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In this article we show how fashion brands communicate with their follower on Instagram. We use a continuously update dataset of 68 brands, more than 300,000 posts and more than 40,000,000 comments. Starting with descriptive statistics, we uncover different behavior and success of the various brands. It turns out that there are patterns specific to luxury, mass-market and sportswear brands. Posting volume is extremely brand dependent as is the number of comments and the engagement of the community. Having understood the statistics, we turn to machine learning techniques to measure the response of the community via comments. Topic models help us understand the structure of their respective community and uncover insights regarding the response to campaigns. Having up-to-date content is essential for this kind of analysis, as the market is highly volatile. Furthermore, automatic data analysis is crucial to measure the success of campaigns and adjust them accordingly for maximum effect.
Dieses Projekt stellt die Frage, wie die COVID-19-Pandemie Prozesse der sozialen Inklusion und Exklusion von wohnungslosen Jugendlichen beeinflusst. Anhand von drei internationalen Fallstudien soll das Verständnis dafür verbessert werden, wie Pandemien die Risiken und die zugänglichen wohlfahrtsstaatlichen Ressourcen für junge Menschen mit Wohnungslosigkeits-erfahrung prägen. Das Wissen, das in dieser vergleichenden Studie entwickelt wird, kann dazu beitragen, die Art und Weise zu verbessern, wie Organisationen der Wohnungslosenhilfe auf neue, veränderte oder verstärkte Probleme und Bedürfnisse von jungen wohnungslosen Menschen reagieren.
In dem an der Technischen Hochschule Nürnberg Georg Simon Ohm angesiedelten Forschungsprojekt „Securing Housing. Wohnen, Wohnraumverluste und Wohnungslosigkeit in Nürnberg und Wien“ wird die Wirkungsweise wohnraumsichernder Instrumente in einem Städtevergleich untersucht. Während sich die Situation auf einigen ohnehin schon angespannten urbanen Wohnungsmärkten zuungunsten ärmerer Bevölkerungsteile zunehmend zuspitzt, und es vermehrt zu Verdrängungen und zur Verknappung leistbaren Wohnraumes kommt, bleiben Unterstützungsangebote, die Wohnraumverluste abwenden oder die Folgen verringern könnten, teilweise ungenutzt oder werden erst sehr spät genutzt. Um die (Nicht‑)Akzeptanz und (Nicht‑)Wirkung besser verstehen zu können, werden die den Interventionsversuchen zu Grunde liegenden Wissensvorräte, Deutungsmuster, Kollektivsymboliken und Normalitätsvorstellungen analysiert. Es wird also untersucht, welchen Einfluss die Wahrnehmung, Interpretation und normative Beurteilung von Wohnungslosigkeit und Wohnraumverlusten durch die Beteiligten auf die Akzeptanz und Reichweite wohnungspolitischer, sozialpolitischer und sozialpädagogischer Regulierungsversuche haben.
Given the lasting positive effects of prenatal and infancy home visiting in the United States on disadvantaged mothers and children at school age, we analyzed the follow-up effects of a German home visiting program (ProKind). We hypothesized improvements in 3 domains at child age 7 years: (1) child development and life satisfaction, (2) maternal mental health and life satisfaction, and (3) adverse parenting, abusive parenting, and neglectful parenting.METHODSWe conducted a randomized controlled trial of home visiting, enrolling 755 pregnant, low-income women with no previous live births. The intervention comprised 32.7 home visits by family midwives and/or social pedagogues until child age 2 years. Assessments were completed on 533 7-year-old firstborn offspring to evaluate 8 primary hypotheses.
We found significant positive effects for 4 of the 8 primary hypotheses. Mothers in the intervention group reported fewer behavioral problems among their children in the Child Behavior Checklist (effect size [ES] = 0.21; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.03 to 0.38), less child abusive parenting (ES = 0.19; 95% CI: 0.00 to 0.37), fewer maternal mental health problems (ES = 0.25; 95% CI: 0.07 to 0.43), and higher maternal life satisfaction (ES = 0.25; 95% CI: 0.07 to 0.43). Additional preregistered subgroup analyses regarding child sex revealed larger effects for boys and mothers of boys.CONCLUSIONSThe results suggest that in a western European welfare state, home visiting targeting disadvantaged mothers has lasting effects in important outcome domains. Therefore, home visits also appear to be an effective and efficient public health intervention in European settings.
Home visiting programs constitute an important policy to support vulnerable families with young children. One of their principal aims is to improve infant-parent relationships, so a key measure of their effectiveness is based on observational measures of parent-children interactions. In the present study we provide novel evidence on the effectiveness of home visiting programs in improving mother-child interactions within a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of the Pro Kind program. A major goal of the Pro Kind program is to promote child development by strengthening the intuitive parenting skills of mothers. On this basis, the following research question is addressed in this paper: What is the impact of the Pro Kind home visitation program on the quality of mother-child interaction?
