FROM PLANNED ECONOMY CULTURE TO ENTREPRENEURIAL CULTURE: THE EXAMPLE OF BULGARIAN AND ROMANIAN ORGANISATIONS

1998 ◽  
Vol 06 (02) ◽  
pp. 155-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
MIHAELA KELEMEN ◽  
LATCHEZAR HRISTOV

The dismantling, in 1989, of the socialist mode of production and distribution in Bulgaria and Romania has marked the beginning of a turbulent and unprecedented period which has had dramatic implications on organisational survival. Some organisations have adapted well to the demands of the so called transition period, others have collapsed in no time. The paper explores the process of change from planned economy culture to entrepreneurial culture in four Bulgarian organisations and four Romanian organisations which have managed to establish themselves as quality suppliers for the Western market. The research methodology consists in in-depth interviews conducted with senior managers as well as an analysis of organisational documents. The theoretical model proposed by the paper is grounded in data, being developed according to Eisenhardt's (1989) methodology. Thus, the change from planned economy culture to entrepreneurial culture is mapped along five dimensions namely, strategic orientation, organisational structure, commitment to quality, technological innovation and control of resources. This theoretical framework has explanatory power only within the organisational settings explored, making no claims to absolute truth or generalisability. However, the model may serve as a working formula for other organisations facing similar pressures.

Agriculture ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 156
Author(s):  
Simona Tarra ◽  
Giampiero Mazzocchi ◽  
Davide Marino

The restriction measures linked to the COVID-19 shock suddenly highlighted the vulnerability of most socioeconomic systems, including the food sector. In a context in which the limitation to the movement of people and goods has put the longer and more structured supply chains in serious difficulty, many experiences and initiatives have emerged as viable alternatives. The aim of the research was to understand if and how the Solidarity Purchasing Groups (SPG) of Rome have contributed to the resilience of the food system of the metropolitan city during the lockdown. The research was based on the results of a questionnaire administered to the SPGs of Rome during the first period of the pandemic (April–July 2020), enriched by some in-depth interviews carried out by the authors. What emerged was that, despite the limited extent in terms of products conveyed within the whole food system, the SPGs represented an important food supply channel during the lockdown period, for two main reasons: a greater flexibility and agility in moving and in handling goods and the possibility of remunerating local farms, contributing to the resilience of the local agri-food fabric. The analysis of the results confirms the strong vitality of such Food Movements in Rome and, at the same time, allows for the identification of a series of interventions that the institutions could adopt to favor the spread of a food environment more compatible with more sustainable and fairer forms of food production and distribution.


2021 ◽  
pp. 104973232110174
Author(s):  
Lisa Hodge ◽  
Amy Baker

Eating disorders continue to be viewed as curable diseases, forcing people into predetermined narratives of pathology that shape how they are viewed and treated. Situated in a feminist application of Bakhtin’s sociological linguistics, we were concerned with how participants understood eating disorders, the nature of their experiences, and the causes of their distress. Following a dialogical method, multiple in-depth interviews were conducted with seven women who experienced an eating disorder and who had been sexually abused previously, and participants’ own drawings and poetry were obtained to gain deeper insights into meanings and emotions. We found an eating disorder offered a perception of cleanliness and renewal that was attractive to participants who experienced overwhelming shame. It is critical that researchers use a range of visual and sensory methods to move eating disorder understandings and treatment beyond illness and pathology.


World ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-190
Author(s):  
Diosey Ramon Lugo-Morin

The world is currently experiencing a pandemic: a virus in the family Coronaviridae is causing serious respiratory infections in humans. The outbreak of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was declared a pandemic by the WHO on 11 March 2020. The outbreak began in December 2019 in Wuhan, China, and has since spread throughout the world. Despite measures taken by governments throughout the world to contain and control the spread, economic disruption at the global level is imminent and will affect all economic sectors, particularly the food sector. In a post-pandemic scenario, the use of new technologies will be decisive in a new model of food commercialization. The production and distribution of food will be configured to make supply chains optimal and safe systems. Against this background, the present study aims to explore and analyze the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for global food security.


2019 ◽  
Vol 239 (3) ◽  
pp. 565-597 ◽  
Author(s):  
Uma Rani ◽  
Marianne Furrer

Abstract Digital labour platforms have been increasingly gaining popularity over the past decade. In particular, there has been much debate about workers’ motivations and working conditions on microtask platforms. There exists little evidence on whether dependence on digital microtask platforms provides workers with work and income security in the long term and whether it provides opportunities for skill development. This paper explores the extent to which the seemingly flexible platform work ensures work and income security and provides opportunities for skill development for workers with different levels of experience, based on novel survey data collected on five globally operating microtask platforms and in-depth interviews with workers. The findings show that despite high financial dependence on this work, returns to experience on the platform are meagre in terms of earnings, and highly experienced workers face the same risks as new entrants with regard to discrimination, high work intensity, lack of autonomy and control over work, and social protection. There is also a skills gap between the nature of tasks available on these microtask platforms and the workers’ education levels. Finally, experience does not ensure that workers have the opportunities to undertake complex and challenging tasks, and the possibilities to develop their skills and improve career prospects are limited.


