1,721,005 research outputs found
Corporate lobbying in Brussels : impact of direct and indirect lobbying strategies on firm profitability
Full text linkLobbying is today a multimillion-dollar global industry, responsible for sharing of information,
expertise, and network of relations. The returns on corporate lobbying is one topic of concern
for managers and academics alike. Nonetheless, international literature is divided in whether
lobbying brings more benefits than costs, and European research has insufficient literature on
the corporate financial implications of lobbying in Brussels. This study aims to understand
whether lobbying improves firm profitability, as measured by ROA and ROE, for a 300-
company sample via OLS cross-sectional and First Effects and First Differenced estimators
panel analysis. By including the most relevant direct and indirect lobbying strategies from
qualitative literature such as establishment of a Brussels office or hiring a professional
intermediary, the goal is to understand how different routes contribute to financial benefit. This
study does not find solid evidence to support the claim that lobbying firms perform better.
However, hiring a ‘revolving door’ lobbyist (as measured by an access proxy) reports a
significant positive effect on ROA. Separate reporting for results including and excluding
sample outliers provides some robustness to the findings. This report contributes to literature
by testing the profitability impact of several lobbying strategies at EU level for a sample of
public and private firms, and for providing an initial insight into lobbying effort returns for
different time lags.Lobbying é hoje uma indústria global avaliada em vários milhões de dólares, responsável por partilha
de informação, experiência e redes de relações. O retorno do lobbying empresarial é um tema que
interessa a empresários e académicos. No entanto, a literatura internacional está dividida em relação
custo-benefício do lobbying e a literatura europeia não tem estudos suficientes para as implicações
financeiras do lobbying em Bruxelas. Este estudo procura compreender se o lobbying melhora a
rentabilidade das empresas, medida por ROA e ROE, para uma amostra de 300 empresas com dados
transversais e de painel, estudadas através de OLS e estimadores Efeitos Fixos e Primeiras Diferenças.
A inclusão de estratégias relevantes de lobbying direto e indireto provenientes da literatura qualitativa,
como por exemplo estabelecimento de um escritório em Bruxelas ou contratação de intermediários
profissionais, permite compreender como estas alternativas contribuem para o benefício financeiro. Este
estudo não encontra evidência robusta de que as empresas que fazem lobbying tem melhor performance
financeira. No entanto, contratar um lobista ‘porta giratória’ (medido através de uma métrica de acesso)
apresenta um impacto positivo significativo no ROA. A análise com e sem valores extremos traz alguma
robustez às conclusões do estudo. Este relatório contribui para a literatura através do teste à rentabilidade
de várias estratégias de lobbying na UE para uma amostra de empresas públicas e privadas, e por
providenciar um olhar inicial ao retorno dos esforços de lobbying através de vários desfasamentos
temporais
Crossing the River by Feeling the Stones: The Empowerment of EU Agencies in EU Border Management
Full text linkThe phrase “Crossing the river by feeling the stones” is a proverbial expression that originally refers to the experimental and programmatic approach towards China’s economic reform in the 1980s and 1990s. This thesis employs the metaphor to signify the empowerment of EU agencies in the management of the EU’s external borders. The terrorist attacks of 9/11 brought the issue of external border control to the forefront of EU political and bureaucratic practice. As a result, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, also known as Frontex, was established in October 2004 and became operational at an unprecedentedly rapid pace for Union bodies. Within the policy framework of European integrated border management, further EU agencies that were created to address different policy needs have increasingly collaborated with Frontex and become involved in border controls and surveillance. This thesis interrogates the empowerment of these agencies in EU border management and their political implications for the EU's approach to external borders. This thesis employs a principal-agent historical institutionalist approach to provide a theoretical foundation for analysing the EU border regime and identifying the mechanisms through which the relevant agencies have exerted influence over the regime. By examining Frontex’s joint sea operations, Frontex’s access to information, three flagship projects of inter-agency cooperation, and the agencies’ international action, this research finds that the initial delegation to Frontex has led to a self-reinforcing border control coordination approach and gaps in Member States’ control over subsequent institutional adjustments. The findings of this thesis demonstrate that the empowerment of the relevant agencies has contributed to diminishing Member States’ policy autonomy, enhancing EU oversight over border management, institutionalising common administrative capacity at the EU level, and bolstering EU actorness in the external dimension of border controls. The findings of this research lead to the conclusion that, while EU Member States retain ultimate authority over their external borders, the empowerment of EU agencies has led to a shift in the EU’s approach to border management towards integration. This thesis has contributed to the understanding of the gradual institutional change in EU border controls and the impact that EU agencies can have on this process
