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1 – 10 of over 46000The purpose of this paper is to contribute to a discourse analytical understanding of the political economy. The term “crisis” is an important label in recent discussion in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to contribute to a discourse analytical understanding of the political economy. The term “crisis” is an important label in recent discussion in political economy. Yet the genuine discursive dimension of “the crisis” and the multiple linguistic layers of the crisis discourse remains an open issue.
Design/methodology/approach
Realist perspectives usually believe in an external reality of crises independent of the language construction; in contrast, constructivist perspectives argue that a crisis is always the result of a socio-linguistic construction process. This contribution follows a critical-constructivist perspective, thereby taking into account powerful discursive actors which are able to “declare” a state in the world as a “crisis”.
Findings
From a discourse analytical point of view, this paper examines the rules and logics of crisis management policy, arguing that a new politico-academic elite has appeared which is beyond the classical distinction between “Keynesians” and “neo-liberals”. By taking a position in the discourse of the recent debate on financial regulation, these new elite might be able to manage the crisis for a particular time, as they are constructed as “moderating actors” through academic and political discourses.
Research limitations/implications
From a practical point of view, this analysis cannot offer economic solutions; from an analytical viewpoint, it will not give insights into discursive contexts.
Practical implications
This analysis helps to understand current debates on economic policy and to improve the communicative efficiency of the participants.
Originality/value
This paper combines a discourse analysis with a governmentality perspective and applies this analytical tool onto a political and economic topic currently prevailing in the global political economy.
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Jasmijn van Harten, Eva Knies and Peter Leisink
The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between employer’s investments (through job characteristics and managerial support) and employees’ employment…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between employer’s investments (through job characteristics and managerial support) and employees’ employment opportunities, with employability, conceptualized as perceived up-to-date expertise and willingness to change, as a mediating variable.
Design/methodology/approach
Hypotheses are tested using structural equation modeling on survey data collected from 1,626 employees of three Dutch hospitals.
Findings
Consistent with the hypotheses, the results indicate that job characteristics and managerial support are indirectly related to employees’ beliefs on employment opportunities, with the relationship mediated by up-to-date expertise and willingness to change. Further, managerial support is directly related to employees’ employment opportunities.
Practical implications
This paper shows that employers, by providing an attractive and challenging job in combination with adequate supervisory support, can enhance their employees’ employability and employment opportunities.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the literature by elaborating a consistent conceptualization and measurement of employability, by incorporating as antecedents both job characteristics and managerial support, and by examining to what extent employability mediates between these antecedents and employment opportunities. Previous studies refer to the same definition of employability but conceptualize this in different ways, and focus on either job characteristics or managerial support, and so fail to provide a systematic and comprehensive examination.
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Terese Fiedler and Craig Deegan
This paper sets out to document a review of environmental collaborations in the Australian building and construction industry and to identify a number of motivations that appear…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper sets out to document a review of environmental collaborations in the Australian building and construction industry and to identify a number of motivations that appear to drive particular environmental groups and building and construction companies to collaborate on specific projects.
Design/methodology/approach
The research involves a series of in‐depth interviews with individuals from building and construction companies and from environmental groups, and utilises a number of theoretical perspectives to explain the various perspectives being adopted by the interviewees.
Findings
The results indicate that corporate managers seek to collaborate with environmental groups as a result of pressures exerted by particular stakeholder groups, particularly government, and by the desire to be aligned with an organisation that has “green credentials” – something that is valuable in enhancing the reputation and legitimacy of the company and the related building project. There was also a related financial motivation for collaborating. The representatives from the environmental groups indicated that motivations for collaboration included developing a project that could be used as a vehicle for “educating” the public, generating positive environmental outcomes, complying with the expectations of their constituents, and setting an example for other building and construction companies to follow.
Originality/value
Little research has been done in the area of environmental collaborations. In this study, environmental collaborations were considered as a vehicle for both the environmental groups and the companies to further meet their organisational objectives and were generally considered as successful initiatives from each organisation's perspective.
