S. Olivella, A. Gens, J. Carrera and E.E. Alonso
Presents numerical aspects of the program CODE_BRIGHT, which is a simulator for COupled DEformation, BRIne, Gas and Heat transport problems. It solves the equations of mass and…
Abstract
Presents numerical aspects of the program CODE_BRIGHT, which is a simulator for COupled DEformation, BRIne, Gas and Heat transport problems. It solves the equations of mass and energy balance and stress equilibrium and, originally, it was developed for saline media. The governing equations also include a set of constitutive laws and equilibrium conditions. The main peculiarities of saline media are in the dissolution/precipitation phenomena, presence of brine inclusions in the solid salt and creep deformation of the solid matrix.
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Stefan Sonke Speckesser, Francisco Jose Gonzalez Carreras and Laura Kirchner Sala
The purpose of this paper is to provide quantitative estimates on the impact of active labour market policy (ALMP) on youth unemployment in Europe based on a macroeconomic panel…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide quantitative estimates on the impact of active labour market policy (ALMP) on youth unemployment in Europe based on a macroeconomic panel data set of youth unemployment, ALMP and education policy variables and further country-specific characteristics on labour market institutions and the broader demographic and macroeconomic environment for all EU-Member States.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors follow the design of an aggregate impact analysis, which aims to explain the impact of policy on macroeconomic variables like youth employment and unemployment (see Bellmann and Jackman, 1996). This follows the assumption that programmes, which are effective in terms of improving individual employment opportunities, are going to make a difference on the equilibrium of youth unemployment.
Findings
The findings show that both wage subsidies and job creation are reducing aggregate youth unemployment, which is in contrast to some of the surveys of microeconomic studies indicating that job creation schemes are not effective. This finding points towards the importance to assist young people making valuable work experience, which is a benefit from job creation, even if this experience is made outside regular employment and/or the commercial sector.
Research limitations/implications
In terms of the variables to model public policy intervention in the youth labour market, only few indicators exist, which are consistently available for all EU-Member States, despite much more interest and research aiming to provide an exhaustive picture of the youth labour market in Europe. The only consistently available measures are spending on ALMP as a percentage of gross domestic product (in the different programmes) and participation stocks and entries by type of intervention.
Practical implications
The different effects found for the 15–19 year olds, who seem to benefit from wage subsidies, compared to the effect of job creations benefitting the 20–24 year olds, might relate to the different barriers for both groups to find employment. Job creation programmes seem to offer this group an alternative mechanism to gain valuable work experience outside the commercial sector, which could help form a narrative of positive labour market experience. In this way, job creation should be looked more positively at when further developing ALMP provision, especially for young people relatively more distant to engagement in regular employment.
Social implications
Improving the situation of many millions of young Europeans failing to find gainful employment, and more generally suffering from deprivation and social exclusion, has been identified as a clear priority for policy both at the national level of EU-Member States and for EU-wide initiatives. With this study, the authors attempt to contribute to the debate about the effectiveness of policies which combat youth unemployment by estimating the quantitative relationship of ALMP and other institutional features and youth unemployment.
Originality/value
To research the relationship between youth unemployment and ALMP, the authors created a macroeconomic database with repeated observations for all EU-Member States for a time series (1998–2012). The authors include variables on country demographics and the state of the economy as well as variables describing the labour market regimes from Eurostat, i.e. the flexibility of the labour market (part-time work and fixed-term employment as a percentage of total employment) and the wage setting system (level and coordination of bargaining and government intervention in wage bargaining).
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Dominika Latusek, Anna Pikos and Marcin Wardaszko
Distrust has been a neglected concept in public governance research, especially in comparison with the much more developed stream of studies on trust. Recently, however, there has…
Abstract
Purpose
Distrust has been a neglected concept in public governance research, especially in comparison with the much more developed stream of studies on trust. Recently, however, there has been a growing recognition of the need to better understand distrust and separate it from trust, especially given contemporary social challenges which endanger trust within societies. This study aims to propose a validated and reliable scale to measure citizen distrust in public organizations through assessment of public organizations’ untrustworthiness.
Design/methodology/approach
A rigorous three-stage scale development procedure was used to identify, operationalize, evaluate and validate the dimensions of distrust. Data obtained from a research sample of 541 Polish citizens was subject to construct validation (exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses) with satisfactory discriminant and convergent validities. A homogeneity reliability analysis (Cronbach’s alpha) provided an evidence of internal consistency reliability.
Findings
The study presents a valid and reliable scale assessing distrust through three dimensions of untrustworthiness in the context of public administration. This scale was developed as a three-factor construct with 11 validated items.
Originality/value
The presented instrument allows researchers to study distrust systematically across sectors and countries. It may be useful in future research and may provide insights to design practical remedies for citizen distrust.
