scholarly journals Navigating through an “ecological desert and a sociological hell”

Kybernetes ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 44 (6/7) ◽  
pp. 891-902 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ray Ison ◽  
Sandro Luis Schlindwein
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Radical Change ◽  
Environmental Crisis ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Governance Practices ◽  
Research Praxis ◽  
New Institutions ◽  
Systemic Governance ◽  
Governance Choices

Purpose – The governance of the relationship between humans and the biophysical world has been based on a paradigm characterized by dualistic thinking and scientism. This has led to the Anthropocene. The purpose of this paper is to reframe human-biosphere governance in terms of “cyber-systemics”, a neologism that is useful, the authors argue, not only for breaking out of this dualistic paradigm in human-environmental governance but also of the dualism associated with the use of systems and cybernetics. Design/methodology/approach – In this paper the authors draw on their own research praxis to exemplify how the intellectual lineages of cybernetics and systems have been mutually influencing their doings, and how new forms of governance practices that explore different framing choices might contribute to building innovative governance approaches attuned to the problematique of the Anthropocene, for instance through institutional designs for cyber-systemic governance. Findings – The growing popularity of the Anthropocene as a particular framing for the circumstances, if it is to transformative and thus relevant demands informed critique if it is to help change the trajectory of human-life on earth. The authors offer arguments and a rationale for adopting a cyber-systemic perspective as a means to avoid the dangers in pursuing the current trajectory of our relationship with the biophysical world as, for example, climate change. The essay frames an invitation for a systemic inquiry into forms of governance more suited to the contemporary circumstances of humans in their relationships with the biophysical world. Research limitations/implications – The research essay challenges many taken-for-granted epistemological assumptions within the cybernetics and systems intellectual communities. A case for radical change is mounted; the means to effect this change, other than through changes in discourse remain unclear though it is apparent that changes to praxis and institutional forms and arrangements will be central. Practical implications – Cyber-systemic capabilities need to be developed; this requires investment and new institutions that are conducive to cyber-systemic understandings and praxis. Originality/value – Understanding the global environmental crisis as an emergent outcome of current commitments to dualistic governance choices demands a reframing of much of what humans have done, re-investment in cyber-systemics offers a moral and practical response.

The drivers of corporate governance disclosure: the case of Nifty 500 Index

2018 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 681-700 ◽  
Author(s):  
Androniki Katarachia ◽  
Electra Pitoska ◽  
Grigoris Giannarakis ◽  
Elpida Poutoglidou
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Governance ◽  
Financial Leverage ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Explanatory Variables ◽  
Size Number ◽  
Governance Practices ◽  
Board Director ◽  
First Time ◽  
Governance Disclosure

Purpose Based on agency theory, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the determinants on the dissemination level of corporate governance disclosure (CGD). Design/methodology/approach The sample of the study incorporates listed companies in Nifty 500 Index for the period 2009-2014. The Governance Disclosure Score calculated by Bloomberg is used as a proxy for the dissemination level of corporate governance information. In total, eight explanatory variables are uses, namely, board’s size, number of board meetings, CEO duality, presence of women on the board, company’s size, financial performance, Tobin’s Q ratio and financial leverage. Findings The results of study suggest a need for improvement in CGDs by Indian companies, as they fail to comply the majority of the proposed disclosure items. Furthermore, it is revealed that the number of board director, the value of company, the financial leverage and the presence of women affect negatively the dissemination level of corporate governance information. While, the size of company is the only determinant that positively affects the extent of CGD. Practical implications The results are valuable because they reveal the attributes that determines which companies needs less or extra monitoring by shareholders and investors regarding the applied corporate governance practices. In addition, the study can be valuable to policy makers responsible for the regulation of company’s accountability in relation to corporate governance practices. Originality/value The study extents previous studies by incorporating for the first time Bloomberg’s rating approach regarding the dissemination level of CGD in Indian context.