Despite long-term interest in whether welfare benefits motivate fertility, evidence from research has not been consistent. This paper contributes new evidence to this debate by investigating the fertility effect of a German welfare reform. The reform decreased the household income of families on welfare by 18% in the first year after the birth of a baby. Using exclusive access to German social security data on over 460,000 affected women, our analysis finds that the reform leads to a fertility reduction of 6.8%. This result implies that for mothers on welfare, fertility has an income elasticity of 0.38, which is much smaller than that of general populations reported in the literature. Our findings suggest that welfare recipients’ fertility reacts less strongly to financial incentives than the fertility of overall populations.
AbstractThis study examines the immediate and intermediate effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the well-being of two high school graduation cohorts (2020 and 2021) and how changes in well-being affect students’ educational plans and outcomes. Our unique panel data on 3697 students from 214 schools in 8 German federal states contain prospective survey information on three dimensions of well-being: mental health problems, self-rated health, and life satisfaction. Data is collected several months before (fall 2019), shortly before and soon after (spring 2020) as well as several months after (fall/winter 2020/21) the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Applying difference-in-differences designs, random effect growth curve models, and linear regression models, we find that school closures had a positive immediate effect on students’ well-being. Over the course of the pandemic, however, well-being strongly declined, mainly among the 2021 graduation cohort. We show that a strong decline in mental health is associated with changes in educational and career plans and transition outcomes. As adverse life experiences in adolescence are likely to accumulate over the life course, this study is the first to exhibit potential long-lasting negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on education and careers of young individuals.
The influence of corporate diversification on firm value is an important field in strategy research. Studies in strategic management and finance research have analyzed value creation through product and geographic diversification from a shareholder’s perspective. This study completes this picture by analyzing the bondholders’ perspective. It is suggested that product diversification creates value for bondholders, while geographic diversification destroys bondholder value. The hypotheses are tested on a sample of S&P 1,200 firms in 2001–2011 using a fixed-effects panel model. Drawing on prior research, bondholder value creation is measured using the Merton model. The empirical results support the hypothesis that bondholders gain value through product diversification but lose value through geographic diversification. Considering prior research results, these results show that product diversification is preferable for bondholders, while geographic diversification is preferable from a shareholder’s perspective. The opposite effects of both diversification strategies on shareholders, respectively, bondholders offer an important new perspective on corporate diversification. The results show that firms with a high level of corporate debt should struggle to justify a strategy involving geographic dispersion of activities and support a more diversified product portfolio strategy. This study also offers several avenues for investigating the bondholder’s perspective on corporate diversification in more detail.
The risk implications of product diversification have received considerable attention from scholars. However, our understanding of the effects of geographic diversification on risk is more limited. Relying on resource-based theory to frame our arguments, we argue that despite some similarities, the two types of diversification have differing effects on firm risk. We first establish the risk reducing effects for product diversification. We then integrate the unique aspects of geographic diversification that serve as a boundary condition to the RBV perspective, arguing for the risk increasing effects of geographic diversification. Finally, since many firms pursue both forms of diversification simultaneously, we explore the joint effects of both product and geographic diversification. We test our hypotheses in a longitudinal model on a sample of S&P 500 firms. Our findings suggest that total product diversification, as well as related diversification reduce risk, while total geographic diversification increases risk. Furthermore, our data provide evidence of a complex combination of joint effects of these two forms of diversification. These findings offer a more complete understanding of the risk effects of corporate diversification.
Die Corona-Pandemie hat die Hochschulen in eine Krisensituation versetzt. Die damalige Entscheidung, das Sommersemester 2020 trotz Kontaktverboten durchzuführen, hat alle Hochschulen mobilisiert eine nahezu vollständige Online-Lösung aufzubauen. Diese ‹Zwangsdigitalisierung› hat Lehrende und Studierende in den folgenden Monaten in einen Experimentiermodus versetzt. Dass sich Lehrende und Lernende in dieser Breite mit digitalen Technologien auseinandersetzen und Erfahrungen machen, konnten bisherige Forderungen und Förderungen nicht erreichen. Es ist jedoch ungewiss, wie diese Dynamik in den Lehralltag einer Post-Pandemie-Zeit übertragen werden kann. Hier sind Hochschulen auf strategischer Ebene gefragt, den Krisenmodus für den Change-Prozess zu nutzen. Anhand einer Gruppendiskussion mit 14 Vizepräsidentinnen und Vizepräsidenten haben wir untersucht, welche langfristigen Veränderungspotenziale der Pandemie wahrgenommen werden. Durch eine strukturierte Inhaltsanalyse der Diskussion erweitern wir in diesem Beitrag die bisherigen zusammenfassenden Ergebnisse. Die Analyse zeigt, dass als entscheidende Variable für den Erfolg beim Krisenmanagement multiple agile Kooperationsformate zwischen den unterschiedlichen Ebenen und Akteuren wahrgenommen werden. Die Aufrechterhaltung und der Ausbau dieser Kooperationen kann die Grundlage für einen langfristigen Change-Prozess darstellen, der unabhängig von der CoViD-19-Pandemie notwendig ist.
