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Public administration characteristics in EU28: Germany, report prepared for the European Commission, DGEmployment, Social Affairs and Inclusion under the Contract VC/2016/0492 “Support for developing better country knowledge on public administration and institutional capacity building”
No full textPublic Administration Reform Trends and Reform Dynamics in Germany, interim report prepared for the European Commission, DGEmployment, Social Affairs and Inclusion under the Contract VC/2016/0492 “Support for developing better country knowledge on public administration and institutional capacity building”
No full text
Advocates or cartographers? Scientific advisors and the narratives of German energy transition
No full textPolitical debate on energy in Germany has been shaped by two historically opposed discourses, one pushing for a transition to renewables, the other holding on to the status quo. Scientific policy advice (SPA) has been involved in their evolution from the beginning. This paper draws on the Advocacy Coalition Framework and on discourse and narrative theory to study the role of SPA in recent German energy policy. We explore 1) whether scientific advisors have been members of advocacy coalitions, and 2) how their contributions may have interacted with the evolution of the discourses and major narratives. We perform a qualitative text analysis of 50 SPA reports published between 2000 and 2015.
We find that the majority of studies clearly take sides in the debate, and that in most cases the reports’ positions are fully transparent. Despite the polarization, SPA provides differentiated information on key aspects of the discourses, and alternative design options for policy instruments. We conclude that SPA contributions have improved the conditions for political consensus and compromise. Collectively, SPA studies provide a basis for mapping different policy pathways and their consequences. In the future, SPA should address additional critical issues such as coal phase-out and international leadership
Organizations driving positive social change : A review and an integrative framework of change processes
No full textAcademic and practitioner interest in how market-based organizations can drive positive social change (PSC) is steadily growing. This paper helps to recast how organizations relate to society. It integrates research on projects stimulating PSC—the transformational processes to advance societal well-being—that is fragmented across different streams of research in management and related disciplines. Focusing on the mechanisms at play in how organizations and their projects affect change in targets outside of organizational boundaries, we (1) clarify the nature of PSC as a process, (2) develop an integrative framework that specifies two distinct PSC strategies, (3) take stock of and offer a categorization scheme for change mechanisms and enabling organizational practices, and (4) outline opportunities for future research. Our conceptual framework differentiates between surface- and deep-level PSC strategies understood as distinct combinations of change mechanisms and enabling organizational practices. These strategies differ in the nature and speed of transformation experienced by the targets of change projects and the resulting quality (pervasiveness and durability), timing, and reach of social impact. Our findings provide a solid base for integrating and advancing knowledge across the largely disparate streams of management research on corporate social responsibility, social entrepreneurship, and base of the pyramid and open up important new avenues for future research on organizing for PSC and on unpacking PSC processes
Successful social entrepreneurial business models in the context of developing economies: An explorative study
No full textPurpose
– Social entrepreneurial organizations have gained in awareness and interest among researchers, yet we know relatively little about how these organizations are able to create social and economic value. This paper seeks to understand how such organizations have managed to achieve scale and sustainability in developing economies – often lacking the institutions, networks and resources required to support their growth – whilst also maintaining their focus on a social mission.
Design/methodology/approach
– The paper presents a comparative case analysis of three social entrepreneurial organizations based in Bangladesh, Egypt and Spain that have been widely recognized as successful. It utilizes an explorative research approach with data gathered from many sources including published and unpublished articles, existing case studies, personal interviews and internet sources.
Findings
– Analysis of these three business models reveals common patterns in the use of strategic resources, in their value networks, and in customer interface. The findings suggest that successful social entrepreneurial organizations: proactively create their own value networks of companies that share their social vision; develop resource strategies as an integral part of the business model; and integrate their target groups into the social value network.
Research limitations/implications
– There are limitations in the sampling and data analysis approach, however, this study provides a first step towards a more inclusive empirical research agenda in the future.
Practical implications
– The paper offers interesting insights for existing for‐profit multi‐business companies to rethink their business models, particularly for developing country contexts.
Originality/value
– This paper encourages managers to think beyond the creation of economic value and demonstrates how social entrepreneurs achieve sustainable growth based on building complementary networks of stakeholders and resources integrated into the value chain. It provides propositions regarding the business models of successful social entrepreneurial organizations and hopes to stimulate managerial interest in alternative business models and future empirical research which builds on these qualitative findings
Big Promises, Small Gains: Domestic Effects of Human Rights Treaty Ratification in the Member States of the Gulf Cooperation Council
No full textIn recent years, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states have been in-creasingly willing to ratify United Nations human rights instruments. This article examines the underlying rationales for these ratifications and the limited range and drivers of subsequent domestic reforms post ratification. Drawing on both a quantitative analysis of engagement with the UN treaty bodies and Charter-based mechanisms in over 120 UN reports and qualitative interviews with over sixty-five government officials, members of civil society, National Human Rights Institutions, lawyers, and judges from all six states, this article argues that in the GCC states, UN human rights treaty ratification results from a desire to increase standing in the international community. Treaty ratification has limited effects driven by international socialization and cautious leadership preferences
Contagious Euroscepticism. The Impact of Eurosceptic Challenger Parties on Mainstream Party Attitudes toward European Integration
No full textThis project argues that Eurosceptic challenger parties can affect mainstream parties’ attitudes toward European integration in Western Europe. Defined as anti-European parties without governing experience, Eurosceptic challengers have become a pervasive electoral phenomenon. On the backdrop of both spatial theory and issue saliency theory of party competition, this project argues that Eurosceptic challenger parties can influence mainstream parties’ positions on as well as emphasis of the European integration issue.
After comparative overview of party-based Euroscepticism, a historical and descriptive quantitative analysis of mainstream EU positions and EU issue salience demonstrates that mainstream party attitudes vary significantly over time – an important precondition for Eurosceptic challengers’ programmatic influence.(...
Job Displacement and First Birth Over the Business Cycle
No full textIn this article, we investigate the impact of job displacement on women’s first-birth rates as well as the variation in this effect over the business cycle. We use mass layoffs to estimate the causal effects of involuntary job loss on fertility in the short and medium term, up to five years after displacement. Our analysis is based on rich administrative data from Germany, with an observation period spanning more than 20 years. We apply inverse probability weighting (IPW) to flexibly control for the observed differences between women who were and were not displaced. To account for the differences in the composition of the women who were displaced in a downturn and the women who were displaced in an upswing, we use a double weighting estimator. Results show that the extent to which job displacement has adverse effects on fertility depends on the business cycle. The first-birth rates were much lower for women who were displaced in an economic downturn than for those who lost a job in an economic upturn. This result cannot be explained by changes in the observed characteristics of the displaced women over the business cycle