How can universities contribute to regional competitiveness policy-making?

Author(s):  
Mari Jose Aranguren ◽  
Edurne Magro

Purpose This paper aims to contribute to understanding regional competitiveness policy-making and the role academic organisations can play in that process. Competitiveness policies have evolved in the past decades from a single to a multiple-domain field, which has made the policy-making process more complex by adding more actors with their particular experience and view. This complexity, together with the relevance of overcoming traditional policy implementation failures, pleads for a new approach to competitiveness policy-making, in which academic organisations can act as “anchor institutions”. This framework is based on the adaptive implementation concept. Design/methodology/approach The paper uses the Basque case to analyse the role of universities in competitiveness policy-making and focuses on a specific academic organisation, which has contributed through different projects to regional policy-making. Evidences from those projects through different policy phases are included in the case. Findings The case shows how academic organisations might play a key role in fostering an adaptive implementation approach in competitiveness policy-making at the regional level and which specific characteristics these organisations should develop to fulfil this role. Originality/value This paper brings together two important issues for regional competitiveness: the importance of policy implementation and the particular role of engaged universities in such a process.

2012 ◽  
pp. 83-88
Author(s):  
A. Zolotov ◽  
M. Mukhanov

А new approach to policy-making in the field of economic reforms in modernizing countries (on the sample of SME promotion) is the subject of this article. Based on summarizing the ten-year experience of de-bureaucratization policy implementation to reduce the administrative pressure on SME, the conclusion of its insufficient efficiency and sustainability is made. The alternative possibility is the positive reintegration approach, which provides multiparty policy-making process, special compensation mechanisms for the losing sides, monitoring and enforcement operations. In conclusion matching between positive reintegration principles and socio-cultural factors inherent in modernization process is provided.


Author(s):  
Samantha A. Shave

This chapter examines the role of welfare scandals in policy-making after the passage of the Amendment Act. The post-1834 relief system opened the policy-making process to a number of other stakeholders to make their own demands on the relief system, such as the medical profession. These ‘stakeholders’, and notable ‘key actors’ from the anti-New Poor Law movement shaped the direction of social policies during the early years of the New Poor Law, not the Commission alone. The existence of a central authority, to hold the local authorities to account, ensured that policies developed in ways which would resolve problems encountered nationally. This meant that the experiences of the poorest played a role in the policy-making process when their voices were carried to the ears of authority. There was, essentially, a feedback mechanism between policy implementation and policy evaluation and change stages of the policy process under the New Poor Law. The creation of a centralised welfare authority brought with it centralised accountability for local relief administration.


2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 285-303 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rushdi Aziz Abdullah

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine empirically the relevance and impact of a number of factors on the role of local councils in local policy-making in Erbil province/Iraq. Design/methodology/approach This research theoretically based on literature review and adopted an analytical approach to clarify the related concepts through the policy cycle approach. On the empirical side, the research adopted a descriptive analysis for research questions and used statistical analysis to test the research hypotheses. Findings The results of the study reveal that variables of the local policy-making process, political factors, interaction patterns and the role of other actors have relevance in the role of local councils. In addition, the study concludes that technical feasibility, budgetary considerations, public opinion, coalition building, civil society, executive bodies, administrative organs and non-governmental organizations have a positive effect on the role of local councils in local policy-making in Erbil province, while interest groups have a negative effect on the role of local councils in local policy-making in Erbil province. Practical implications The findings and recommendations of this research can practically use by the local councils to achieve effective local policy, particularly in Erbil province/Iraq. Originality/value This research has interesting implications in theory and practice, as it provides several contributions to the literature, as well as the practical contribution for local councils in the local policy-making process.


2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-8
Author(s):  
Davide Settembre-Blundo ◽  
Alfonso Pedro Fernández del Hoyo ◽  
Fernando Enrique García-Muiña

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze the strategic management of risks in companies from a marketing management perspective and to provide some guidance for management practice. Design/methodology/approach This paper presents the authors’ viewpoint, and it conceptualizes a new approach to risk management. Findings The conceptual discussion has opened up a possible new way for enterprises, especially SMEs, to start taking a strategic approach to risk. Originality/value This paper would like to contribute to the current debate on the role of marketing function in managerial practice beyond the classic four Ps.


