SORRY, BUT...: PLATFORM APOLOGIES, ABUSE, AND CONSTRUCTING THE CULPABLE SUBJECT

Apologies have become a prominent feature of online platforms’ corporate communications. Whether in response to instances of harassment, security lapses, or political manipulation, official expressions of remorse or regret—often coupled with vows to “do better”—work to reconcile or recover a platform’s commitments in the face of public relations, economic, or regulatory pressure. Despite their prominence, however, apologies have received comparably less critical attention in research on harassment and abuse than other corporate responses. In this work, we employ discourse analysis to explore three high-profile apologies: former Reddit CEO Ellen Pao’s July 2015 apology for missteps in addressing the site’s abusive climate; Riot Games’ 2018 apology for hostility and sexual harassment at the company; and Twitch’s June 2020 apology in response to allegations that some streamers had engaged in offline sexual harassment--leading to online harassment of the alleged victims. Throughout our analysis, we pay particular attention to how apologies 1) construct and reproduce particular ideals of platforms and attendant actors and 2) distribute or assign culpability for harassment and abuse. What emerges is an outline of how this genre of corporate apology is emblematic individualist approach to structural problems like online harassment, while offering pseudo-empowerment to end users through new online "tools" that $2 are primarily responsible for using.

Digital Marketing Adoption: Determinants, Level of Adoption and Its Impact on Business Performance

The purpose of this research is to investigate how women entrepreneurs are utilising digital marketing media for business marketing and what their perceptions are about digitalisation and the adoption of digital marketing. The aim is to identify the most influential determinants of digital marketing adoption amongst women entrepreneurs, their level of adoption of DM tools, and how their adoption behaviour impacts on the sales of the enterprise and, hence business performance. The findings are drawn based on primary data collected from 136 women entrepreneurs from the state of Karnataka. Hierarchical regression analysis, Somer’s D correlation Test and other descriptive statistics were used to make valid inferences to achieve the objectives of the study. Six factors (perceived expertise, enterprise readiness, perceived industry and regulatory pressure, size of the enterprise, perceived consumer pressure and perceived benefits) were revealed, strongly influencing the digital marketing adoption behaviour among women entrepreneurs. It was also found that the majority of women entrepreneurs exhibited a a low level of adoption, thus indicating that digital marketing adoption is still in its infancy. The results indicated that there was a positive impact of DM adoption level on sales and thus, it also enhanced the business performance of the enterprise.

Community pressure, regulatory pressure and corporate environmental performance

This article analyses the relationship between community pressure, regulatory pressure and corporate environmental performance. Using a sample of 2192 firm-year observations in environmentally sensitive industries for the period 2007–2012, we find that increased community pressure is negatively associated with corporate pollution levels and thus positively associated with corporate environmental performance. Furthermore, intensified community pressure can strengthen regulatory enforcement, but it cannot increase the size of the government subsidy allotted to environmental issues. Finally, regulatory enforcement partly mediates the relationship between community pressure and environmental performance. This study contributes to the understanding of firms’ environmental management and the interaction of community and regulatory pressure. JEL Classification: G38, M41, Q53, Q56

Análisis de la regulación sectorial de telecomunicaciones desde la perspectiva de la Escuela Económica Austriaca

Telecommunication services have been provided under a legal monopoly for the most part of its history. In 1998, market liberalisation was completed both in European Union and in Spain. This was accomplished under a legal framework which imposes asymmetric obligations to the incumbent operator, due to its past as monopolist. From that moment, regulatory pressure on market players has increased as the legal framework has evolved. These phenomena can be explained by the theory of price control, due to Ludwig Von Mises; the same theory may preview the future of the sector, if this tendency of regulation is continued. Key words: Regulation, asymmetric obligations, markets, monopoly, price controls. JEL Codes: B53, K23, L43, L51, L96. Resumen: Los servicios de telecomunicaciones se han prestado bajo un monopolio legal durante prácticamente toda su historia. En 1998, se com-pletó la liberalización del mercado tanto en la Unión Europea como en España. Esto se hizo bajo una normativa que impone obligaciones asimétricas al operador histórico del mercado, debido a su pasado monopolista. Desde entonces, la presión regulatoria sobre los agentes presentes en el sector ha crecido conforme ha evolucionado el marco normativo. Estos fenómenos se explican a partir de la teoría de control de precios, de Ludwig Von Mises, por lo que la misma también permite predecir el futuro que espera al sector de seguirse esta línea de regulación. Palabras clave: Regulación, obligaciones asimétricas, mercados, monopolio, control de precios. Códigos JEL: B53, K23, L43, L51, L96.

