Search results
11 – 20 of 383Soon after the Lehman crisis, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) surprised its critics with a reconsideration of its research and advice on fiscal policy. The paper traces the…
Abstract
Soon after the Lehman crisis, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) surprised its critics with a reconsideration of its research and advice on fiscal policy. The paper traces the influence that the Fund’s senior management and research elite has had on the recalibration of the IMF’s doctrine on fiscal policy. The findings suggest that overall there has been some selective incorporation of unorthodox ideas in the Fund’s fiscal doctrine, while the strong thesis that austerity has expansionary effects has been rejected. Indeed, the Fund’s new orthodoxy is concerned with the recessionary effects of fiscal consolidation and, more recently, endorses calls for a more progressive adjustment of the costs of fiscal sustainability. These changes notwithstanding, the IMF’s adaptive incremental transformation on fiscal policy issues falls short of a paradigm shift and is best conceived of as an important recalibration of the precrisis status quo.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this paper is to explore issues related to a recent article by Bradley Bowden published in QROM titled “Empiricism, and modern postmodernism: a critique”. The…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore issues related to a recent article by Bradley Bowden published in QROM titled “Empiricism, and modern postmodernism: a critique”. The argument presented here is that antagonism between different sub-communities undertaking work related to the “historic-turn” in management and organization studies (MOS) should give way to greater acceptance of different “phenomenal” concerns and different methods of research.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is based on a critical reading and interpretation of relevant texts. This paper critiques recent work by Bradley Bowden. These are then used as a starting point for a discussion of the different ways in which historical research is practiced in MOS.
Findings
The central interpretation developed is that despite many strengths, there are both interpretative and argumentational limitations to Bowden’s criticism that the historic-turn in MOS is postmodernist in nature. In pointing to the varieties of historical research and interpretation in the field, this paper calls for greater and more sympathetic understanding between the different related sub-fields that are interested in history in relation to management and organization.
Research limitations/implications
This paper concludes by calling for more historical work that deals with historiographical and theoretical issues, rather than a continuation of methodological debates that focus on antagonisms between different methods of undertaking historical research to the exclusion of advancing the creation of new historical knowledge, however constructed.
Originality/value
This paper articulates a pluralistic and ecumenical vision for historical research in relation to management and organization. The primary contribution is therefore to attempt to dissolve the seeming assumption of dialectical antagonism between different but related sub-communities of practice.
Details
Keywords
Tourism is considered today to be the leading economic activity, contributing more than 10% to the world's gross domestic product. Given its importance, especially in developing…
Abstract
Tourism is considered today to be the leading economic activity, contributing more than 10% to the world's gross domestic product. Given its importance, especially in developing countries, it becomes significant to study ways to improve its competitiveness. This chapter discusses ways to enhance the development and competitiveness of tourism regions. It uses local or territorial economic development and empowerment as its theoretical frameworks in order to examine social capital. The focus will be on how the latter can be a factor supporting tourism development at local levels. Lebanese regions are used to show how social capital is affecting competitiveness.
Details
Keywords
Trade unions have featured prominently in explanations of Britain′srelative industrial decline. Indeed, for at least a century, unions andtheir members have been accused of…
Abstract
Trade unions have featured prominently in explanations of Britain′s relative industrial decline. Indeed, for at least a century, unions and their members have been accused of damaging productivity, increasing labour costs and destroying jobs. These claims are evaluated to see whether they are the product of systematic research evidence or mere prejudice. Focusing on the unions‐productivity link, looks at the most recent research evidence for Britain, situates it in a theoretical context, including recent American controversies, and then discusses the consequences of diminishing union membership and influence for the structure, performance and future prospects of the British economy.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this paper is to reconstruct the development of industrial relations (IR) in Germany since the end of the Second World War and discusses the current challenges…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to reconstruct the development of industrial relations (IR) in Germany since the end of the Second World War and discusses the current challenges posed by economic globalisation und European integration.
Design/methodology/approach
Combining a political economy, identifying Germany as a coordinated market economy (social market economy), and actor-centred historical institutionalism approach, outlining the formation and strategies of the main social actors within a particular institutional setting, the paper draws on the broad range of research on IR in Germany and its theoretical debates, including own research in the field.
Findings
The legacy of the key institutional settings in the post-war era – primarily the social market economy, co-determination at supervisory boards, works councils and sector-based non-ideological unions with their analogously organised employer counterparts, as well as the dual system of interest representation – has shaped the German IR and still underlie the bargaining processes and joint learning processes although trade unions and employers’ associations have been weakened because of loss of membership. In consequence the coverage scope of collective agreements is now somewhat reduced. Despite being declared dead many times, the “German model” of a “conflictual partnership” of capital and labour has survived many turbulent changes affecting it to the core.
