Search

Firms must allocate resources effectively to cope with uncertainty, which can manifest as a disruption and an opportunity. Although information technology (IT) is a means to cope with uncertainty, chief executive officers (CEOs) may not always support IT investments due to the risky nature of IT, especially when facing uncertain conditions. While prior research suggests that CEO long-term compensation positively incentivizes IT investments, little is known about how different loci of uncertainty impact this relationship. To address this research gap, we study how firm-specific uncertainty and competitive uncertainty shape the influence of CEO long-term compensation on a firm's IT capital investment. Drawing on agency theory and prospect theory, we develop two hypotheses. First, we hypothesize that firm-specific uncertainty and competitive uncertainty positively moderate the influence of CEO long-term compensation on firm IT capital investment. Second, we hypothesize that competitive uncertainty has a stronger positive moderating effect than firm-specific uncertainty on the influence of CEO long-term compensation on firm IT capital investment. Our analysis of secondary longitudinal data from 2000 to 2007 of 357 public firms in the United States supports our hypotheses. In exploratory analyses, we found that CEO long-term compensation results in a higher riskoriented dominant logic in the firm, particularly in conditions of firm-specific uncertainty and competitive uncertainty, with competitive uncertainty having a stronger positive moderating effect. These findings uncover risk-oriented dominant logic as a theoretical mechanism that explains how CEO long-term compensation positively influences firm IT capital investment in uncertain conditions. We also conducted exploratory analyses using a different secondary dataset of 286 U.S. public firms from 2004 to 2019 to consider firm investments in transformative IT applications and found support for our theory. This finding triangulates our results across different time periods and different types of IT investments. This study contributes to theory and practice by providing a nuanced understanding of boundary conditions surrounding CEO long-term compensation, and decisions CEOs make vis-à-vis IT capital investments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shirking, the act of avoiding the demands of one's job, is generally seen as unethical. Drawing on empirical evidence from the sociology of work, I develop a normative conception of shirking as a form of worker resistance against illegitimate managerial power. In doing so, I present a new approach to the political theory of the firm, which is more adversarial and agent-centered than available alternatives. It is more adversarial as it recognizes the political value of counterproductive and disruptive behavior in capitalist firms. It is more agent-centered because it theorizes the firm from the perspective of workers, asking what pro tanto reasons they have to shirk. I show that shirking under the structural domination of capitalism has diagnostic, agential, and epistemic values. The paper contributes to the wider methodological ambition to tailor political theorizing to the positionality of social actors by shifting attention from the institutional design of the firm to the methods of worker resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to examine the use of project management practices in Slovenian micro and small firms (MSFs) and to identify project success factors (SF) and project success criteria (SC). Research was conducted on a sample of 51 micro and 41 small firms in Slovenia. Data about project SF, SC, most influential decision makers on projects, to which extent selected project management tools are used, and about employment of full-time project managers in MSFs was gathered. Descriptive statistics was used for questionnaire survey data analysis. Similarities and differences between project management practices of micro and small firms were studied. Results show that 'Clearly defined project objectives' is the most important project SF, and 'Customer satisfaction' is the most important project SC in MSFs. The owner/director of the firm has been identified as the most influential decision maker on projects. Results reveal that 'Clearly defined project objectives' are identified as the most important for project success in MSFs. Understanding project SF and SC in MSFs and the involvement of project SF and SC in decision making can improve project management practices in MSFs. Based on the results of this study and other similar studies, it can be summarised that managers and decision makers can improve project success by focusing on a narrow area which is defined as project SF. A focus on clearly defined project objectives in the project planning phase is identified as the most important project SF in MSFs. Results also show that customer satisfaction regarding projects is the most important project SC and impacts project success in MSFs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study assesses and quantifies the economic and financial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic during the period of business operation restrictions countrywide (lockdown measures). We examine the strategies adopted by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to reopen their business operations after lockdown measures had been relaxed or lifted. Data were collected in Rwanda from nearly 244 SMEs across the country, providing firsthand and reliable information on the effects of the pandemic on business performance, with a particular emphasis on wood-based enterprises. We used Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA) and multivariate linear regression methods to measure the pandemic's effects on employment, sales, and tax payments among SMEs. The findings reveal that firms downsized employment by 36%, with significant deviations within different SME sizes. Small businesses were particularly affected by reduced sales levels due to the pandemic. Although there was an overall reduction in tax payments during the crisis, medium-sized enterprises experienced a more significant decrease in taxes paid to the government by 74.6%. Additionally, regression findings affirm that the COVID-19 effects on SMEs were manifested in reduced sales across all categories of SMEs, reduced employment, and a reduced amount of taxes paid to the government, which further translate to reduced economic performance during COVID-19 period. Furthermore, SME owners utilised various coping mechanisms during the reopening phase, including a reliance on savings and selling assets. The analysis recommends establishing medium-term financing mechanisms and providing technical support for SMEs to ensure a steady and sustainable recovery from the pandemic's effects, as well as enhancing their resilience to future socio-economic shocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The activities of “Petersburg Company for the production of Glukhoozersky Portland cement and other building materials” between 1879 and 1899, although only a initial period segment in its history, provides a holistic overview of phase that enterprise underwent on their path to becoming a large industrial firm. This study aims to improve and expand knowledge about the capacity and difficulties of industrial company to adapt to market changes and maintain their competitiveness, interregional coherence and organizational flexibility. This article explores changes in ownership and management structure and application of new technological practices during this period, which in turn led this enterprise to the status of the leader in the cement industry in capital. A case study of key group of shareholders (military engineers) tests the effectiveness of model of reconciliation of interests on results of twenty years of work of the company.