Fluorinated nematicides: Novel classes in the way

The demand on non- fumigant nematicides was strongly increased in the last few years, and this interesting in nematicides are due to farmers are needed for safer pesticides and increasing of the regulatory pressure on many of the traditional nematicides. The control of plant parasitic nematodes with synthetic nematicides is the most widespread and preferred method, but not always effective enough. The most of synthetic nematicides especially non-fumigants are high toxic to non-target organisms. Thus, Novel non-fumigant nematicides were appeared as alternatives. The group of trifluoromethyl contains both fluensulfone and fluopyram which are different in mode of action than traditional nematicides as organophosphate and carbamate. Meanwhile, results indicated that fluensulfone and fluopyram are promising nematicides. These new nematicides are very different from traditional nematicides; they are more selective, less toxic and safer to use.

Cellular Companies as a Model of a Mechanism for Reducing Sanctions Risks for Business

Economic sanctions, including financial ones, will be increasingly used in the practice of international relations in the foreseeable future as an instrument of pressure of some states or interstate associations on others. This creates incentives for the search and implementation of financial innovations aimed at reducing sanctions risks for businesses. The article demonstrates that the impetus for the creation of some important modern financial instruments and infrastructures was the attempts of states to legislatively or administratively regulate the market. The case of sanctions is likely to be no exception. One of the possible models for minimizing sanctions pressure on businesses can be the legal form of a protected cell company. It have been a financial innovation that originally emerged in the captive insurance industry and its objective was, among other things, to reduce the regulatory burden. Structures similar to protected cellular companies can potentially create the possibility to make the operations of national businesses of target countries opaque for external actors (financial regulators and monitoring agencies) that enforce sanctions. In the same time this model preserves the control of the target country’s own jurisdiction and transparency of business for its regulators. In essence, it creates a kind quasi-offshore legal regime, which, unlike traditional internal offshore zones, is designed to mitigate not internal, but external regulatory pressure.

Small and medium enterprises in public procurement: Factors affecting the decisions of public bodies

The study assesses factors influencing public bodies’decisions to conduct purchases with small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Mechanisms supporting SMEs are enshrined in the laws governing the system of state and state-corporate procurement in Russia and are mandatory for Russian contracting authorities. The inclusion of these mechanisms in the public procurement legislation implies their direct (explicit) impact, which applies equally to all regulated organizations. However, despite some similarities in the mechanisms for supporting SMEs in the laws on public procurement (both laws dictate to conduct set-aside procedures for SMEs), the frequency of procurement with SMEs participation differs between 44 FL and 223 FL. The study revealed that the choice of contracting authorities is influenced by the type of law, the position in the public power hierarchy, and the form of ownership of the organisation. The decision to purchase from SMEs is also related to the subject of the procurement and the method of identifying a supplier. The results of the study demonstrate heterogeneity in the behaviour of contracting authorities when purchasing from SMEs and explain the reasons of heterogeneity by differences in the regulatory pressure.

Sunshine or Curse? Foreign Direct Investment, the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention, and Individual Corruption Experiences in Africa

It remains unclear if foreign direct investment (FDI) benefits local citizens in host countries. Combining geo-referenced FDI data and household level surveys, this paper uses spatial-temporal techniques to assess how FDI impacts individual corruption experiences. We investigate if this relationship is conditional on the corruption levels, or engagement with the OECD's anti-bribery convention (ABC), of the FDI's source country. We find evidence that FDI flows reduce individual bribery experiences, but only when existing levels of corruption are high. We find it is FDI from comparatively more corrupt, and non-ABC engaging, countries that locates to areas of high corruption. Further, FDI appears to improve both the employment prospects and financial positions of local households. Collectively, we argue that these results suggest that individual empowerment via a wealth effect, rather than spillovers from firm professionalization or regulatory pressure mechanisms, is what stems individual corruption experiences.