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The dominant literature on the development of the EU's new economic governance regime suggests that it constitutes another step towards integration in the European fiscal policy framework. However, I argue that this limited view neglects the politics of labour that underlies European monetary integration. In the euro area competitiveness adjustment is promoted, which means in practice fostering and facilitating the confrontation of workers by employers in order to keep unit labour costs down. The new economic governance reforms consistently reinforced this policy-making logic. Its central innovation was the systematization and 'hardening' of the macroeconomic surveillance framework beyond fiscal policy, which created new competences at the EU level to intervene in national labour market policies, including wages. This is what is actually new about the new economic governance; marking a recent key moment in European monetary integration and reinforcing the politics of labour underlying it.
Scholars have suggested that design thinking and effectuation theory may enrich each other. However, to date, we lack deeper theorizing and empirical evidence to further advance this valuable discourse for the benefit of innovation management. Our qualitative study draws on 41 in-depth interviews with Australian designer-founders, with the aim to provide a theoretical perspective on and empirical insights into the relationship between the behavioral practices of design thinking and the cognitive principles of effectuation. The contributions are twofold. First, our study explains how design thinking practices enable designer-founders to enact the cognitive principles of effectuation. Uncovering these “entrepreneurial ways of designing” provides an explanation for the effectiveness of design thinking for entrepreneurial innovation and new venture creation. Second, our study sheds light on the ways in which designer-founders interpret effectuation principles through the professional values and norms embodied in design thinking. These “designerly ways of entrepreneuring” resemble particular, normative interpretations of effectual action. By doing so, our study offers empirical substantiation and theoretical elaboration of the ways in which design thinking functions as an approach for entrepreneurial innovation and new venture creation. Through shedding light on the “entrepreneurial ways of designing” and “designerly ways of entrepreneuring” exhibited by designer-founders, our research reveals the reciprocal relationship between design thinking and effectuation theory.
We contribute to the recent debates on demand and growth regimes in modern finance-dominated capitalism linking them to the post-Keynesian research on macroeconomic policy regimes. We examine the demand and growth regimes, as well as the macroeconomic policy regimes for the big four Eurozone countries, France, Germany, Italy and Spain, for the periods 2001–2009 and 2010–2019. First, our approach supports the usefulness of the identification of demand and growth regimes according to growth contributions of the main demand components and financial balances of the macroeconomic sectors. This allows for an understanding of the demand sources of growth, or stagnation, if there is a lack of demand, of how these sources are financed and of potential financial instabilities and fragilities. Second, when it comes to the macroeconomic policy drivers of demand and growth regimes, as well as their respective changes, we show that the exclusive focus on fiscal policies, as in the previous literature, is too limited and that it is the macroeconomic policy regime which matters here, i.e. the combination of monetary, fiscal and wage policies, as well as the open economy conditions.
Businesses and governments are becoming increasingly concerned about the resilience of supply chains and calling for their review and stress testing. In this conceptual essay, we theorize a human-centred ecosystem viability perspective that spans the dimensions of resilience and sustainability and can be used as guidance for the conceptualization of supply chain resilience analysis in the presence of long-term crises. Subsequently, we turn to the technological level and present the digital supply chain twin as a contemporary instrument for stress testing supply chain resilience. We provide some implementation guidelines and emphasize that although resilience assessment of individual supply chains is important and critical for firms, viability analysis of intertwined supply networks and ecosystems represents a novel and impactful research perspective. One of the major outcomes of this essay is the conceptualization of a human-centred ecosystem viability perspective on supply chain resilience.
