SBLR modes, through adopting various policies targeting the industrial sector, lead to different growth paths. Rather than focusing only on economic growth, this research regards a growth path as a matrix of the performance in long-run growth and equality of distribution.

Findings

Using regression analysis and statistical data, the results suggest that the Co-Balanced mode, having higher levels of coordination and lower favoritism, leads to the best growth path among the four introduced modes, especially with its emphasis on high levels of venture capital availability and easiness of starting business. while the Lib-Capture mode, characterized by lower coordination and higher favoritism, seems to have the worst growth path and the best implemented policy for this mode is suggested to be high profit taxes that seem to counter the negative impact of the existing high levels of favoritism.

Research limitations/implications

Despite the important findings that this research has reached, this paper is mainly meant to open a further investigation into this topic and open this dimension that the research on VoC and political economy have under-researched. A deeper investigation of SBLR typologies that could only be possible by having richer datasets with more data on coordination for the whole world, rather than only the advanced economies, would further our understanding of the dynamics that shape the growth paths of different countries of the world.

Practical implications

To realize the best industrial growth path, fighting favoritism should be an important objective. The negative impact of favoritism on innovation could not be disregarded in the eve of the fourth industrial revolution, where innovation is increasingly pivotal to future industrial development. Actively engaging societal groups in the policymaking process is important in addressing their concerns and balancing them at the same time. This should lead to the double benefit of formulating better policies that should foster growth as well as provide better distribution of this growth. High levels of coordination should help in realizing this objective. Yet, this could only be possible if societal groups are free to associate and aggregate their power and when there are means of preventing one actor from gaining more favorite treatment and exclusive influence over policymakers. The presence of both powerful and broadly represented business associations and labor unions and the existence of a government interested in coordinating their efforts-rather than letting itself be controlled by one group at the expense of the others-should help in the realization of the best growth path. Thus, institutional reform that empowers societal groups and enables them to defend their interests as well as fights all forms of corruption should lead to the realization of a more prosperous and equitable industrial development, with the “re-industrialization” of the developed world being no exception. The technological and social challenges of intensive automation and digitalization accompanying the fourth industrial revolution make the envisaged institutional reform more urgent.

Originality/value

This paper is introducing a novel theoretical framework for studying the effect of state-society relations, particularly SBLR, on the industrial growth paths of developed countries. It integrates three important bodies of literature in order to build a more comprehensive understanding of the dynamics of state-society relations and their economic consequences. These are the Varieties of Capitalism (VoC), State-Business Relations (SBR) and Industrial Relations. The SBLR framework differentiates between tycoons and entrepreneurs, an important distinction that often goes unnoticed. Different SBLR categories or modes are introduced, depending on levels of coordination and power relations between the actors. It is proposed in this research that the effect on growth paths goes beyond the simple dichotomy between CMEs and LMEs usually present in the literature of VoC and that power relations provide an essential complementary dimension in explaining this causality.

Details

Fulbright Review of Economics and Policy, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2635-0173

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 24 July 2021

Silvia Ivaldi, Giuseppe Scaratti and Ezio Fregnan

This paper aims to address the relevance and impact of the fourth industrial revolution through a theoretical and practical perspective. The authors present both the results of a…

8154

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to address the relevance and impact of the fourth industrial revolution through a theoretical and practical perspective. The authors present both the results of a literature review, highlighting the new competences required in innovative workplaces and a pivotal case, which explores challenges and skill models diffused in industry 4.0, describing the role of proper organizational learning processes in shaping new work cultures.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper aims to enhance the discussion around the 4.0 industrial revolution addressing both a theoretical framework, valorizing the existing scientific contributes and the situated knowledge, embedded in a concrete organizational context in which the fourth industrial revolution is experienced and practiced.

Findings

The findings acquired through the case study endorse what the scientific literature highlights about the impact, the new competences and the organizational learning paths. The conclusions address the agile approach to work as the more suitable way to place humans at the center of technological progress.

Research limitations/implications

The paper explores a specific organizational context, related to a high-tech multinational company, whose results illustrate the empirical evidence sustaining transformations in the working, professional and organizational cultures necessary to face the challenges of the fourth industrial revolution. The research was conducted with the managers of an international company and this a specific and limited target, even though relevant and interesting.