Originality/value
The paper presents an original, theoretical informed reconstruction of the German IR and allows an understanding of the current institutional changes and challenges in the light of historical legacies. Additionally the theoretical debates on path dependence and learning processes of collectivities are enriched through its application to the German case.
Details
Keywords
Maxime Desmarais-Tremblay and Marianne Johnson
Alvin Hansen and John Williams’ Fiscal Policy Seminar at Harvard University is widely regarded as a key mechanism for the spread of Keynesianism in the United States. An original…
Abstract
Alvin Hansen and John Williams’ Fiscal Policy Seminar at Harvard University is widely regarded as a key mechanism for the spread of Keynesianism in the United States. An original and regular participant, Richard A. Musgrave was invited to prepare remarks for the fiftieth anniversary of the seminar in 1988. These were never published, though a copy was filed with Musgrave’s papers at Princeton University. Their reproduction here is important for several reasons. First, it is one of the last reminiscences of the original participants. Second, the remarks make an important contribution to our understanding of the Harvard School of macro-fiscal policy. Third, the remarks provide interesting insights into Musgrave’s views on national economic policymaking as well as the intersection between theory and practice. The reminiscence demonstrates the importance of the seminar in shifting Musgrave’s research focus and moving him to a more pragmatic approach to public finance.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of the paper is to provide a theoretical reflection on existing and emerging literature on social entrepreneurship as it applies to the developing country experience…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the paper is to provide a theoretical reflection on existing and emerging literature on social entrepreneurship as it applies to the developing country experience, and specifically to the informal economy in Senegal, West Africa.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper adopts an exploratory, multi‐disciplinary approach grounded in economic and social theory, including open‐ended interviews and focus groups. The data are complemented by field observations and analysis.
Findings
Socio‐religious networks in West Africa like Mouridism, with its strong emphasis on work and giving of one's personal financial gains back to the Muslim brotherhood, has actually created a non‐capitalist spirit of commerce, and to some degree entrepreneurialism, among Senegalese Mourids who are majority Wolof.
Research limitations/implications
As an initial exploration into this topic, the paper lacks sufficient empirical data and therefore the research results may lack generalizability.
Practical implications
The paper helps draw comparisons between what we know and what we do not know about social entrepreneurship in the informal economy, moving beyond the conventional neo‐liberal notions of competitive markets to explore entrepreneurial activities at the “Bottom of the pyramid” that establish economic exchange value which is socially embedded.
Originality/value
The paper seeks to address a perceived gap in the theoretical and empirical literature on the emerging phenomenon of social entrepreneurship. By analytically framing the debate on the role of markets in the social sector through a developing country lens, we are looking at social entrepreneurship as the intersection of embedded social and economic realities of the majority of workers who operate in the informal economy in Senegal.
Details
Keywords
The anthropological literature on the gift has split the social and material world into a premodern realm of thick sociality where gifting is located, and a modern realm of thin…
Abstract
The anthropological literature on the gift has split the social and material world into a premodern realm of thick sociality where gifting is located, and a modern realm of thin sociality in which exchange occurs. It concedes the modern realm to neoclassical economists. This paper challenges both the premodern/modern split and the adequacy of neoclassical theory as a description of material life anywhere, drawing on Post Keynesian critiques of the neoclassical treatment of time. The heterodox Post Keynesian school provides a conception of the subject situated in time that is better fitted to non-reductionist theories of material life.
The goal of this chapter is to reexamine the nature and structure of the military–industrial complex (MIC) through the works of John Kenneth Galbraith. MIC, or military power as…
Abstract
The goal of this chapter is to reexamine the nature and structure of the military–industrial complex (MIC) through the works of John Kenneth Galbraith. MIC, or military power as he prefers, is a coalition of vested interests within the state and industry that promoted the military power in the name of “national security” for their interests. Galbraith’s theory of giant corporations helps us understand the role of military corporations in the MIC. Moreover, he is a critical scholar in examining this topic because he was a political insider in the Roosevelt, Kennedy, and Johnson administrations and a prominent public intellectual against the Vietnam War. Against this background, this chapter has three parts. After explaining the development of military Keynesianism with respect to the main economic thoughts, it examines the history of the MIC and its impact on economic priorities during and after the Cold War through Galbraith’s works. Finally, this chapter discusses MIC’s relevancy today and evaluates Galbraith’s prophecies.
Details