Search results

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the problem of management systems in human services dealing with children and young people not supporting efficient resource utilization, as well as how to deal with this problem.

This paper is based on six years (2002‐2007) of research into human service organizations with regard to social activities focusing on children and adolescents. The authors conducted this research in collaboration with representatives of social services, health services, schools and pre‐schools in three municipalities in southern Sweden (2002‐2005) and four municipalities and two county councils (2005‐2007) in different parts of Sweden. The researchers met these representatives at seminars held every month. The seminars primarily served the purpose of discussing problems and opportunities, as well as allowing experiences to be exchanged between the representatives.

The circumstances of dependency between social services, schools and pre‐schools are obviously given in their inter‐relationships. Efficient resource utilization thus presupposes resources being distributed on the basis of transverse dialogues held between different actors. The organisational structure and management control systems should therefore be designed so that they support meetings and dialogues between actors involved in different activities and on different levels in social services, schools and pre‐schools.

This paper shows that dialogue across boundaries will provide the prerequisites for the knowledge‐ and experience‐sharing that is necessary to bring about efficient resource utilization in human services directed towards children and young people. Some proposals regarding a more effective and ethically legitimate utilization of resources are also made.

Presents a method for analysing statements (e.g. theories) about service quality. Uses a method, the Pentad, based on the work of the American literary and social critic Kenneth Burke′s work A Grammar of Motives. The Pentad′s five key terms Act, Agent, Scene, Agency and Purpose – which corresponds to five questions: What? Who? When and Where? How? Why? – are strategic spots at which ambiguities necessarily arise, when one makes statements about what people do and why they are doing it. A central thesis of Burke′s is that the meaning of an act or event is based on the five key terms (on the answers to the five questions) in toto. If some of the key terms remain unspecified (i.e. the corresponding questions unanswered) the meaning of the event or action in question is correspondingly ambiguous. The method operates to assist (half‐formed) theories to become self‐conscious and articulate.

The purpose of this paper is to record the author’s personal reflections on his career as a marketing scholar.

Personal reflections in an autobiographical approach.

The author’s career as student, teacher and scholar is described in some detail.

The paper records events and memories that might otherwise be forgotten. No other such account has been published of Christian Grönroos’s career.

Organizations are increasingly dependent on various forms of partnerships to develop and to perform. These organizational partnerships may become potential learning arenas, broadening the learning capacities of the alliances involved. Thus far, the literature on learning in organizations has chiefly been concerned with how traditional and integrated organizations learn. Consequently, a unit of analysis has not been developed to highlight how a collection of actors may learn and create value. To address this issue, I will discuss how “imaginary organizations” can provide an arena for actors to build knowledge on a joint basis. This type of partnership forms metasystems that integrate various partner organizations in order to share resources, pool competencies, and gain flexibility. As an empirical illustration, learning processes within the imaginary organization of Scandinavian PC Systems (SPCS) are described.

Financial sustainability requires governments to run sufficiently large primary surpluses going forward to cover the cost of servicing its debt budgets to balance in the long run. In democracies, politicians who strive for reelection often tend to systematically violate this tenet. This paper discusses two types of “anchors” that may be used to cope with this problem by limiting the room for new and excessive public debt. First, we analyze national constitutional safeguards on the basis of the “debt brake” in Switzerland and Germany. Second, we discuss international institutions to maintain financial discipline, referring to the Maastricht-criteria. These anchors are designed to allow policymakers to commit to policies that provide long term financial stability and sustainability of public finances. However, as the recent crises have shown, the problem of time inconsistency in policy making remains, especially when anchors are weak. Therefore, the paper discusses the circumstances under which institutional anchors may help to restrict politician behavior to promote sustainability of public finances. We conclude by indentifying three conditions required for the proper functioning of collective anchors in the context of public finances.

Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.

The new economic-policy regime in Sweden in the 1990s included deregulation, central-bank independence, inflation targets and fiscal rules but also active labour market policy and voluntary incomes policy. This chapter describes the content, determinants and performance of the new economic policy in Sweden in a comparative, mainly Nordic, perspective. The new economic-policy regime is explained by the deep recession and budget crisis in the early 1990s, new economic ideas and the power of economic experts. In the 1998–2007 period, Sweden displayed relatively low inflation and high productivity growth, but unemployment was high, especially by national standards. The restrictive monetary policy was responsible for the low inflation, and the dynamic (ICT) sector was decisive for the productivity miracle. Furthermore, productivity increases in the ICT sector largely explains why the Central Bank undershot its inflation target in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The new economic-policy regime in Sweden performed well during the global financial crisis. However, as in other OECD countries, the moderate increase in unemployment was largely attributed to labour hoarding. And the rapid recovery of the Baltic countries made it possible for Sweden to avoid a bank crisis.

The purpose of this paper is to attempt to provide a review of the growing literature on co-authorship networks and the research gaps that may be investigated for future studies in this field.

The existing literature on co-authorship networks was identified, evaluated and interpreted. Narrative review style was followed.

Co-authorship, a proxy of research collaboration, is a key mechanism that links different sets of talent to produce a research output. Co-authorship could also be seen from the perspective of social networks. An in-depth analysis of such knowledge networks provides an opportunity to investigate its structure. Patterns of these relationships could reveal, for example, the mechanism that shapes our scientific community. The study provides a review of the expanding literature on co-authorship networks.

This is one of the first comprehensive reviews of network-based studies on co-authorship. The field is fast evolving, opening new gaps for potential research. The study identifies some of these gaps.