Author(s):  
Ingvar Mattson

This chapter describes the role of the Swedish parliament, and parliamentary committees in particular, in the policy-making process. The role depends on the parliamentary situation: whether there is a majority government or minority government in power. In essence, the chapter shows that Parliament mainly approves governmental bills and seldom initiates legislation. It is an arena for both political conflict and consensus. Political negotiations between governmental parties and opposition parties occur in which the opposition has influence on parliamentary decisions in the policy process. Due to increased conflict between the two blocs in Swedish politics, the importance of the committees as grounds for negotiating compromises has, however, decreased.


2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 186-200
Author(s):  
Jung Taek Han ◽  
Seo Yeon Kim

Despite increasing demands for the reform of oil subsidies, the United States government fails to enact substantial reform policies on the issue. The paper visits the biggest unresolved cleavage in the environmental policy literature where there have been no attempts to quantitatively assess the influence of lobbying and mass participation on the policy-making process. It thus attempts to quantify and examine various factors behind legislators’ votes, and the results are hard to square with a pure lobbying model. While the role of lobbying is certainly not ruled out of the explanatory model per se, this paper observed that congressional preferences may instead also be driven by the voter perception towards environmental regulation in each state. The thrust of the argument is that lobbying, while being a decisive factor, may not be the only one influencing legislators’ decisions for the oil subsidy reform bills. This study hypothesizes that the exchange model theory might not fully provide an explanation of why oil subsidies continuously fall through. It suggests that oil politics may instead follow the neo-pluralist model: While lobbying is an important factor in voting results, legislators are mindful of voters’ perspectives in spite of the fact that they are unorganized—and that they might in fact be even more powerful determinants than the lobby variable.


2020 ◽  
pp. 147892992090195
Author(s):  
Rahime Süleymanoğlu-Kürüm

This paper studies the sociology of elites and the role of cliques on the foreign policy-making process through an exploratory case study of Turkish Ministry for Foreign Affairs. It identifies elite sociology as the independent variable triggering a policy-making process in the Turkish Ministry for Foreign Affairs in line with organisational process or governmental politic approaches. It shows that until the 1980s, the Turkish Ministry for Foreign Affairs was marked by strong hierarchical tradition triggered by a certain career path and cliqueism leading to the homogeneity in the sociology of elites. This in turn triggered a foreign policy-making process based on organisational process. The role of cliqueism weakened along with the incremental circulation of elites in the post-1980s and particularly in the post-2005 period as the elite structure in the Turkish Ministry for Foreign Affairs became even more heterogeneous, foreign policy-making process moved towards governmental politics which allowed taking into account diverse schools of thought. Nevertheless, newly emerging programmatic elites employed deliberate efforts for elite circulation by altering the dominant career path and relying on political appointments. The resulting outcome was the emergence of a new clique of ruling elites subordinate to political elites which led to the politicisation of the foreign policy decision-making process in the post-2011 period.


2013 ◽  
Vol 38 (1/2) ◽  
pp. 40-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon Martens

Purpose – This study aims to examine the roles of stories in the innovation process. Design/methodology/approach – An integrative literature review was used to identify and analyze studies that examined stories of innovation in various organizational settings. The conceptual framework of the review was based on three perspectives of organizational culture: integration, differentiation, and fragmentation. Findings – A typology of the roles of stories of innovation was synthesized from a review of the literature. The major roles in the typology included fostering a culture of innovation, managing product planning and project teams, facilitating idea generation and problem solving, and analyzing failed innovations. These roles were congruent with multiple perspective of organizational culture, including integration, differentiation, and fragmentation. Research limitations/implications – Additional research should be conducted to further explore and confirm the study's exploratory typology as a possible extension to the role of organizational narrative in the process of innovation. Practical implications – The study's conceptual typology can presently serve as a useful learning tool for HRD practitioners to facilitate an organization's understanding of the innovation process. Originality/value – The study presents a new approach to analyzing the roles of stories in innovation with perspectives of organizational culture and provides an initial base for further research that might extend understanding of the types of roles narratives play in innovation.


1973 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 600-607
Author(s):  
Gerald A. Heeger

The growing role of governmental bureaucracy has been one of the most noted and discussed characteristics of developing political systems. The phenomenon of bureaucratic intervention in politics, already discernible in the 1950's in many of these states, has, so it seems, become the rule rather than the exception in the years that have followed. Despite the prevalence of the politicized bureaucracy, however, and the amount of discussion engendered by the phenomenon, die sources of bureaucratic growth and dominance in the developing states remain obscure. Most analysts emphasize the superior organization of the bureaucracy and argue that this organization, reinforced by die transfer of techniques from abroad and uncontested because of weak indigenous political institutions, provides much of the explanation for the aggrandizement of the bureaucracy in die policy-making process.


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