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Copyright of IUG Journal of Sharia & Law Studies is the property of Islamic University of Gaza and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The need to adopt management in the field of education is based on the idea that the school is a social body that repeats the structure and functioning of a community. The transfer and assimilation of the management concept in the educational field must simultaneously take into account the capitalization of the notions of efficiency, global system, methodology, management of human behaviors. Educational management cannot be understood without a leadership practice accumulated within the education system, at all levels. Educational management must be carried out effectively at the level of all decision-makers. They must have the appropriate management experience, knowledge and skills. In the unusual conditions we live in, educational management must function on the basis of new principles, adapted to the current context in which education takes place. The aim of the paper is to highlight the need to adapt management to the current situation, by promoting a clear and coherent policy and strategy, in accordance with the general aims of education and the goals of each organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Española de Derecho Constitucional is the property of Centro de Estudios Politicos y Constitucionales and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The administrative reform launched in 2010 ("Kallikratis" programme) in Greece stands out as a major decentralization initiative. Notably, amalgamations at the local level were set at the forefront of the reform. This paper aims at shedding light on the issue of decentralizing governance by examining the implications of the "Kallikratis" reform programme on local authorities in terms of their domestic financial mobilization. Drawing empirical evidence from their implementation in European structural programmes, it is argued that the decentralization effort had an asymmetrical impact on local institutions, favouring principally the small-sized local authorities vis-à-vis the bigger in population local bodies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY This paper investigates the determinants of public‐sector efficiency, in particular the role of fiscal decentralization and fiscal rules. For 23 European countries over the period from 1995 to 2015, we construct a measure of public‐sector performance consisting of nine distinct indices for each area of public policy, such as administration, health education, economic performance, security and infrastructure. We use several efficiency techniques, e.g., free disposal hull and order‐m, and investigate input‐and output‐oriented efficiency in the public sector. We analyse in depth the impact of fiscal decentralization and fiscal rules on public‐sector efficiency. We conclude that, whereas decentralization fosters efficiency, fiscal rules have no effect. Moreover, fiscal rules, when combined with decentralization, may harm efficiency, which is consistent with the ratchet effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Community engagement is increasingly seen as key to improving healthcare systems and to increasing communities' involvement in the shaping of their own communities. This paper describes how 'community engagement' (CE) is understood and being operationalised in the Dutch healthcare system by investigating the CE approaches being implemented in six different regions and by examining engaged citizens' and professionals' experiences of those CE approaches.Methods: For this realist study, interviews and focus groups were held with citizens (16) and professionals (42) involved in CE approaches in the six regions. Additionally, CE-related activities were observed to supplement interview data.Results: This study shows that citizens and professionals defined and experienced CE differently and that they differed in who they felt had ownership of CE. The CE approaches implemented in community-led initiatives and organisationally-led initiatives varied accordingly. Furthermore, both citizens and professionals were searching for meaningful ways for citizens to have more control over healthcare in their own communities.Conclusion: CE can be improved by, first of all, developing a shared and overarching vision of what CE should look like, establishing clear roles and remits for organisations and communities, and taking active measures to ensure CE is more inclusive and representative of harder-to-reach groups. At the same time, to help ensure such shared visions do not further entrench power imbalances between citizens and professionals, professionals require training in successful CE approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a wide-reaching institutional reform, China's fiscal decentralization was launched in the early 1980s to encourage provincial economic growth by granting more financial autonomy to provincial governments. In this paper, the impact of fiscal decentralization on China's environmental quality is investigated both theoretically and empirically. A neoclassical model is developed based on the primary characteristics of China's fiscal decentralization. Using provincial panel data for the period 1995-2015, a two-equation regression model is employed to empirically verify the three propositions of the theoretical model: (1) there exists an inverted-U shaped relationship between fiscal decentralization and GDP per capita; (2) fiscal decentralization is positively related to GDP per capita at the steady state; (3) there is an inverted-U shaped Environmental Kuznets Curve relationship between pollution emissions and economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines how the "politics of belonging" that is expressed through claims of autochthony, relates to citizenship. Claims of autochthony, or claims to have settled a given place first, have become increasingly