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This paper investigates factors (exchange performance outcomes, perceptions of technological uncertainty and resource availability uncertainty) that are associated with customer choices to engage in relational exchanges with suppliers of process control equipment, and how these factors differ for small-, medium- and large-sized customers in the paper industry. The study involves a survey of 372 paper mills that investigates how these factors differ across differently sized customers. The results indicate that the variables associated with relational exchange choices are different for small-, medium- and large-sized customers, and suggest that marketing managers should develop alternative sales and marketing strategies and product and service offerings to effectively create relational exchanges with different segments of customers.Journal of Targeting, Measurement and Analysis for Marketing (2009) 17, 39–53; doi:10.1057/jt.2008.27; published online 16 February 2009 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intention of this paper is to stimulate discussion of a topic previously broached in a contribution to The Geneva Association's PROGRES Seminar (September 2003),1 namely the case for a GATS “Reference Paper” for the insurance sector.2 It accordingly recalls the regulatory “Best Practices” provisions of the Insurance Model Schedule and puts forward the case for “sectoral” or “vertical” disciplines, probably on the basis of a Reference Paper containing provisions to which WTO members could adhere, in whole or in part, through additional commitments under GATS Article XVIII. It examines the current approaches, within the WTO Working Party on Domestic Regulation, to regulatory disciplines under the GATS. It points to the distinguishing features of a Reference Paper, and examines how far telecommunications (already the subject of a GATS Reference Paper) and insurance raise analogous issues. It outlines the possible content of an Insurance Reference Paper, and makes proposals for the way ahead. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Generation Z has entered a labour market recently and most of its members are about to finish their studies and start their careers at the workplaces. It is the least numerous generation which is present at workplaces nowadays and some employers face lack of talents. To be able to recruit suitable job applicants they need to present themselves well. Since social media are natural way of communication of generation Z, they seem to be suitable tool for this purpose. This paper aims to investigate if employers are aware of specifics of generation Z and if they consider social media useful for recruiting the youngest generation at the labour market. Empirical research included combination of qualitative and quantitative method and based on findings several managerial implications were formulated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Once the coronavirus pandemic was declared by government authorities in March 2020 and several measures were adopted around the world to limit the effects of COVID-19, the limit agroeconomic processing affected important operations such as not being able to prepare the olive trees for the next harvest. This lack of processes has caused the consumer to perceive an increase in prices due to the shortage of product and the growing demand for olive oil around the world. This research paper, through the use of advanced statistical and econometric techniques, attempts to perform a specific analysis and understand the persistence of the data and the trend of global olive oil prices. Artificial intelligence techniques such as neural network models are also used to predict long-term price behavior. Using ARFIMA (p, d, q) model, the results suggest a non-mean reversion behavior, suggesting that the shock is expected to be permanent, causing a change in trend. This result is in line with that obtained using machine learning techniques, where the forecast suggests an increase of the prices around + 11.36% in the next 12 months. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to assess the contribution of insurance to infrastructure development in Sub-Saharan Africa. The researchers used a sample of 31 Sub-Saharan African countries from a panel of data observed over the period 2003–2020. The methodologies used in this paper are the Driscoll-Kraay and Panels Corrected Standard Error. The results show that insurance (life and non-life) positively explains the level of infrastructure in Sub-Saharan Africa. Furthermore, using disaggregated infrastructure indices, the effect remains the same for transport, electricity, and water and sanitation infrastructure. However, insurance has no significant effect on telecommunications infrastructure. Our results remain robust using an instrumental variable technique, two stage least square. The economic policy suggestions concern the improvement of the regulatory framework for the insurance business so that it can participate effectively in financing the economy. In addition, a strengthening of the public–private partnership is commendable in order to provide governments with an alternative source of infrastructure financing, different from the generally used public financing, whose capacity is likely to be insufficient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) are an initiative adopted by some local governments, businesses, and residents to address concerns around crime and disorder in commercial areas, especially open street town centres. BIDs have become popular in the USA since the 1970s; however, no comprehensive review of evaluations has occurred to date. This paper systematically reviewed the academic literature to find 13 BID evaluations. These studies were examined in terms of their impacts on crime and disorder, displacement, and cost-effectiveness. Of the nine studies that quantitatively examined BID impacts on crime rates, eight (88%) found a reduction in one or more crime types. Six studies explored BID impacts on property crime, with all finding BIDs had a significant negative association with at least one type of property crime, with BIDs particularly effective at targeting vehicle-related offences. BIDs were also found to have a positive impact on reducing disorder and public nuisance type offences, however, had mixed evidence on violent crime, with three out of seven