Relational governance in outsourcing partnerships

2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 435-452 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anuradha Mathrani ◽  
Sanjay Mathrani
Keyword(s):  
Real Life ◽  
Service Level ◽  
Positive Influence ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
Offshore Outsourcing ◽  
Relational Exchange ◽  
Relational Governance ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Governance Practices ◽  
Narrative Storylines

Purpose The paper aims to capture the nuances of two client–supplier relationships to offer new insights on the influences of transactional, knowledge and social elements in outsourcing partnerships. Design/methodology/approach The study has used descriptive case studies with narrative storylines. Interviews were conducted with three relationship managers (boundary gatekeepers) to understand preferred governance practices between clients and suppliers in diverse economic markets. Findings Experiences of three real-life cases engaged in offshore outsourcing have helped to identify the market, operational knowledge and social influences in a relational exchange. Findings reveal that offshore partnerships are first constituted with service-level agreements, which set control measures and layout business expectations from both partners. Boundary gatekeepers bring further accountability across firms by designing social networks for capturing and sharing of knowledge, thereby reducing each partner’s perception of risk. As firms evaluate transactional, knowledge and social elements for building a futuristic relational exchange, more disaggregated and dispersed enterprises evolve as new opportunities are explored in foreign markets. Research limitations/implications The retrospective nature of the client–supplier partnership is a limitation in this research study. However, retrospection adds to experience, and to practice perspectives made in hindsight, and therefore has a positive influence in this study. Originality/value This paper shares real-world experiences that can be used by scholars and practitioners to better understand how relational governance practices operate in a global socio-economic setting.

Managing different forms of distances in Dutch healthcare organizations

2015 ◽  
Vol 29 (7) ◽  
pp. 1080-1097
Author(s):  
Annemiek Stoopendaal
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Healthcare Organization ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Healthcare Organizations ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Daily Work ◽  
Healthcare Executives ◽  
Governance Practices ◽  
The Relationship

Purpose – Dichotomous “gap” thinking about professionals and managers has important limits. The purpose of this paper is to study the specific ontology of “the gap” in which different forms of distances are defined. Design/methodology/approach – In order to deepen the knowledge of the actual day-to-day tasks of Dutch healthcare executives an ethnographic study of the daily work of Dutch healthcare executives and an ontological exploration of the concept “gap” was provided. The study empirically investigates the meaning given to the concept of “distance” in healthcare governance practices. Findings – The study reveals that healthcare executives have to fulfil a dual role of maintaining distance and creating proximity. Coping with different forms of distances seems to be an integral part of their work. They make use of four potential mechanisms to cope with distance in their healthcare organization practices. Originality/value – The relationship between managers and professionals is often defined as a dichotomous gap. The findings in this research suggest a more dynamic picture of the relationship between managers and professionals than is currently present in literature. This study moves “beyond” the gap and investigates processes of distancing in-depth.

COVID-19 and overconfidence bias: the case of developed, emerging and frontier markets

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vijay Kumar Shrotryia ◽  
Himanshi Kalra
Keyword(s):  
Stock Markets ◽  
Impulse Response Functions ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Governance Practices ◽  
Global Stock Markets ◽  
Developed Stock Markets ◽  
Overconfidence Bias ◽  
Global Stock

PurposeThe main purpose of the present study is to delve into the overconfidence bias in global stock markets during both pre COVID-19 and COVID-19 phases.Design/methodology/approachThe present study makes use of daily adjusted closing prices and volume of the broad market indices of 46 global stock markets over a period ranging from July 2015 till June 2020. The sample period is split into pre COVID-19 and COVID-19 phases. In order to test the overconfidence fallacy in the chosen stock markets, bivariate market-wide vector auto regression (VAR) models and impulse response functions (IRFs) have been employed in both phases.FindingsA highly significant contemporaneous relationship between market return and volume appears to be more pronounced in the Japanese, US, Chinese and Vietnamese stock markets in the pre COVID-19 era for the relevant coefficients are positive and highly significant for most lags. Coming to the period of turbulence, the present study discovers strong overconfident behavior in the Chinese, Taiwanese, Turkish, Jordanian and Vietnamese stock markets during COVID-19 phase.Practical implicationsA stark finding is that none of the developed stock markets reveal strong overconfidence bias during pandemic, suggesting a loss or decline in the investors' confidence. Therefore, the regulators should try to regain the investors' trust and confidence in the markets by ensuring honest, fair and transparent practices. The money managers should reduce the transaction cost to encourage trading and educate investors to hold a well-diversified portfolio to mitigate risk in the long run. The governments may launch recovery packages focusing on sustaining and improving economic activities. Finally, a better investment culture may be built by the corporate houses through good corporate governance practices to regain lost trust.Originality/valueThe present study appears to be the very first attempt to gauge overconfidence bias in the wake of a recent COVID-19 pandemic.

