Legitimacy Under Institutional Change: How incumbents appropriate clean rhetoric for dirty technologies

2017 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 395-419 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuli Patala ◽  
Ida Korpivaara ◽  
Anne Jalkala ◽  
Aino Kuitunen ◽  
Birthe Soppe

How organizations legitimate their actions under conditions of institutional change is a central yet little understood question. To address this gap, this paper investigates how incumbent firms legitimate investments in both novel and conventional technologies during periods of institutional and technological transition. We examine the rhetorical strategies that energy incumbents employ to gain legitimacy for their investments in renewable (legitimacy-gaining or novel) and non-renewable (legitimacy-losing or conventional) technologies. Employing a mixed-method content analysis of 483 press releases on strategic energy investments, published by the world’s largest energy firms during the time period 2010 to 2015, we find that incumbents utilize two different types of hybrid rhetoric to justify their investments. For investments in non-renewables, incumbents use pragmatic blending, appropriating the clean rhetoric traditionally associated with challenger technologies and combining it with justifications highlighting performance-oriented outcomes. The rhetoric used for investments in renewables involves visionary blending, combining rhetoric related to corporate strategy with sustainability rhetoric. We furthermore argue that these hybrid rhetorical strategies are observed when the legitimacy trajectories of two technologies intersect. Our study contributes to the research on rhetorical institutionalism, incumbents’ role during institutional change, and technology legitimacy.

Crisis ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 257-264 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Niederkrotenthaler ◽  
Benedikt Till

Abstract. Background: Little is known about presenting problems of primary posters (i.e., posters opening the thread) and their responders in nonprofessional against-suicide and pro-suicide message boards. Aims: We aimed to compare problems described in suicide message boards between different types of users (primary posters and respondents) and between against-suicide, neutral, and pro-suicide message boards. Method: In all, 1,182 archival threads with 20,499 individual postings from seven nonprofessional suicide message boards supporting an against-suicide, neutral, or pro-suicide attitude were randomly selected. Problems mentioned by primary posters and their respondents were coded with content analysis. Differences between pro-suicide, neutral, and against suicide boards, as well as correlations between primary posters and respondents, were calculated. Results: Interpersonal problems were most frequently mentioned by primary posters in against-suicide threads (40.9%) and less frequently in pro-suicide threads (11.8%; p < .001). In pro-suicide boards, the most frequent stressors were suicide method-related (e.g., how to identify a safe method: 26.2% vs. 2.5% in against-suicide boards, p < .001). Primary posters resembled respondents in terms of presenting problems in pro-suicide boards, but not in against-suicide boards. Limitations: Only self-reported problems were assessed. Conclusion: The results confirm a stronger focus on death than on life among users in pro-suicide message boards, and posters with similar problems meet in pro-suicide boards. The posters appear to clearly emphasize social strains over psychiatric problems compared with some professional settings.


SPIEL ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-119
Author(s):  
Kathrin Fahlenbrach

The Internet has become a central place for protest communication: the organization of protest actions, the networking of potential activists, the dissemination of information, the calling for participation in protest actions, and the mobilization of support for protest concerns. All these and other practices have migrated from the analog to the digital sphere of publicity on the Internet. Thus the forms and strategies of public protest and activism have also changed and expanded. The article traces the special conditions of protest mobilization on the Internet. Against this background it examines different types of activist online videos with their specific audiovisual rhetorical strategies.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Olli-Pekka Hilmola ◽  
Andres Tolli ◽  
Ain Kiisler

Abstract This study analyses 98 Internet pages of sea ports located in Sweden, Finland and Estonia during years 2017–2019. Aim of the study is to find, how website basic design is completed (colours and languages), how slogans, environmental issues, statistics and hinterland transports are reported. Based on the analysis, it appears as rather common that sea ports follow conservative selection of colours in their websites, where blue and white are clearly most popular. Typically, English and Swedish are as the most common used language, followed by Finnish, Russian and Estonian. In some rare cases, websites are offered in Chinese or German. Larger sea ports do have clear “slogans”, where smaller ones are just having lengthy justification for their existence. Environmental issues are increasing concern among sea ports, and these are mostly mentioned in details within Swedish actors. Providing statistics varies among companies, and in some sea ports these are provided from very long time period, where in others from just previous years or then only from last year (or even at all). It is common for companies to report that they have sustainable hinterland access, railway available.


Author(s):  
Kathy McKay ◽  
Sarah Wayland ◽  
David Ferguson ◽  
Jane Petty ◽  
Eilis Kennedy

In the UK, tweets around COVID-19 and health care have primarily focused on the NHS. Recent research has identified that the psychological well-being of NHS staff has been adversely impacted as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of this study was to investigate narratives relating to the NHS and COVID-19 during the first lockdown (26 March–4 July 2020). A total of 123,880 tweets were collated and downloaded bound to the time period of the first lockdown in order to analyse the real-time discourse around COVID-19 and the NHS. Content analysis was undertaken and tweets were coded to positive and negative sentiments. Five main themes were identified: (1) the dichotomies of ‘clap for carers’; (2) problems with PPE and testing; (3) peaks of anger; (4) issues around hero worship; and (5) hints of a normality. Further research exploring and documenting social media narratives around COVID-19 and the NHS, in this and subsequent lockdowns, should help in tailoring suitable support for staff in the future and acknowledging the profound impact that the pandemic has had.