common in Africa, but they clash with efforts to introduce notions of national citizenship under the democratization and decentralization reforms that have been adopted across the continent in the last three decades. This paper analyses this tension through the empirical case of autochthony claims that emerged in the context of the creation of a "municipal forest" under the forest decentralization reform in Burkina Faso, which draws on community-based governance. It argues that in this case, autochthony is a claim for the rights to have rights, for citizenship, that takes shape within a wider politics of framing what "the community" is, and what it is good for on the ground. It draws on the work of Tania Li's work on indigeneity to illuminate the role of some of the contradictions underlying this framing – namely the lack of actual devolution and the reification of "the customary" – that help understand why autochthony becomes a powerful positioning to claim the right to have rights. So, while autochthony first appears as a breakdown of (national) community, because it clashes with the juridico-legal ideal of citizenship, if we look at the politics of decentralizing forest management in practice, it rather seems to be an integral part of claiming the rights to have rights within a globalised "community-based" form of rule. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are many examples of collaborative action research being used to promote school change. Reflecting on evidence gathered as a result of collaborative inquiry led by a teacher in a primary school in Cyprus over a 3-year period, this paper examines what is involved in using such an approach within a centralised education system. In so doing, it exposes the social and political challenges involved, whilst at the same time throwing light on possibilities for overcoming these problems in order to facilitate school-led change. In this context, frequent staff changes presented particular barriers, and recent increases in migration into the country were seen to add further challenges, whilst at the same time opening up new possibilities for stimulating innovations through collaborative action research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Internet of Things (IoT) has recently emerged as an innovative technology capable of empowering various areas such as healthcare, agriculture, smart cities, smart homes and supply chain with real-time and state-of-the-art sensing capabilities. Due to the underlying potential of this technology, it already saw exponential growth in a wide variety of use-cases in multiple application domains. As researchers around the globe continue to investigate its aptitudes, a collective agreement is that to get the best out of this technology and to harness its full potential, IoT needs to sit upon a flexible network architecture with strong support for security, privacy and trust. On the other hand, blockchain (BC) technology has recently come into prominence as a breakthrough technology with the potential to deliver some valuable properties such as resiliency, support for integrity, anonymity, decentralization and autonomous control. Several BC platforms are proposed that may be suitable for different use-cases, including IoT applications. In such, the possibility to integrate the IoT and BC technology is seen as a potential solution to address some crucial issues. However, to achieve this, there must be a clear understanding of the requirements of different IoT applications and the suitability of a BC platform for a particular application satisfying its underlying requirements. This paper aims to achieve this goal by describing an evaluation framework which can be utilized to select a suitable BC platform for a given IoT application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Colombia Internacional is the property of Universidad de los Andes and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper summarizes the arguments and counterarguments within the scientific discussion on the influence of fiscal decentralization measures on the management of innovative country development. The main purpose of the research is to test the hypothesis that expenditure and revenue decentralizations have a positive impact on the management of innovative country development. Testing the hypothesis considers realization of panel data regression analysis, and consists of several stages, such as: 1) elimination of control variables multicollinearity based on the correlation analysis; 2) identification of the regression model specification (fixed or random effects model) with the help of Hausman test; 3) realization of the regression analysis and characteristic of its results (confirmation or rejection of the hypothesis). It also should be noted that country sample consists of 12 unitary European countries (Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, and Ukraine). Time horizon - 2008-2018. Global Innovation Index is a measure of innovative country development. At the same time, the ratio of local budget revenue to consolidated budget revenue, the rate of domestic budget expenditure to consolidated budget expenditure, the proportion of local budget tax revenue to gross local budget revenue are measures of fiscal decentralization in the research. There are also selected a set of control variables that often used in economic growth models and reflect macroeconomic perspectives of country development. However, the practical realization of the stages, as mentioned above, allow identifying that fixed effect specification of the model is more appropriate in all three cases (for three different measures of fiscal decentralization). Panel data regression analysis allows confirming the hypothesis on the positive impact of revenue fiscal decentralization and the negative impact of expenditure decentralization on innovative country development. In turn, there is no statistically significant cohesion between ratio of local budget tax revenue to gross