CEO behavior and sustainability performance: the moderating role of corporate governance

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Amel Kouaib ◽  
Asma Bouzouitina ◽  
Anis Jarboui
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Governance ◽  
Real Estate ◽  
Corporate Sustainability ◽  
Least Square ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Sustainability Performance ◽  
Corporate Sustainability Performance ◽  
Good Corporate Governance ◽  
Governance Practices ◽  
The Impact

PurposeThis paper explores how the tension between a firm's CEO overconfidence feature and externally observable hubris attribute may determine the level of corporate sustainability performance. This work also contemplates the impact of the moderator “corporate governance practices.”Design/methodology/approachThis study uses a sample of 658 firm-year-observations using a sample of European real estate firms indexed on Stoxx Europe 600 Index from 2006 to 2019. To test the developed hypotheses, feasible generalized least square (FGLS) regression is applied.FindingsFindings suggest that a good corporate governance score strengthens the positive effect of the psychological bias (CEO overconfidence) on corporate sustainability performance while it fails to attenuate the negative effect of the cognitive bias (CEO hubris).Research limitations/implicationsThe research provides an overview of the impact of CEO personality traits on the corporate sustainability performance level in the European real estate sup-sector. As corporate governance can have a major impact to control these traits, the authors recommend European real estate companies to improve their corporate governance practices.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the existent literature this gap with two empirical novelties: (1) providing a novel insight into sustainability involvement using a sample of European real estate sup-sector and (2) investigating the moderating effect on the link between CEO psychological and cognitive biases and sustainability performance. This study provides empirical evidence that entrenchment problems arising from CEO hubris would not be mitigated by a good corporate governance practice.

Artificial intelligence (AI) for tourism: an European-based study on successful AI tourism start-ups

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Raffaele Filieri ◽  
Elettra D’Amico ◽  
Alessandro Destefanis ◽  
Emilio Paolucci ◽  
Elisabetta Raguseo
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Radical Change ◽  
Tourism Industry ◽  
Venture Capitalists ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Travel And Tourism ◽  
Study Experience ◽  
And Mathematics ◽  
Start Ups

Purpose The travel and tourism industry (TTI) could benefit the most from artificial intelligence (AI), which could reshape this industry. This study aims to explore the characteristics of tourism AI start-ups, the AI technological domains financed by Venture Capitalists (VCs), and the phases of the supply chain where the AI domains are in high demand. Design/methodology/approach This study developed a database of the European AI start-ups operating in the TTI from the Crunchbase database (2005–2020). The authors used start-ups as the unit of analysis as they often foster radical change. The authors complemented quantitative and qualitative methods. Findings AI start-ups have been mainly created by male Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics graduates between 2015 and 2017. The number of founders and previous study experience in non-start-up companies was positively related to securing a higher amount of funding. European AI start-ups are concentrated in the capital town of major tourism destinations (France, UK and Spain). The AI technological domains that received more funding from VCs were Learning, Communication and Services (i.e. big data, machine learning and natural language processing), indicating a strong interest in AI solutions enabling marketing automation, segmentation and customisation. Furthermore, VC-backed AI solutions focus on the pre-trip and post-trip. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study focussing on digital entrepreneurship, specifically VC-backed AI start-ups operating in the TTI. The authors apply, for the first time, a mixed-method approach in the study of tourism entrepreneurship.

Confucian Modernity, Ultimacies, and Transcendence

2021 ◽  
Vol 75 (3/4) ◽  
pp. 397-428 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Cummings Neville
Keyword(s):  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Ultimate Reality ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Confucian Philosophy

Abstract I want to engage Taylor with a comparative Confucian vision of modernity. In order to do this, I need to present a metaphysics which can serve as a framework for comparisons necessary for a global philosophical historical perspective on modernity and transcendence and in which, in particular, I can represent both Christian and Confucian categories as alternative specifications of ultimate reality. Using non-personalistic metaphors of spontaneous emergence and stressing (dis)harmonies, Confucian philosophy gives its own specification of the ultimate conditions of human life. This will allow me to sketch how Confucian modernists might engage with modernity. I will thus defend in Confucian terms Taylor’s claim that genuine religious transcendence is possible within the conditions of modernity.