Leading the way to compromise. The refugee adaptation process in Poland – case study
No full textOd wielu lat na całym świecie, przede wszystkim w Stanach Zjednoczonych i w krajach Europy Zachodniej, prowadzone są badania dotyczące migracji oraz związanego z nią uchodźstwa. Polska, jako kraj na granicy świata zachodniego i wschodniego, staje się stopniowo dla mieszkańców Europy Wschodniej państwem imigracyjnym, celem ucieczki z własnej ojczyzny. Chcąc ukazać kategorię Innego poprzez wybranych cudzoziemców oraz aspekty ich funkcjonowania w Polsce, analizuje materiały zgromadzone podczas badań terenowych przeprowadzonych podczas wizyty w Ośrodku dla Uchodźców w Czerwonym Borze, prywatnych kwater badanych w Łomży oraz w siedzibie Fundacji „Ocalenie” w Łomży. Faza interpretacji danych polegała na zakodowaniu materiałów zgromadzonych podczas wywiadów narracyjnych, które uprzednio zostały poddane transkrypcji. Nadane kody stanowiły opis następujących tematów: powód wyjazdu z ojczyzny, dlaczego celem wyjazdu była Polska, jak wyglądało/wygląda życie w ośrodku, różnice kulturowe oraz kategorie scharakteryzowane w teoretycznej części dysertacji, czyli inność, transnarodowość, integracja, dialog międzykulturowy, potrzeba znajomości języka kraju przyjmującego.The global nature of international migration, subordinate to the tendencies listed by Castles, is very symptomatic of the postmodern era. It is important that we understand the need for cooperation, protection of the borders, but mostly the legal arrangements for immigrants. Migration is one of the factors that most strongly affect world transformation, at various levels of state and society. The analyses of empirical material allowed me to describe the techniques used by the refugees to find their place in a culturally and ethnically alien society. The ‘survival’ technique
revealed the basic behaviour of the refugee in the host country, which is mainly understanding of the Polish socio-cultural reality. Field research was conducted in the Czerwony Bór exile
centre, in the Ocalenie Foundation facilities and in immigrants’ private quarters in Łomża among 28 refugees, between 18 to 70 years of age, from Armenia, Georgia and, mainly, the Chechen Republic
Komunikowanie (o) — Konstruowanie (z). Tożsamość
No full text
Communication — Construction. IdentityThe paper presents the concept of constructing one’s own Me with reference to globalization. It deliberates postmodern identity, which is not the final Me, but one in the process of endless formation. The paper will attempt to describe the identity as a cloth, not a skin for an individual and claim that, as such, it is not entirely pejorative and has positive aspects for the postmodern Me.
Communication — Construction. IdentityThe paper presents the concept of constructing one’s own Me with reference to globalization. It deliberates postmodern identity, which is not the final Me, but one in the process of endless formation. The paper will attempt to describe the identity as a cloth, not a skin for an individual and claim that, as such, it is not entirely pejorative and has positive aspects for the postmodern Me
Policy ideas through the prism of knowledge regimes and framing
Full text linkPolicymakers are often confronted with problems that involve ambiguity and uncertainty (Zahariadis, 2003). In order to make sense of such problems and to identify possible solutions, they are on the lookout for policy ideas
Nawigatory wyborcze: Czy możemy mówić o ich użyteczności w badaniach empirycznych?
Full text linkVoting Advice Applications (VAA) are becoming a more significant part of the political environment in the Western Europe. Their popularity is growing together with the number of users that employ them to receive voting advice in upcoming elections. The aim of the article is to analyse the problems related with creation and maintenance of VAAs and how it reflects on usefulness of data collected through VAA for empirical research. The article focuses on three main difficulties: (1) amount, timing, and quality of self-positioning of parties that influences the coding of the parties in preparation of the applications and consequently reliability of collected data, (2) issues with accessibility of VAAs, how it influences number of users, and how representative are results in comparison to full population of voters, and finally, (3) the increased competition that VAAs are facing and how it asks for quality control and need for cross-VAA data consolidation. To show that those problems are not unique to one country, the analysis elaborates on experiences from the Netherlands and Poland collected during work on the EU Profiler in 2009 and euandi in 2014
Myths and reality of EU policy processes and interest-groups participation : why are interest groups not as successful as they would like to be?