Qualitative content analysis is a systematic method commonly used in the social sciences to analyze textual data from interviews or online discussions. However, this method usually requires high expertise and manual effort because human coders need to read, interpret, and manually annotate text passages. This is especially true if the system of categories used for annotation is complex and semantically rich. Therefore, qualitative content analysis could benefit greatly from automated coding. In this work, we investigate the usage of machine learning-based text classification models for automatic coding in the area of psycho-social online counseling. We developed a system of over 50 categories to analyze counseling conversations, labeled over 10.000 text passages manually, and evaluated the performance of different machine learning-based classifiers against human coders.
AbstractBackgroundMany shift workers suffer from sleep issues, which negatively affect quality of life and performance. Scientifically evaluated, structured programs for prevention and treatment are scarce. We developed an anonymous online cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) program. After successful completion of a feasibility study, we now start this prospective, randomized, controlled superiority trial to compare outcomes of two parallel groups, namely an intervention group and a waiting-list control-group. Additionally, we will compare these outcomes to those of a face-to-face CBT-I outpatient sample.MethodsCollaborating companies will offer our anonymous online intervention to their shift-working employees. Company physicians and counseling services will screen those interested for inclusion and exclusion criteria. Participants will receive access to our online service, where they will complete psychometric assessment and receive random assignment to either the intervention group or the waiting-list control group. Participants and providers will be aware of the group assignment. We aim to allocate at leastN= 60 participants to the trial. The intervention consists of psychoeducation, sleep restriction, stimulus control, relaxation techniques, and individual feedback delivered via four e-mail contacts. During the intervention, as well as during the waiting period, participants will fill out weekly sleep diaries. Immediately after completion of the program, the post-intervention assessment takes place. Participants in the control group will be able to participate in the program after all study assessments. To recruit an additional sample, collaborating outpatient sleep clinics will provide six sessions of standard face-to-face CBT-I to an ad hoc sample of shift working patients. We expect both the online and the face-to-face CBT-I interventions to have beneficial effects compared to the control group on the following primary outcomes: self-reported symptoms of depression and insomnia, sleep quality, and daytime sleepiness.ConclusionsThe online intervention allows shift workers to follow a CBT-I program independently of their working schedule and location. Forthcoming results might contribute to further improvement of prevention and therapy of sleep issues in shift workers.Trial registrationGerman Clinical Trials Register DRKSDRKS00017777. Registered on 14 January 2020—retrospectively registered.
Ein Datensatz aus mehreren deutschsprachigen Onlineberatungsforen wurde mit verschiedenen maschinellen Lernverfahren untersucht. Dabei können unüberwachte Lernverfahren nur in Bezug auf die linguistische Gestaltung der Beiträge relevante Ergebnisse zeigen. Überwachte maschinelle Lernverfahren zeigen ein sehr großes Potenzial zur Klassifikation von Textstellen analog zur qualitativen Inhaltsanalyse. Damit eignen sich maschinelle Lernverfahren prinzipiell für die qualitative Analyse großer Textmengen, wie sie z. B. in der Onlineberatung vorliegen.
Social media usage has greatly increased during the pandemic. The use of social media has been linked to mental health consequences. Especially TikTok is under scrutiny because of its captivating UX Design as well as controversial privacy policies. This study shows how Mobile Affective Computing Research can reliably and objectively measure the implicit-emotional UX. The results suggest that TikTok triggers positive emotions during onboarding and strengthens the emotional bond with increasing usage - mainly due to the personalization algorithm. In particular, the study further reveals that there are no clear relationships when “only self-reported data” is used to understand app usage behavior. However, emotion data based on facial coding shows that TikTok users get emotionally aroused. Initially, a positive and relaxed mood triggers further usage time, while - counter-intuitively - later sessions result in an increasingly negative and aroused mood. However, people are largely unaware of these relationships when questioned. Thus, implicit measures, such as facial coding, may help identify valid social media usage reactions. These results yield implications that call for political regulation considering aspects of social media apps and user behavior.
At the beginning of the year 2020, the pandemic caused by COVID-19 reached Europe. European countries implemented restrictions on movement and public life in order to contain its spread. The pandemic, as well as these policy responses, altered everyday lives for people all over Europe. This research explores effects of the pandemic on the everyday lives and lived realities of homeless young people in three cities in different countries: Nuremberg (Germany), Copenhagen (Denmark) and Manchester (United Kingdom). We focus on young people between the ages of 18 and 29 who have experienced homelessness. In addition, we explore how three different social welfare organisations worked to provide practical and emotional support to homeless young people during the pandemic.