studies on violent crime finding BIDs can help to prevent robbery. Displacement of crime to surrounding areas was found to be rare, and the three studies that examined costs of operating BIDs all concluded they are cost-effective. The challenges of implementing BIDs are discussed, along with the implications for ongoing policy and practice development in the reduction of crime and disorder in commercial areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The valorization of skills in English higher education policy-making is a long-standing refrain, informing both rhetoric and investment from government and shaping university behaviour. Critiques of the 'skills agenda' are equally established, on grounds of its contested evidence base, manner of implementation and even its very definition. This paper draws on Bacchi's 'What is the Problem Represented to Be?' (WPR) approach (Bacchi, in: Bletsas, Beasley (eds) Engaging with Carol Bacchi: strategic interventions and exchanges, The University of Adelaide Press, Adelaide, 2021a; Bacchi and Goodwin in Poststructural policy analysis: a guide to practice, Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2016) to examine how the UK Department for Education's nascent Lifelong Loan Entitlement (LLE) policy represents, and therefore in Bacchi's sense produces, problems in the English tertiary education system. Through its WPR analysis of a significant contemporary shift in the English funding system, this paper demonstrates how the LLE policy replicates but also extends certain key features of the skills agenda and the dominant presuppositions of current English higher education policy-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The high cost of living and prolonged lockdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic made the financial well-being of individuals vulnerable, especially young adults. This paper examines the impact of financial behaviour on financial well-being (FWB) among young Malaysians during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study collected variable data on financial literacy, financial behaviour, financial socialisation, self-control, financial technology and FWB. To collect a representative sample of Malaysian young adults, a multi-stage random sampling method was used, and 360 young adults aged 18–29 years old completed the questionnaires. Structural equation modelling was adopted to investigate the factors influencing young adults' FWB. The empirical findings revealed a significant mediating effect of financial behaviour in the relationships between financial literacy, financial socialisation, self-control, financial technology, and FWB. The research concluded that the mediation analysis yields a clear and firm conclusion that financial behaviour is important in empowering young adults' FWB. Thus, the present study adds value to the existing literature on the relationship between financial behaviour and FWB. Furthermore, the paper's findings will assist government agencies and non-governmental organisations in developing outreach programmes for young adults per the strategies outlined in the Twelfth Malaysia Plan and the aspirations pledged in the Malaysian Youth Policy 2015–2035. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jeremy Safran's pedagogical style was singular in its emphasis on experiential learning through role-plays, use of session video recordings, and his full-hearted embrace of therapists' subjectivity as a tool for therapeutic change. This paper is a personal reflection on the author's experiences as Jeremy Safran's student and how they have translated into her own teaching and supervision. She shares how teaching has been a means of reconnecting with her experiences learning from Jeremy, and the ways in which she tries to carry forward his unique contributions to the next generation of students and trainees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reflects the legacy of Jeremy Safran's application of Buddhist principles to clinical practice and supervision. The rebirth of his life and work in the clinical work and supervision of his students is examined. The paper explores transformation or enlightenment in cyclical spaces of loss and suffering or samsara. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the perspective of a poet and first-year psychoanalytic training candidate, this paper develops Jeremy Safran's ideas about the dialectic between psychoanalysis and Buddhism by drawing an analogy between their processes and those of a poetry practice to define an alternative to pathological dissociation under capitalist systems of value. The paper details the writer's experience of working a day job in an office and the pathological dissociation which she subsequently attempts to overcome and critique through writing poetry. Various poems written at work are shared and analyzed as evidence. Drawing from Safran's edited volume, Psychoanalysis and Buddhism, the author then identifies aspects of Zen Buddhist meditation practice and the psychoanalytic process that focus on connecting with reality, however conflicted, as opposed to escaping it. This paper was written under the mentorship of the psychoanalyst and Zen teacher Barry Magid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores experiences of surrender to an aspect of mind that is unconfined, empty of dualistic concepts, and lucidly aware. Ghent's concept of surrender, Farber's unconscious will, and Buddhist philosophers' essence of mind all link to creative processes described by Poincaré and Mozart. This impressionistic collage points to the spaciousness to know beyond our usual stories. From this essential mind more wholesome actions proceed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dr. Jeremy Safran had a unique talent to seamlessly weave together clinical work with his broad knowledge of philosophy, history, and theology. Alongside his commitment to researching the minutest clinical interactions, he was conscious of the broad values of the nature of the good life that underpinned his analytic approach. This paper will explore the concepts of the enchanted unconscious, clinical impasses, negotiation, and surrender, suggesting that these concepts together provide insight into Safran's larger philosophy of life. It will then provide the approach to these concepts of the Rebbes of Ishbitz/Radzin, a school of Polish Hasidic thought. It will conclude with