Mathematics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (12) ◽  
pp. 1350
Author(s):  
Galina Horáková ◽  
František Slaninka ◽  
Zsolt Simonka

The aim of the paper is to propose, and give an example of, a strategy for managing insurance risk in continuous time to protect a portfolio of non-life insurance contracts against unwelcome surplus fluctuations. The strategy combines the characteristics of the ruin probability and the values VaR and CVaR. It also proposes an approach for reducing the required initial reserves by means of capital injections when the surplus is tending towards negative values, which, if used, would protect a portfolio of insurance contracts against unwelcome fluctuations of that surplus. The proposed approach enables the insurer to analyse the surplus by developing a number of scenarios for the progress of the surplus for a given reinsurance protection over a particular time period. It allows one to observe the differences in the reduction of risk obtained with different types of reinsurance chains. In addition, one can compare the differences with the results obtained, using optimally chosen parameters for each type of proportional reinsurance making up the reinsurance chain.


Journalism ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 279-300 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Boukes ◽  
Rens Vliegenthart

Journalists use news factors to construct newsworthy stories. This study investigates whether different types of news outlets emphasize different news factors. Using a large-scale manual content analysis ( n = 6489), we examine the presence of seven news factors in economic news across four different outlets types (i.e. popular, quality, regional, and financial newspapers). Results suggest that popular and regional newspapers particularly rely on the news factors of personification, negativity, and geographical proximity. Quality newspapers, instead, employ a rather general pattern of news factors, whereas the financial newspaper consistently relies on less news factors in its reporting. Findings urge scholars to move toward a more detailed understanding of how newsworthiness is constructed in different types of news outlets.


2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-141
Author(s):  
Suman Lal Shrestha

The adsorption capacity of ferrous ions onto bio-sorbents prepared from two different types of bio-waste of banana peel (CABP) and sawdust (CASD) treated with sulfuric acid was studied using Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms. Result shows that the optimum pH value for about 99 % Fe (II) adsorption onto the CABP and CASD was found to be 3 and 4, respectively, after 5 hours or more contact time period. Both the Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption models are fitted to remove the Fe (II) ions from aqueous solution by the bio-adsorbent of CABP and CASD. The maximum adsorption capacities for the CABP and CASD were found to be about 34 and 116 mg/g, respectively. These results showed that the CASD seems to be more effective bio-adsorbent than the CABP to remove the Fe (II) ions from drinking or/and wastewaters.Int. J. Appl. Sci. Biotechnol. Vol 6(2): 137-141 


2013 ◽  
Vol 22 (01) ◽  
pp. 28-33
Author(s):  
C. Otero ◽  
A. Marcelo ◽  
D. Luna

Summary Objectives: An evidence-base is important for medicine and health informatics. Despite numerous publications showing the benefits of health informatics, the emergence of health information systems in developing countries has been slower than expected. The aim of this paper is to identify systematic reviews on the domain of health informatics in developing countries, and classify the different types of applications covered. Methods: A systematic review of reviews was conducted. The literature search spanned the time period between 2000 and 2012 and included PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL, Scopus, Cochrane Systematic Reviews, LILACS, and Google Scholar. The search term was ‘systematic reviews of health informatics in developing countries’, and transparent and systematic procedures were applied to limit bias at all stages. Results: Of the 982 identified articles, only 10 met the inclusion criteria and one more article was added in a second manual search, resulting in a total of 11 systematic reviews for the analysis. Conclusions: Although it was difficult to find high quality resources on the selected domain, the best evidence available allowed us to generate this report and create an incipient review of the state of the art in health informatics in the developing countries. More studies will be needed to optimize the results.


2019 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 56
Author(s):  
Francien G. Bossema ◽  
Peter Burger ◽  
Luke Bratton ◽  
Aimée Challenger ◽  
Rachel C. Adams ◽  
...  

BackgroundThis research is an investigation into the role of expert quotes in health news, specifically whether news articles containing a quote from an independent expert are less often exaggerated than articles without such a quote.MethodsRetrospective quantitative content analysis of journal articles, press releases, and associated news articles was performed. The investigated sample are press releases on peer-reviewed health research and the associated research articles and news stories. Our sample consisted of 462 press releases and 668 news articles from the UK (2011) and 129 press releases and 185 news articles from The Netherlands (2015). We hand-coded all journal articles, press releases and news articles for correlational claims, using a well-tested codebook. The main outcome measures are types of sources that were quoted and exaggeration of correlational claims. We used counts, 2x2 tables and odds ratios to assess the relationship between presence of quotes and exaggeration of the causal claim.ResultsOverall, 99.1% of the UK press releases and 84.5% of the Dutch press releases contain at least one quote. For the associated news articles these percentages are: 88.6% in the UK and 69.7% in the Netherlands. Authors of the study are most often quoted and only 7.5% of UK and 7.0% of Dutch news articles contained a new quote by an expert source, i.e. one not provided by the press release. The relative odds that an article without an external expert quote contains an exaggeration of causality is 2.6.ConclusionsThe number of articles containing a quote from an independent expert is low, but articles that cite an external expert do contain less exaggeration.


Author(s):  
Maria Luisa Martino ◽  
Maria Francesca Freda

The concept that a traumatic experience, such as a cancer, can lead to a positive change and transformation of self, life and relationships was named as post-traumatic growth (PTG). A large amount of research measured PTG in cancer survivors arguing an interpretation of the construct as an outcome. Recently, qualitative research shows different types of narrative of PTG, but the narrative markers and their functions of transformation remain still unclear. Within a mixed-method, we aim to highlight the narrative markers and their transformative functions, underlying the PTG, within 12 cancer survivors’ narratives with medium/high and medium/low level of PTG. A redemptive sequence analysis was carried out. In the narratives with high/medium PTG we find a specific transformative function on-thinking focused transformation founded on the change/expansion of the own internal criteria to interpret the relationship with the world centralizing the self in the present and future; in the narratives with medium/low PTG we find an on-acting focused transformation, founded on the change of the operational procedures aimed to live centered on the present and on its moments.


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