Current crises (i.e., climate crisis, COVID-19 pandemic, Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the resulting energy and food shortages) indicate the need for robust, and sustainable supply chains with regional food production and farmland to secure food supply in the European Union (EU). Recent research shows that organic food is more resilient to supply chain disruptions and price fluctuations. In this context, we examine an approach for the sustainable and resilient transformation of agri-food networks: can an adaptation of value added tax (VAT) levels work as a financial incentive to amplify resilient agricultural practices and sustainable dietary patterns? Within the setting of the amendment of the European framework directive on the use of VAT in 2022, we model the effects of adapting the current German VAT system by (1) reducing VAT on organic vegetarian food to 0% and (2) raising VAT on conventional meat and fish to 19%. Based on historical data on organic sales shares and price elasticities, we project sales shares differentiated by product group for each scenario. Then, we calculate expected tax revenues, changes in consumption patterns, and arising total external climate costs in Germany for both scenarios. Our results show that the overall consumption share of organic food would increase by 21.83% due to the modeled VAT reform compared to the status quo. Despite the VAT reduction to 0% on organic vegetarian products, the measure would yield €2.04 billion in extra tax revenues in Germany per year due to the increased taxation on conventional meat products. We find that annual environmental costs of €5.31 billion can be avoided as a result of lower external climate costs of organic and vegetarian food. Therefore, adjusting VAT rates in the food market can be a political instrument to drive organic food consumption and reduce animal livestock. This supports re-territorialization of agriculture and a more sustainable and resilient European food supply.
Agriculture is one of the world's biggest polluters. Consumers are misled towards demand of unsustainable and inadequately priced food products by an insufficient internalization of externalities. Shifting demand towards more sustainable dietary choices can lead to a sustainable transition of agri-food networks. In this study, we evaluate environmental damage economically: we combine environmental assessment of different food products with the internalization of their monetary impacts. Life Cycle Assessments are modeled for conventional and organic foods and different production scenarios. The quantified environmental impacts are combined with True Cost Accounting to adjust food prices according to their environmental impacts. Using this framework for 22 German agricultural products, we find that on average, crop production generates externalities of about €0.79 per kg for conventional and about €0.42 for organic products. Conventional milk and eggs cause additional costs of about €1.29 per kg on average in organic systems and about €1.10 in organic ones. Conventional and organic meat generate externalities of €4.42 and €4.22 per kg, respectively, with beef generating the highest costs of all. The environmental favorability of organic products is confirmed, but the resulting organic market prices after internalization still exceed conventional prices. Externalities represent a negative impact on societal welfare, which should be addressed by policies supporting transparent pricing approaches.
This contribution sheds light on how people experiencing homelessness in Germany make sense of an app designed with them in mind and whether using it would be of benefit to them. However, it must be acknowledged that the app has yet to be developed. “Urban figurations of social control,” a term we use to refer to the social conditions of homelessness in Germany, give rise to a significant loss of trust as well as a state of vulnerability, feelings of loneliness, and limited agency for people experiencing homelessness. Drawing on a group discussion with 12 people experiencing homelessness that took place in Germany in 2019, our findings demonstrate that the respondents project particular fears and desires onto the use of the potential app. Whenever they fear surveillance and institutional control, they wish to be invisible to the app. On the other hand, their desire to access resources and information (food, places to sleep, housing) and to meet with peers in order to create meaningful social relationships requires their visibility. Thus, navigating between visibility and invisibility by way of a smartphone involves situationally and strategically constructing a safe environment for their digital participation, helping them to reduce their vulnerability and loneliness and restore their agency. Moreover, in that the app is used as a means of rendering assistance to homeless people (and highlighting the grievances associated with this) that is visible to others, the respondents challenge the current framing of homelessness. The supposed system of help is revealed to be the social problem itself.
With the growing global interdependence of companies, their scope of responsibility for the environmental, social, and human rights impacts associated with their activities is also growing. In this context, companies are increasingly held accountable for social and ecological issues that lie within the sphere of action of their suppliers and sub-suppliers. They are thus faced with the challenge of meeting these demands for transparency, traceability, and compliance with standards in their Supply Chains (SCs). Based on the theoretical framework of Sustainable Supply Chain Transparency (SSCT) in Sustainable Supply Chain Management (SSCM), this conceptual article aims at initiating the discussion on digitalization in SSCM. Therefore, a heuristical research framework, based on relevant fields in the management of sustainability oriented transparency (governance, cooperation and partner selection, traceability/tracking, and strategic and operational risk assessment) is developed. In relation to these fields, consequently, data-driven digital approaches are identified to which potentials for SSCT and control can be attributed. This initial analysis of existing digital approaches already shows that the market is developing dynamically, but is driven more by individual initiatives. In many cases, the approaches used so far are still in the trial phase or offer only limited solutions. Therefore, this paper contributes by giving an overview of the current application of the digitalization approaches in SSCM pinning our discussion on SSCT dimensions.