an exploration of how both Safran's psychoanalytic approach and the Ishbitz/Radzin Rebbes' Hasidic approach to the Torah provide distinct insights and applications of these concepts, which can be mutually enriching for both disciplines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The political salience of local identities has received limited academic attention in the British political science literature. This paper is a step towards addressing this, through a case study of the Scouse identity. The Scouse identity is primarily found in the English city of Liverpool, Merseyside and its environs. Using original survey data of electors from across Merseyside, alongside the British Election Study, this paper explores the political salience and consequences of the Scouse identity and places it in the comparative context of sub-state national identities across Great Britain, namely Englishness, Scottishness, and Welshness. I find that holding a Scouse identity leads to higher levels of Labour support and lower levels of Conservative and Green support, that the political consequences of the Scouse identity vary across Merseyside, and that local identities can and do exist alongside sub-state national identities, challenging the myth of 'Scouse not English'. Put simply, local identities can and do matter when it comes to shaping voting behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public policy studies typically stress policy networks and communities, interest groups and bureaucrats, and overlook the governing role of parties. This paper argues that parties should be seen as governing as well as electoral organisations and contrasts a party-centred approach with the policy community and policy network approaches. A case study comparing the development of children's services policy in England during the Labour governments (1997–2010) and the Conservative-led governments (2010–2019) provides supporting evidence for this approach. It shows how ministers as party actors sought control over the administrative state through their framing of problems, reorganisations and the active political management of the policy sector. In so doing they marginalised the professions and central government departments. They also sought to manage, rather than respond to, the extra-governmental organisations in their political environment. This paper contributes to our understanding the political-administrative relationships in identifying how parties take control of government, how public problems are defined and relate to party ideologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During a pandemic, there is a fine line between distancing and avoiding other people, with stigmatizing classifications sometimes transforming social distance into social exclusion. Drawing on Bourdieu's under-utilised theory of classification struggles, this paper conceptualises schemes of pandemic Othering in terms of Negative Health Classifications. Complementing the interactionist approach in pandemic stigma research, classification struggles are a social practice that denote a conceptual link between the individual and social structures of inequality. When social structures are unstable, as was the case during the pandemic, an established common sense can become questionable. Based on the analysis of survey data from 2606 respondents collected during one of the peaks of COVID-19 in Austria and Germany, the paper explores two struggles over health classifications, (1) social cleavages created and exacerbated by individuals who strive to tackle medical crises by avoiding the 'disease carriers', and (2) conflict over illegitimate pandemic practices resulting in the loss of social capital and a polarization of social groups. The findings offer evidence of widespread negative health classifications emerging during the COVID-19 pandemic that future research should explore in their implications for inequalities in other health policy contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares formal accounts that laboratory members use to describe a digital psychiatry intervention with lab practices as they were observed ethnographically. The intervention uses correlations between wearable data and self-reports of mood to produce behavior change recommendations, which participants then implement with the help of a guide. In formal accounts, the trial is described as the accomplishment of the individual participant who is empowered by data-driven insights. Formal accounts from the lab present this participant as multi-layered. In observation, however, participants do not seem multiple. Instead, the contingencies of living and working environments come to the fore. Observations of open-ended interactions in guidance sessions, which are minimized in formal accounts, are particularly powerful in capturing these contingencies. The critique of representation from philosophical pragmatism shows how the multi-layered participant is similar to the multiple representational meanings entities take on according to theories common in twentieth-century psychiatry, and supports the ethnographic approach as a way out of these paradoxical formulations. The paper, thus, explains the role of otherwise underspecified human labor involved in the trial, while demonstrating ethnography's ability to account for interactions with participants, through which we gain insights into the contingent, emplaced process of implementing the trial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to analyze the impact of the product market competition on investment efficiency with the mediating effect of Firm Risk Management through a dynamic panel estimation model. The sample consists of 260 non-financial firms listed on the Pakistan stock exchange for the period of 2010–2022. In addition, this paper analyzes the data through the mediation technique as per a review of the prior literature. Investment efficiency is the primary function of corporate finance. Pakistan being an emerging country is mostly owned by the family-owned business. These businesses have different policies as compared to non-family-owned businesses. This is the empirical indication that product market competition decreases investment efficiency in an emerging economy. The result reveals that in Pakistan, product market competition has a significant negative impact on investment efficiency. Firm Risk Management is also mediating the relationship in line with