Practical implications

The paper connects the case with the general scenario, this study currently faces, to suggest hints and coordinates for crossing the unfolding situation and finding suitable matching between technological evolution and the development of new work and professional cultures and competences.

Social implications

Due to the acceleration that the COVID-19 has impressed to the use of digital technologies and remote connexion, the paper highlights some ambivalences that the quick evolution of the new technologies entails in relation to work and social conditions.

Originality/value

The opportunity to match both a literature analysis and an in-depth situated case study enhances the possibility to achieve a more articulated and complex view of the viral changes generated in the current context by the digitalization process.

Details

Journal of Workplace Learning, vol. 34 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1366-5626

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 15 November 2018

Wu Fuxiang and Cai Yue

At present, China’s industrial spatial layout faces the predicament of over-agglomeration of Eastern China industries and the near disintegration of industrial structure in the…

1432

Abstract

Purpose

At present, China’s industrial spatial layout faces the predicament of over-agglomeration of Eastern China industries and the near disintegration of industrial structure in the central and western regions. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on the perspective of differentiated inter-regional labor mobility, this paper constructed a model framework of quadratic sub-utility quasi-linear preference utility function, and conducted model deduction and numerical simulation on causal factors of this spatial imbalance along the two dimensions of individual and regional welfare.

Findings

The study finds that in the long run, industrial spatial layout imposes a certain threshold limit on the portfolio proportion of differentiated labor. The dilemma of China’s industrial spatial layout is attributable to the deviation of the market’s optimal agglomeration from the social optimal agglomeration, and to the disfunction of Eastern China’s role as an intermediary between the global and the domestic value chain.

Originality/value

To resolve this predicament of industrial layout, the unitary welfare compensation based on fiscal transfer payment has to be switched to a more comprehensive approach giving consideration to industrial rebalancing.

Details

China Political Economy, vol. 1 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2516-1652

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 10 October 2022

Mohamed Ismail Sabry

This paper investigates the factors responsible for the emergence of different arrangements of state–society relations. Being concerned with the relations related to the industrial

1742

Abstract

Purpose

This paper investigates the factors responsible for the emergence of different arrangements of state–society relations. Being concerned with the relations related to the industrial sector, this study focuses more on state–business–labor relations (SBLRs), especially on power dynamics between the main actors in these relations, namely, the state, tycoons, entrepreneurs and labor.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on power dynamics, four SBLR modes are identified and differentiated according to state power vis-à-vis non-state actors and tycoon power vis-à-vis the other non-state actors. The balanced mode is characterized by balanced power relations among the four considered actors. In the capture mode, tycoons are more powerful than other actors, including the state, although other nonsocial actors have organizational rights. The crony mode has powerful state, subservient tycoons who enjoy high levels of favoritism and low organizational power for the other social actors. Finally, the state-dominance mode has powerful state, low levels of favoritism to tycoons and low organizational power for all social actors. The paper then explores the factors responsible for the emergence of each of these modes by investigating the factors’ effects on state power and favoritism to tycoons. The investigated factors include historical political–economic, geographical, legal and cultural factors. The hypothesized effects of these factors are then tested using a random-effects probit regression model, investigating how the different factors affect the probability of the existence of the studied SBLR modes.

Findings

The results support much of the hypothesized relations and place more emphasis on some of the investigated factors. Earlier development is clearly responsible for the emergence of either the balanced or the state-capture SBLR mode. Geographical conditions favorable for development, such as latitude and metal richness, also lead to the emergence of either mode. The communist heritage, and more accurately the post-communist economic and incomplete political liberalism of the transition stage, contributed to the emergence of the state-capture SBLR mode. The British legal system, with the power it provides to non-state actors through the independence of judges and other measures, contributes to the emergence of the balanced SBLR mode. Cultural factors are largely responsible for the emergence of the crony SBLR mode, especially hierarchical and collectivist cultures, as well as ethnic fractionalization. On the other hand, the culture of Confucians has the strongest influence on the emergence of state dominance, while other cultures play a marginal role in its rise, and ethnic fractionalization marginally defuses the ability of the state to dominate without resorting to favoritism. Finally, access to rich natural resources, by enriching the state independently from social actors’ financial resources (e.g. taxation), marginally increases the probability of the emergence of the state-dominance mode.