The objective of this study was to investigate the current research practices and existing progress research published on supply chain management and supply chain integration in an attempt to provide a research agenda for future investigations. Mainly the secondary data analysis and methods employed for the investigations. Particularly a systematic literature review analysis from 115 papers published from 16 important journals in the supply chain, logistics, Industrial management & data systems, supply chain management: an international journal and operations management during the period 1997 to 2018 was employed. This paper has identified relevant supply chain integration research studies that have contributed to the development and growth of manufacturing industries performance and competitiveness to the SCI and SCM fields. The analysis of the relevant articles gaps and miss-concepts in the previous literature provides to reduce universality and insufficient ordinary view, confusion of supply chain integrations were investigated. The gaps and investigations were done based on their methodological porches, objectives, analysis and research finding. Mainly the gaps, miss concepts and challenges concepts in the previous literature were identified and grouped in five issues. Moreover, the gaps and recommendations for future research are consolidated into a research agenda that provides practitioners to evaluate existing SCI & SCM issues and seek ways to develop a conceptual farm work on SCI of manufacturing industries to global supply chains.
In a case study of Germany, we examine current food consumption along the three pillars of sustainability to evaluate external factors that influence consumers’ dietary decisions. We investigate to what extent diets meet nutritional requirements (social factor), the diets’ environmental impact (ecological factor), and the food prices’ influence on purchasing behavior (economic factor). For this, we compare two dietary recommendations (plant-based, omnivorous) with the status quo, and we examine different consumption styles (conventional, organic produce). Additionally, we evaluate 1446 prices of food items from three store types (organic store, supermarket, and discounter). With this, we are able to evaluate and compare 30 different food baskets along their health, environmental, and economic impact. Results show that purchasing decisions are only slightly influenced by health-related factors. Furthermore, few consumers align their diet with low environmental impact. In contrast, a large share of consumers opt for cheap foods, regardless of health and environmental consequences. We find that price is, arguably, the main factor in food choices from a sustainability standpoint. Action should be taken by policy makers to financially incentivize consumers in favor of healthy and environmentally friendly diets. Otherwise, the status quo further drives especially underprivileged consumers towards unhealthy and environmentally damaging consumption.
AbstractThere is broad scientific consensus that current food systems are neither sustainable nor resilient: many agricultural practices are very resource-intensive and responsible for a large share of global emissions and loss of biodiversity. Consequently, current systems put large pressure on planetary boundaries. According to economic theory, food prices form when there is a balance between supply and demand. Yet, due to the neglect of negative external effects, effective prices are often far from representing the ‘true costs’. Current studies show that especially animal-based foodstuff entails vast external costs that currently stay unaccounted for in market prices. Against this background, we explore how informational campaigning on agricultural externalities can contribute to consumer awareness and tolerance of this matter. Further, we investigate the socially just design of monetary incentives and their implementation potentials and challenges. This study builds on the informational campaign of a German supermarket displaying products with two price tags: one of the current market price and the other displaying the ‘true’ price, which includes several environmental externalities calculated with True Cost Accounting (TCA). Based on interpretations of a consumer survey and a number of expert interviews, in this article we approach the potentials and obstacles of TCA as a communication tool and the challenges of its factual implementation in agri-food networks. Our results show that consumers are generally interested in the topic of true food pricing and would to a certain extent be willing to pay ‘true prices’ of the inquired foods. However, insufficient transparency and unjust distribution of wealth are feared to bring about communication and social justice concerns in the implementation of TCA. When introducing TCA into current discourse, it is therefore important to develop measures that are socially cautious and backed by relevant legal framework conditions. This poses the chance to create a fair playing (‘polluter pays’) with a clear assignment of responsibilities to policy makers, and practitioners in addition to customers.
Ziel dieser Studie ist es, die externen Umweltfolgekosten von Lebensmitteln in Deutschland zu quantifizieren, die während des Produktionsprozess sowie der vorgelagerten Lieferkette entstehen. Um die Auswirkungen auf die Umwelt zu kompensieren, sollten externe Effekte nach dem Verursacherprinzip der UN in allen Lebensmittelpreisen berücksichtigt werden. Auf Basis einer umfassenden Literaturrecherche und in Anlehnung an die Methode von Fitzpatrick und Young (2017) werden die externen Kosten der deutschen Agrarproduktion im Jahr 2016 berechnet. Würden Umweltfolgen der deutschen Lebensmittelproduktion und des Konsums wie Treibhausgase, vermeidbare Lebensmittelabfälle und Biodiversitätsverluste in die Preise einfließen, wäre nach unseren Berechnungen eine durchschnittliche Preiserhöhung von 43 % auf der Einzelhandelsebene notwendig. Unsere Ergebnisse verdeutlichen das Ausmaß der aktuellen Fehlbepreisung und die damit verbundenen, dringenden Veränderungsbedarfe im Lebensmittelsektor.
