Search

European companies have reacted in different ways to the European Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS), Phase I. While some companies engaged in an active trading behaviour focused on additional revenues, others adopted a strategy orientated to mere compliance with the scheme and aimed for balanced accounts only. This article provides the outcomes of a survey on company behaviour under the EU ETS in Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Denmark from 2005 to 2006, in which cross-national differences in trading behaviour are linked to national patterns of policy implementation and the political economies in which companies operate. Thus, specific country patterns of institutional preparation and institutional learning for the ‘real’ CO2 allowance market in Phase II of the EU ETS (2008–2012) are sketched. Whereas Phase I is distinguished by a net over-allocation of allowances, Phase II is expected to entail some level of scarcity of allowances. We argue that companies are prepared differently to meet the challenges of the future EU ETS. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

Against the backdrop of over two hundred thousand people dead or missing and millions of people homeless after China's massive earthquake and Myanmar devastating cyclone, forecasts estimate that natural and man-made disasters are likely to increase five-fold both in number and impact over the next 50 years. Hence, the need for disaster relief provided by humanitarian organizations during disasters should continue to increase. At the same time, humanitarian organizations face increased challenges scaling capacity, improving operational efficiency, reducing staff turnover, improving institutional learning, satisfying increasingly demanding donors, and operating in increasingly challenging environments, with poor or inexistent infrastructure, high demand uncertainty and little time to prepare and respond. To address such challenges, managers in humanitarian organizations must understand the complexity that characterizes humanitarian relief efforts to learn how to design and manage complex relief operations. Yet, learning in such complex and ever changing environments is difficult precisely because managers seldom confront many of the consequences of their most important decisions. Effective learning in such environments requires methods and tools that allow managers to capture important feedback processes, accumulations, delays, and nonlinear relationships, visualizing complex systems in terms of the structures and policies that create dynamics and regulate performance. The system dynamics approach provides managers with a set of tools that can help them learn in complex environments. These tools include causal mapping, which enables managers to think systemically and to represent the dynamic complexity in a system of interest, and simulation modeling, which permits managers to assess the consequences of interactions among variables, experience the long-term side effects of decisions, systematically explore new strategies, and develop understanding of complex systems

The thesis discusses the spatial-economic and institutional positions as well as institutional learning in the development process of airports as cityports in city-regions. Cityports are therein defined as urban centres where economic activities and infrastructure are at crossroads and are the gateways to the city-region. Amongst other new urban centres as edge cities and new business centres, airports are increasingly becoming these gateways to the polycentric city-regions, as well as a transportation nodes and places to stay. The locations contribute to the increasing importance of the city-region’s global competitiveness. The particular focus is on the development of airports as cityports, with case study airports of Schiphol, Frankfurt, Haneda and Narita. Schiphol makes full use its potential near the airports and develops towards a monocentric airport city, which generates congestion. Frankfurt applies the potential of the hub as well, where possible congestion of the airport is limited by its location in Frankfurt’s forests and an extensive regional light rail system. It develops as a polycentric airport city in the Rhein-Main city-region. In the case of Tokyo’s airports Haneda and Narita, there is less coherence between economic potential and development towards a cityport. Urban development of in particular warehouses in remote Narita is limited and scattered over the region, referred to as sprawled aerotropolis. Although Haneda is mainly a domestic airport, it is still Asia’s largest. However, little urban development is found at this isolated airport island, with few economic spin-offs for Tokyo and Kawasaki. In addition, also planned airport city developments in coastal towns near the new airport islands of Kansai and Nagoya shows little success in the development of cityports. As spatial-economic reasons are not sufficient for understanding differences in cityport development, an actor-oriented institutional analysis provides insight. Various socio-cultural, financial, economic, governance and legal rules of the game either hamper or support the airport area development process. In particular consensus and pragmatism, a regional patchwork quilt of coordinating agencies with limited jurisdiction, unclear role differentiation between control and development for both ministries and airport, contribute to the semi-contested silent growth coalition with a short-term focus in the case of Schiphol. In Frankfurt, trade-offs created by politicisation of planning, local specialisation, the light rail network and decentralised planning contribute to the contested open growth coalition focussed on the medium term. High land prices, infrastructure-related economic development, citizens’ opposition, and centralisation of planning leads to a conflict-avoiding growth coalition with expensive solutions for the long-term in Japan. Although it is difficult to copy successful institutions that contribute to the development of the airport as a cityport to other cases, the comparative analysis offers a mirror as well as future perspectives for spatial-economic development and reshaping institutional arrangements.