1984 ◽  
Vol 106 (3) ◽  
pp. 279-284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. Bai ◽  
W. Johnson ◽  
R. G. M. Low ◽  
S. K. Ghosh

When an oil tank collapses or ruptures any contained hazardous substance flows outwards and can damage nearby plant or people as well as lead to pollution of the local environment. In recent years, this and similar subjects have given rise to a new kind of engineering—spill prevention and control. However, theoretical background, backed by experiment, is lacking to work out reliable regulations. An intermediate-asymptotic analysis for late-stage spreading is carried out in this paper. This analysis reveals several characteristic features of the spill wave such as transition period and linear relationships between spreading area and time, and wave front velocity and the inverse of zone radius. Most of the latter results have been verified by model experiment. This paper also discusses the discrepancies between observations and the theory suggested in a recent UK Health and Safety Executive report. Finally, the present paper puts forward proper modeling rules for future work.


2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ya-Feng Mon

This book uses the potent case study of contemporary Taiwanese queer romance films to address the question of how capitalism in Taiwan has privileged the film industry at the expense of the audience's freedom to choose and respond to culture on its own terms. Interweaving in-depth interviews with filmmakers, producers, marketers, and spectators, Ya-Fong Mon takes a biopolitical approach to the question, showing how the industry uses investments in techno-science, ancillary marketing, and media convergence to seduce and control the sensory experience of the audience-yet that control only extends so far: volatility remains a key component of the film-going experience.


Author(s):  
Luca Barra ◽  
Massimo Scaglioni

In recent years, the completed transition towards a fully developed multichannel environment and the growth of non-linear offers has brought to the Italian television (TV) landscape unprecedented attention on the ways in which programmes are communicated to the audience and their images and identities are carefully built. The preparation and circulation of promos have therefore grown in importance and relevance in the national TV industry, as new original practices emerged and a long-lasting tradition was challenged by new formats and goals. Building on a set of in-depth interviews with professionals involved in the writing, production and distribution of promos, and analysis of other production materials, the article reconstructs the ‘promotional cultures’ of Italian broadcasters, analysing the main production processes, the different kinds of promos and the various skills involved, and the logics and constraints involved in the making of these ephemeral paratexts that more and more are pervading both the structure of programming flow and the experience of national TV viewers. Thus, the article investigates the professional practices and logics of contemporary commercial and pay TV programme promotion in Italy, defining the role played by national private broadcasters and transnational groups in shaping an Italian promotional space on TV. The ‘Italian style’ of TV show promotion emerges as a constant negotiation between local historical traditions and clichés, on the one hand, and international trends in promo production and aesthetics, on the other, with a solid path shared with other countries and broadcasters, and some peculiar specificities.


2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 69-81
Author(s):  
Andry Indrady

The Bureaucratic System of the Immigration Department of Hong Kong SAR is one of the legacies from British Colonial Government seen from legal and also immigration bureaucratic perspectives reflect the executive power domination over immigration policymaking. This is understandable since Hong Kong SAR adopts “Administrative State Model” which means Immigration Officer as a bureaucrat holds significant roles at both stages of policymaking and also its implementation. This research looks at transition period of the Immigration Department and its policies since the period of handover of Hong Kong SAR from the British Government to the Government of China especially throughout the concern from the public including academics about the future of immigration policies made by the Department that arguably from colonial to current being used as political and control tools to safeguard the interest of the Ruler. This situation ultimately will question the existence of Hong Kong SAR as one of the International Hub in the Era of Millennium.  


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard J Binney ◽  
Richard Ramsey

Research in social neuroscience has primarily focused on carving up cognition into distinct pieces, as a function of mental process, neural network or social behaviour, while the need for unifying models that span multiple social phenomena has been relatively neglected. Here we present a novel framework that treats social cognition as a case of semantic cognition, which provides a neurobiologically constrained and generalizable framework, with clear, testable predictions regarding sociocognitive processing in the context of both health and disease. According to this framework, social cognition relies on two principal systems of representation and control. These systems are neuroanatomically and functionally distinct, but interact to (1) enable development of foundational, conceptual-level knowledge and (2) regulate access to this information in order to generate flexible and context-appropriate social behaviour. The Social Semantics framework shines new light on the mechanisms of social information processing by maintaining as much explanatory power as prior models of social cognition, whilst remaining simpler, by virtue of relying on fewer components that are “tuned” towards social interactions.


Author(s):  
Bara Azzam Ali Al- qwaqneh

The study aimed to reveal the effectiveness of a training program to reduce stuttering disorders in primary school students in Ajloun schools in Jordan. Five dimensions of stuttering disorders were identified. Third grade students in Ajloun Elementary Boys School were distributed equally to experimental and control group. Ij study, there is statistically significant in all disorders of the dimensions of stuttering in the third grade primary students are differences in the two measurements prior and subsequent to the performance of the control and experimental groups students due to the training program used in the study, for the experimental group, which underwent a program to reduce the severity of stuttering students.


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