local budget revenue and Global Innovation Index. These findings in terms of fiscal decentralization reform might be considered in order to ensure a balance between power (expenditures) redistribution from central to sub-central governments and local budget financial capacity. While in terms of innovative country development, it should be considered that the lack of local budget financial resources to cover all redistributed from central government level powers makes it impossible to invest in the development of innovation. However, the increase of local government financial capacity creates opportunities not just for essential functions financing but also advanced features investment such as innovative development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is intended to show the importance of spatial accounting, the practicality of mapping and illustration. To this end, biomass potential that can be grown on arable lands and the resulting indicators were studied on the example of the Tabi járás (Tabi district) of Hungary. The processed data was projected onto maps for mapping the absolute potential, but also specific indicators such as values per hectare or per capita. The results are plotted in equal intervals and along with natural fractures classification of the data. The results thus obtained emphasize the heterogeneity caused by spatial unevenness. Taking such information into account can improve the efficiency of state interventions, investments, developments and the decentralization of other decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Regional Science Policy & Practice is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Over the last few decades, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have gained considerable influence in global politics. However, the economic literature concerning these organizations has failed to analyze this trend, and simply assumed that NGOs react to change rather than initiate it. In this paper, I propose an economic formalization of the impact of NGOs on governmental structure in aid-recipient countries, using decentralization as an indicator for governmental organization. In this cross-country analysis, the results suggest that there is a small, but positive correlation between NGO activity and levels of decentralization. This correlation persists when NGO presence is instrumented for by the log of the total number of people affected by natural disasters, a variable that acts as a control for potential endogeneity between the decentralization and aid presence variables. This relationship indicates the early stages of a trend in which NGO presence correlates positively with decentralization, contributing to new directions in the research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two main elements characterize a country as federal and the development of its federal system. The first one is directly connected to competences and how regions may or may not have powers over public policies. The second one focuses on the fiscal arena, and how regions generate their own income and share it with the central government. This paper describes from a historical point of view the different phases that the Spanish federal process has followed since its beginning in 1978 up to the last reform in 2016. These phases are related to the composition of both the regional and the national governments. It is therefore is important to investigate the connection between changes in these compositions and how they may have affected the phases of decentralization. Employing the new institutionalism paradigm and seeking for critical junctures in the different moments, we show how national governments are more important in shaping this process than regional ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Question (1669-6581) is the property of Universidad Nacional de La Plata and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Indonesia's oil palm expansion during the last two decades has resulted in widespread environmental and health damages through land clearing by fire and peat conversion, but it has also contributed to rural poverty alleviation. In this paper, we examine the role that decentralization has played in the process of Indonesia's oil palm development, particularly among independent smallholder producers. We use primary survey information, along with government documents and statistics, to analyze the institutional dynamics underpinning the sector's impacts on economic development and the environment. Our analysis focuses on revenue-sharing agreements between district and central governments, district splitting, land title authority, and accountability at individual levels of government. We then assess the role of Indonesia's Village Law of 2014 in promoting rural development and land clearing by fire. We conclude that both environmental conditionality and positive financial incentives are needed within the Village Law to enhance rural development while minimizing environmental damages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Blockchain technology provides decentralized consensus and potentially enlarges the contracting space through smart contracts. Meanwhile, generating decentralized consensus entails distributing information that necessarily alters the informational environment. We analyze how decentralization relates to consensus quality and how the quintessential features of blockchain remold the landscape of competition. Smart contracts can mitigate informational asymmetry and improve welfare and consumer surplus through enhanced entry and competition, yet distributing information during consensus generation may encourage greater collusion. In general, blockchains sustain market equilibria with a wider range of economic outcomes. We further discuss the implications for antitrust policies targeted at blockchain applications. Received May 31, 2017; editorial decision May 29, 2018 by Editor Itay Goldstein. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose to employ the framework of graph-transformational swarms for the modeling of dynamic logistic networks with decentralized processing and control. The members of a graph-transformational swarm act and interact in a common environment graph with massive parallelism of rule-based activities according to local control conditions and a global cooperation condition. This corresponds directly to the logistic hubs and their processes in a logistic network where the processes run simultaneously and autonomously with a proper way of coordination. This covers also dynamic changes on the network structures as the members of a swarm can change the environment anyhow. The approach is illustrated by the modeling of automated guided vehicles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effects of fiscal decentralization and flat administrative structure on local budget size and program outlays. We test three related theoretical hypotheses in China's adoption of province-over-county scheme of financial administration. We provide evidence that both decentralization of expenditure and decentralization of revenue increase the size of local budgets; that the impact of the former far outweighs that of the latter with local budgets on a rising trajectory; and that discretion grants localities more means to increase their budget. These results show that as China's reform deepens the proportion of local outlay on administration declines because of more local discretion from eliminating the prefecture bypass between the province and counties. But neither decentralization nor increased local discretion has allocated more local resources for education, and both contribute to increasing outlay on economic development. The paper formulates tentative policy recommendations that carry potential application for other countries. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electric vehicle (EV) development in China emerged with the 863 program (1986) for high technologies and has received support since the 10th Five Year Plan. While standards were of no particular importance in the early years of EV development, standards have increasingly become subject to policies and programs. For instance, the promotion of 'indigenous' or 'home-grown' innovation is perceived as means to develop domestic standards and contribute to international standards. Alongside this target, the Chinese government mandated the development of an EV standardization roadmap to serve as a guideline for optimizing standardization work, promoting technical innovation and large-scale industrialization. It was even considered that EV standardization was a novel standard field that has the potential to secure China a forerunner position in technological development as well as international standardization, regardless of standard-setting practices in the conventional automotive sector. Against this background, this paper examines the differences in system set-up and processes of standardization for the traditional automotive and the electric vehicles sector. While conventional automotive standardization is limited to a single sector with the Ministry of Industry of Information Technology and the China Automotive Technology and Research Centre in charge, electric vehicles require the participation of stakeholders from other sectors. Therefore, the negative influence from the conventional decentralized automotive sector on the development of common nationwide standards like the dynamics between national, regional and local actors cannot be deprived. Additionally, this paper also highlights learnings from EV standardization that might set positive impulses for conventional EV standardizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research in this paper is devoted to analysis of budget items for the city of Belgrade, to revenues and earnings, expenses and issuance for 2013, 2014 and 2015 in order to determine changes in the structure and in time, and, based on these, the appropriate conclusions were drawn, which can serve as recommendations for creating budgets in the future. One of the key problems in public procurement at the City of Belgrade level were significant differences in prices for the same items procured by different contracting authorities. In many cases the same bidder offered the very same items at prices which differed up to 50% to different contracting authorities at the city level. That was a signal for the city administration to centralize the procurement of certain items in 2015 achieving significant reduction in prices of bundled procurement compared to the ones undertaken by different contracting authorities previously. In this context, the subject of the second part of this paper will be devoted to the importance of centralization of public procurements in the segment where it is possible to achieve efficiency in the management of budget funds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the impact of two time-based payment contracts in an assembly system that consists of one assembler and two suppliers, in which both suppliers' production times are stochastic. The assembler initially chooses the contract type (delay payment contract vs on-time payment contract) and the buffer time, and two suppliers have to simultaneously determine their production lead times. We find that in equilibrium, both suppliers cut down their production lead times under the delay payment contract, and this makes them worse off than that under the on-time payment contract. Differently, the delay payment contract is the assembler's dominant option. This is because by setting the buffer time, the assembler can significantly mitigate the possible delay risk caused by the suppliers' decentralization under the delay payment contract. It also shows that the entire supply chain achieves the same service level under either the centralized condition or the decentralized condition, regardless of the applied payment contract type. Note that these results are robustness