scholarly journals Pre-commercial Procurement and the Marketing of Innovation: A New Innovation Policy Instrument or “Old Wine in New Bottles”?

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 39
Author(s):  
Valeria De Bonis ◽  
Alessandro Gandolfo

We analyse the peculiarities of pre-commercial procurement (PCP) within the EU innovation policy kit, interpreting it as a risk-shifting mechanism. While most studies assume the point of view of the public procurer, we take the suppliers’ one, with a focus on SMEs. We conclude that PCP, operating in the phase of the specification of technical requirements, has the peculiar role of favouring a better match between supply and demand as for innovative goods and can allow exploiting the competitive advantages that SMEs display in the early phases of the technological process, if interpreted as an innovation-leaking process.

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 645-662
Author(s):  
Franco Zappettini

This paper discusses how emotions were mobilised by the British tabloid press as discursive strategies of persuasion during the public debate on the implementation of Brexit. Using the case study of the Suns coverage of the alleged UKs humiliation at the Salzburg meeting (2018) during the Brexit negotiations, the analysis addresses the questions of how and through which linguistic means actors and events were framed discursively in such an article. The findings suggest that The Sun elicited emotions of fear, frustration, pride, and freedom to frame Brexit along a long-established narrative of domination and national heroism. The discourse was also sustained by a discursive prosody in keeping with a satirical genre and a populist register that have often characterised the British tabloid press. In particular the linguistic analysis has shown how antagonistic representations of the UK and the EU were driven by an allegory of incompetent gangsterism and morally justified resistance. Emotionalisation in the article was thus aimed both at ridiculing the EU and at representing it as a criminal organisation. Such framing was instrumental in pushing the newspaper agenda as much as in legitimising and institutionalising harder forms of Brexit with the tabloids readership. Approaching journalist discourse at the intersection of affective, stylistic, and political dimensions of communication, this paper extends the body of literature on the instrumental use of emotive arguments and populist narratives and on the wider historical role of tabloid journalism in representing political relations. between the UK and the EU.


Author(s):  
Rafiqah Humaira ◽  

There are many literature reviews that write about the causes and expected consequences of an environmental, social, and economic crisis. It should be remembered that the role of the public sector is critical to overcoming crises, to promoting sustainable development and to managing the balance between supply and demand for public services. This qualitative research takes a case study approach to public agencies under the Ministry of Finance, namely the Directorate General of Customs and Excise. This study aims to explain financial sustainability in public bodies during the COVID-19 pandemic, and explain cutback management strategies indicated through refocusing carried out by government agencies during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as explain the relationship between cutback management and financial sustainability which is significantly directly related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The results of the analysis show that there are differences in the financial sustainability of Customs and Excise during the pandemic, namely in terms of state revenues, it certainly changes (decreases) in terms of tax revenues, import duties, and excise. Then identified indicators of cutback strategies at Customs and Excise, and there is a conceptual link between financial sustainability, the COVID-19 pandemic and cutback management strategies.


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oscar W Fitch-Roy ◽  
David Benson ◽  
Bridget Woodman

The selection and design of renewable electricity support instruments is an important part of European Union (EU) energy policy and central to the governance of the Energy Union. In 2014, the European Commission published updated guidelines for state aid that effectively mandate the EU-wide implementation of auctions for allocating revenue support to commercial scale renewable electricity generation. This article argues that the RES auction’s rapid ascent towards dominance is explained by a coincidence of an activist interpretation of EU state aid law creating demand for knowledge about the instrument and the emergence of a ready source of supply from a burgeoning community of a RES auction specialists and experts. Knowledge gained through EU-wide implementation of auctions further adds to supply of auctions expertise among the community. The implications of positive feedback between instrument demand and the growing supply of knowledge about an instrument reinforces the importance of critical engagement between policymakers and policy experts.


Author(s):  
Al. A. Gromyko

The research is focused on several key problems in the system of international relations influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic. It is shown that the events caused by it and broadly identified as a coronacrisis have a direct impact on the world economic contradictions (pandenomica) and political ones, including the sphere of security. These particular aspects are chosen as the main objects of the research. The author contends that the factor of the pandemic has sharpened the competition between regional and global players and has increased the role of a nation- state. In the conditions of transregional deglobalisation, regionalism and “protectionism 2.0” get stronger under the banners of “strategic vulnerability” and “economic sovereignty”. A further weakening of multilateral international institutions continues. The EU endeavours to secure competitive advantages on the basis of relocalisation, industrial and digital policies and the Green Deal. The article highlights the deterioration in the relations among Russia, the US, the EU and China, the unfolding decoupling between Washington and its European allies, which stimulates the idea of the EU strategic autonomy. An urgent need for the deconfliction in Russia – NATO interaction is stated.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanchayan Banerjee ◽  
Manu Savani ◽  
Ganga Shreedhar