The thesis discusses the spatial-economic and institutional positions as well as institutional learning in the development process of airports as cityports in city-regions. Cityports are therein defined as urban centres where economic activities and infrastructure are at crossroads and are the gateways to the city-region. Amongst other new urban centres as edge cities and new business centres, airports are increasingly becoming these gateways to the polycentric city-regions, as well as a transportation nodes and places to stay. The locations contribute to the increasing importance of the city-region’s global competitiveness. The particular focus is on the development of airports as cityports, with case study airports of Schiphol, Frankfurt, Haneda and Narita. Schiphol makes full use its potential near the airports and develops towards a monocentric airport city, which generates congestion. Frankfurt applies the potential of the hub as well, where possible congestion of the airport is limited by its location in Frankfurt’s forests and an extensive regional light rail system. It develops as a polycentric airport city in the Rhein-Main city-region. In the case of Tokyo’s airports Haneda and Narita, there is less coherence between economic potential and development towards a cityport. Urban development of in particular warehouses in remote Narita is limited and scattered over the region, referred to as sprawled aerotropolis. Although Haneda is mainly a domestic airport, it is still Asia’s largest. However, little urban development is found at this isolated airport island, with few economic spin-offs for Tokyo and Kawasaki. In addition, also planned airport city developments in coastal towns near the new airport islands of Kansai and Nagoya shows little success in the development of cityports. As spatial-economic reasons are not sufficient for understanding differences in cityport development, an actor-oriented institutional analysis provides insight. Various socio-cultural, financial, economic, governance and legal rules of the game either hamper or support the airport area development process. In particular consensus and pragmatism, a regional patchwork quilt of coordinating agencies with limited jurisdiction, unclear role differentiation between control and development for both ministries and airport, contribute to the semi-contested silent growth coalition with a short-term focus in the case of Schiphol. In Frankfurt, trade-offs created by politicisation of planning, local specialisation, the light rail network and decentralised planning contribute to the contested open growth coalition focussed on the medium term. High land prices, infrastructure-related economic development, citizens’ opposition, and centralisation of planning leads to a conflict-avoiding growth coalition with expensive solutions for the long-term in Japan. Although it is difficult to copy successful institutions that contribute to the development of the airport as a cityport to other cases, the comparative analysis offers a mirror as well as future perspectives for spatial-economic development and reshaping institutional arrangements.

This book offers an exploration of the ways that a learning trajectory is determined, and, in particular, how an online learning environment can affect that trajectory. It provides suggestions about how, primarily through technologies that underlie what is vulgarly known as “Web 2.0,” networked learning environments should be constructed to give control to learners if they need it, as they need it, and when they need it.