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Suvi Nenonen, Ruud van Wezel and Olli Niemi
This paper aims to explore smart facilities services in the context of university campus by aiming to understand how the service development processes can be classified.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore smart facilities services in the context of university campus by aiming to understand how the service development processes can be classified.
Design/Methodology/Approach
The qualitative study is based on literature review about smart facilities services and a case study about developing visualisation, data and smart service in one building in Finnish campus. The case study data were gathered by diverse methods and analysed by content analysis.
Findings
Three smart facilities service processes were identified: experience processes for users, data-based service processes and technology processes. All the processes require more than only technocratic approach.
Research Limitations/Implications
Single case study without longitudinal data gathering is not strong in terms of generalisation.
Practical Implications
The process classification can help different stakeholders to identify their role and tasks in smart facilities service development.
Originality/Value
The research aims to understand how to develop smart services in addition to more investigated topic what the services include.
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This chapter presents a brief description of the development of capitalism in Argentina, focusing on the situation of the working class and its practices. It analyzes the…
Abstract
This chapter presents a brief description of the development of capitalism in Argentina, focusing on the situation of the working class and its practices. It analyzes the relationship between the main directions of capitalist development and the means of struggle used by the working class for more than a hundred years. It describes the predominant tendencies (in breadth and depth) of the development of capitalism in Argentina and the consequent main direction of the movement of the population (attraction or repulsion) in relation to capitalist relations. From the nineteenth century to the mid-seventies of the twentieth century, capitalism developed mainly in breadth, incorporating population, general strikes became a frequent practice and workers achieved a place in the institutional system. In the last quarter of the twentieth century, capitalist developed mainly in depth and, consequently, repulsion of population became dominant, increasing unemployment and poverty. Workers’ organizations lost some of their strength, but new organizations of the unemployed and the poor emerged, and roadblocks extended as an instrument of struggle.
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This chapter responds to recent calls for a more in-depth examination of the crucial role played by non-managerial employees, including those in various strata such as blue and…
Abstract
This chapter responds to recent calls for a more in-depth examination of the crucial role played by non-managerial employees, including those in various strata such as blue and gray collars, from an alternative neo-human relations perspective. By exploring recent initiatives aimed at developing a new theory of management or extending existing ones, the goal is to broaden the conceptualization of management to include non-managerial perspectives, thereby contributing to the advancement of management theory. From this, the recent efforts in management theory—universalistic, strategic/contingent, and value-based—are evaluated for their potential. Utilizing the method of synthesizing, the aim is to introduce a significantly reconceptualizing of existing efforts toward a candidate explanation that leads to default theory enabling to generate and solve problems concerning the phenomenon of non-managerial employees in management processes. Toward this end, two arguments are put forward. First, the constrictions inherent in current management theories devalue and underestimate the significance of blue- and gray-collar employees in the overarching management processes. Second, the future trajectory of management will involve three integral dimensions: the universal dimension of cooperation and coordination inherent in management, the strategic responses to continuously evolving environmental changes as the management of contingencies, and the normative dimension of value-creation to address the specific needs of blue- and gray-collar employees. By synthesizing these three dimensions, we provide insightful signposts for the prospective evolution of management theories.
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Mohammed Shuker Mahmood and D. Lesnic
The purpose of this paper is to solve numerically the identification of the thermal conductivity of an inhomogeneous and possibly anisotropic medium from interior/internal…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to solve numerically the identification of the thermal conductivity of an inhomogeneous and possibly anisotropic medium from interior/internal temperature measurements.
Design/methodology/approach
The formulated coefficient identification problem is inverse and ill-posed, and therefore, to obtain a stable solution, a non-linear regularized least-squares approach is used. For the numerical discretization of the orthotropic heat equation, the finite-difference method is applied, while the non-linear minimization is performed using the MATLAB toolbox routine lsqnonlin.
Findings
Numerical results show the accuracy and stability of solution even in the presence of noise (modelling inexact measurements) in the input temperature data.
Research limitations/implications
The mathematical formulation uses temporal temperature measurements taken at many points inside the sample, and this may be too much information that is provided to identify a space-wise dependent only conductivity tensor.
Practical implications
As noisy data are inverted, the paper models real situations in which practical temperature measurements recorded using thermocouples are inherently contaminated with random noise.
Social implications
The identification of the conductivity of inhomogeneous and orthotropic media will be of great interest to the inverse problems community with applications in geophysics, groundwater flow and heat transfer.
Originality/value
The current investigation advances the field of coefficient identification problems by generalizing the conductivity to be anisotropic in addition of being heterogeneous. The originality lies in performing, for the first time, numerical simulations of inversion to find the orthotropic and inhomogeneous thermal conductivity from noisy temperature measurements. Further value and physical significance are brought in by determining the degree of cure in a resin transfer molding process, in addition to obtaining the inhomogeneous thermal conductivity of the tested material.