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Aswathy Sreenivasan and M. Suresh
Innovation in technology is nothing new. However, a strong surge of inventions centered on digital apps and platforms has emerged over the past decade and has come to be…
Abstract
Purpose
Innovation in technology is nothing new. However, a strong surge of inventions centered on digital apps and platforms has emerged over the past decade and has come to be associated with the tech sectors. The purpose of this research is to know whether deep-tech can be unlocked in startups for their long-term success.
Design/methodology/approach
Papers and websites that included the term deep-tech startups were considered for this study.
Findings
The authors have seen no explanation why India cannot develop several global deep-tech firms in the coming five years, similar to what China did in the previous 10 years, if Indian deep-tech entrepreneurs receive solid support from domestic industry giants, supportive regulatory changes and prompt access to finance. The authors think that the epidemic has made conditions for this to pick up speed that is highly favorable.
Research limitations/implications
This research is limited to a few numbers of papers and websites.
Practical implications
Due to the unanticipated disruption, the pandemic caused, clever robotics and hands-free technology were urgently needed. The development of smart, self-monitoring, simple, tailored and potential on-the-go improvement solutions are the talk of the day. Deep-tech solutions have the ability to provide limitless benefits in a variety of fields to the world's 1.3 billion inhabitants.
Social implications
This research will help startups to know more about deep-tech and implement them to be the first-mover advantage in this competitive and turbulent environment.
Originality/value
The novelty of this research is based on its presentation of an organized and thorough evaluation, which defines the current state of the art with regard to deep-tech startups. Not many studies have been performed in the area of deep-tech startups. In order to create a sustainable startup, a thorough study on how deep-tech can be unlocked in startups and its opportunities, challenges and funding is presented.
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Delphine Marie-Vivien, Aurélie Carimentrand, Stéphane Fournier, Claire Cerdan and Denis Sautier
The purpose of this paper is to advance our understanding of the links between the representativeness of the local community by those drafting and elaborating the specification of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to advance our understanding of the links between the representativeness of the local community by those drafting and elaborating the specification of the geographical indication (GI), the market access and the use of the GI.
Design/methodology/approach
The present study followed a comparative research design, building upon primary data from the field works dealing with the elaboration and development of GIs worldwide, from legislations on the protection of GIs and from secondary data, i.e. literature dealing with the elaboration of the GI specifications at case level or national/international level.
Findings
The GI is permeable to a multitude of objectives and the management of controversies represent the “price of participatory democracy”, which still needs to be under the umbrella of the justice of peace, the State authority. Representativeness does not necessarily conduct to equity and fairness. It depends on the heterogeneity of the value chain, which might lead to the dilution of the GI specificity. Mandatory membership might not be always the best option Transparency to guarantee the producer’s group works for the common good is essential.
Originality/value
The controversies in the elaboration of the GI product specification are directly induced by the controversies in the management of the GI either by the collective organisation of producers or by the public authority. Issues such as representativeness, mandatory membership, transparency and heterogeneity of the value chain are deeply analysed to understand the functioning of GI producers associations and their limits. The state intervention as justice of the peace appears necessary.
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This paper examines the historical background of accountingization, colonization and hybridization in the health services by exploring the relationship between hospital accounting…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper examines the historical background of accountingization, colonization and hybridization in the health services by exploring the relationship between hospital accounting and clinical medicine in Britain between the late 1960s and the early 2000s.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper draws on an analysis of professional journals, government reports and other documentary sources relating to accounting and medical developments. It is informed by Abbott's sociology of professions and Eyal's sociology of expertise.
Findings
The paper shows that not only accountants but also elements within the medical profession sought to make the practice of medicine more visible, calculable and standardized, and that accounting and medical attempts to make medicine calculable interacted in a mutually reinforcing manner. Consequently, it argues that a movement towards clinical forms of quantification within the medical profession made it more open to economic calculation, which underpinned hospital accounting reforms and the accountingization, colonization or hybridization of health services.
Originality/value
The paper demonstrates that a fuller understanding of the relationship between accounting and public sector professions can be developed if we examine their mutual interactions rather than restricting ourselves to analyzing accounting's effects on public sector professions. The paper moreover illustrates instances of intraprofessional conflict and inter-professional cooperation, and draws on the sociology of expertise to suggests that while hospital accounting reforms have curbed the power of medical professionals, they have also enhanced the power of clinical expertise.
