Within the last few years a number of articles and other studies have been published dealing with various aspects of Social Security in developing countries in general and with…
Abstract
Within the last few years a number of articles and other studies have been published dealing with various aspects of Social Security in developing countries in general and with Africa in particular. The intention of this article is to set out an analytical framework within which Social Security policy in developing countries, especially as related to income maintenance, might be appraised. Particular attention will be given to the inter‐relationship between state Social Security policy and household economic behaviour, since this aspect appears to be the least well covered in the literature.
Michel Bounias and Volodymyr Krasnoholovets
Some necessary and sufficient conditions allowing a previously unknown space to be explored through scanning operators are reexamined with respect to measure theory. Some…
Abstract
Some necessary and sufficient conditions allowing a previously unknown space to be explored through scanning operators are reexamined with respect to measure theory. Some generalized concepts of distances and dimensionality evaluation are proposed, together with their conditions of validity and range of application to topological spaces. The existence of a Boolean lattice with fractal properties originating from non‐wellfounded properties of the empty set is demonstrated. This lattice provides a substratum with both discrete and continuous properties from which existence of physical universes can be proved, up to the function of conscious perception. Space‐time emerges as an ordered sequence of mappings of closed 3D Poincaré sections of a topological four‐space provided by the lattice, and the function of conscious perception is founded on the same properties. Self‐evaluation of a system is possible against indecidability barriers through anticipatory mental imaging occurring in biological brain systems; then our embedding universe should be in principle accessible to knowledge. The possibility of existence of spaces with fuzzy dimension or with adjoined parts with decreasing dimensions is raised, together with possible tools for their study. The work presented here provides the introductory foundations supporting a new theory of space whose physical predictions (suppressing the opposition of quantum and relativistic approaches) and experimental proofs are presented in detail in Parts 2 and 3 of the study.
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Cintya Lanchimba, Hugo Porras, Yasmin Salazar and Josef Windsperger
Although previous research has examined the role of franchising for the economic development of countries, no empirical study to date has investigated the importance of…
Abstract
Purpose
Although previous research has examined the role of franchising for the economic development of countries, no empirical study to date has investigated the importance of franchising for social, infrastructural, and institutional development. The authors address this research gap by applying research results from the field of sustainable entrepreneurship and highlight that franchising has a positive impact on economic, social, institutional and infrastructural development.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses a fixed-effects model on a panel dataset for 2006–2015 from 49 countries to test the hypothesis that franchising positively influences various dimensions of country development such as economic social institutional and infrastructural development.
Findings
The findings highlight that franchising has a positive impact on the economic, social, infrastructural, and institutional development of a country. Specifically, the results show that the earlier and the more franchising systems enter a country, the stronger the positive impact of franchising on the country's economic, social, institutional, and infrastructural development.
Research limitations/implications
This study has several limitations that provide directions for further research. First, the empirical investigation is limited by the characteristics of the data, which are composed of information from 49 countries (covering a period of 10 years). Because franchising is not recognized as a form of entrepreneurial governance in many emerging and developing countries, the available information is mainly provided by the franchise associations in the various countries. Hence, there is a need to collect additional data in each country and to include additional countries. Second, although the authors included developed and developing countries in the analysis, the authors could not differentiate between developed and developing countries when testing the hypotheses, because the database was not sufficiently complete. Third, future studies should analyze the causality issue between franchising and development more closely. The role of franchising in development may be changing depending on different unobserved country factors, economic sector characteristics, or development stages.
Practical implications
What are the practical implications of this study for the role of franchising in the development of emerging and developing economies? Because public policy in emerging and developing countries suffers from a lack of financial resources to improve the social, infrastructural and institutional environment, entrepreneurs, such as franchisors who expand into these countries, play an important role for these countries' development. In addition to their entrepreneurial role of exploring and exploiting profit opportunities, they are social, institutional, and political entrepreneurs who may positively influence country development (Schaltegger and Wagner, 2011; Shepard and Patzelt, 2011). Specifically, the findings highlight that countries with an older franchise sector (more years of franchise experience) may realize first-mover advantages and hence larger positive spillover effects on their economic, social, institutional and infrastructural development than countries with a younger franchise sector. Hence, governments of emerging and developing countries have the opportunity and responsibility to reduce potential market entry barriers and provide additional incentives for franchise systems in order to trigger these positive spillover effects. The authors expect that the spillover effects from the franchise sector on the economic, institutional, social and infrastructural development of a country are stronger in emerging and developing countries than in developed countries.
