The Role of Institutional Linkages and Regional Institutions in the Location Choice of Outward Foreign Direct Investment: Empirical Evidence from Chinese Firms

Differently from the prior studies that look at the determinants of Outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) location choice, based on the institution theory and employing a comprehensive and unique micro-level dataset of Chinese firms, this study is the first to integrate institutional linkages (Confucius Institute) and regional institutions into one framework and looks at the role of the location choices of Chinese OFDI. The results show that Chinese firms prefer to invest in countries with the presence and higher number of Confucius Institutes including Confucius classrooms. Moreover, the institutional linkage of Confucius Institutes can alleviate the possible negative effects caused by the distance between China and the host country, which suggests Confucius Institutes help Chinese firms against liabilities of foreignness and risks and costs of operation in more distant host countries. We also find that the availability and quality of China’s regional institutions have a strong impact on local firms’ willingness and capability of participating.

Tailoring Recruitment and Outreach Strategies for Underrepresented Students in Public Health Pipeline Programs

Studies have shown that racial and ethnic minority health professionals are more likely than those in the majority to work in predominantly underserved, largely minority communities. Increasing the pool of underrepresented racial and ethnic professionals could help reduce health disparities. Summer programs giving minority students public health training and experiences can increase the number who enter the health professions. This article describes recruitment strategies for obtaining a diverse pool of applicants for such a program as part of a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention funded multisite undergraduate training program intended to increase the diversity of the public health workforce. The recruitment strategies used included institutional linkages, collaborative partnerships, and interpersonal contacts. No one strategy was more effective; however, Hispanic/Latinas were more likely to be recruited through institutional linkages, but less likely to be recruited through interpersonal contacts than other female groups. Understanding successful recruitment strategies to achieve a diverse application pool for public health training programs is vital to achieve health equity.

Pembinaan dan Pengawasan Penyelenggaraan Pemerintahan Daerah Otonomi Khusus di Papua

This study aims to analyze the performance of the Directorate of Regional Arrangement, Special Autonomy, and the Regional Autonomy Advisory Council in fostering and supervising the implementation of special autonomy in Papua, analyzing the supporting factors and obstacles to the performance of the guidance and supervision carried out by the directorate as well as analyzing the strategy of guidance and supervision in the administration of local government. Special autonomy in Papua. Descriptive qualitative research design through an inductive approach. Data obtained from observation, documentation, and interviews with key informants were then analyzed using triangulation to analyze supporting and inhibiting factors and strategies, used SWOT Matrix and Litmus Test. Based on the results of data analysis, it is concluded that; (1) the directorate's performance in fostering and supervising the administration of the particular autonomous regional government in Papua has not been optimal; (2) performance supporting factors. Namely, organizational legality, human resources, leadership commitment, inter-institutional linkages, national priorities and access to coordination communication as well as performance inhibiting factors, namely, limiting regulations, limited funding, differences in employee orientation, national disintegration, 'span' of control which is far away, and the commitment between stakeholders is not optimal and; (3) the strategy resulting from this research is the "K5" strategy, namely strengthening in terms of Institutional, Communication, Coordination, HR Quality, and IT Quality. From this conclusion, the researcher provides suggestions, namely restructuring the directorate, preparing guidance and supervision instruments in the implementation of Papua's special autonomy, expanding cooperation networks or partnerships with stakeholders, developing digital-based information systems, facilitating employees to attend training or workshops, and a commitment to realizing the "K5" strategy.

International Regime Complexity

A regime complex is an array of overlapping international institutions and agreements that interact to govern in a particular issue area of international relations. International regime complexity refers to the international political dynamics that emerge from the interaction among multiple overlapping institutions within regime complexes. Scholars have identified several factors explaining the emergence of regime complexes and the growing regime complexity in world politics. Some have emphasized the functional rationale for creating institutional linkages to contain negative spillovers across regimes. Others have focused instead on actors’ incentives, pointing to the various expected benefits of governing through regime complexes rather than through separate comprehensive institutions. Scholars have also disagreed about the consequences of regime complexes and, in particular, about the extent to which regime complexity facilitates or hinders international cooperation. The early literature tended to emphasize how institutional proliferation and fragmentation contributed to regulatory conflicts, thus undermining global governance outcomes. By contrast, other works provide a more nuanced account of the effects of regime overlaps, showing that under certain conditions regime complexity contributes to the effectiveness of cooperation. A rich body of empirical evidence drawn from the study of regime complexes in several issue areas, including environmental, trade, security, migration, and public health governance, suggests that what matters is not the fragmentation and overlaps per se but how they are managed. The increasing institutional density and overlaps in international politics in the 21st century has generated significant interest among scholars of international relations (IR). The literature on international regime complexity and regime complexes has evolved theoretically and empirically since the beginning of the 12st century. Three main questions have guided and informed theoretical debates and empirical research on regime complexes. First, what are regime complexes and how are they composed? What is meant by international regime complexity? Second, what causes regime complexity and how do regime complexes emerge? And third, what are the effects and consequences of regime complexity?

Community Seed Banks in China: Achievements, Challenges and Prospects

The rich agrobiodiversity of China is under unprecedented threat, experiencing a dramatic loss of many valuable local varieties and wild relatives of main crops. The country's formal conservation system of ex situ genebanks faces serious challenges to address this loss. Community seed banks can play a key role to complement the conservation activities of these genebanks and provide other important collective goods, such as evolutionary services, but although they have been around for some 35 years in various parts of the world, in China they have a much shorter history. In recent years though the number has increased to almost 30 in 2020, in particular due to the efforts of the China Farmers' Seed Network. The community seed banks in the country are very diverse in terms of functions and services, forms of management and institutional linkages. Compared to the most common functions of community seed banks in other countries, China is bringing an important design innovation through two new functions: adding value to seed and produce through innovative marketing strategies, and building regional and national seed system linkages and fostering collaboration. The review of community seed banking not only provides rich empirical evidence, but also makes an important contribution to theory. Building on the achievements of community seed banking in the last decade, there is scope to scale this kind of very valuable agrobiodiversity conservation approach through more effective uptake and support by relevant national policies.

Positioning tertiary agricultural education within a changing policy and institutional context.

This chapter presents an historical perspective on institutional developments in support of the agricultural sector, highlighting the principal drivers of institutional change. Agriculture's institutional ecosystem has varied across time and throughout Africa, as well as in relation to its colonial origins. The discussion principally focuses on the main trends, occasionally noting regional differences. The timeline is divided into three periods. Following an overview of the structure of the institutional ecosystem, Section 3.3 describes the post-independence period to the mid-1980s and Section 3.4 analyzes the succeeding period to approximately 2005, which was dominated by structural adjustment and market liberalization programmes. Section 3.5 reviews the rapid changes which occurred after 2005, framed in terms of the institutional linkages necessary to achieve the subsidiary functions outlined above most effectively and, hence, the role of tertiary agricultural education (TAE) in an evolving agricultural innovation system. The implications for TAE are highlighted throughout the chapter.