This research aims to develop an improved model that promotes reverse engineering /RE/ practice in metal engineering industries (MEIs). RE is one cost-effective technology transfer /TT/ and innovation method that improves organizational performance. However, only a few scholars have written on the adoption of RE models, and no one has contextualized TT and innovation models as a means to adopt RE practice. Methodology: Primarily, the study conducted a systematic literature review based on previous works to develop a conceptual model for RE adoption. To do this, the researchers conducted an intensive literature review and identified factors contributing to the model. Contextualizing TT and innovation factors and models within the new RE adoption model is also a significant part of the work. After a comparative analysis, the researchers developed the improved RE adoption model that enhances the performance of MEIs. Finding: The majority of previous related literature focuses on RE hardware, with only a few authors acknowledging the soft aspects, i.e., managerial and legal issues of RE practice. Besides, no authors contextualized factors of TT and innovation within the RE adoption. In this study, the researchers identified and clustered RE adoption factors as organizational, technological, managerial, and resource-based from previous RE adoption models and contextualization of TT and innovation adoption factors. Originality: To the best of the writers’ knowledge, no previous authors have contextualized TT and innovation models within the adoption of RE. However, such models have a substantial impact on adopting the practice. Hence, the researchers developed an improved model by examining and contextualizing the existing models that can impact MEI performance through improving product, process, and technological capabilities.
This research deals with the role of reverse engineering (RE) in enhancing productivity (product quality and processing time improvements) and technological capability (TC). Using a systematic reviewing approach, the authors investigated and raised novel debating concepts, i.e., the controversy between advocates and opponents concerning the role of RE and the legality issues. The review process revealed the absence of a holistic definition that can address the state-of-the-art, and the impact of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) to adopt RE practice. The researchers believe that the new definition of RE is helpful to understand the comprehensive role of the practice and to fill the knowledge gap by convincing opponents about RE not as theft but as a driver to transfer knowledge and technology. The research also recommends how the bottlenecks on the legality issues can be resolved through the revision of IPRs from the context of developing countries (DCs).
This paper aims to review the existing national quality infrastructure (NQI) capability assessment approaches and ultimately develop a more inclusive framework that addresses all components of NQI. Therefore, the study reviewed previous efforts and noticed that most of them lack comprehensiveness or focus on a few NQI elements and use few indicators readily available online. Therefore, this study addresses these issues and allows future researchers to consider this conceptual model for NQI capability assessment. Accordingly, the study review documents focused on NQI capability collected from different sources. Backward and forward literature searches were conducted to identify additional and up-to-date documents. Finally, content analysis was performed on selected literature to identify the possible NQI capability indicators. The identified indicators were further simplified and segregated into five NQI categories: standardisation, metrology, accreditation, conformity assessment, and the regulatory system. And three NQI capability alternatives: resources, services, and collaboration. Figure 1 shows the framework. Table 1, Figures 3, 4 and 5 summarise and depict each capability assessment indicator under the five capability categories and three alternatives. Therefore, this framework is used as an index to assess the capability of the NQI system.
Sustainable performance demands to show a sustained competitive advantage that lasts a long period. “Industrial Parks” is now the gateway to sustainable development, especially in the least developing countries like Ethiopia, for example. The industrial parks are highly attracting foreign direct investment and working for the inclusive development of the country. Though this is a good start, the capability is at an initial stage and needs support in terms of their performance towards creating a sustainable operation. Based on the evidence of both theoretical and empirical literature findings, this study paper conducted a review and identified the sustainability measures and practices from which it tries to filter the key capability measures and practices for the Ethiopian industrial parks. For integrating the identified practices and measures, as a methodological approach, the theory of dynamic capability process is considered, encompassing sensing, learning, and transforming the cyclic loop. Practices and measures are incorporated in each process of dynamic capability pillars. A conceptual model was developed as the final output showing the holistic map of the integrated sustainability measures and practices. The measures and practices identified will fully support the sustainable growth and decision process of the industrial park operation. It also adds value to the body of knowledge in industrial sustainability in special economic zones.