No full textDefence date: 27 June 2011Examining Board:; Prof. Friedrich Kratochwil, European University Institute (Supervisor); Prof. Pepper Culpepper, European University Institute; Prof. Jan Beyers, University of Antwerp; Prof. Pieter Bouwen, Katholieke Universiteit LeuvenPDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digital archive of EUI PhD thesesSome interest groups, when referring to their participation in EU policy processes, summarize their experience thus: ‘We are more and more consulted but less and less heard’. While the governance concept in general, and EU multi-level governance in particular, argue for the inclusion of interest groups in the policy process, those groups’ statements prove that in reality the situation is different. The questions that must be answered, then, are: why does this happen, and where is the catch? This thesis examines the EU’s relationships with interest groups in general, and, in particular, the factors supporting and opposing NGOs’ and business groups’ successes and failures in influencing EU policies. I seek to answer the following questions: How does the organization of the EU political system assist or limit NGOs’ and business groups’ participation in the policy process? Does their position in policy networks have any influence on their input transposition? Does it affect the quality of their input? Can external factors to the policy processes themselves be a reason for lack of input implementation? I focus on three case studies. Firstly, as a background study, I examine the EU political system; subsequently, I analyze the EU Sustainable Development Policy and the EU Regulation on chemicals and their safe use (REACH) as particular examples of ‘on-the-ground’ cases. My main methodologies are process-tracing (including comparative content text analysis), social-network analysis, and interviews with key informants. The results are striking. The EU political environment does not appear to be as open as its supporters would like it to be perceived. Coalition-building proves to be the most efficient element of successful interest-group campaigns. The quality and independence of the input of interest groups is questionable. And finally, it emerges that external factors, which should be irrelevant, have a major influence – both positive and negative – on groups’ input transposition, depending on the situation
Achieving Democracy through Interest Representation? Revisited
Full text linkThe article focuses on the discussion of a link between interest representation and its importance for democracy. After a look at the pluralist, corporatist and neo-pluralist approaches, the article focuses in particular on the role for interest groups in associational, deliberative and participatory democracies. I debate whether or not interest representation is a necessary element of democracy and can the theoretical background help us in grasping it across all political systems. I address this question in the context of young, post-Communist democracies in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). I argue that in the CEE countries, when studying interest groups’ populations and organizational behaviour, we have to take into consideration a number of internal and external factors that impacts perceptions and actual activity of interest groups when it comes to countries’ democratization
Migracja i powrót do ojczyzny — analiza komiksu „Powrócisz TU”
Full text linkThe aim of the article is to analyze emigration experiences, the perception of the motherland, and the construction of identity in the perspective of a graphic story — a comic book. The article analyzes the content of Karolina Chyżewska’s comic book Return Here. The emigration experiences of the comic’s main character were presented using the categories generated during the analysis. Important codes for analyzing the material were: the question “who am I?” and an attempt to answer it; a mother’s memories; Polish-German cultural differences (including the image of women, male-female relations, taboos); the concept of the motherland; and the relationship between mother and daughter.Celem artykułu jest analiza doświadczeń emigracyjnych, postrzegania ojczyny oraz konstruowania tożsamości w perspektywie opowieści graficznej, jaką jest komiks. W artykule dokonano analizy treści komiksu Karoliny Chyżewskiej Powrócisz TU. Doświadczenia emigracyjne głównej bohaterki komiksu zostały omówione z wykorzystaniem kategorii wygenerowanych podczas analizy. Istotnymi kodami dla analizy materiału były pytanie: „kim jestem?” i próba odpowiedzi na nie, wspomnienia matki, polsko-niemieckie różnice kulturowe (w tym wizerunek kobiet, relacje damsko-męskie, tematy tabu), pojęcie ojczyzny oraz relacje matki i córki
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