Šiame straipsnyje pateikiama originali institucinių įtampos laukų koncepcija ir sociologinė jos interpretacija. Analitiškai skiriamos keturios visuomenės institucinės sritys (domenai): biurokratinis, ekonominis, akademinis ir pilietinis. Socialinių veikėjų požiūrius ir elgesį šiuose domenuose struktūrizuoja juose dominuojantys, institucionalizuoti bruožai – vertybinės orientacijos, veiklos tikslų ir būdų samprata bei elgesį norminantis etosas. Šiuo požiūriu, domenai prilygintini Maxo Weberio teorijoje išskirtiems idealiesiems tipams, kuriais apibūdinama socialinių veikėjų veikla, orientuota politiškai ir ekonomiškai. Veikėjų elgesio struktūrizavimo atskiruose domenuose sociologinei analizei straipsnio autorius pasitelkia Anthony Giddenso pasiūlytą teorinį modelį. Skirtinga domenams būdinga socialinės veikos orientacija ir būdai kelia dichotomiškas priešpriešas, įtampas tarp šioms sritims priklausančių veikėjų. Straipsnyje, remiantis Romualdo Grigo pasiūlyta socialinių įtampos laukų koncepcija, teoriškai grindžiamas institucinių įtampos laukų, kylančių tarp atskirų domenų, struktūrinis priežastingumas. Pateikiama keletas empirinių pavyzdžių bei interpretacijų, grįstų teorinėmis įžvalgomis. Pateikiama originali tarpinstitucinio mokymosi bei institucinės inovacijos sąvoka bei jos empirinės iliustracijos (svarstoma aktuali naujos atominės jėgainės Lietuvoje plėtros problema). This article explores the structural roots of institutional fields of tensions. It singles out four societal domains – bureaucratic, economic, academic, and civic – and elaborates on different doctrines, steering mechanisms and ethos prevailing in such domains. It draws on Max Weber’s concepts of “ideal types’ of politically and economically-oriented action as a theoretical predecessor of the concept of domains and institutional tensions. It also draws on Giddens’ interpretation of social structuring processes, and develops a notion of institutional learning by proposing a concept of inter-institutional learning. The recent case of developing a new nuclear power plant in Lithuania is deployed in this article inter alia as an illustration of the tensions arising between different institutional domains, as an illustration of dominance of certain principles, steering mechanisms and ethos pertaining to particular institutional domains, e.g. bureaucratic and economic, whereas other domains such as civic are neglected or marginalized. It is also conceived as an example illuminating the opening of possible ways in the search for institutional innovations.

In view of the competitive scenario in which organizations are currently inserted, it is necessary for them to adopt a philosophy of continuous learning, aiming at improving their products and processes, besides encouraging an environment that allows knowledge exchange and innovation. On the one hand CNOs aim at increasing competitiveness through the flow of knowledge aggregated to products and processes in a formal environment. On the other hand, CoPs rise up as a mechanism that permeates new structures of communication, encouraging institutional learning and knowledge sharing, combining common values to their members in informal environments. The aim of this article is to propose the use of CoPs within CNOs to promote trust among members, aiding and encouraging the practices of knowledge sharing.

El trabajo presenta los resultados preliminares de una investigación efectuada en Canadá, en el período agosto-septiembre de 2003, que forma parte de un estudio comparativo con otros países para examinar los actores, procesos e interacciones que intervienen en la formulación de políticas públicas y el desarrollo de capacidades de aprendizaje en instituciones y organizaciones públicas. En la investigación se muestran las lógicas de actuación de los actores, así como sus perspectivas y prácticas en los procesos de formulación de la agenda pública en Canadá. Se utilizan técnicas documentales, discusiones en seminarios, entrevistas y observación. Los hallazgos muestran procesos diferenciados en prácticas organizativas e institucionales de actores tradicionales y emergentes en la formación de las agendas públicas, que definen dos grandes temas: la diferenciación del gobierno y la política y la reinstitucionalización de sus reglas en el ámbito local, expresando las tensiones entre dos formas de filosofía de gobierno que se debaten entre el neopragmatismo de los sectores emergentes demandantes de una nueva governanza y las formas de gobierno colaborativo de mercado, implementadas por los actores tradicionales, quienes plantean el buen gobierno público. En la gestión pública local se expresa el municipio como punto de intersección entre la gestión de la política y el gobierno, que incorporan experiencias de aprendizaje de redes comunitarias, que sugieren un nuevo lenguaje hermenéutico en la administración de los municipios. ABSTRACT This paper is the preliminary result of research under taken in Canada during the period August-September 2003, and which is part of a comparative study of several other countries in order to examine the actors, processes and interactions which intervened in the formulation of public policy and the development of learning in public institutions and organizations. In this research the logic motivating the actors, as well as their perspectives and practices in the processes of public agen da formulation in Canada are demonstrated. Documentary techniques, seminar discussions, interviews and observation are employed. The results demonstrate differentiated processes in organizational and institutional practices of new and traditional actors in the formation of public agendas, and which define two large themes: differentiation between government and politics and the reinstitutionalization of rules on a local level. All this expresses the tension between the two forms of governmental philosophy that are debated over between the neo-pragmatism of emerging demand sectors for new government and the colaborative market forms of government, implemented by traditional actors who propose good public government. In local public management the municipality is expressed as a point of intersection between policy management and government, and it incorporates learning experiences in community networks, which suggests a new hermaneutic language for the management of municipalities.

