scholarly journals Belgian Multinationals and Public–Private Partnerships in Economic Diplomacy

2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-50
Author(s):  
Jennifer Kesteleyn
Keyword(s):  
Exploratory Study ◽  
Institutional Context ◽  
Multinational Companies ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Public Private Partnerships ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Public Officials ◽  
Corporate Political Activity ◽  
Economic Diplomacy ◽  
The Subject

Summary This article analyses public–private partnerships in Belgium’s economic diplomacy from the perspective of multinational companies (mncs). The concept of corporate political activity (cpa) is therefore introduced. cpa is seen as a part of business diplomacy (bd), which companies use in order to defend their interests. Eight stock-listed Belgian multinationals (bmncs) were interviewed using single, semi-structured interviews. This exploratory study focused on whether or not companies contact public officials, which strategies they use and how these strategies are organized in order to defend their interests abroad. The empirical data revealed that bmncs enter into relationships with national and supranational actors. Information-sharing is the central aim of these relationships, because of the mutual realization that these contacts are important. This was less so, however, at the international level. In short, bmncs will, depending on the subject and/or the institutional context, rely on the services offered by Belgian economic diplomacy. They will initially, however, also include diplomatic functions of their own.

scholarly journals A Qualitative Exploratory Study of the Knowledge, Forensic, and Legal Challenges from the Perspective of Police Cybercrime Specialists

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefano De Paoli ◽  
Jason Johnstone ◽  
Natalie Coull ◽  
Ian Ferguson ◽  
Georgina Sinclair ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Exploratory Study ◽  
International Perspective ◽  
Skills Gap ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Creative Solutions ◽  
Legal Challenges ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Qualitative Exploration ◽  
Interview Analysis ◽  
Made In

Abstract The extant literature has demonstrated that there is a need for more empirical research on the subject of policing cybercrime. This article makes a contribution and offers a qualitative exploration of the problem of policing cybercrime from an international perspective. It structures the analysis around three main challenges: the knowledge, forensic, and legal challenges. A literature review supports the evidence that these issues are core challenges when policing cybercrime. Through 13 semi-structured interviews with cybercrime specialists from 8 countries, these three challenges are further investigated. A thematic analysis of the interviews, whilst confirming some of the previous literature findings, also outlines novel findings. Interview analysis shows that in some areas little recent progress has been made, in particular the recording of cybercrime. However, in other areas new creative solutions have been implemented, including filling the policing skills gap with civilian specialists. The article concludes by offering recommendations for addressing some of the challenges for policing cybercrime.

Measuring Service Quality in The Context of Higher Education in Vietnam

2013 ◽  
pp. 77-90
Author(s):  
Yen Nguyen Thi Hoang
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Service Quality ◽  
Exploratory Study ◽  
Measurement Scale ◽  
Education Service ◽  
The Subject

This paper focuses on the understanding of service quality in the context of Vietnamese universities. It proposes an approach for measuring the quality of the higher education service provided by universities in Vietnam. Firstly, an exploratory study was conducted. Then, the set of items which were generated became the subject of a questionnaire that was then administered to 675 students of a Vietnamese university to determine the dimensions of higher education service quality in this context. The obtained results permit us to appropriate a measurement scale which is slightly different from the SERVQUAL scale widely known as the standard for measuring service quality. The results also show that tangible elements, responsiveness and assurance seem to be three specific dimensions of the higher education service of Vietnamese universities.

scholarly journals Characterizations of preschool technology education: analyses of seven individual preschool teachers’ and childcare attendants’ descriptions of their teaching

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pernilla Sundqvist
Keyword(s):  
Technology Education ◽  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Digital Technology ◽  
Preschool Teachers ◽  
Learning Objective ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Children's Play ◽  
Staff Members ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Preschool Staff

AbstractIn recent decades the preschool has leaned more towards a learning-oriented pedagogy, where the subject of technology has been given a more prominent place. Still, studies on how individual preschool staff members perceive and teach technology is scarce. This study shows how seven preschool staff in Sweden describe their work with the subject of technology and how technology education is characterized in these descriptions. The data was produced by means of semi-structured interviews and a questionnaire and analyzed with narrative analysis. The results show very diverse practices of technology education, implying the learning possibilities for children in different preschools are not equal. Some of the staff describe a clear and conscious teaching of technology, while others describe teaching what can be viewed as a limited and/or shallow technology education, where technology is sometimes used as means for learning other subjects or contents rather than being the learning objective. Six ways to characterize technology education was found, namely: technology education (1) concerns technological objects and systems in children’s environment, (2) concerns learning to handle technological objects, (3) is doing experiments, (4) involves developing abilities, (5) is naturally included in children’s play and (6) departs from digital technology.