Multifunctional integration is the basic feature of artificial superhydrophobic coatings widely used in many fields. This paper presents a simple and economical experimental method to prepare a super hydrophobic coating with super strong corrosion resistance by spraying a mixed solution composed of epoxy resin (EP) as the base, multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), sericite (SER), nano-zinc oxide (ZnO) and octadecyl trimethoxysilane (ODTMS) on an aluminum substrate. Firstly, the superhydrophobic property of the coating prepared in this experiment is better than that of the ordinary coating, and its contact angle reaches 167.3° and rolling angle is as low as 2.7°. Secondly, the superhydrophobic coating can not only maintain the superhydrophobic property in harsh environment (such as: soaking in boiling water for 10 hours, soaking in acid, alkali and salt solution for 7 days, high temperature, burning and strong ultraviolet irradiation, etc.), but also can withstand a variety of mechanical damage without losing the superhydrophobic property (such as: 1000 sandpaper wear cycles, 100 tape stripping cycles and 1000 g grit sustained impact). In addition, the excellent non-wettability of superhydrophobic coating can make it have excellent performance in the field of selfcleaning and anti-fouling. It is worth mentioning that the electrochemical workstation experiment proved that the coating also has good corrosion resistance, and the anticorrosion efficiency reached 99.924%. This strong superhydrophobic coating has many functions, such as self-cleaning, antifouling and corrosion prevention, and will have good application prospects in many fields in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature tends to view the firm either as a person or as a thing. Due to this dichotomy, it struggles with the proposition that the corporate form brings about efficiency gains that cannot be accomplished by other types of profit-seeking firms. This study supplies game-theoretic proof for this proposition. It identifies a capital-intensive business that requires external financing and is vulnerable to a holdup by a supplier. It shows that only the corporate form can organise the business while other types of firms fail. This advantage of the corporate form over other types of firms is due to its Janus-faced nature as both person , that is endowed with legal capacity, and thing , such as a transferable bundle of assets. A long-held tradition of strictly separating persons and things fails to account for this advantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This systematic review aims to review the effect of innovation strategy on firm competitiveness and to establish a theoretical background for future studies in the innovation and firm competitiveness literature. A total of 40 studies covering the innovation strategy and firm competitiveness were from 2015 to 2023 and analysed via a PRISMA method using the descriptive content analysis. These studies were found in the Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed, and Taylor and Francis databases. The findings from this review show that a large majority of the reviewed studies has concluded that innovation strategy have a positive relationship and effect between firm competitiveness. This study offers the chance to empirically examine innovation strategy and firm competitiveness from various angles. Despite a rapid recent increase in publications and special issue calls, many opportune research avenues within the innovation strategy and firm competitiveness field require further investigation.