Research limitations/implications

There is room for path dependency to explain the emergence of different SBLR modes in many countries. Unfortunately, the introduced regression model and any quantitative empirical work would not be able to effectively investigate such a process. Instead, an approach depending on case studies and a deeper investigation of country-specific historical political development is needed to complement the research done here. Conducting such an additional quest would help in reaching a more comprehensive understanding of why different countries have different SBLR modes. This should ultimately help in answering an equally important question: How to reverse engineer the emergence of favorable SBLR modes?

Practical implications

Although this paper did not investigate the economic merits or mischiefs of each of the studied modes, it is plausible to think of the balanced SBLR as the best mode. This is supported not only by the fact that most of the countries of this mode are developed countries but also by the attractiveness of the power dynamics governing this mode—a more balanced power among different SBLR actors. While some factors are almost impossible to replicate, for example, geographical factors, reform could target the factors that could be changed or mitigated. This is true for legal reform, especially for fostering the independence of judges. Culture is often regarded as a sticky institution. However, this is not always true, even though the change happens in the long run. A sort of dynamism should always be considered when referring to culture through time and space. Institutional reform could be instrumental in the long run in this regard. Conducting such reform with the help of such “exogenous” institutions should always consider the match between these institutions and “endogenous” institutions, such as culture. That is to say, the connection between democratization, fostering accountability and curbing favoritism and cultural values leaning toward these principles should be firmly established. Finally, a point of optimism is that—based on the results of this paper—reaching a high state of development could increase the chances of realizing a more balanced SBLR mode in the long run.

Originality/value

This paper represents a novel contribution to a topic that has hardly been addressed in the literature. The methodology that is used identifies different state–society relation modes and focuses on power relations in SBLRs is another important contribution to the present literature in many fields, such as institutional economics, socioeconomics and political economy.

Details

Fulbright Review of Economics and Policy, vol. 2 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2635-0173

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 14 June 2019

Hua Liang

It is rather common for China’s current academic circles to use western doctrines that originated in situ to explain China’s economic problems, a suspicion of scenario…

Abstract

Purpose

It is rather common for China’s current academic circles to use western doctrines that originated in situ to explain China’s economic problems, a suspicion of scenario misplacement may thus arise. The root cause lies in the lack of reflection about the current relationship between economic thoughts and realities. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

Correctly understanding economic thoughts associated with the brand of “that era” and effectively deducing its characteristics is of great significance to finding new features of this era and constructing new ideas with the characteristics of “this era.”

Findings

This motif is exactly the keynote on which to base the study of economic history and economic thought.

Originality/value

In a period of major historical turning points, the economic realities on which the economic thinking about that era (the era of economists) relied was undergoing major changes, and re-emphasizing the ancient topic of the relationship between economic thoughts and economic realities became particularly urgent.

Details

China Political Economy, vol. 2 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2516-1652

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 15 June 2022

Hannah Ming Yit Ho

This paper examines the national solidarity in Brunei Darussalam during the COVID-19 pandemic and its consequential impact on younger generations. Utilising Emile Durkheim's…

Abstract

This paper examines the national solidarity in Brunei Darussalam during the COVID-19 pandemic and its consequential impact on younger generations. Utilising Emile Durkheim's solidarity theories, I examine how young people's social media use builds on state discourse in the pandemic. I contend that a shift towards an organic society is visible through a social cohesion that is based on differentiated roles. I argue that the citizenry plays a vital role in the forward momentum toward Industrial Revolution (IR) 4.0, which illustrates that solidarity cannot be forged as a top-down directive. By prompting economic and creative divisions of labour, the local use of social media in a public health crisis has shown the government a new way to foster solidarity. Significant implications for youth as future leaders of the nation are discussed.

Details

Southeast Asia: A Multidisciplinary Journal, vol. 22 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1819-5091

Keywords

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