scholarly journals Corporate Political Strategies in Weak Institutional Environments: A Break from Conventions

2019 ◽  
Vol 161 (4) ◽  
pp. 855-876
Author(s):  
Tahiru Azaaviele Liedong ◽  
Daniel Aghanya ◽  
Tazeeb Rajwani
Keyword(s):  
Resource Dependency ◽  
Emerging Countries ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Dark Side ◽  
Political Strategies ◽  
Corporate Political Activity ◽  
Corporate Political Strategies ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Universal Application

Abstract There is a lack of research about the political strategies used by firms in emerging countries, mainly because the literature often assumes that Western-oriented corporate political activity (CPA) has universal application. Drawing on resource-dependency logics, we explore why and how firms orchestrate CPA in the institutionally challenging context of Nigeria. Our findings show that firms deploy four context-fitting but ethically suspect political strategies: affective, financial, pseudo-attribution and kinship strategies. We leverage this understanding to contribute to CPA in emerging countries by arguing that corporate political strategies are shaped by the reciprocity and duality of dependency relationships between firms and politicians, and also by advancing that these strategies reflect institutional weaknesses and unique industry-level opportunities. Importantly, we shed light on the muttered dark side of CPA. We develop a CPA framework and discuss the research, practical and policy implications of our findings.

scholarly journals With other people’s money: Campaign financing as an agency problem

2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marina Amado Bahia Gama ◽  
Gisele Walczak Galilea ◽  
Rodrigo Bandeira-de-Mello ◽  
Rosilene Marcon
Keyword(s):  
Agency Theory ◽  
Political Campaigns ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Corporate Political Activity ◽  
Listed Firms ◽  
Electoral Campaigns ◽  
Earning Quality ◽  
Campaign Financing ◽  
Harmful Effects

Agency theory explanations for corporate political activity assume that managers distort resource allocation to invest in political connections to pursue personal benefits. While distorted resource allocations yield poor earning quality, we expect that companies with efficient governance may curb this opportunistic behavior. We used matching procedures to identify the effects of financing political campaigns on the earning quality of the firm. We assembled an original panel of listed firms in Brazil from 1998 to 2013. We found that firms that donated to electoral campaigns had a lower earning quality than nondonor firms. Firms with superior corporate governance instruments were able to reduce the harmful effects on earning quality. These results support the tenets of agency theory in explaining why firms engage in politics.

Wining and Dining Government Officials: What Drives Political Networking in Chinese Private Ventures?

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. 1084-1113
Author(s):  
Jianjun Zhang ◽  
Pei Sun ◽  
Kunyuan Qiao
Keyword(s):  
Emerging Economies ◽  
Resource Dependence ◽  
Institutional Environment ◽  
Resource Dependence Theory ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Corporate Political Activity ◽  
Dyadic Relationship ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Government Relations ◽  
The Government

ABSTRACTManagerial networking with political actors has long been recognized as a crucial co-option strategy to navigate the challenging institutional environment in emerging economies. However, we know much less about what drives the variation of political networking investment by private ventures. Drawing on resource dependence theory, we unpack the dyadic business-government relations and identify the key organizational and environmental factors that shape the power dependence relationships between private ventures and the government. By examining power imbalance and mutual dependence in this dyadic relationship and considering both the necessity and the capability of political networking, we develop hypotheses regarding the ways in which size-, connection-, and location-based dependencies affect firms’ political networking intensity. These hypotheses are tested through a unique survey of Chinese private ventures. Our study finds that political networking intensity (1) has an inverted U-shaped relationship with firm size, (2) is negatively associated with the presence of embedded political ties while positively associated with that of achieved political connections, and (3) is smaller when the focal firm is located in business development zones. This research bears rich implications for our understanding of corporate political activity in emerging economies from a resource dependence lens.

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