This systematic review aims to review the effect of innovation strategy on firm competitiveness and to establish a theoretical background for future studies in the innovation and firm competitiveness literature. A total of 40 studies covering the innovation strategy and firm competitiveness were from 2015 to 2023 and analysed via a PRISMA method using the descriptive content analysis. These studies were found in the Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed, and Faylor and Francis databases. The findings from this review show that a large majority of the reviewed studies has concluded that innovation strategy have a positive relationship and effect between firm competitiveness. This study offers the chance to empirically examine innovation strategy and firm competitiveness from various angles. Despite a rapid recent increase in publications and special issue calls, many opportune research avenues within the innovation strategy and firm competitiveness field require further investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study aims to evaluate the impact of corporate social responsibility on forward default risk (FDR) under the setting of firm and industry heterogeneity. Research Design & Methods: This study evaluated the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on FDR using the data of 497 companies from 2007-2021 in the S&P 500 index, taking into account firm and industry heterogeneity aspects. This study utilized instrumental variable regression using the generalized method of moments (IV-GMM) estimation technique which is robust for controlling the pertinent issue of endogeneity. Findings: This study found a negative relationship between CSR and FDR in the full sample. From the firm size aspect, this study found that CSR is more effective in mitigating FDR in large-cap firms than in mid-cap firms. Firm age heterogeneity exhibited a distinct behaviour, as young and middle-aged firms had a stronger impact on FDR management in comparison to old firms. Industry heterogeneity showed that industries with higher customer interaction have a higher impact on corporate social responsibility to control FDR. Industries with lower customer interaction have a lower impact on corporate social responsibility and FDR. Implications & Recommendations: We proposed some policy recommendations based on the findings in the context of firm and industry heterogeneity. Especially the management of mid-cap and young corporations should improve the CSR policy to enhance CSR performance which would lead to stabilized protection against FDR. Similarly, consumer-intensive industries should also focus on enhancing CSR initiatives to decrease FDR. Non-consumer-intensive industries should focus on enhancing CSR policy and at the same time pay particular attention to communicating CSR results to end consumers to reduce FDR. Contribution & Value Added: This study is the first to explore CSR's impact on financial parameters under heterogeneity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study assesses and quantifies the economic and financial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic during the period of business operation restrictions countrywide (lockdown measures). We examine the strategies adopted by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to reopen their business operations after lockdown measures had been relaxed or lifted. Data were collected in Rwanda from nearly 244 SMEs across the country, providing firsthand and reliable information on the effects of the pandemic on business performance, with a particular emphasis on wood-based enterprises. We used Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA) and multivariate linear regression methods to measure the pandemic’s effects on employment, sales, and tax payments among SMEs. The findings reveal that firms downsized employment by 36%, with significant deviations within different SME sizes. Small businesses were particularly affected by reduced sales levels due to the pandemic. Although there was an overall reduction in tax payments during the crisis, medium-sized enterprises experienced a more significant decrease in taxes paid to the government by 74.6%. Additionally, regression findings affirm that the COVID-19 effects on SMEs were manifested in reduced sales across all categories of SMEs, reduced employment, and a reduced amount of taxes paid to the government, which further translate to reduced economic performance during COVID-19 period. Furthermore, SME owners utilised various coping mechanisms during the reopening phase, including a reliance on savings and selling assets. The analysis recommends establishing medium-term financing mechanisms and providing technical support for SMEs to ensure a steady and sustainable recovery from the pandemic’s effects, as well as enhancing their resilience to future socio-economic shocks.

Concomitant with the exacerbation of globalization, the firm has become a major institutional actor of economic change. However, it must be noted that the economics of the firm has been developed since the 1970s as a disciplinary subfield of economic science without paying any real attention to the concepts and practices of power. The firm is undoubtedly not only an economic but also a social and political entity. One cannot free the firm from the relations of power without missing a very substantial part of the constitutive elements of the firm, notably the struggling games and strategies of actors (firm members) who evolve in open institutional systems. Therefore, it is useful to turn to certain influent sociological and philosophical perspectives to understand power dynamics in the firm from an economic point of view. More precisely, to highlight the individual actors' games that constitute the evolution of firms' dynamics as complex and strategic systems, it is essential to pay particular attention to three aspects: (1) dependency; (2) strategy; and (3) resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Anuario de Historia Regional y de las Fronteras is the property of Universidad Industrial de Santander 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.)

