Gendering the EU's Western Balkan Enlargement

The EU's extra-territorial, value-driven practices are often conceptualized as normative power. However, the diffusion of norms is strongly contested in terms of human rights. This is particularly true of gender equality, which the EU uses as a conditionality tool to promote human rights, consolidate democracy, and develop a well-functioning fair market economy in other countries. Using a feminist lens and drawing on the literature and official documents, this chapter questions the balance between these three aims and the extent that Europe's normative power can mainstream gender norms in Western Balkan countries. Backsliding of equality patterns and the EU's exclusive concern on producing instruments to encourage women's labour market participation indicate that it promotes more market-engaged gender equality norms instead of creating normative change in socially constructed roles in Western Balkan countries.

Adoption and implementation of automation technologies in organizations and community job-loss; corporate social responsibility managers justification mechanism among social actors

Purpose The purpose of this study is to ascertain how corporate social responsibility (CSR) managers are justifying the adoption of automation technologies in India, which is simultaneously creating job loss. Design/methodology/approach Indian firms to become and maintain superior levels of competitiveness in the marketplace had initiated the adoption, as well as usage of automation technologies such as robotics, additive manufacturing, machine learning and others. Such firm initiatives led to job loss in communities where the firm had a presence with its plants and offices. CSR managers primarily engaged with communities to undertake firm CSR initiatives. Job creation and its continuance have been a sacred component in this narrative. The adoption of automation technologies had altered this point of conversation. CSR managers had to justify both organizational actions from a firm perspective and reconcile the same to the community leaders. In this research, an exploratory study was conducted with a semi-structured open-ended questionnaire with 28 CSR experts. Data was collected through personal interviews and the data was content analysed based upon thematic content analysis. Findings The results indicated that CSR managers rationalized the adoption of automation technologies from a push-pull-mooring (PPM) perspective from a firm centric point of view. While for justification from a community (social) centric perspective, dominantly system thinking with fair market ideology than normative justification, utilitarian rather than deontological thinking (DT) and organizational economic egoism (OEE) rather than reputational egoism was applied. Research limitations/implications The study applies the theories of the PPM perspective from a firm centric point of view. While for community-based theoretical justification – system thinking with fair market ideology than normative justification, utilitarian rather than DT and OEE rather than reputational egoism was used. Practical implications This study finding would help CSR managers to undertake community activities while their firms are adopting and implementing automation technologies that are creating job loss in the very community their firms are serving. Mangers would get insights regarding the steps they should undertake to create harmony. Originality/value This is one of the first studies that delve regarding how CSR managers are justifying the adoption of automation technologies in India, which is simultaneously creating job loss. Theoretically, this study is novel because the study question is answered based upon the adoption of automation technologies from a PPM perspective from a firm centric point of view. While, for justification from a community (social) centric perspective, dominantly system thinking with fair market ideology than normative justification, utilitarian rather than DT and OEE rather than reputational egoism was applied.

Housing Choice Vouchers (HCVs) on the Geographic, Socio-economic, and Public Policy Periphery: A Critical Case Study of Blocked Mobility in the City of San Diego, California

This article examines the geographic and socio-economic distribution of housing choice vouchers (HCVs) in the city of San Diego, California. It focuses on how the concentration of HCVs on geographic, socio-economic, and public policy peripheries forms a nexus that limits housing options for low-income residents. The analysis is based on a unique database that combines three datasets. One includes data for 13,973 individual HCV recipients measuring head of household characteristics (race, Hispanic ethnicity, gender, and age) and housing unit characteristics (unit size, rents, public subsidy levels). Another data set includes population and housing characteristics at the ZIP code level from the American Community Survey (ACS). The third data set includes small area fair market rents (SAFMRs) for ZIP codes and fair market rents (FMRs) for metropolitan San Diego. Data are displayed using GIS and analyzed using logistic hierarchical regression models. The results indicated that the public housing authority (PHA) that administers HCVs in the city of San Diego implemented the HCV program in a manner that reinforced the concentration of program participants in low-income areas and impeded moves to higher opportunity areas. The results expand our understanding of how geography, socio-economics, and public policy shape the production and reproduction of the periphery.