L’apprentissage institutionnel au sein des partenariats de recherche Nord-SudCet article examine l’evolution recente des pratiques relatives aux partenariats de recherche Nord-Sud, essentiels aujourd’hui pour traiter de questions relatives aux biens publics globaux. Les modalites de ces partenariats sont appelees a evoluer alors que la pertinence des distinctions traditionnelles entre pays « industrialises » et « en developpement », ou entre le Nord et le Sud, s’estompent. Les collaborations scientifiques entre chercheurs du Nord et du Sud se trouvent a la croisee de deux champs organisationnels : le milieu universitaire et la cooperation internationale pour le developpement. Cela pose des problemes specifiques en matiere d’apprentissage institutionnel. Notre etude montre que les partenariats de recherche Nord-Sud ne sont guere a l’abri des tensions inherentes aux relations entre donateurs et beneficiaires, bien connues dans le champ de l’aide au developpement. Malgre de recentes ameliorations, les modalites de financement et les relations de pouvoir qui en decoulent restreignent les possibilites de combiner les aspirations de renforcement des capacites de recherche des partenaires du Sud avec la quete d’excellence telle que definie par les partenaires du Nord. La pression croissante de publier rapidement les resultats de recherche dans certaines revues disciplinaires publiees au Nord limite les possibilites d’etablir un cadre partenarial equitable et de renforcer les capacites institutionnelles des parties impliquees. Il s’agit de reexaminer les questions de financement, d’acces et de partage des connaissances et de pouvoir dans des partenariats de recherche.

Much of the literature cited in this volume is preoccupied with changes brought about by the new economy. Its authors want to know whether and how institutions (and the rules, practices and conventions and social relations upon which they rest) are, or could be made congenial with this new economy and vice versa. The tenor of arguments is often prescriptive, and the focus of prescriptions is sometimes on government policy. Put prescriptively, the question becomes whether new institutions can be established, and old ones reformed, to support the kind of collaborative relationships necessary to meet the challenges of the new economy. A criterion for success is whether such new or reformed institutions learn, not only from their environment — which is rapidly changing — but also from themselves by self-reflection. It is generally believed that institutions will have to be self-reflective if the challenges of the new economy are to be met, but so, too, the new economy must develop in particular ways if it is to sustain both growth and democratic social relations.

This book has shown that the concept of social capital, by facilitating the learning process within institutional networks at the regional and local levels, plays a crucial role in shaping intra-regional interactions among the actors and hence in determining the capacity for adaptation and adjustment by regional and local systems of governance within the European regional policy environment. Thus, the main hypothesis of this book, established in Chapter 2, is that the adaptation of local systems of governance to the European policy-making environment is dependent on

The ability to perform intraoperative cholangiography during laparoscopic cholecystectomy is an essential skill for the laparoscopic biliary surgeon. The volume of experience required to be able to consistently obtain a cholangiogram during laparoscopic cholecystectomy has not been determined. Cumulative sum analysis is a statistical technique which generates a graphical display that identifies periods of performance that fall below a predetermined standard for a given task. The cumulative sum (S(n)) for a series of observations is defined as: S(n)= summation operatorX(I) - X(o), where X(I) = 0 for a success, X(I) = 1 for a failure, and X(o) is the acceptable failure rate for the process under study. This function is plotted against the number of observations to create a curve. When the curve has a positive slope, the acceptable failure rate is being exceeded. When it reaches a plateau, the observed failure rate is equal to the acceptable failure rate. When the curve has a negative slope, the observed failure rate is lower than the acceptable failure rate. We performed a cumulative sum analysis of the first 97 intraoperative cholangiograms attempted during lap-aroscopic cholecystectomy at our institution. The results demonstrated that 46 cases were required to reach a level of proficiency where a cholangiogram could be obtained in 95% of attempts. Success rates of 85% and 90% were achieved at 16 and 25 cases, respectively. This form of analysis is a useful tool for estimating the number of attempts required to achieve a desired success rate when learning new procedures.