How can environment get better? A research review of pollution governance

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuqing He ◽  
Xintian Liu ◽  
Xiaoqing Wang
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Pollution ◽  
Environmental Quality ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Research Review ◽  
Coordinated Development ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Survival And Development ◽  
Solid Foundation ◽  
The Comparative Study

PurposeThis study aims to build a global environmental quality protection convention to jointly address the problems of environmental pollution governance worldwide.Design/methodology/approachFrom the perspective of environmental pollution of the air, ocean, forest, water and solid waste, the authors summarize the main important measures and mechanisms of environmental pollution governance in various countries.FindingsThe results indicate that management research on biodiversity and natural resources must be strengthened, the relationship between economic development and environmental quality management needs to be balanced, the comparative study of domestic and international environmental governance theories and practices should be strengthened, empirical and applied research on environmental governance needs to be focused on, and complete system research on environmental governance and management should be explored. In the future, further strengthening environmental awareness, addressing environmental pollution and managing environmental quality are necessary.Originality/valueThe environment is the foundation of human survival and development. With the development of economy, contradictions between human and natural environment (e.g. air, ocean, forest and water) have become prominent. Environmental pollution governance cannot only help address existing environmental problems but also solve economic problems of various countries. The prerequisite for sustainable development is to lay a solid foundation for the coordinated development of economic growth and pollution management.

Postmoney theory: value function in the domain of postmoney

foresight ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 554-570
Author(s):  
Boyan Christov Ivantchev
Keyword(s):  
Social Impact ◽  
Value Function ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Intrinsic Value ◽  
Panel Study ◽  
Economic Research ◽  
Strong Base ◽  
Content Type ◽  
A Value ◽  
First Time

Purpose The purpose of this study is to research the latest quantitative and qualitative transformations of money and its interaction with the market economy and societies in terms of their influence on the inner nature of money and its transformation from a simple tool to an aim per se, i.e. postmoney. Transforming the perception of the intrinsic value and “soul” of the money into the postmoney, influenced by the rising longevity and wide expectation for the ability to scientifically prolong the human life, will be discussed. This transformation will be confirmed by analysing the results from a national representative sociological survey (panel study with sample size n = 1,000). Design/methodology/approach The author uses the following philosophical methodological approaches – comparative-constructive, phenomenological, cognitive and deconstructive analysis. Findings The objective and qualitative reasons offered by the postmoney theory (PMT) for the transformation of money into postmoney, are related to the being of temporality, as well as to technologization and the sixth factor of production, scientific exponentiality and mental changes in the human being. A current postmoney survey gives a strong base to believe that the perception of an intrinsic value of postmoney changes the shape of a value function – from logarithmic to linear or even stochastic. This is the reason to believe that increasing of a postmoney quantity will lead to a qualitative transformation and psychological increase of postmoney sensitivity. Research limitations/implications The author intends to expand the postmoney survey on the international level so to confirm local findings. Practical implications Postmoney survey might be used as a powerful tool in creating and legalizing non-monistic money based on blockchain technologies and philosophical and socio-economic research of the postmoney issue. Social implications The future of money is of great importance for the exponentiality of the socio-economic environment and societies. Social impact of the money will be inevitably rising in the domain of postmoney perception. Originality/value The author of the current paper coined for the first-time notion of postmoney and now is expanding research developing PMT. As per the best knowledge of the author, shape of the curve of value function was not questioned and believes it might be of help to better understand the money phenomenon.

scholarly journals POWER-KNOWLEDGE RELATIONS IN THE FIELD OF POLITICAL ECOLOGY

2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 225-256 ◽  
Author(s):  
ENRIQUE LEFF
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Political Ecology ◽  
Human Life ◽  
The State ◽  
Environmental Crisis ◽  
Cultural Conditions ◽  
The World ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Open Dialogue

Abstract The current environmental crisis calls for thinking about the state of the world: the thermodynamic-ecological and symbolic-cultural conditions of organic and human life on the planet. In this regard, it stresses the need to realize the unawareness and life’s unsustainability that humanity has created. In this text I discuss and take a stand about some of the concepts and founding and constitutive research lines of political ecology. In this way I pretend to open dialogue by placing in context some of the principles, ideas, and founding viewpoints of political ecology in Latin America and contrasting them with those from the English-speaking school of thought. I intend not only to establish a political socio-geography, but to question the epistemic core of political ecology, and to stimulate a more cosmopolitan critical thinking in order to be able to face the hegemonic powers that lead the world into social and environmental decay

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