when we extend the model into the system containing N ( N $$>$$ 2) independent suppliers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We build a model to analyse the benefit of upward channel decentralization for a firm choosing service outsourcing and integration. The key findings of this paper are as follows. First, we formulate an upward channel decentralization problem as a game incorporating consumer behaviour of willingness to pay in a channel duopoly. Our model considers (i) service quality, (ii) consumer marginal willingness to pay (MWTP), and (iii) consumer perceivable difference. A supply chain firm's preference of outsourcing strategy depends on the monotonicity of both the failure rate (or Mills Ratio) and CDF-PDF ratio of MWTP distribution function. Second, we use this model to explore the benefit of retailer strategy of upward channel decentralization. An equilibrium can be achieved by benefiting the low-label product with low quality service but deteriorating the high-label channel product with high quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence-based policy-making has been a much-debated concept. This paper builds on various insights for a novel perspective: policy-driven, narrative-based evidence gathering. In a case study of UK priority setting for bioenergy innovation, documents and interviews were analysed to identify links between diagnoses of the problem, societal visions, policy narratives and evidence gathering. This process is illuminated by the theoretical concept of sociotechnical imaginaries- technoscientific projects which the state should promote for a feasible, desirable future. Results suggest that evidence has been selectively generated and gathered within a specific future vision, whereby bioenergy largely provides an input-substitute within the incumbent centralised infrastructure. Such evidence is attributed to an external expertise, thus helping to legitimise the policy framework. Evidence has helped to substantiate policy commitments to expand bioenergy. The dominant narrative has been reinforced by the government's multi-stake- holder consultation favouring the incumbent industry and by incentive structures for industry co- investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The introduction of competition in the railway market affects the procedure of infrastructure capacity allocation. Despite the new entries in the market, timetable drafting, proposing and capacity allocation remains in the infrastructure manager's responsibility. In the literature, this method of capacity allocation belongs to centralized approach. However, when railway operators request the same infrastructure capacity at the same time, the infrastructure manager is often not able to meet all requests. In such cases, conflict requests can be resolved using a market mechanism. This means that railway operators are proposing their timetable as a request and infrastructure manager organize auction for capacity allocation -the decentralized approach. This paper presents discussion of controversies concerning centralized and decentralized approach in order to underline their main disadvantages for increasing the railway infrastructure efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online peer-production platforms facilitate the coordination of creative work and services. Generally considered as empowering participatory tools and a source of common good, they can also be, however, alienating instruments of digital labour. This paper proposes a typology of peerproduction platforms, based on the centralisation/decentralisation levels of several of their design features. Between commons-based peer-production and crowdsourced, user-generated content "enclosed" by corporations, a wide range of models combine different social, political, technical and economic arrangements. This combined analysis of the level of (de)centralisation of platform features provides information on emancipation capabilities in a more granular way than a market-based qualification of platforms, based on the nature of ownership or business models only. The five selected features of the proposed typology are: ownership of means of production, technical architecture/design, social organization/governance of work patterns, ownership of the peer-produced resource, and value of the output. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Public primary health care (PHC) facilities are for many individuals the first point of contact with the formal health care system. These facilities are managed by professional nurses or clinical officers who are recognised to play a key role in implementing health sector reforms and facilitating initiatives aimed at strengthening community involvement. Little in-depth research exists about the dimensions and challenges of these managers’ jobs, or on the impact of decentralisation on their roles and responsibilities. In this paper, we describe the roles and responsibilities of PHC managers–or ‘in-charges’ in Kenya, and their challenges and coping strategies, under accelerated devolution. Methods: The data presented in this paper is part of a wider set of activities aimed at understanding governance changes under devolution in Kenya, under the umbrella of a ‘learning site’. A learning site is a long term process of collaboration between health managers and researchers deciding together on key health system questions and interventions. Data were collected through seven formal in depth interviews and observations at four PHC facilities as well as eight in depth interviews and informal interactions with sub-county managers from June 2013 to July 2014. Drawing on the Aragon framework of organisation capacity we discuss the multiple accountabilities, daily routines, challenges and coping strategies among PHC facility managers. Results: PHC in-charges perform complex and diverse roles in a difficult environment with relatively little formal preparation. Their key concerns are lack of job clarity and preparedness, the difficulty of balancing multidirectional accountability responsibilities amidst significant resource shortages, and remuneration anxieties. We show that day-to-day management in an environment of resource constraints and uncertainty requires PHC in-charges who are resilient, reflective, and continuously able to learn and adapt. We highlight the importance of leadership development including the building of critical soft skills such as relationship building. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to consider possible implications of recent policy initiatives in schools and local government for child safeguarding practice in education settings in the state sector in England. Design/methodology/approach – Recent policy changes to promote devolution of decision-making to school and local government level are analysed in the light of the literature on multi-agency working for the protection of children. Findings – The paper highlights the complexity of the current context in which local arrangements for the safeguarding of children are operating. This includes efforts at integration of funding and structures, coupled with rapid changes in policy in both education and children’s social care and greater decision-making powers at local level. Together this makes it difficult to evaluate the current strengths of safeguarding arrangements between schools and other local agencies to help ensure that arrangements for the safeguarding of children in “independent” state schools are robust and effective. Research limitations/implications – Researchers and policy-makers need to consider the efficacy of safeguarding arrangements under new local government and integrated structures in England. Practical implications – There is relatively little research addressing inter-organisational information exchange in relation to education professionals involved in safeguarding. This paper sets out some directions for inquiry, including specific priorities that may be useful to the research and practice communities in the context of integration. Originality/value – The paper provides a summary of key policies and strategies that inform child protection in state school settings in England. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Revenue Online Service (ROS) is one of the first e-government initiatives introduced in Ireland. The primary purpose of this paper is to examine this reform initiative in the Irish Revenue, assess it through the lens of the New Public Management (NPM) and e-government literatures and to critically assess whether its implementation can be deemed 'a success story'. Many of the components of NPM were evident in the introduction of ROS which facilitated its implementation: decentralisation, the use of private sector styles of management, an emphasis on performance measurement and a search for efficiencies. ROS has, inter alia, transformed both access to taxation information for taxpayers and their agents, and the system of tax payment and filing in Ireland. Assessing its implementation in terms of the objectives of an e-government initiative, ROS is 'a success story', and the Irish Revenue organisation has clearly benefited from its introduction in many ways. Indeed, there is evidence to suggest that tax/accounting practitioners are also beneficiaries of this e-government initiative. However, a critical analysis of the findings of this study contests the idea that ROS is an unqualified success story. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The decentralization of funding management poses a conceptual challenge to the study of political criteria in the allocation of funding in the EU Cohesion Policy, as existing research often assumes unidimensional actor constellations and motivations. Combining insights from distributive politics and multilevel party politics, this article uses a unique data set of beneficiary data at the local level from Polish Regional Operational Programs (2007–2013) to explore the ability of regional authorities to engage in vote-seeking and explores how institutional and political multilevel structures affect these strategies. We demonstrate that the vote-seeking of sub-national authorities is constrained in two ways. Competition between regional and national authorities limits the possibility of regional governments that are politically opposed to the national government targeting their electoral strongholds. In contrast, partisan harmony between different institutional levels incentivizes a vote-seeking strategy that takes into consideration electoral dynamics at both the regional and national level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sustainable, integrated, and representative management of water is one of the main challenges faced by governments worldwide, especially where water resources are not abundant, such as the Ebro River basin in Spain. The Spanish state has granted powers in matters related to water that has adhered river basins. The main objective of this study is to examine the specific case of water management in Catalonia, a region within the Ebro basin, through literature review and interviews conducted with key informants in water organizations operating in Catalonia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the mediating role of decentralization in the relationship between a firm's strategy and its performance in the context of an advanced economy where the chief corporate strategy is differentiation. Design/methodology/approach: The study uses data collected by an online survey targeting a stratified sample of 1,238 private firms operating in Denmark. The empirical analysis was carried out by estimating a structural equation model. Findings: The key finding was that a decentralized organization (DO) can act as a mediator between a firm's differentiation strategy and its performance. A multi-group analysis revealed that the mediating impact of decentralizing was affected by contingency factors such as firm size, strategic