the prior study. The result supports agency theory, Schumpeterian viewpoint, and capital allocation theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional crime has been falling for some time in most countries. However, developing technologies and our use of them are creating new opportunities for offending. For example, estimates from the Crime Survey of England and Wales indicate that in the UK, online fraud and related offences account for as many crimes as do "traditional" offences. To date, academia, law enforcement and governments have been reactive both in terms of identifying new and emerging forms of offending and in developing approaches to address them. In this paper, I will discuss the future crime agenda, and how futures thinking can help identify future crime opportunities and security threats including online fraud, crimes involving artificial intelligence, and crime in the metaverse. The paper will close with a discussion of the implications for theory and crime prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research suggests that there is a correlation between the characteristics of residents and target areas and the levels and types of crime occurring in cities. However, there is no consensus in the extant literature on the social and environmental characteristics of spaces that influence the occurrence of crime. This paper draws on findings in Makurdi, Nigeria to provide a contextual analysis of the determinants of the spatial patterning of crime. Data on the physical attributes of the built environment, the social characteristics of residents and types of crime were obtained through physical observation and questionnaires. The data were analysed using the regression method. The study found that the major determinants of crime are building and population density, fences, age of residents and the 'age' of residential areas. Some of these determinants are indicators and facilitators of 'eyes on the street', highlighting the importance of formal and informal monitoring of activity spaces in cities. This means that design principles that support formal or informal surveillance of urban spaces like the introduction of outdoor communal spaces to encourage interactions and the development of social networks and the regulation of the types and height of fences could enhance urban safety and security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to defend the emerging conceptualization of healthy sexuality (Bianchi in Figurations of Human Subjectivity: A Contribution to Second-Order Psychology. Springer, Berlin, 2020) against the traditional authoritative concept of sexual health as defined by the WHO. Becoming a sexual subject means following a sexual trajectory with episodes of one's own bodily experiences, genital satisfaction, intimate attachment, acceptance of sexual identity, sexual pleasure, mutual sexual satisfaction and planned parenthood. In each of these episodes, the individual may experience feelings of pressure, fear, shame, pain and/or joy and pleasure. The extent to which the subject has a healthy sexuality depends on whether these feelings/emotions facilitate or inhibit healthy sexuality. The concept of healthy sexuality runs counter not only to quantitative statistical demographic measures of sexual health, but also to the existing arsenal of sexology questionnaires. Qualitative empirical research is being conducted into the facilitators and inhibitors of a healthy sexuality (in the first author's PhD research). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this paper is to provide a point of empirical evidence as to how machine-learning techniques stack-up in their ability to predict consumer choices relative to traditional statistical techniques. We compare a traditional (naïve) multinomial logit to six machine-learning alternatives: learning multinomial logit, random forests, neural networks, gradient boosting, support vector machines and an ensemble learning algorithm. The comparison is done by applying these methods to beer category stock keeping unit (SKU) level panel data. Results show that machine-learning techniques tend to perform better, but not always. Ensemble learning performs best while maintaining an overall high-performance level across all SKU classes, independently of their sample size. This result builds on existing evidence about the benefits of combining multiple prediction techniques over relying on a single best performing model, as conventional wisdom would intuitively make us believe. In general, the better performance of machine learning techniques at predicting product choice should not come as a surprise. At their core, machine learning techniques are designed to augment dimensionality of models and/or scan through orders of magnitude greater model alternatives, relative to the narrower focus of traditional approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a study of middle-aged online consumers' specific shopping behaviour on live streaming platforms and analyses the distinct marketing strategy provided by online experts. Influenced by unique social and cultural backgrounds, middle-aged online consumers lack related shopping experience and keep counterfeiting concerns to live streaming shopping, making them prefer to interact with online experts before making final decisions. Based on the COM-B Behaviour Changing theory and the Emotional attachment theory, the research model has been established in this study, and it divides influencing factors into the Emotion unit, Opportunity unit and Capability unit. To test the relationships between influencing factors and middle-aged online consumers' interactive motivation, the partial least-squares path modelling and variance-based structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) have been applied on the SmartPLS. By analysing 450 samples, the study shows that the counterfeiting concern and ease of use factors positively impact online consumers' motivation to interact with online experts, and self-efficacy plays a negative role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compares experiences of patients and therapists in impasses. Attempt of the therapists M. Gerard Fromm, John Muller, Craig Piers and Jane Tillman to resolve impasse deadlock; Analysis of the psychotherapist-patient relationship; Concept of dyadic structure of treatment; Cause of the resistance to the intervention of a consultant by patients.