In the period 1947–1972, large numbers of migrants arrived in Sweden to perform work, particularly in the manufacturing industry. The largest number of migrants came from Finland. Prior to the 1960s, Yugoslavia had not been a significant origin country for immigrants in Sweden, but immigration from Yugoslavia to Sweden increased in that decade. The question posed in the article is: how did Sweden become interlinked with Yugoslavia as an emigration country? The article focuses on the part played by firms and their interaction with state authorities. Swedish employers developed preferences for Yugoslav workers in the 1960s, because they were viewed as skilled within the engineering industry. They were also viewed as a stable workforce, particularly in relation to Finnish workers. Furthermore, the article analyses how the labour market authority shaped immigration from Yugoslavia; it could guide firms towards the recruitment of workers in Yugoslavia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates how learning from alliances leads to more efficient use of resources in developing firm capabilities. To do so, we investigate how knowledge transfer in technological and non-technological alliances affects firms' efficiency to develop R&D and appropriation capabilities, respectively. Further, we examine the impact of alliances on firms' ambidexterity. lastly, we examine the contingencies that can influence the direct effect of alliances on firm ambidexterity. This longitudinal study uses a sample of 3,045 U.S. firms that formed alliances in 2006. The findings suggest that the firms' capabilities improve as a result of forming technical alliances but the same cannot be said about non-technical alliances. Nevertheless, establishing either form of alliance improves firms' efficiency in the use of resources to achieve ambidexterity. However, this effect is contingent on the disparity in the size of alliance partners and industry munificence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Project sustainability has become a research hotspot in the construction industry and a crucial driving force for the successful delivery of projects. How enterprises can improve project sustainability performance and realize sustainable development by applying BIM has become an important research topic. In this study, based on the resource-based view and institutional theory, a relationship model of BIM application affecting project sustainability performance is constructed, and data from 449 questionnaires with electric power construction industry practitioners obtained by the two-stage data collection method are used to explore the relationship between BIM application and project sustainability performance, and to investigate the mediating role of green innovation and the moderating role of institutional pressures. The study found that: (1) BIM application has a significant positive impact on project sustainability performance; (2) BIM application has a significant positive predictive effect on green innovation, and green innovation plays a mediating role in the relationship between BIM application and project sustainability performance; and (3) under a high degree of institutional pressures, the positive relationship between BIM application and green innovation is strengthened, and, in this case, the mediating role of green innovation is enhanced. The study results help to expand the theoretical analysis of the relationship between BIM application and project sustainability performance and provide practical guidance for improving project sustainability. Finally, the data in this study only come from the power construction industry and do not differentiate between the types of green innovations, and further research could be conducted on these two aspects in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies whether firms employing immigrant workers are more resilient to an increase in competition in their export markets. Exploiting the surge of Chinese imports following its accession to the World Trade Organization and using a sample of French manufacturing exporters from 2002 to 2015, we find that an increase in the growth rate of Chinese competition in a foreign market has a negative effect on both the two-year survival and growth rate of sales of French exporters on that foreign market. This negative effect on firm performance is mitigated by the employment of immigrant workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research aims, through a multi-perspective and multi-disciplinary approach, to identify the key dimensions as well as the scale of measurement of enterprise supply chain resilience for an in-depth understanding of the concept. This is among the first empirical studies examining the key dimensions and appropriate measurement scale of enterprise supply chain resilience to address disruptions induced by unavoidable risk events. A detailed literature review is conducted to identify the dimensions of the construct under study. Then, a measurement instrument is developed from a set of items. The questionnaire is purified through a pretest, a pilot test, and reliability and validity tests. Data are collected from a final sample of 150 senior and middle managers, whose responses are considered for confirmatory factor analysis using SPSS Amos 22. The research results show that the enterprise supply chain resilience construct is composed of seven distinct dimensions, including collaboration, alertness, preparedness, visibility, robustness, flexibility and velocity. Then, a measurement instrument containing measurement items for each of said dimensions is empirically validated. This research develops and validates a structured and comprehensive measurement scale for the concept under study while identifying measurement items that can guide further theoretical testing of this concept and thereby dilute the dimensional and measurement confusions surrounding this theoretical concept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing competition in all sectors of the economy, caused by the accelerated introduction of new technological advances in manufacturing processes, the creation of innovative products and the use of new business models, generates increased uncertainty in the development prospects of each market organization. The natural reaction of many commercial structures is to deepen specialization and competencies in their core activities. The purpose of the study is to identify the circumstances affecting interaction between a company and a bank in the new conditions. The article for the first time examines these relationships from the point of view of the need for each party to improve its own business, which objectively requires closer cooperation between them. Based on the results of the study, the author concludes that strengthening collaboration between a firm and a bank in the field of credit and payment operations and management of related risks is based on pursuit of each party’s own goals and increases the value of each of them. Forms of cooperation between a company and a bank can be different, but the most effective for each organization seems to be a partnership form of relationship, allowing the participants of cooperation to receive the greatest benefits and, at the same time, to strengthen and reinforce their positions in the core activities of each party.