clarity, degrees of business environment risk and industry competition. Thus, a DO can be said to play a more important role in larger firms, in firms with less strategic clarity, and in companies with multiple plants. Research limitations/implications: Although the study offers empirical evidence from a relatively large and representative sample of firms, the specificity of the context should be noted. In particular, firms in Denmark, while facing strong competition, do not compete with low costs. Clearly, studies of the mediating role of decentralization in low-cost strategy environments would be an important next step. Practical implications: Several implications of the findings for organizational design and creation of beneficial conditions for strategy implementations are discussed. Originality/value: The novel contribution of the study lies in the focus on decentralization as a mediator in the strategy–performance relationship. While previous research has shown that strategy is related to decentralization, and that decentralization is associated with higher performance, an empirical analysis of the relationship between the factors in the strategy-decentralization-performance path had not previously been undertaken. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista de Administração FACES Journal is the property of Revista de Administracao FACES Journal and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Purpose: First-line nurse managers are frequently torn between conflicting demands from management and employees, and previous research suggests that nurse managers use a variety of responses to cope with these demands. The purpose of this paper is to explore the influence of social support on nurse managers' responses to role-conflict. Design/methodology/approach: Two focused ethnographic studies involving participant observation and interviews with seven first-line nurse managers were completed. One study included first-line nurse managers from four units in two municipalities (2005), while the second included three first-line nurse managers from a hospital in Norway (2015-2016). Findings: Three types of responses were identified: the embracing managerialism career, the emphasising managerialism career and the emphasising professionalism career. Emphasising managerialism was associated with role distance from the role of nurse, whereas emphasising professionalism involved role distance from the managerial role. Originality/value: This study provides insights into first-line nurse managers' responses to role conflict, by identifying the mechanisms involved and an opportunity to develop a theoretical framework for future studies among nurse managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public participation has been viewed as a method for strengthening local governance at the grassroots level of administration through an inclusive democracy and as an imperative portion of unprejudiced administration. Information sharing in administration is the foundation of continuous participatory procedures seen as the facilitators of aggregate insight and comprehensiveness, which are formed by the longing for the participation of the entire group or society. Using documentary method of analysis with empirical observations in the selected local municipalities in South Africa, this paper provides an insight into community and public participation in South Africa's local municipality. It further looks at the significance of public participation in governance and decision-making at the local level, the relevance of South Africa's decentralization of municipalities for local development and the effect. This paper concludes that public cooperation and participation in local government administration is a two-way imperative embracing and setting obligations for both local government authorities and the general public with persuasive communication, and a community critical thinking system, with the objective of accomplishing better governance for effective service delivery at the grassroots level. Using a content data analysis, it therefore recommended that, IDP as a process must democratically engage the public, in the assessment of current social, economic and environmental reality with the municipality.. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crowdsourcing systems which utilize the human intelligence to solve complex tasks have gained considerable interest and adoption in recent years. However, the majority of existing crowdsourcing systems rely on central servers, which are subject to the weaknesses of traditional trust-based model, such as single point of failure. They are also vulnerable to distributed denial of service (DDoS) and Sybil attacks due to malicious users involvement. In addition, high service fees from the crowdsourcing platform may hinder the development of crowdsourcing. How to address these potential issues has both research and substantial value. In this paper, we conceptualize a blockchain-based decentralized framework for crowdsourcing named CrowdBC, in which a requester's task can be solved by a crowd of workers without relying on any third trusted institution, users' privacy can be guaranteed and only low transaction fees are required. In particular, we introduce the architecture of our proposed framework, based on which we give a concrete scheme. We further implement a software prototype on Ethereum public test network with real-world dataset. Experiment results show the feasibility, usability, and scalability of our proposed crowdsourcing system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From 2004 to 2012, 37 well-preserved Byzantine shipwrecks were discovered during construction of two underground train stations at Yenikapı, Istanbul. Despite its complexity, archaeology is rarely studied through organisational and management lens. This paper investigates the Yenikapı rescue excavations using two innovative analytical frameworks for archaeology – the Heritage Chain and