Originality/value
Previous research has focused on the impact of franchising on the economic development of a country, such as its growth of gross domestic product (GDP), employment, business skills, innovation and technology transfer. This study extends the existing literature by going beyond the impact of franchising on economic development: the results show that franchising as an entrepreneurial activity offers opportunities for economic, social, institutional, and infrastructural development, all of which are particularly important for emerging and developing economies. The findings of this study contribute to the international franchise and development economics literature by offering a better understanding of the impact of franchising on country development.
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Elise E. Racine and Joanna J. Bryson
As illustrated by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), epidemic models are powerful health policy tools critical for disease prevention and control, i.e. if they are fit for…
Abstract
Purpose
As illustrated by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), epidemic models are powerful health policy tools critical for disease prevention and control, i.e. if they are fit for purpose. How do people ensure this is the case and where does health education fit in?
Design/methodology/approach
This research takes a multidisciplinary approach combining qualitative secondary and primary data from a literature review, interviews and surveys. The former spans academic literature, grey literature and course curriculum, while the latter two involve discussions with various modeling stakeholders (educators, academics, students, modeling experts and policymakers) both within and outside the field of epidemiology.
Findings
More established approaches (compartmental models) appear to be favored over emerging techniques, like agent-based models. This study delves into how formal and informal education opportunities may be driving this preference. Drawing from other fields, the authors consider how this can be addressed.
Practical implications
This study offers concrete recommendations (course design routed in active learning pedagogies) as to how health education and, by extension, policy can be reimagined post-COVID to make better use of the full range of epidemic modeling methods available.
Originality/value
There is a lack of research exploring how these methods are taught and how this instruction influences which methods are employed. To fill this gap, this research uniquely engages with modeling stakeholders and bridges disciplinary silos to build complimentary knowledge.
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This chapter explores what counts as research on development and argues for a challenge to conceptions which continue to define it geographically rather than systemically. It is…
Abstract
This chapter explores what counts as research on development and argues for a challenge to conceptions which continue to define it geographically rather than systemically. It is argued that, despite an apparent openness and fluidity, qualitative research on development tends to be understood as referring to ‘field research’ in the South.1 This can constrain the boundaries of development research, what is understood to be development and also the critical capacity of qualitative approaches to development. Challenging the traditional definitions and boundaries of development research will open spaces for critical analysis and research, which can reshape development theory. It also allows for engagement with the widening set of practices, policies and social relations which have a bearing on development, but which have so far been largely excluded from qualitative research on development. However, for qualitative research to play a critical role in challenging these boundaries, we need to acknowledge the roles qualitative research on development already plays and has played, and the ways this is shaped by the contemporary and historical contexts, traditions and preoccupations of development research.
Tendai Chikweche and Richard Fletcher
The purpose of this paper is to examine qualitative issues involved in conducting research at the base of the pyramid (BOP). The paper reports on the differences between…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine qualitative issues involved in conducting research at the base of the pyramid (BOP). The paper reports on the differences between anticipated issues and the actual issues encountered in the conduct of research at the BOP in Zimbabwe.
Design/methodology/approach
Qualitative data collection methods comprising in‐depth one to one consumer interviews, focus groups, ethnographic observations and case studies were used to conduct the research.
Findings
Findings from the analysis are based on multiple experiences from multiple sites and these suggest that the main themes established from previous studies on cross‐cultural research are also prevalent at the BOP. However, the findings reveal a number of challenges specific to the BOP and suggest that the BOP is not one homogenous market.
Research limitations/implications
The sample used for consumer interviews is small, and confining the focus to the food and personal hygiene sector may limit generalization of findings to a broader population.
Practical implications
The study provides insight on potential procedures and strategies to deal with the challenges of undertaking research at the BOP.
Social implications
The study provides insight on how social networks can be used as a mechanism for facilitating research and overcoming a number of challenges faced by researchers at the BOP.
Originality/value
Research into the BOP is a relatively new area of study in the field of international business. This expands knowledge in the area of challenges faced by researchers conducting research at the BOP by providing both new insights and advancement of previous research by employing empirical qualitative mixed research methods to study consumers and firms since the two have a dyadic relationship.
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Silvia Biraghi, Rossella C. Gambetti and Stefano Pace
Purpose: This study explores how the interplay between a passionate consumer and his embeddedness in the lively network of a consumer tribe represents a fertile environment for…
Abstract
Purpose: This study explores how the interplay between a passionate consumer and his embeddedness in the lively network of a consumer tribe represents a fertile environment for the emergence of an entrepreneurial venture that is able to combine micro- and macro-level concerns bridging tribe and marketplace needs.
Design/methodology/approach: The research, set within the context of an exemplar consumer’s entrepreneurial project, was conducted following a netnographic methodological approach.