This article presents the necessary role of public health and population-based programs for supporting and enhancing the effectiveness of a reformed health care insurance system in the U.S. Preventive measures focused on chronic and infectious diseases and injuries provide much of the substance of these programs, but there are also core public health functions that are necessary to support and sustain efforts that address the health needs and conditions of populations, as distinct from individuals. The importance of a population-based approach is illustrated by a report, cited in a 1982 study by the Institute of Medicine, which concluded that only 10 percent of premature deaths in the U.S. could have been avoided through improvements in access to medical treatment. For health care reform to succeed, the supporting and complementary functions of public health must be enhanced. If the amount used by State and local health agencies and the U.S. Public Health Service for public health functions had maintained their proportionate position to the treatment services they support, their 1993 level would have been nearly 30 percent more than it actually is. The debate on reform of the U.S. health care system offers both mandate and opportunity to redress the erosion that has occurred in the public health infrastructure by establishing a secure and adequate funding base for the core functions of public health at every level.

Due to the variety of corporate risks in turmoil markets and the consequent financial distress especially in COVID-19 time, this paper investigates corporate resilience and compares different types of resilience that can be potential sources of heterogeneity in firms’ implied rate of return. Specifically, the novelty is not only to quantify firms’ financial resilience but also to compare it with workplace resilience which matters more in the COVID-19 era. The study prepares several pieces of evidence of the necessity and insufficiency of these two main types of resilience by comparing earnings expectations and implied discount rates of high- and low-resilience firms. Particularly, results present evidence of the possible amplification of workplace resilience by the financial status of firms in the COVID-19 era. The paper proposes a novel composite-financial resilience index as a potential measure for disaster risk that significantly and persistently reveals low-resilience characteristics of firms and resilience-heterogeneity in implied discount rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to ongoing processes of decentralization, municipalities across European countries have been part of extensive municipal amalgamations, have engaged in ever-expanding inter-municipal collaborations, or have experienced both reforms. While amalgamations are usually negatively assessed by citizens, we still lack knowledge on the democratic performance of inter-municipal partnerships. This paper provides an assessment of the day-to-day functioning of inter-municipal partnerships in the Netherlands, a country in which the combination of trends is most clearly visible. Based on semi-structured interviews with politicians and civil servants active in the boards of inter-municipal organizations, the paper confirms the lack of democratic oversight on inter-municipal partnerships. However, the analysis also highlights three other, so far underestimated problems of these partnerships: their lack of transparency, the multiplication of roles by board members, and the prevalence of informal networks. In combination, these findings reveal that inter-municipal collaboration results in a considerable democratic deficit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the pandemic, the EU has responded to the threat of a euro crisis flare-up by deactivating its fiscal framework and establishing the Recovery and Resilience Facility, drawing on joint European bonds to finance national investments. This paper seeks to explain these modifications to fiscal governance and asks whether they are an indication of European austerity making way for an alternative fiscal paradigm. Based on a neo-Gramscian approach, it discusses the policies as parts of competing political projects that are promoted or hindered by certain framework conditions. The paper undertakes a structured comparison of these framework conditions during the euro crisis and the current crisis. It finds that geoeconomic competition increases the demand for a more active fiscal policy, while political preferences and structural relations remained remarkably stable. As the current crisis is marked by high inflation, economic conditions are adverse to a fiscally expansive agenda. The findings do not suggest a lasting reorientation of European fiscal governance. Instead, the measures taken during the pandemic are interpreted as expressions of 'passive revolution' in which the EMU adapts elements of a fiscal integrative agenda to provide necessary fixes to its economic order while keeping its underlying fiscally restrictive features intact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper elaborates key factors in Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida's long polemical argument over the question of madness. The paper focuses on Foucault's consideration of a constitutive exclusion underlying the discourse of reason and unreason, as well as his insistence on that exclusion's singular relationship with madness. This exclusion is then developed in psychoanalytic terms augmenting the constitutive gesture that Sigmund Freud attributed to the plurality of subjective structures elaborated in his metapsychology. The psychoanalytic determination of constitutive exclusion is posed as being situated at a privileged position that enables it to consolidate the polemic debate between Foucault and Derrida about madness. By doing so, the intersection of Foucault's theory of madness with Freud's psychoanalysis is shown to be fruitful territory, epitomizing a hospitality to madness—thus, doing justice to Foucault in light of Derrida's critique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brand activism has become a popular term for describing how brands are becoming involved with controversial sociopolitical issues. The activist brand is thus characterised by its engagement with controversy and understood in and through macro-level cultural oppositions which it continuously orbits and positions itself against. The purpose of this paper is to contribute with a conceptual gaze at the activist brand's inherent controversy that enables an understanding of the online micro-level dynamics and processes that transform the online activist brand. Drawing on a narrative approach, the paper develops an ante- and counternarrative framework to explain how these complex micro-level dynamics and processes of resistance transform the brand. The framework allows us to