This paper analyses literature related to the impact of COVID-19 on family firms’ financial decisions. Presenting their distinctive characteristics and their responses to both past crises and the current one, the aim is to single out the key factors that ensure these firms’ economic continuity. The analysis of the key factors shown in the studies makes it possible to identify and understand behavioural aspects, such as those relating to business resilience, employed by owners of family firms, which take precedence over traditional financial management decisions. The analysis of the financial impact of the current crisis on family firms will help improve their resilience to future exogenous impacts.

Abstract This study examines the firm level drivers of employment growth in East Africa in which they are categorized as firm specific, entrepreneur specific and business environment characteristics. Using a cross-sectional World Bank Enterprise survey dataset and pooled Ordinary Least Squares estimation (OLS), the results indicate that; (1) employment growth is significantly associated with firm specific characteristics (employment growth is positively related to firm size and innovation while it is negatively associated with the age of the firm), (2) a weak business environment characterized by electricity outages, informal payments and poor court system undermines the firm’s ability to contribute to employment growth while strong business environment such as access to finance is positively associated with employment growth (3) employment growth is also positively influenced by managerial experience. Policy recommendations are suggested.

This study was conducted to assess the effects of security incidents on the stock prices of firms in Korea. A content analysis of news coverage articles about security incidents was performed. The research questions (RQs) of the current study were as follows: RQ1: this study evaluated whether the news coverage of a security incident can influence an investor's decision to buy or sell a stock; and RQ2: the study also analyzed whether the type of industry, the amount of damage caused by the incident, and the specific security incident itself would affect how investors assessed a stock's value. The results of the study indicate the following: (1) news coverage articles about security incidents have a significant effect on stock prices; and (2) the degree of such an effect varies depending on the tone, theme, and category of the news coverage. A more negative tone was associated with a decrease in stock prices. Less negative and neutral tones were associated with an increase in stock prices. In particular, a neutral tone was associated with an increase in stock prices, which was commonly seen in most of the firms experiencing security incidents. Furthermore, the number of news coverage articles about security incidents had no relationship to variations in stock prices. In firms experiencing security incidents, variations in stock prices varied depending on the types of industry, the types of damages, and the type of incident. In conclusion, the current study used an event study and a content analysis of news coverage articles about security incidents to assess their effects on the stock prices of firms. Further studies are warranted to establish the feasibility of this approach in a real-world setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the extensive literature on the effects of factor market distortions (FMD) on economic performance, only a limited number of studies have investigated their environmental impacts, and empirical evidence and mechanistic analysis from a micro level remain scarce. Against the backdrop of China’s significant factor market distortions, this study examines the influence of such distortions on firms’ pollution intensity empirically. Our research findings indicate that FMD increases the intensity of firms’ sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions, and this conclusion remains valid after accounting for instrumental variable regression. Mechanistic tests indicate that FMD enhance the SO2 emissions intensity of firms through three channels: by increasing their consumption of fossil energy, by impeding their willingness and ability to innovate, and by diminishing their ability to control pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the importance of firm strategic management in the time of crisis, this study investigates Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) approaches to persistence during the international sanctions against Iran. Using data from a questionnaire of 486 firms between December 2019 and September 2020, we found that reducing research and development (R&D) expenditures, marketing costs and fixed/overhead costs and investing in information technology (IT) are positively related to firm persistence. Conversely, managerial decisions to reduce production and cut or freeze staff pay have negative and significant impacts on a firm's ability to persist during sanctions. Moreover, micro‐firms are more resilient than their small and medium counterparts. The findings also confirm that age has a significant and positive impact on firm persistence. Finally, the results show that having a business plan, access to finance and technology, owner education, export orientation, business networking and consulting services are the key drivers of withstanding pressure from sanctions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author interprets conversion of tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge as means-end of knowledge management. The subject of the article is tacit knowledge owned by an employee. The purpose is to reveal the reason for the conversion of non-formalized knowledge of employees to formalized knowledge of a firm. For the knowledge-based production, it is not necessary to formalize all knowledge. The conversion of non-formalized knowledge of employees to formalized knowledge of the organization is one of the functional goals of the firm owner, necessary to obtain stable profit without the direct participation of employees, as well as an end in itself for knowledge managers. The study can serve as a starting point for continuing scientific research in the field of tacit knowledge and as theoretical basis for the development of practical measures for using the knowledge of employees with due respect to their legitimate interests and rights.