Findings: By fluidly moving from within to outside the tribe in the wider marketplace, the entrepreneur crafts his own new space in the market through a cultural mediation work that effectively combines the affective, immaterial labor characterizing the social glue of the tribe collective ethos with entrepreneurial spirit and sharp marketing and consumer insight abilities. The entrepreneur acts as a resource integrator of traditional firm-driven and emerging consumer-driven marketplace without opposing existing market structures, but rather valorizing them through his intermediation work.
Research limitations: This is a single-case study that, although exemplar, needs to be expanded and consolidated with further empirical evidence.
Originality/value: The study contributes to extant literature on consumer-driven market emergence and new market system dynamics by uncovering the role of consumer entrepreneur as a reconfigurator of the existing market resources.
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Chang Lu and Trish Reay
We investigated how an institutional settlement concerning Native Indian gaming (the operation of gambling establishments such as casinos or bingo halls by Native Indian tribes…
Abstract
We investigated how an institutional settlement concerning Native Indian gaming (the operation of gambling establishments such as casinos or bingo halls by Native Indian tribes) was preserved over time in spite of three significant challenges. Building on previous literature on settlements and institutional logics, we see settlements as institutional arrangements that manage power dynamics and competing institutional logics. Based on our analyses of the settlement and three challenges in the Native gaming field, we suggest that even seemingly volatile institutional settlements can be maintained when powerful actors balance each other’s ability to modify the settlement and different actors invoke alternative institutional logic(s). We also find that these processes can be facilitated by the embeddedness and formality of the settlement. We contribute to the settlement literature by showing how settlements can be maintained when actors draw on equally strong sources of power and different logics to counter the actions of other actors. Furthermore, we shed light on “how institutions matter” by demonstrating how institutional settlements can facilitate field stability.
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Anna Fyrberg-Yngfalk, Bernard Cova, Stefano Pace and Per Skålén
Confessions are said to be important for members’ tribal experiences and they are usually ascribed religious meanings in existing research on consumer tribes. This suggests that…
Abstract
Purpose
Confessions are said to be important for members’ tribal experiences and they are usually ascribed religious meanings in existing research on consumer tribes. This suggests that confessions have a regulative role for tribal life. By employing the Foucauldian notion of pastoral power, the present study explores confession practices and examines how control is manifested.
Methodology
The study is based on a netnographic study and analysis of tribal members’ confessions across three online consumer tribes devoted to opera (Loggionisti, who are opera aficionados of the La Scala theatre in Milan, Italy), sports (football and hockey fans of Djurgården, Sweden), and cars (Alfa Romeo owners).
Findings
We demonstrate how confessions align consumers with the common tribe ethos and how this constitutes members into various subject positions, which are fundamental social processes for reinforcing the tribe. More specifically, it demonstrates four types of subject positions: the ‘pastor’, ‘regular sheep’, ‘good sheep’ and ‘black sheep’, and how these subject positions regulate the actions of tribe members.
Research implications
The present study theorizes how control is manifested and facilitated in consumer tribes. The study also explicates the confession and its role as a religious regulating practice fundamental for the life of a consumer tribe.
Practical implications
Community managers can recognize the different subject positions that emerge within a community and help facilitate the interactions among community members.
Originality/value of chapter
Previous studies are silent about how confessions reproduce control in consumer tribes. The present study highlights confession practices and the constitution of subject positions, which regulate as well as reinforce consumer tribes.
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Mhamed Biygautane, Evelyn Micelotta, Claudia Gabbioneta and Giulia Cappellaro
Research on institutional logics has missed the opportunity to understand how and why societies may fundamentally differ in their material and symbolic systems. In this chapter…
Abstract
Research on institutional logics has missed the opportunity to understand how and why societies may fundamentally differ in their material and symbolic systems. In this chapter, the authors offer a qualitative examination of the implementation of infrastructure public–private partnership (PPP) projects in the Arab state of Qatar. The authors illustrate how the macrofoundations of Qatari society are rooted in the notion of tribe, an inter-institutional system under which the intertwined institutional orders of the state, the market, and the family have historically developed and operated. Their study sheds light on how these macrofoundations shape the processes and mechanisms that underpin the resistance to the introduction of innovative organizational forms. The chapter makes two contributions. First, it identifies how “foreign” organizational forms rooted in Western institutional orders trigger adverse reactions from societies characterized by different institutional orders. Second, it demonstrates the challenge of implementing PPPs in an institutional context that is unfavorable to them and where actors seek to preserve the supremacy of the extant inter-institutional system.