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The research question is how home country corruption and nationalism may affect operations of BRIC multinational enterprises. BRIC composition permits a comparison of two…
Abstract
Purpose
The research question is how home country corruption and nationalism may affect operations of BRIC multinational enterprises. BRIC composition permits a comparison of two authoritarian regimes and two constitutional democracies. Each BRIC features a different combination of corruption and nationalism. The chapter adds South Africa information for two limited reasons. First, from 2010 South Africa is a member of the BRIC summit process. South Africa is an important entry point to Africa, for BRIC multinationals and particularly for China. Second, concerning corruption and nationalism South Africa is analytically useful as a control context that helps illustrate but does not appear to change highly exploratory BRIC findings.
Methodology/approach
The chapter draws on limited literature and information concerning corruption and nationalism in BRICs to suggest tentative possibilities. Transparency International provides bribe payers index estimates for 28 large economies, with important multinational enterprises, and corruption perceptions index estimates including those 28 countries. These estimates include the four BRICs and South Africa. The available sources suggest some suggested findings about varying impacts of home country corruption and nationalism on operations of BRIC multinationals.
Findings
China and Russia are authoritarian regimes in transition from central planning-oriented communist regimes. They are global military powers, expanding influence in their respective regions. Brazil, India, and South Africa are constitutional democracies. India, a nuclear-armed military power, seeks a regional leadership role in South Asia. Brazil and South Africa are key countries economically in their regions. BRIC multinationals are positioned between home country and host country conditions. Chinese and Russian multinationals may reflect a stronger nationalistic tendency due to home country regimes and ownership structure.
Originality/value
The chapter is an original but highly exploratory inquiry into impacts of corruption and nationalism on BRIC multinationals. Extant BRIC literature tends to understudy effects of home country corruption and nationalism on managerial mindset and incentives in either commercial or state-owned enterprises.
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Stephen Fox, Patrick Ehlen and Matthew Purver
The purpose of this paper is to inform the development of mixed initiative systems for distributed digital communication of manual skills. In particular, manual skills that are…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to inform the development of mixed initiative systems for distributed digital communication of manual skills. In particular, manual skills that are essential in project production paradigms such as engineer‐to‐order.
Design/methodology/approach
Findings from survey research, which included literature review and interviews with practitioners, are reported. Literature review investigated media, strategies, and computation relevant to distributed digital communication of manual skills. Interviews investigated attitudes among industry practitioners towards distributed digital communication of manual skills.
Findings
Communication media, instructional strategies, and computational semantics techniques are available which can be integrated to address the limitations of human communication of manual skills.
Research limitations/implications
Only ten organizations were involved in interviews investigating attitudes towards distributed digital communication of manual skills.
Practical implications
Manual skills will continue to be important to project businesses involved in the production, refurbishment, and/or maintenance of large engineer‐to‐order products such as public buildings and process plants. The limitations of human communication can be addressed by using a variety media, such as augmented reality headsets, to enable new instructional strategies, such as just‐in‐time training. Further, combinations of media and strategies can be integrated with computational semantics in the development of mixed initiative systems which provide feedback as well as initial instruction.
Originality/value
The originality of the research reported in this paper is that it addresses a full range of enablers for distributed communication of manual skills. Further, an overview of computational semantics is presented which does not rely on prior specialist knowledge. The value of this paper is that it introduces a framework for enabling distributed communication of manual skills. In addition, a preliminary ontology for distributed communication of manual skills is introduced, together with recommendations for implementation.
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The Latin American region experienced an electoral shift to the political left during the 2000s but this leftist shift did not radically alter the political economy of the region…
Abstract
Purpose
The Latin American region experienced an electoral shift to the political left during the 2000s but this leftist shift did not radically alter the political economy of the region. Following Jessop’s (2008) strategic-relational approach to theorizing about the state, this paper focuses on the perspective that the structure of the state is both an outcome of prior social struggles and a structuring mechanism for the social actors that attempt to enact political and economic reforms.
Methodology/approach
After demonstrating what this has historically meant for the types of state that have existed in Latin America during the past century by reviewing some of the literature on the corporatist and bureaucratic-authoritarian states and clientelism, this paper argues that the neoliberal reforms of the 1980s and 1990s constituted a new type of state – the Latin American neoliberal state. This analysis is then focused on the literature that seeks to describe the new lefts in the region, while continuing to focus on the role of the neoliberal state in structuring these new lefts’ terrain of struggle.
Findings
Understanding the new lefts in Latin America and the types of reforms that they are capable of making requires that we better understand this new type of state. Due to the structural limitations imposed by the neoliberal state, the lefts are not able to radically alter the region’s political economy.