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The idea of Simon according to which instructions are premises for further decisions is formalized with respect to informationally decentralized organizations. The paper aims to…
Abstract
Purpose
The idea of Simon according to which instructions are premises for further decisions is formalized with respect to informationally decentralized organizations. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is built on the economic theory of teams by Marschak and Radner. Team theory is particularly suited to the analysis of informationally decentralized systems. Teams are composed of agents who strive for a common aim, but are informed of different parameters that characterize the state of nature. In particular, the members want to maximize the team payoff function that depends on both the actions of the members and the state of nature.
Findings
For teams à la Marshack-Radner, since every member needs to compute optimal action rules, the paper shows that two types of expertise are required: forecasting expertise (as competence over the randomness of the parameters that affect the team payoff function) and organizational expertise (as comprehension of the relevant characteristics of the other members). When the members are supposed to have complete expertise, the only role of orders is the communication of information about the state of nature. Instead, when instructions report actions under the control of the senders, the team population can be classified into ranks, each one having a particular computational problem to solve. The paper analyzes the conditions under which instructions can correspond to different and ordered degree of intelligibility of the team operations. Through instructions non-decodable information is built directly into the decision rules chosen by the receivers, and instructions can realize economies in the use of expertise.
Originality/value
Instructions are formally shown to play a crucial role when expertise is differently distributed across agents.
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This book is a policy proposal aimed at the democratic left. It is concerned with gradual but radical reform of the socio‐economic system. An integrated policy of industrial and…
Abstract
This book is a policy proposal aimed at the democratic left. It is concerned with gradual but radical reform of the socio‐economic system. An integrated policy of industrial and economic democracy, which centres around the establishment of a new sector of employee‐controlled enterprises, is presented. The proposal would retain the mix‐ed economy, but transform it into a much better “mixture”, with increased employee‐power in all sectors. While there is much of enduring value in our liberal western way of life, gross inequalities of wealth and power persist in our society.
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Wang Kangmao and Hu Chun
This paper identifies the new economic force regenerating the East Asian economies in the post‐crisis era. Based on the convergence of five main economic indexes, it reclassifies…
Abstract
This paper identifies the new economic force regenerating the East Asian economies in the post‐crisis era. Based on the convergence of five main economic indexes, it reclassifies the ten East Asian entities into four tiers, and highlights the language similarities among the tiers. It also discusses the inter‐ and intra‐regional economic dynamics, and the implications on further regional trade/investment, financial cooperation and monetary integration, such as a possible unifying Asian currency.
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Sandeep Kumar and J.J. Thakkar
Schedule and cost overrun analysis for a typical research & development (R&D) project is necessary to identify and mitigate the non-feasible alternatives at the design stage…
Abstract
Purpose
Schedule and cost overrun analysis for a typical research & development (R&D) project is necessary to identify and mitigate the non-feasible alternatives at the design stage. Typically, this should include an analysis of technological and economic factors of R&D project. This paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
This research proposes an integrated analytic network process (ANP) and reusable system dynamics (SD) model for a quick and strategically consistent decision making. The technological and economic factors of R&D project were first identified and compiled through a systematic literature review. An ANP model was first developed for calculating Risk Priority Index (RPI) for set of technological and economic factors. The computed RPI are considered as an input to SD models. Two SD models (technological and economic) are developed to undertake a detailed investigation on effect of individual factor on schedule and cost overrun. The approach is exemplified for a case of government R&D project in India.
Findings
ANP identifies “Testing & qualification facility” and “Raw material availability” as the highest RPI factors. A detailed sensitivity analysis of SD models suggests that technological factors such as “Design Changes,” “Hidden Activities,” and “Lack of Expertise” and economic factors such as “Project delays,” “Unexpected incidents” and “Conflicts” have the highest influence on schedule and cost overrun.
Practical implications
The outcomes of this research can help managers to estimate the severity of various technological and economic factors on cost and schedule overrun and develop an adequate risk mitigation contingency plan.
Originality/value
In case of R&D projects where systems are being developed for the first time, changes are inevitable, and hence schedule and cost management plays a very important role in its success. This paper proposes an integrated reusable approach of ANP and SD for analyzing the influence of technological and economic factors on schedule and cost overrun of R&D project.
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