This paper analyses the weaknesses that characterize innovation in Romanian firms and the main obstacles encountered in innovation. Using CIS7 data referring to innovative firms operating in the manufacturing and services, our results reveals that the main obstacles faced by them are conditioned by the composition of the innovation expenditures and are located essentially within the sphere of lack of knowledge and technological opportunities and also the lack of internal resources for funding and low capacity to attract funding from the financial market. These measures can be the basis for the measures that can be adopted through government policies.

Managing a firm’s external environment involves considering not only relationships with economic partners, but also the influence of various elements of its ecosystem. In the article, we develop stages and methods for assessing the formation of an ecosystem based on a scientific review. The theoretical framework of the study is institutional economics and the concept of ecosystem. The method of system logical analysis was used. The research data are retrieved from scientific papers indexed in the global databases Web of Science Core Collection and Scopus in 2015–2022. Having analyzed the existing literature, we formulated the definition of a firm’s sustainable ecosystem interpreted as the external environment of a business entity with a comprehensive set of infrastructure elements, stable network interactions, the extensive use of digital technologies, the essential institutional support, and optimal transaction costs. In the formation of a firm’s sustainable ecosystem, there are five stages providing for the development of infrastructural, network, digital, institutional, and financial parameters of this system. These factors ensure the benefits of a sustainable ecosystem consisting in diverse economic activities, strong relationships, fast decision-making, stable strategic development, and reduced costs for maintaining the ecosystem. The novelty of the study lies in the systematization of the stages and methods for the formation of a firm’s sustainable ecosystem based on institutional economics, which adds to the existing methods for assessing business ecosystems. We have highlighted the avenues for further studies on expanding the toolkit for evaluating various aspects of a firm’s ecosystem functioning.

The perspective specific to the economic theory of reducing the human being to a mere mathematical model and of viewing the exchange between work and wage as a naturalistic process prevents us from grasping the characteristic of alienation, which deeply alters the natural and human aspects of the work itself, up to disrupt them. Work alienation, as the negative moment of an objectification-recognition dialectics, actually has a positive meaning of individual human growth that passes through emancipation. Compared to the past, today it is necessary to identify a more substantial element of alienation as the expropriation of the human being's ultimate end and, also, to question labour or the company as ends in themselves, as the only substitutes for the worker's life project. The time has therefore come for workers, isolated economic actors within a world of mere exchange relationships, to stop entirely giving themselves to a cause that is not their own, albeit legitimate, which is represented by the goal of creating value, and to rediscover the true meaning of being a human with and among other humans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The silk weaving section refers to a form of inscription that weaves corresponding text such as the place of production weaving institution and type of fabric at the beginning of the silk. The silk weaving section is one of the recording forms of ancient Chinese silk textiles and is also an indispensable and important component of Chinese silk products in the early 20 th century. Through the study and analysis of a large number of cultural relics of silk weaving sections during this period we drew three important conclusions combining with the overall changes of the era. First with the changes in politics the continuous influx of new weaving technologies and the deepening economic and cultural exchanges between China and the outside world various silk weaving sections appeared. The silk weaving sections are divided into three major categories and eleven subcategories with four special forms. Second the color development of the silk weaving section is diverse. During the Qing Dynasty the partial shuttle was mainly used while during the Republic of China period fully shuttle weaving gradually increased. The weaving form of the weaving section of gauze fabrics can be divided into three categories creating patterns on the sha gauze plain weave silk or brocading gauze. Third there are differences between hand-woven fabrics and machine-woven fabrics in terms of raw materials color development and inscription content. Traditional hand-reeling silk is mostly used for hand-woven fabrics while filature silk or artificial silk is used as warp and weft threads for machine)woven fabrics. The inscriptions on hand-woven fabrics are generally created by using thick weft threads in a long float or basket weave structure or a combination of irregular basket weave and plain weave in partial shuttle weaving. Alternatively they might be woven in a shuttle weaving form with patterns. As for machine-woven fabrics fine yarns are generally used and reinforced twill weave is employed to fill in the thick parts of the strokes. And long weft floats are used to display the thin or abruptly stopped parts and brush strokes. In terms of inscription content both types include information about the weaving structure as well as the names of textile products that fit the characteristics of the times. As for the font difference the inscription on hand-woven fabrics is generally rougher while machine-woven fabric inscriptions are typically woven with red and yellow yarn and have finer and more delicate characters that take up less length in the warp direction. Through in-depth collection sorting and analysis of the silk weaving section and its color development techniques from early 20 th century we not only focus on the easily overlooked but historically informative textile parts of the silk fabric the silk weaving section as the research object but also study the changes in the silks weaving section across the Republic of China and the Qing Dynasty. The breadth and depth of the research perspective minimize errors caused by differences in perspective with the aim of benefiting relevant studies on silk weaving techniques the development history of modern silk industry and the examination of weaving officials in the Jiangnan Three Weaving Works throughout different dynasties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Jadara Journal of Research & Studies is the property of Association of Arab Universities 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.)