Wheat is one of Ethiopia's most important cereal crops in terms of the area of land allocated, the volume produced, and the number of farmers engaged in its production. About 4.7 million farmers produce 3.9 million tons of wheat across 1.6 million hectares of land. Despite the significant potential of the country, some challenges exist to attain wheat self-sufficiency. These challenges spread across the wheat value chain (WVC); wherein quality-related issues are prominent. Therefore, assessing the national quality infrastructure (NQI) service and offering mitigation schemes is a goal to pursue. To do so, this paper evaluates NQI services in the WVC and proposes an improvement mechanism using the CALIDENA methodology. Results show WVC is subjected to a significant number of quality-related issues mainly associated with conformity assessment service (calibration, certification, inspection, and testing) and standards. Finally, the paper concludes with recommendations for NQI service improvement to improve the WVC.
AbstractEmployees of the public employment services (PES) are street-level bureaucrats who shape activation policy on the ground. This paper examines how PES staff use enhanced discretion in an innovation project carried out by the German Federal Employment Agency. Applying a bottom-up perspective, we reconstruct PES employees’ logic of action and the dilemmas they face in improving counselling and placement services. According to our findings, placement staff use enhanced discretion to promote more individualised support and an adequate matching of jobseekers and employers. The use of discretion is framed by organisational norms and reward mechanisms and by the current labour market situation. Our analyses are based on qualitative interviews and group discussions with placement staff.
Based on participant observations in the French and German public employment services (PES), this article proposes a new way of analysing bureaucratic encounters following Bourdieu’s capital theory. We show that caseworkers who are supposed to support jobseekers into employment, force the allegedly needy jobseekers to accumulate capital, but only in its cultural or social form, and never both at the same time. While there are national differences in the accumulation process, the findings highlight the coexistence of two different strategies: accumulation of cultural capital for a long-term and stable return to employment or accumulation of social capital for a short-term and temporary access to employment. Caseworkers attribute different importance to each type of capital, which results in an uneven distribution that reproduces inequalities through social policy services.
This paper introduces the strategic micro-foundational construct of dynamic capabilities and explores their causal relationship with socio-economical sustainability variables by considering relational capabilities and focusing on the external environment as a mediating factor. The study used a case study approach targeting export-oriented international clothing firms investing in the industrial zones of Ethiopia. Primary data were gathered for the measurement variables and presented with descriptive and multivariate statistics. Moreover, a system dynamics model was applied to model the dynamic relationship and understand the dynamic capability growth for socio-economical sustainability. The findings show that the firm’s accumulated operational capabilities have not significantly influenced socio-economical sustainability. However, a firm’s dynamic capabilities to sense, seize, and reconfigure sustainability requirements from the external environment through relational capabilities were more influential. In this regard, it was understood that the firms have a good opportunity to adopt a dynamic capability-driven strategic management approach for sustainable development.
Digitalization in the field of education for sustainable development (ESD) has gained attention in the last decade. In particular, technologies such as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) offer new ways to deliver educational content on sustainable development by simulating real-world experiences and using immersive and interactive formats for learning. Using an explorative qualitative research approach, the benefits of AR and VR technologies in the context of ESD are assessed. The results of a first expert panel show that AR and VR technologies are particularly suitable for sustainability topics when an understanding of action and the transfer of knowledge and values are to be promoted among learners.
The challenge to integrate, measure, and report sustainability at the firm level has been frequently discussed in theory and practice. However, there is still a limitation on narrowing the sustainability concept at the firm level and addressing the challenges in a holistic approach encompassing the economic, social, and environment triple bottom lines and firm strategic management. This study explores firm-level sustainability through a systematic literature review followed by a case study exploration. Based on the review findings, key measuring dimensions were identified to frame sustainability at the firm level. The dimensions were further explored, taking a country case of large-scale industrial firm zones in Ethiopia. Critical economic, social, environmental sustainability and strategic management concerns are systematically identified and discussed. Finally, a conceptual sustainability assessment framework was proposed to support firm-level sustainability measuring and reporting, which could be considered a steppingstone for the sustainable development of Ethiopia's industrial park.
ZusammenfassungBeratung im Jobcenter unterscheidet sich von anderen Beratungssituationen u. a. durch den Abschluss einer Eingliederungsvereinbarung. Dies sind rechtsverbindliche Verträge zwischen Jobcenter und Arbeitsuchenden, die das Prinzip „Fördern und Fordern“ in der aktivierenden Sozialpolitik umsetzen sollen. Eingliederungsvereinbarungen werden insbesondere kritisch diskutiert, da in ihnen die Elemente des Forderns betont und gleichzeitig die Arbeitsinteressen und Lebensbedürfnisse der Arbeitssuchenden nur partiell eingebracht werden. Ob die Eingliederungsvereinbarung eine zentrale Rolle einnimmt, um das Fordern in der Beratungssituation zu verankern, untersucht der Beitrag unter den Bedingungen eines Feldexperimentes. Darin wurden der Einsatz der Eingliederungsvereinbarung und die Möglichkeit, auf ihrer Basis zu sanktionieren, zufällig variiert. Interaktionsbeobachtungen und semistrukturierte Interviews mit Beratungspersonal und Arbeitsuchenden werden im Anschluss an die Rahmenanalyse sowie den dramaturgischen Ansatz von Erving Goffman analysiert. Der Beitrag zeigt: Ob das Beratungsgespräch eher fordernd oder unterstützend angelegt ist, wird weniger durch den Abschluss oder Nichtabschluss der Eingliederungsvereinbarung beeinflusst, sondern vielmehr durch die Rahmung des Beratungsgesprächs und das „impression management“ Arbeitsuchender.