The Off-Patent Biological Market in Belgium: Is the Health System Creating a Hurdle to Fair Market Competition?

We investigated the off-patent biological market in Belgium from a policy maker’s perspective, in light of the Belgian pharmaceutical health system. The main barriers relate to a short-term budgetary focus, to the overwhelming innovator’s reach and to a concertation model with assessment and appraisal being mixed which results in poorly effective policy measures.

e-Commerce – Leaders and Customers

e-Commerce like the technology it is representative changes every day across the global marketplace. In fact, to keep abreast of hot topics and trends from a business perspective, savvy e-Commerce businesses specifically keep watch for what is prodding those surfing and searching the Internet to jump at sales within their own industries. The following provides both a birds-eye view and an insider lens to who are the leaders and customers of e-Commerce today, and why. The following also specifically discusses the tremendous impact Amazon continues to have setting standards for best practices in e-Commerce. Other topics covered give insights on the demographics of who uses e-Commerce the most, and how Mobile-Commerce cannot be ignored to assure getting or maintaining a fair market share.

Salary-Quality Beliefs: Products Made by Well-Paid Employees are Expected and Perceived to be of Higher Quality

Determinants of quality and value perceptions are a central issue for marketers and consumer psychologists alike. Seven experiments (six preregistered; N = 3453, with U.S. American, British, and French participants) show that consumers expect and perceive products made by well-paid workers to be of higher quality. This increases consumers’ choice likelihood and willingness-to-pay for products made by well-paid workers. We suggest that consumers interpret workers’ salaries and satisfaction as costly product quality signals from the firm. Therefore, consumers’ lay theory benefits firms who pay their workers higher salaries. This effect is driven by the consumers’ belief that well-paid workers are more satisfied, and that more satisfied workers exert more effort, resulting in them producing higher-quality products. This suggests that consumers subscribe to a happiness lay theory to determine value. The present work contributes to the theoretical advancement of scholarly literature in marketing, consumer psychology, and applied psychology. We make several practical suggestions for marketing managers, workers’ unions, and policymakers on how to use, communicate, and regulate worker salary and satisfaction information, taking into account worker welfare and fair market competition as well as revenue and profit maximization.

A note on auditing fair value of investment properties

PurposeThe purpose of this article is to study how fair values in financial reports are audited.Design/methodology/approachThe study is a qualitative case study based on in-depth interviews.FindingsOne important finding is that auditors anchor in the figure presented by the company, and despite the auditing efforts, there is a substantial risk of management bias in the fair values reported. There is a risk for confirmation bias.Research limitations/implicationsRelatively, few respondents were employed in this study, but their background and competence lead to the assessment that the study provides a representative picture of what is being investigated.Practical implicationsAuditors may need to develop ways of performing auditing of fair values to reduce the risks identified in this study.Social implicationsThis study presents a perspective of the auditing process enabling an evaluation of the quality of fair value estimates regarding investment properties in the financial reports. This study also provides users of financial reports as investors, bankers and other institutions with an enhanced understanding of reported estimates of fair (market) values.Originality/valueVery few studies have investigated how auditors evaluate fair values of investment properties. This study contributes by giving users of financial reports an enhanced understanding of the quality of reported estimates of fair (market) values.

Justice Problem with Marxist and Liberal Approaches: Philosophical Justification and Economic Interpretation

This article compares Marx’s understanding of such concepts as rights, freedom and equality underlying the concept of justice with that of classical and modern liberalism. It is shown that Marx did not reject the key values of liberalism but approached them from two perspectives — historical and anthropological. On the one hand, Marx criticized the exercise of human rights under capitalism as «bourgeois», pointing out that they justify the alienation of the human condition and disguise economic exploitation as fair market exchange. On the other hand, Marx proposed his own model of future equality based on the values of self-realization and solidarity, and ultimately on his idea of the «generic» human nature. This approach goes beyond deontological justice, developed by modern liberal thought in the Rawlsian spirit, and at the same time brings Marx’s views closer to the tradition of natural law and modern communitarianism.