Structure Conduct Performance analysis – which highlight the crucial but too often overlooked role of practices (or emerging strategies) in public policy, helping identifying strengths and weaknesses of the project. In this sense, two elements of the system seem fundamental: its extreme centralisation and its ongoing process of decentralisation. The research, based on a phenomenon-driven approach to management of archaeological and cultural heritage projects, highlights how Turkey's uncertain legal environment for rescue archaeology led to emergent, ad hoc management and funding solutions that mixed state and private involvement in novel ways through a multi-level outsourcing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There isn´t general consensus concerning the tools for evaluating of decentralization and public administration reforms. Comparison of impacts and tools for the evaluation of decentralization process is complicated mainly by a different arrangement of public administration, researching only partial aspects of decentralization or lack of key data. The aim of this paper is to legitimize the innovative approach of evaluation of the decentralization reforms through an analysis of subnational units´ staff. This consideration is based on correlation which suggests that countries with a higher degree of autonomy of subnational units usually have a wider bureaucratic apparatus of self-governments. In this context we answer whether the evaluation of Czech decentralization is relevant through an analysis of self-governmental staff and under which methodological preconditions. We worked with fragmented statistical unique and unpublished primary data about the self-governmental staff obtained from registers of the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Finance and the Czech Statistical Office. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Background: Buruli ulcer [BU] is a chronic and debilitating neglected tropical skin disease caused by Mycobacterium ulcerans. The treatment of moderate to severe BU affects the well-being of entire households and places a strain on both gender relations within households and social relations with kin asked for various types of support. In this paper, we employ the conceptual lenses provided by the Household Production of Health approach to understanding the impact of illness on the household as a unit of analysis, gender studies, and social support related research to better understand BU health care decision making and the psychosocial experience of BU hospitalization. Methods: An ethnography attentive to circumstance and the nested contexts within which stakeholders respond to BU was conducted employing semi-structured interviews, illness narratives, and case studies. An iterative process of data collection with preliminary analyses and reflection shaped subsequent interviews. Interviews were conducted with 45 women in households having a member afflicted with BU in two communes of Benin with high prevalence rates for BU. The first commune [ZE] has a well-established decentralized BU treatment program and a well-functioning referral network linked to the Allada reference hospital specializing in the care of BU and other chronic ulcers. The second commune [Ouinhi] is one of the last regions of the country to introduce a decentralized BU treatment program. A maximum variation purposeful sample was selected to identify information-rich health care decision cases for in-depth study. Principal findings: Study results demonstrated that although men are the primary decision makers for healthcare decisions outside the home, women are largely responsible for arranging care for the afflicted in hospital in addition to managing their own households. A woman’s agency and ability to influence the decision-making process is largely based on whatever social support and substitute labor she can mobilize from her own network of kin relations. When support wanes, women are placed in a vulnerable position and often end up destitute. Decentralized BU treatment is preferred because it enables a woman to remain in her own household as a patient or caretaker of an ill family member while engaging in child care and petty revenue earing activities. Remaining in the hospital (a liminal space) as either patient or caretaker also renders a woman vulnerable to rumor and innuendo about sexual liaisons and constitutes a form of social risk. Social risk in some cases eclipses the physical risk of the disease in what we would describe as a hierarchy of risks. Conclusion: This study illustrates the importance of decentralized treatment programs for NTDs such as BU. Such programs enable patients to remain in their homes while being treated, and do not displace women responsible for the welfare of the entire household. When women are displaced the well-being of the entire household is placed in jeopardy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the time of post‐industrialism, the increasing costs of life, scientific and technical development, an increase in the level of education and ecological barriers resulted in the decentralization of economic activity. One of the consequences of this is an increase in the locational attractiveness of the suburban zone. The aim of the paper is to evaluate the contemporary processes concerning location and concentration of industry in a post‐socialist city illustrated with an example of the city of Wrocław. The conducted research enabled us to determine the functional specialisation of gminas (municipalities), which served as the basis for the construction of a simplified model of the suburban zone in the post‐industrial period. In order to diagnose the extent of development and the level of spatial differentiation of the process of industrial activity concentration, the authors applied a location quotient (LQ) as well as a taxonomic method of linear ordering of distances from so‐called development pattern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]