approach the activist brand as the result of a complex network of antenarratives and counternarratives, which the brand flows in and out of, retells, supports, and resists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three links between poetry and psychoanalysis are highlighted in this paper. These refer to the presence, in the clinical hour, of (i) poetic sentiment, (ii) poetic speech, and (iii) poetic specimen. Each is elucidated in detail and with the help of socio-clinical vignettes. The aim of the paper is to demonstrate that, through the affirmative holding and partial unmasking of the instinctual-epistemic conflation in verse and free-association, both poetry and psychoanalysis seek to transform the private into shared, the hideous into elegant, and the unfathomable into accessible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the early 2000s onwards, the emergence of digital technology and social media has motived to a questioning of the value of public space, as the relevance of physical places is eroded in the digital age. In recent years, the development of concepts such as media architecture, digital placemaking and the playable city has reignited interest in physical places and opened a discussion about the future, harmonious symbiosis amid the public space and virtual space. Plenty of digital placemaking interventions in public spaces proves how digital interventions can have significant potential for future urban design. Currently, literature on placemaking and human–computer interaction (HCI) showcases the need for a new interdisciplinary approach to evaluate how digital and mobile technologies can be used to enhance the sense of place in a locale. This paper proposes a theoretical framework to investigate digital placemaking, supporting the review of basic attributes of public spaces and the potential of mobile technologies in augmenting places. Further, it reveals how digital placemaking provides an opportunity to generate tension and meaning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite numerous efforts by policymakers, trade among African countries remains abysmal. In this paper, we investigate whether democracy influences intra-Africa trade of goods. Using the gravity model on bilateral trade among 48 Sub-Sahara African countries over the period 2000 to 2018, we find that democracy fosters intra-Africa goods trade. This effect is more pronounced in the manufacturing sector. Reversals to autocracy, however, adversely impact intra-Africa trade flows. Our paper therefore highlights democratic development as an important channel for accelerating trade among African countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is the third special issue of I The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice i devoted to cyber risk and cyber insurance (previous issues were published in April 2018 and October 2020). They describe the origins of cyber insurance and different generations of ransomware-as-a-service, emphasising the industrialisation of cybercrime that insurers are facing. They also illustrate the evolutionary dynamic of insurance markets and how insurers shape and respond to changes in the risk environment in which they operate. The conceptual foundation of the paper is the "insurance-as-governance" literature, which demonstrates that insurers often make insurance conditional on ex ante risk reduction or mitigation. [Extracted from the article]

In the first wave of the far-right's influence in party politics between 1980 and 2000, exreme right-wing parties essentially challenged mainstream parties of the moderate left and right. The current wave has seen new far-right parties challenge the more established far-right players, notably in Italy and France, which raises questions about party competition in this segment of the party system. This paper aims to shed some light on these questions by analyzing the competition between Marine Le Pen and Éric Zemmour in the 2022 French elections. Based on a qualitative case study analysis, it identifies areas of convergence and dissimilarity between the two candidates. By scrutinizing the positions, issue salience, and agency of their respective campaigns, the paper shows how far-right parties in the same party system compete with one another, thus contributing to the broader literature on contemporary far-right politics. The concluding section discusses these findings in relation to voters' concerns in the first round of the 2022 French presidential election. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article introduces data collected by the French Citizens' Attitudes Under Covid-19 Pandemic (FCAUCP) project, which surveyed public opinion throughout the Covid-19 pandemic between March 2020 and June 2022 in France. In this paper, we present the panel survey of French citizens' attitudes and behaviors during a worldwide unprecedented health, governance and economic crisis. This dataset investigates the behavioral and attitudinal consequences of the multifaceted Covid-19 crisis across time. In this paper, we describe the design of the FCAUCP, the main features of the dataset, and give some insights about its research potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Observers in academia and media alike have observed a return of 'French ideas' in the European Union (EU), equated with the legacy of dirigisme. However, there has been relatively little interest in why economic voluntarism remained so resilient in French government discourse. After all, the country has been a central actor in the making of embedded neoliberalism in Europe and implemented market reforms no less profound than in other member states. French material interests only provide a partial explanation for this discursive resilience. This paper builds on discursive institutionalism to explain how dirigiste communicative discourse and neoliberal coordinative discourse interact and jointly shape the French government's input into EU politics. Using secondary literature and original empirical material based on the uses of the 'European sovereignty' concept between 1995 and 2017, I show that Heroic Industrial Policy Discourse is used to justify the extension of (EU-driven) market logics into all spheres of public action in France on the grounds that this will, at an indeterminate future, lead to the implementation of dirigisme on a grander scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Blame is inextricable from politics, as exemplified by the Brexit referendum campaign. While existing literature locates the strategies officeholders use to avoid or shift blame, there is a lack of research into what third parties do to contest political blame when they encounter it. To this end, this paper applies qualitative content analysis, complemented by quantitative data, to pre-referendum materials from Leave.EU and the Stronger In campaigns (N = 355), Brexit-related articles in The Metro (N = 60), and a survey-experiment conducted amongst the UK voting public (N = 1368). Three types of contestation strategy are identified: direct (counter-blaming, rebuttal, justification, and naming and shaming blame); displacement (credit and threats); and changing subjects and objects. This paper opens a research agenda into what people other than politicians themselves can do to contest blame, renders visible third-party audiences such as the public in political blame games, and incidentally highlights the failure of Remain to engage with blame during the referendum campaign. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an increasingly digitised world, and within the new reality of digital finance, a fully digitised public currency seems to be a natural step. To this end, central banks have been testing the possibility to issue a digital form of the traditional fiat currency (so-called Central Bank Digital Currency-CBDC). As these projects steadily progress, and in some cases, reach the implementation phase, a myriad of questions, from legal to macroeconomic, arise. This paper aims to focus, in particular, on two complementary and co-related aspects involving CBCDs: (i) how can the full digitalisation and centralisation of the transaction ledger be combined with privacy and (ii) to what extent CBDCs affect the allocation of burden and the responsibility over supervision of retail transactions. Eminently, the use of cash ensures a form of default privacy that protects the individual against State and private intrusion. While this privacy has caused concern, due to its criminogenic potential, and has been consequently limited by anti-money laundering (AML) regulations, the remaining cone of shadow cash guarantees is a crucial limit to control. In the context of a shifting financial system, undergoing deep transformation due to increasing datafication and decentralisation of the market, a new governance of financial supervision and record-keeping—up to now based on a unique and centralised ledger—is crucial to redefine the trade-off between financial integrity and privacy. This article will examine the origins and characteristics of CBDCs, to then analyse how the trade-off between control and privacy is set to reshape this new architecture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An effective enterprise financial distress prediction system is one of the key measures to prevent and resolve enterprise debt risk. However, it lacks enough and deep research on how to dynamically construct ensemble models for class-imbalanced financial distress prediction under the situation of concept drift. From the perspective of concept drift, this paper constructs a random forest model for dynamic prediction of corporate financial distress by considering class imbalance between financially distressed and non-distressed enterprises, to improve the performance of dynamic financial distress prediction. Using the sample data of the public companies listed in the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchange of China from 2010 to 2020, this paper carries out the empirical research and finds that there exists financial distress concept drift for Chinese listed companies. The full-memory rolling time window mechanism and the fixed-width rolling time window mechanism can improve the prediction effect of models and the fixed-width rolling time window mechanism is better than the full-memory rolling time window mechanism. The combination of SMOTE and random under-sampling can solve the class-imbalance problem to some extent. The analysis of the importance of indicators shows that financial indicators of profitability are more informative for Chinese listed companies’ financial distress prediction. In addition, dynamic financial distress prediction model based on random forest integrated with resampling mechanism significantly outperforms other models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The IASB has issued a Discussion Paper on accounting for insurance and reinsurance contracts. This project is based on a prospective measurement of the insurance liabilities, the current exit value, which corresponds to a “market consistent” transfer value of insurance contracts to another market participant. This project is similar to the Elaborated Principles (the EPs) proposed by the CFO Forum in June 2006: a single model for measuring the insurance liabilities based on a three building blocks approach: expected future cash flows, discounted at risk-free rate, plus a margin for risk and uncertainties. However, there are key major differences between the two. Those differences concern several areas: future cash flows (only cash flows which are legally or contractually enforceable would be recognized), “market consistent” approach (in particular estimation of expenses should be based on a theoretical level of efficiency rather than on the own costs of the insurer), service margin (according to the IASB, to be transferred to another market participant), and upfront profit recognition of initial margins (rather than over time as for other long-term services). The European insurers disagree with the IASB view that such service margin concept is relevant. They also disagree that the retail market and the wholesale market for insurance would be the same. They think there is a significant difference between entry and exit prices, that is, a significant initial profit. The insurers are concerned by the consequences of those proposals, which would lead to a non-economic valuation of the insurance liabilities and a flawed pattern of profit recognition. Since the measurement of assets and liabilities in Solvency II project should be based on IFRS, the IASB accounting for insurance project could jeopardize Solvency II, which is currently based on an economic balance sheet approach. The CFO Forum has been supporting a market consistent measurement of liabilities for accounting purposes that is the same as proposed under Solvency II. The CFO Forum is considering alternatives for recognition of profit over the time of contracts when the risk is released and the services rendered to policyholders; these alternatives should be consistent with recognition of the initial profit margin as available capital for solvency requirements.The Geneva Papers (2008) 33, 41–53. doi:10.1057/palgrave.gpp.2510163 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the annual white paper series of the Eastern Academy of Management (EAM) and "Organization Management Journal," in the U.S. It states that the white paper series offers perceptions on sustainability and innovation in contexts, and promotes the goal of leadership through descriptions of contexts and exemplars. It also mentions that the white paper challenges the agenda of future directions for researchers and practitioners.