Exiting the COVID-19 pandemic: after-shock risks and avoidance of disruption tails in supply chains
(2021)
Entering the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on supply chains. Reacting to the pandemic and adaptation in the “new normal” have been challenging tasks. Exiting the pandemic can lead to some after-shock effects such as “disruption tails.” While the research community has undertaken considerable efforts to predict the pandemic’s impacts and examine supply chain adaptive behaviors during the pandemic, little is known about supply chain management in the course of pandemic elimination and post-disruption recovery. If capacity and inventory management are unaware of the after-shock risks, this can result in highly destabilized production–inventory dynamics and decreased performance in the post-disruption period causing product deficits in the markets and high inventory costs in the supply chains. In this paper, we use a discrete-event simulation model to investigate some exit strategies for a supply chain in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our model can inform managers about the existence and risk of disruption tails in their supply chains and guide the selection of post-pandemic recovery strategies. Our results show that supply chains with postponed demand and shutdown capacity during the COVID-19 pandemic are particularly prone to disruption tails. We then developed and examined two strategies to avoid these disruption tails. First, we observed a conjunction of recovery and supply chain coordination which mitigates the impact of disruption tails by demand smoothing over time in the post-disruption period. Second, we found a gradual capacity ramp-up prior to expected peaks of postponed demand to be an effective strategy for disruption tail control.
Recently, a number of structured funds have emerged as public-private partnerships with the intent of promoting investment in renewable energy in emerging markets. These funds seek to attract institutional investors by tranching the asset pool and issuing senior notes with a high credit quality. Financing of renewable energy (RE) projects is achieved via two channels: small RE projects are financed indirectly through local banks that draw loans from the fund’s assets, whereas large RE projects are directly financed from the fund. In a bottom-up Gaussian copula framework, we examine the diversification properties and RE exposure of the senior tranche. To this end, we introduce the LH++ model, which combines a homogeneous infinitely granular loan portfolio with a finite number of large loans. Using expected tranche percentage notional (which takes a similar role as the default probability of a loan), tranche prices and tranche sensitivities in RE loans, we analyse the risk profile of the senior tranche. We show how the mix of indirect and direct RE investments in the asset pool affects the sensitivity of the senior tranche to RE investments and how to balance a desired sensitivity with a target credit quality and target tranche size.
Adoption of carbon regulation mechanisms facilitates an evolution toward green and sustainable supply chains followed by an increased complexity. Through the development and usage of a multi-choice goal programming model solved by an improved algorithm, this article investigates sustainability strategies for carbon regulations mechanisms. We first propose a sustainable logistics model that considers assorted vehicle types and gas emissions involved with product transportation. We then construct a bi-objective model that minimizes total cost as the first objective function and follows environmental considerations in the second one. With our novel robust-heuristic optimization approach, we seek to support the decision-makers in comparison and selection of carbon emission policies in supply chains in complex settings with assorted vehicle types, demand and economic uncertainty. We deploy our model in a case-study to evaluate and analyse two carbon reduction policies, i.e., carbon-tax and cap-and-trade policies. The results demonstrate that our robust-heuristic methodology can efficiently deal with demand and economic uncertainty, especially in large-scale problems. Our findings suggest that governmental incentives for a cap-and-trade policy would be more effective for supply chains in lowering pollution by investing in cleaner technologies and adopting greener practices.
Supply chain viability (SCV) is an emerging concept of growing importance in operations management. This paper aims to conceptualize, develop, and validate a measurement scale for SCV. SCV is first defined and operationalized as a construct, followed by content validation and item measure development. Data have been collected through three independent samplings comprising a total of 558 respondents. Both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses are used in a step-wise manner for scale development. Reliability and validity are evaluated. A nomological model is theorized and tested to evaluate nomological validity. For the first time, our study frames SCV as a novel and distinct construct. The findings show that SCV is a hierarchical and multidimensional construct, reflected in organizational structures, organizational resources, dynamic design capabilities, and operational aspects.
The findings reveal that a central characteristic of SCV is the dynamic reconfiguration of SC structures in an adaptive manner to ensure survival in the long-term perspective. This research conceptualizes and provides specific, validated dimensions and item measures for SCV. Practitioner directed guidance and suggestions are offered for improving SCV during the COVID-19 pandemic and future severe disruptions.