Dieser Artikel untersucht, wie Beschäftigte in Agenturen für Arbeit zusätzliche Entscheidungsspielräume in der Arbeitsvermittlung nutzen und dabei Arbeitsmarkt- und Sozialpolitik als Street-Level Bureaucrats umsetzen. Anhand der Analyse qualitativer Interviews und Gruppendiskussionen mit Vermittlungsfachkräften rekonstruieren wir, dass Vermittlungsfachkräfte ihre Entscheidungsspielräume einsetzen, um Individualität und Vertrauen in der Beziehung mit Arbeitsuchenden zu befördern. Wir argumentieren, dass die Nutzung der Entscheidungsspielräume nicht allein von Ambiguitäten politischer oder organisationaler Vorgaben geprägt ist: Sich wandelnde Organisationsziele, die Erweiterung von Entscheidungsspielräumen der Vermittlungsfachkräfte sowie die Situation am Arbeitsmarkt, so unsere Schlussfolgerung, befördern eine Ausrichtung auf eine nachhaltige Arbeitsvermittlung.
Scholars define national quality infrastructure (NQI) differently. However, the basic components and scopes are similar. NQI is a less explored topic with few studies conducted, therefore, this paper is instated to provide insight. With this in mind, the paper reviewed basic concepts, components, and the interrelationship among the NQI components. Moreover, NQI development models, benefits, and challenges are also included in the review. Different literature from different sources dealing with NQI was collected and reviewed. Findings showed that NQI represents the peculiar and joint application of all its components including technical regulation and intellectual property rights. However, the presence, functionality, and international and regional integration of each NQI component determines the efficiency and effectiveness of the system. This ultimately promotes trade, innovation, and growth. Finally, besides the effort made by different NQI affiliated international and regional organisations to promote the concept, this review also strengthens the efforts to make NQI more visible.
Coffee generates about 25%-30% of total export and securing about 15 million people's livelihoods in Ethiopia. But, it has several quality issues. Studies show a total of 272 million USD of which 99% is due to the non-conformance cost of the export product incurred annually. This justifies mitigating quality problems in the sector is important. Therefore, to deal with this issue coffee quality related data were collected from Ethiopian National Quality Infrastructure Institutions (ENQI) and Coffee Quality Inspection and Certification Association (CLU). Eighteen experts purposively selected from both institutes were asked to associate quality service with defects. Finally, lack of accreditation has the highest contribution followed by conformity and metrology with a share of 83.3%, 75%, and 54% for defects points. Moreover, issues like control of temperature and humidity in storage and transport, lack of soil nutrition testing, inspection performance, and commitment to standards implementation are issues that needs to be improved.
Demographic changes have led to an increase in older people in prisons. Whereas the rehabilitative process of younger offenders is geared towards their reintegration into the labour market, successful ageing should be a policy aim for older prisoners. This study explores how older incarcerated persons view their ageing. A qualitative study using a written survey with only the single question What does ageing in prison mean to you? was conducted in Bavaria, Germany. A total of 64 prisoners (61 male, 3 female) supplied answers varying in length from a few words to several pages. The thematic analysis revealed that together with health concerns, social relations and everyday activities, the uncertainty of the future was a central focus point for the older adults in prison. The authors propose that a positive vision of the future needs to be included in any model of successful ageing. If successful ageing is used as an aim for older prisoners, more attention needs to be paid to support interventions during and after the release process.
Decision making is an intrinsic and complex aspect of social work practice, requiring consideration of diverse but connected aspects. Decisions are often required as to whether a situation requires protective state intervention or whether it reaches the criteria for public or charitable services. Such instances of deciding whether or not a situation is ‘on one side of the line or the other’ are referred to in this article as ‘threshold judgements’. This article draws on experiences and material from a range of social work contexts to explore generalisable theory-informed understandings of ‘threshold judgements’ and ‘threshold decisions’ to develop knowledge and skills on this topic. The article outlines signal detection theory and evidence accumulation (‘tipping point’) theory and discusses these as ways to understand the key concepts underpinning threshold decisions in social work. We then argue that although these threshold concepts are a necessary part of decision making in social work, as in many other aspects of life, they are not sufficient. Operationalising such decisions requires some form of sense-making. Naturalistic decision making and heuristic models of judgement are discussed as frameworks for practice which seem to be useful in this context.