Keywords: Economic education; Classroom projects; Money and banking; Academic competitions; A20 EN Economic education Classroom projects Money and banking Academic competitions A20 31 44 14 12/22/22 20230101 NES 230101 Copyright comment Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law. The competition also engaged the interest of students in a topic that they thought initially would be dry, and from the competition (and contacts made), the majority of students obtained internships or jobs in areas that they had previously dismissed.[16] The benefits of the competition apply more broadly as well. This is a well-designed competition that meets its goals of engaging students in the work of the FDIC and the financial system, fueled by the enthusiasm of FDIC staffers. While the two competitions do overlap in the fall, there are also some economies of scale, essentially, as some of the fundamental concepts are common to both competitions.[7] Skills Development In this section, I highlight particular student skills that can be developed through this competition (while noting that there is clearly much individual latitude in how professors/advisers might choose to work with their teams). [Extracted from the article]

Advancing the assessment of undergraduate and graduate student learning outcomes is essential for the future of higher education. After illustrating the value of this research area, this article examines contemporary limitations and the need for taking stock and charting promising directions. It introduces six papers which look at foundational issues, contexts, applications and implications. The article emphasizes the need for ongoing reviews in this field to clarify policy relevance and opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature on ship routing and scheduling has grown substantially over the last few decades, with many papers authored by top experts in this area and examining various versions of the problem. Many publication outlets have hosted these papers, with a broad variety of problem formulations, solution approaches, and application contexts. Equally broad is the range of angles of these papers, spanning the wide field from mostly theoretical analyses, focusing on specific methodological tools, all the way to applied studies, focusing on specific real-world applications. The basic hypothesis of this paper is that we are increasingly seeing papers that are more of theoretical than practical value, and in fact some of them often place the solution approach before real problem definition. As a result of this approach, the connection between these papers and reality is sometimes distant or elusive. To investigate this hypothesis, this paper tries to explain some misconceptions, refers to a limited sample of such papers, and suggests possible ways to rectify this situation in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a globalized world of knowledge production, issues arise as to the presence of, and relationships between, different regions of the world. A particular issue is that of the presence of peripheral regions such as Latin America. The focus here is research into higher education reforms and, by using bibliometrics, a word frequency analysis and a thematic analysis, patterns of publication and themes in two different academic datasets — the global Web of Science and the more regional SciELO — are examined. Although the configuration of knowledge production on higher education reforms is seen as relatively homogeneous in certain respects, separate circuits of knowledge production are also revealed and even within a region (here, Latin America). Higher education reform is posed differently according to the publication circuits of journals and their position in global knowledge markets. A geopolitical imbalance in knowledge production is revealed and it is suggested that different regions of the world possess distinctive epistemic identities. The paper concludes by suggesting that there is room for negotiation between the different zones of epistemic influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers some lines of flight away from stagnant features of Terrorism Studies. I largely reiterate the critiques made by field leaders like Lee Jarvis, but I frame the field in a way that eases the tensions between different forms of critical scholarship which have frustrated other writers. Where others split the field into 'traditional' and 'critical' strands and admonish the 'critical' strand for its reticence to reflexively critique its referent objects, I suggest that Terrorism Studies can be read as a convergence of 'Counterterrorism Studies', 'Critical Terrorism Studies' and 'The Beyond'. While the second category exists primarily to grapple with the first, relying heavily on the language and theoretical frameworks of the first, the third category troubles the very constitution of concepts like the state and the figure of the terrorist, which are the sine qua non of the first two categories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Union (EU) has recently emerged as a promoter of human rights in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) through social and material trade sanctions. Yet, it used different trade measures in reacting to human rights violations, according to a partner. This paper investigates the reasons for such a selective approach. It finds evidence in support of the thesis that while ideational factors seem to have a low predicting potential, trade and security interests are strongly correlated with the level of interference adopted by the EU on the domestic affairs of the single ASEAN partners. More specifically, security alignment seems to supersede any commercial considerations when it comes to the adoption of punishing trade measures on ASEAN members. The paper leads to the conclusion that ASEAN countries have become increasingly relevant catalysts of EU foreign policy interests and that security strategies have strongly conditioned the role of the EU as a human rights promoter through trade in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]