Andreas Grimmel, Hrsg. 2020. Die neue Europäische Union. Zwischen Integration und Desintegration
(2021)
In dem von Andreas Grimmel herausgegebenen, 12 Beiträge umfassenden Sammelband vermitteln namhafte Expertinnen und Experten der deutschen Europaforschung ihre neuesten sowohl empirisch gewonnenen als auch theoriegeleiteten Erkenntnisse zum europäischen Integrationsprozess. Der Sammelband richtet sich an einen europapolitisch interessierten Leserkreis in Forschung und Lehre sowie an Studierende an Universitäten und Hochschulen, die einen Master-Studiengang mit Schwerpunkt Europawissenschaften belegen. Nachfolgend wird exemplarisch auf einige der 12 Beiträge kommentierend eingegangen.
Seit Jahren wird von und in der Sozialen Arbeit Ressourcenorientierung statt Defizitorientierung gefordert. Empowerment und die Ermöglichung von erlebter Selbstwirksamkeit (Agency) sind begründete und weithin
anerkannten Orientierungen für die Praxis. Es geht um den Abbau paternalistischer Strukturen, um parteiliches Miteinander und um Partizipation. Verglichen mit der Jugendhilfe und der Eingliederungshilfe scheint die Wohnungslosenhilfe ein wenig spät dran zu sein. Aber auch in diesem traditionellen Feld der Sozialen
Arbeit hat sich in den letzten Jahren etwas getan.
Auf Basis des Great Eight-Kompetenzrahmens stellt dieser Beitrag der Zeitschrift Gruppe. Interaktion. Organisation. (GIO) eine Studie zu den Kompetenzanforderungen an Projektleiter*innen in hochdigitalisierten Arbeitsumgebungen der agilen Softwareentwicklung vor und definiert den zugehörigen Führungserfolg. Es wurden elfEinzelinterviews mit Expert*innen eines internationalen IT-Dienstleisters durchgeführt, die verschiedene Rollen im Kontext der Softwareentwicklung ausfüllten. Die Interviews wurden mittels qualitativer Inhaltsanalyse anhand eines Kategoriensystems computergestützt ausgewertet. Es konnte ein Anforderungsprofil identifiziert werden, das 20 Kompetenzfacetten im Sinne leistungsrelevanter Verhaltensweisen umfasst. Eine bis drei Kompetenzfacetten ließen sich jeweils einer von 12 übergeordneten Kompetenzdimensionen zuordnen, wobei jede Domäne der Great Eight durch mindestens eine Kompetenzdimension repräsentiert war. Die Domänen Leading and Deciding (Motivationsfähigkeit; Mitarbeiterförderung), Interacting and Presenting (Kommunikationsfähigkeit; Konfliktfähigkeit) sowie Analyzing and Interpreting (Kenntnisse IT-Branche; Überblickswissen Softwareentwicklung; agile Arbeitsmethoden) umfassten jeweils zwei bzw. drei Kompetenzdimensionen.
Die restlichen fünf Domänen wurden jeweils durch eine Kompetenzdimension abgebildet (Supporting und Cooperating: Teamfähigkeit; Creating and Conceptualizing: Offenheit; Organizing and Executing: Zeit- und Ressourcenmanagement; Adapting and Coping: Proaktiver Umgang mit Fehlern; Enterprising and Performing: Begeisterungsfähigkeit für Softwareentwicklung). Die Domänen Analyzing and Interpreting sowie Enterprising and Performing bilden Kompetenzanforderungen ab, die spe-
zifisch für den Arbeitskontext der agilen Softwareentwicklung sind. Führungserfolg liegt vor, wenn lauffähige Softwareressourcen effizient nach Kundenwünschen entwickelt wird und die Teammitglieder gleichzeitig eine hohe Arbeitszufriedenheit berichten. Zusammenfassend lassen sich Kompetenzanforderungen an Projektleiter*innen in digitalisiert und agil agierenden Softwareentwicklerteams anhand der Great Eight konzeptualisieren, wobei das Anforderungsportfolio vier tätigkeitsfeldspezifische und acht kontextunabhängige Kompetenzdimensionen vereint, die sich jeweils anhand relevanter Verhaltensweisen für den Führungsalltag definieren lassen.