Corporate political connections (CPCs)—ties that firms forge with political actors—directly affect firms, political actors, and various stakeholders in societies. This topic has been studied extensively in multiple disciplines, including management, economics and finance, political science, and sociology. However, this body of research remains rather fragmented within the confines of each discipline or field, and synergies in theoretical and empirical domains remain underexploited. Differences between CPCs and other forms of corporate political activities are also often unclear. This article develops a focused, comprehensive, and theoretically deep review of the rapidly growing but disparate literature on CPCs in multiple disciplines and fields and distinguishes, compares, and connects multiple, heterogeneous theoretical perspectives that have been adopted in these different literatures. By conducting an extensive literature search of the articles published between 1990 and 2020 in 24 leading peer-reviewed journals in management, economics and finance, political science, and sociology, we build our review framework by organizing the reviewed articles into three groups of topics based on their logical connections: the conceptualization of CPCs, the antecedents of CPCs, and the outcomes of CPCs. Within each group, we distinguish two primary angles—the firm and the political actor—that correspond to the two entities joined by CPCs. On the basis of this framework, we identify major gaps and suggest avenues for future research. Our review works together with a companion review on corporate political activity, published in this same issue, to offer a wholistic perspective on the boundary between corporations and political actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Of all the inputs into housing production, land can be the most challenging to source. Over the last decade, the land promotion sector has taken a much more prominent role in converting the planning status of land in return for a proportion of the resultant increase in land value. This paper explores the significance of specialist land promoters in the strategic housing land market in the UK. The paper makes three contributions. First, it maps the range of organisations that promote land through the UK planning system and demonstrates the diversity and definitional fuzziness of the organisations operating in the contemporary UK land market. Second, in contrast to prior studies which have grouped specialist land promoters with other types of market actor, it finds that specialist land promoters made a relatively small contribution to the supply of housing land in the study period. Third, the paper shows that housebuilders account for a minority of planning consents for residential development, thereby suggesting that the degree of vertical integration in the land and housing development sector in the UK may be lower than presumed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the firm level drivers of employment growth in East Africa in which they are categorized as firm specific, entrepreneur specific and business environment characteristics. Using a cross-sectional World Bank Enterprise survey dataset and pooled Ordinary Least Squares estimation (OLS), the results indicate that; (1) employment growth is significantly associated with firm specific characteristics (employment growth is positively related to firm size and innovation while it is negatively associated with the age of the firm), (2) a weak business environment characterized by electricity outages, informal payments and poor court system undermines the firm's ability to contribute to employment growth while strong business environment such as access to finance is positively associated with employment growth (3) employment growth is also positively influenced by managerial experience. Policy recommendations are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the impact of China's perceived country image on its firms' exports based on highly disaggregated data from 2002 to 2016. Using a composite indicator that accounts for historical wars as an instrument of country image, we find that the improvement in China's perceived image significantly increases firms' exports, and this effect on developing destinations is approximately 3.4 times that on developed destinations. Further analysis shows that exports from foreign-owned and privately owned domestic firms are more sensitive to China's perceived image. The effect of country image on exports is stronger for neighboring countries and has a greater impact on consumer goods. We identify two channels through which country image affects exports, one by enhancing consumer preferences and the other by reducing trade barriers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]