This article reviews the literature on public support for ‘soft’ versus ‘hard’ policy instruments for behaviour change, and the factors that drive such preferences. Soft policies typically include ‘moral suasion’ and educational campaigns, and more recently behavioural public policy approaches like nudges. Hard policy instruments, such as laws and taxes, restrict choices and alter financial incentives. In contrast to the public support evidenced for hard policy instruments during COVID-19, prior academic literature pointed to support for softer policy instruments. We investigate and synthesise the evidence on when people prefer one type of policy instrument over another. Drawing on multi-disciplinary evidence, we identify perceived effectiveness, trust, personal experience and self-interest as important determinants of policy instrument preferences, along with broader factors including the choice and country context. We further identify various gaps in our understanding that informs and organise a future research agenda around three themes. Specifically, we propose new directions for research on what drives public support for hard versus soft behavioural public policies, highlighting the value of investigating the role of individual versus contextual factors (especially the role of behavioural biases); how preferences evolve over time; and whether and how preferences spillovers across different policy domains.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Atanas Totlyakov ◽  
◽  
◽  

This text discusses some key points of contemporary theoretical concepts of intersubjectivity in the context of a specific group of creative practice. Emphasis is placed on the role and specificity of an area of joint attention shared between individuals, and interpersonal inclusions, which are essential for the creation and presentation to the public of objects and images. The problems of the temporary and non-permanent connection between the intentional subjects and the role of other acting forces, both quasisubjects and quasi-objects, within the framework of an art project developing in time are touched upon. The conventional contemporary critical analysis of a work of art has been replaced by ideas of visual culture and a body-oriented approach to tracing processes that are complemented from a sociological point of view.


IG ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 328-335
Author(s):  
Hartmut Marhold

The European Union (EU) invests huge resources in overcoming the pandemic crisis and does so as a learning system: The Union learned lessons from the previous, the financial, economic and state debt crisis after 2008, in many ways. The EU assumes now definitely the role of an active player in the economy, leaving behind the neoliberal doctrine; she suspends the restrictive budgetary policy, which prevented already in 2008 and the following years adequate solutions; she reshaped the control over its financial aid programmes so that harsh conflict between member states („troika“) are mitigated; the Union further refined the public private partnership mechanisms established unter the aegis of the European Investment Bank (EIB); the European Central Bank (ECB) assumes now a role still disputed after 2008; the flexibility clauses of the Lisbon Treaty, just put into force after 2008, are now extensively applied; and, more than anything else, the Union aims at a change of paradigm by putting the NextGenerationEU programme at the service of sustainable development (enshrined in the Green Deal).


2021 ◽  
pp. 58-70
Author(s):  
Oleg G. Volotov ◽  
◽  
Sergei O. Volotov ◽  

In recent years, Hungary has frequently declared its special position on various issues, which differs from the point of view represented by Brussels. Brussels has, in return, criticized the Hungarian administration for restricting political rights, the growing role of state in the country's social and economic development, its persistent refusal to accept compulsory migrant quotas, its confrontation with Ukraine, and even its alleged anti-Semitism. The disaffection of Brussels with Hungarian Government policies was reflected in the Sargentini Report, which led to the threat of launching a procedure under Article 7 of the Treaty of Lisbon, which would have potentially suspended Hungary's voting rights in the EU and cut off its EU funding. Despite the existing divisions, Hungary values its EU and NATO memberships, as well as the improvements in relations with the US, although it still strives for independence while standing up for its own sovereignty. One of the tools of Hungarian foreign policy is the turn to the East, first and foremost to China and Russia, that allows Hungary to maneuver in a more effective way between the contemporary centers of power.


Author(s):  
Alison Jones ◽  
Brenda Sufrin ◽  
Niamh Dunne

This chapter sketches the history and functions of the EU and its institutions in order to set the EU competition rules in context. It then describes the competition provisions themselves and outlines the way in which the rules are applied and enforced, including the public enforcement of Articles 101 and 102 under Regulation 1/2003, the control of mergers with a European dimension under Regulation 139/2004, public enforcement by the national competition authorities of the Member States, and the role of private enforcement. It discusses the position and powers of the European Commission, particularly the role of the Competition Directorate General (DG Comp); the powers of the EU Courts; the significance of fundamental rights and the general principles of EU law in competition cases; the application of competition rules to particular sectors of the economy; and the application of the EU rules to the EEA.


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