In this speculative paper, it is argued that learning is an evolutionary process, operating at the level of the individual, the firm, and organised markets. Why these latter may be localised is investigated. Learning as such is depicted as an interactive process of reproducing and/or creating knowledge through communication, and learning patterns are seen as institutionalised in different contexts. Different possible such contexts are discussed, and industrial districts are proposed as relevant. Patterns of inter-firm learning may evolve and become institutionalised in an industrial district, because two important spatial properties of localisation - proximity and coherence - are combined here. As a result, some industrial districts posses higher-order capabilities with respect to localised inter-firm learning.

Background Sonography has become the primary mode for the initial evaluation of abdominal injury in many trauma centers. However, the rate at which nonradiologists become proficient in this technique remains controversial. Objective To assess the learning curve for this technique in a single institution. Design Retrospective review of sonographic examinations for trauma performed by senior surgical residents during a 24-month period at an American College of Surgeons–verified level I trauma center. Setting University-affiliated private hospital. Patients and Methods Before the initiation of a program of surgeon-performed trauma ultrasound, senior surgical residents (postgraduate years 4 and 5) received 11.5 hours of hands-on and didactic instruction in the focused ultrasound examination for trauma. This examination then became a standard component of the evaluation of injured patients. Subsequent groups of senior residents received 8 hours of instruction at the onset of new academic years, 6 and 18 months, respectively, after the initial course. The sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value were then calculated for each 6-month period after the introduction of trauma sonography. Results During the 24-month study period, 902 sonographic examinations were performed. No statistically significant differences were noted in sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, positive predictive value, or negative predictive value for any 6-month period of study when compared with the other 6-month periods or with the values calculated for the entire study period. Conclusions Senior surgical residents are capable of performing the focused ultrasound examination for trauma with a high level of skill after a concise introductory course. A learning curve was not apparent in our series. Criteria for being permitted to perform trauma sonography that include the requirement of a large number of examinations or extensive proctoring should be reassessed.

The paper argues that the furniture industry, because it is low-tech, mature, and thus easy to grasp technology-wise, is an excellent case for investigating some basic notions on the rise within the economics of organisation. The paper concentrates on the growing incidence of flexible co-operation arrangements between specialised, localised, furniture firms; the role of informal social institutions (such as norms; conventions; language; and trust) for co-ordination between such specialised firms; and the crucial importance of learning processes for bringing about this economic organisation as well as the social institutions that support it. The paper empirically investigates localised knowledge and competencies amongst Danish furniture producers. Empirical findings are presented illustrating the importance of geographical proximity and trust for cooperation and co-ordination between specialised furniture producers, and the importance of learning processes for the creation of trust.

GREGERSEN B. and JOHNSON B. (1997) Learning economies, innovation systems and European integration, Reg. Studies 31, 479-490. This paper uses the 'learning economy' as an analytical framework to discuss how the process of European integration affects national systems of innovation. European integration is described as a process of institutional learning. It is argued that European integration will not do away with national systems of innovation in Europe and that only a very partial European system of innovation in a narrow sense of the term is likely to emerge in the not too distant future. GREGERSEN B. et JOHNSON B. (1997) Les e´conomies d'apprentissage, les syste ¤ mes d'innovation et l'inte´gration europe´enne, Reg. Studies 31, 479‐490. Cet article se sert de ‘l'e´conomie d'apprentissage' comme cadre analytique afin de discuter comment le processus d'inte´gration europe´enne influe sur les syste ¤ mes d'innovation nationaux. L'inte´gration europe´enne se voit pre´senter en tant qu'un processus d'appre...

This paper examines how the content of strategic formation choices of International Joint Ventures (IJVs) converges or diverges over time. Strategic formation choices include partner selection (e.g., the number of partners, the status of local partners, the product relatedness between IJVs and its partners and the product relatedness among partners) and ownership structure (e.g., the ownership ratio between foreign and local partners). Hypotheses are tested in a sample of 4787 IJVs established in China from 1985 to 2001. The results show that the degree of conformity of strategic formation choices increases over time. The past experiences of joint ventures in China had a significant curvilinear relationship with the degree of conformity. This paper discusses the implications for theory and research on IJV formation and the institutional process.

The assessment of interactions between trade and the environment is dominated by intensive ideological and scientific controversies. These controversies also influence the development of international rules for trade within the GATT/WTO regime. Despite recognition of the need for accepted institutional rules, only slow institutional changes can be observed. The connection of environmental protection with protectionist measures favouring old industrial and agricultural sectors makes it especially difficult to define accepted and objectiflable criteria for justifiable trade interventions. This paper analyses the incentives within the GATT/WTO regime to use institutional experiences for learning processes and institutional reforms. By using an interdisciplinary methodology of evolutionary economics and political science, new procedural criteria to identify learning efforts are developed. These criteria offer opportunities to show the reform potential within and outside the international trade system to overcome common misunderstandings and controversies.

The ability to perform intraoperative cholangiography during laparoscopic cholecystectomy is an essential skill for the laparoscopic biliary surgeon. The volume of experience required to be able to consistently obtain a cholangiogram during laparoscopic cholecystectomy has not been determined. Cumulative sum analysis is a statistical technique which generates a graphical display that identifies periods of performance that fell below a predetermined standard for a given task. The cumulative sum (Sn) for a series of observations is defined as: ie185-001 where X1 = 0 for a success, X1 = 1 for a failure, and X0 is the acceptable failure rate for the process under study. This function is plotted against the number of observations to create a curve. When the curve has a positive slope, the acceptable failure rate is being exceeded. When it reaches a plateau, the observed failure rate is equal to the acceptable failure rate. When the curve has a negative slope, the observed failure rate is lower than the acceptable failure rate. We performed a cumulative sum analysis of the first 97 intraoperative cholangiograms attempted during laparoscopic cholecystectomy at our institution. The results demonstrated that 46 cases were required to reach a level of proficiency where a cholangiogram could be obtained in 95% of attempts. Success rates of 85% and 90% were achieved at 16 and 25 cases, respectively. This form of analysis is a useful tool for estimating the number of attempts required to achieve a desired success rate when learning new procedures.

Colleges and universities in the United States award credit for extra‐institutional learning to adult students in residential and external degree programmes. This policy is examined in its various forms. In addition the relationship of US independent study to external degrees is discussed. Reasons for evolutionary differences in distance education in Australia and North America are also explored.

If I define Victorian learning as institutional learning sex educa tion classes in the schools or in churches, instruction offered by counselors trained in matters sexual, or government-sponsored or authored publications I could say there was no learning at all on the subject and thereby end the discussion. But we must all be haunted by the fact that not all learning is institutionally based ? perhaps little of it is, perhaps none. Sam Weiler is the wisest person in the nineteenth century, and his learning was acquired by running in the streets. Further, who are these "Victorians": of what class, gender, time, and place, of what cultural assumptions and tradi tions? How did they see through what metaphorical lens? Why do we want to recuperate all that, and why do we play the mad game of pretending that recuperation is possible? And what is it we are trying to recuperate? Sex, in this case and what is that: at titudes, assumptions, forms of discourse? All disguises, are they not but disguises of what? Behavior and activity but what is that? Say we had video tapes garnered from every Victorian bed room, every night. Would we want them? What would they show us? We might want to add tapes from the parks, the drawing rooms, the factories, the offices, the playing fields, the boarding schools, and the nurseries. But how do we understand what it is

Library resources and personnel can be better utilized to promote the institutional learning goals.