Trickle Effects of Cross-Sector Social Partnerships

Cross-sector social partnerships are often studied from a macro and meso perspective, also in an attempt to assess effectiveness and societal impact. This article pays specific attention to the micro perspective, i.e. individual interactions between and within organizations related to partnerships that address the ‘social good’. By focusing on the potential effects and mechanisms at the level of individuals and the organization(s) with which they interact, it aims to help fill a gap in research on partnerships, including more insight into the process of interaction. We conceptually explore micro level interactions, and how partnership effects may ‘trickle down’ (e.g. from management to employees), or ‘trickle up’ (from employees to management) or ‘trickle round’ (e.g. between employees). Based on the literature from various disciplines, we discuss how more generic theories on social exchange and contagion, social learning and attraction-selection-attrition can help shed light on micro level interactions in a partnership, considering in particular transmission mechanisms via employees, top and middle management, and customers. In this way, partnerships can have wider benefits, as individuals have multiple roles and effects at the micro level can spread to the meso and macro levels as well. Implications for research and practice are outlined.     

Small business economics: A perspective from The Netherlands

Conclusion In the analysis of economic phenomena either within or across industries there is room for integrating the role of small business. This contribution can be made by aggregation or generalization of the findings at the meso level, which again are partly based upon analyses at the micro level.The Netherlands has a long history in macro model building. A recent discussion among Dutch macro-economists considered the future of econometric model building at the macro level, and considered how best to improve this model building. The explicit integration of scale effects, however, was not mentioned. I am convinced that improvements in this respect are possible. In particular, I have in mind the role which small businesses play in certain areas such as wage structure, employment or investments. The dissection of macro prognoses into a small business component and a remaining component is a traditional practice in The Netherlands. Finally, there is much concern in The Netherlands for the calculation of regulatory effects, decomposed into effects for small and large businesses. If anywhere in the world there is a solid foundation for studying scale effects in both macro and sectoral models, it most certainly has been in The Netherlands. There is a strong tradition of macro-econometric model building; groups of econometricians specialized in small business research exist; Dutch policymakers show concern and the required research apparatus is available.

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Gender and Inequality: Austerity and Alternatives

Gender equality policies aim to increase women’s participation in the market economy, but they do not always recognise that market societies reproduce inequalities at micro and macro levels. At the micro level, labour markets are gendered institutions, and at the macro level, austerity policies have inherent biases and negative impacts that fall disproportionately on women.     

Privatization and Company Restructuring in Eastern Europe

Summary

The successful transition of Eastern European economies from central planning to market orientation has to include significant company restructuring in addition to privatization. At the micro level it can bring enhanced productive efficiency through changes in organizational structure, operations and financial control and the introduction of marketing as a crucial element and function of the restructured companies. At the macro level, company restructuring creates the necessary conditions for improved allocative efficiency, achieved through the transition from the monopolistic market structure of chronic deficit to a mostly competitive one able, in the longer run, to meet market demand. Restructuring is used here in the broader sense of changes in the organization's management orientation, operational processes and systems as well as in its formal structure. Restructuring is held to be both extremely complex and critical to the realization of the benefits of privatization at both macro and micro levels. Some broad hypotheses relating to common elements of the restructuring process arc introduced: a shift to a flatter, less hierarchical organization structure; the adoption of ‘western’ financial management and accounting practices and the introduction of budgetary accountability; the evolution of the marketing function and the rationalization of product ranges in the light of market needs.     

A conversational approach to consumer vulnerability: performativity,representations, and storytelling

ABSTRACT

This conceptual article provides a conversational analysis of consumer vulnerability, which unveils how vulnerability is made through conversations and interactions among actors holding different market power positions. Three types of conversations prove fruitful to pursue a transformative research agenda improving vulnerable consumers’ well-being: (1) performativity, which unpacks agency and finalism in conversations; (2) social representations, which reveal uneven power positions and normativity expressed by participants in a conversation; and (3) storytelling, which reveals alternative and more powerful persuasive mechanisms of conversations framed as stories. Illustration for these types of conversations comes from extensive review of the literature on consumer vulnerability and from a critical consideration of my life-as-researcher with consumers as varied as gays, homeless people, migrants, second-generation immigrants, and subcultures of consumption.     

中国流通问题研究的宏观与微观视角:当前研究现状与评介

建国以来,伴随流通产业快速发展,流通理论研究成果丰硕。"扩大内需"是国家"十二五规划"提出的明确目标,流通产业快速发展迫切需要理论支撑,对已有成果的系统回顾有利于未来研究的深化。本文从宏观和微观两大视角对现有研究进行梳理,发现流通问题研究偏重于宏观层面,对微观组织层面关注不够,宏观视角研究成果在微观层面应用中找不到很好的切入点,未来流通问题研究需要对这些问题加以重视。     

Towards a model of destination innovation process: an integrative review

The goal of the present paper is to integrate five types of literature related to the innovation process (i.e. cluster theory, innovation systems, network relations, knowledge management, and innovation types) and apply them to the local tourism destination to build a destination innovation process model with macro and micro perspectives. The suggested models intend to broaden the thinking on destination innovation process for tourism-related agents at the local and national level. The paper undertakes a careful review of the relevant literature before creating the conceptual models. The paper’s novelty and uniqueness lies in suggesting a new conceptual model of addressing how innovation competence of tourism destinations can be developed, and offering insight for tourism-related agents at the local and national level into how to effectively create and manage innovations. Future research should undertake empirical studies to test the integrated models presented in this conceptual paper.     

网络数字时代提升我国文化贸易发展水平研究——以博物馆为例

博物馆是促进文化贸易、提升文化软实力的重要途径,网络数字技术发展为博物馆提升文化贸易水平创造了良好条件。本文在系统梳理我国博物馆运用网络数字技术现状的基础上,提出了还存在技术应用不足与技术应用过度、文化内涵挖掘展陈不够、与海外观众沟通不充分、国际交流水平不高等问题,并从宏观层面和微观层面对提升我国博物馆文化贸易发展水平提出了具体对策建议。     

中国妇女人工流产影响因素的多水平分析

使用多水平模型对1992—1997年中国妇女人工流产行为进行了分析,目的是考察和检验宏观（省级水平）和微观（个人水平）因素对中国妇女分孕次人工流产概率的独立影响及其显著性。多水平模型在模拟具有层次结构性的数据上要优于传统的回归模型,在社会科学领域正在被越来越广泛地应用。多水平模型结果显示:无论是宏观因素还是微观因素,都对妇女人工流产有独立而显著的影响,微观影响在所有孕次都是显著的,而宏观影响则取决于孕次。同时宏观因素对微观上的人工流产社会经济差异也具有显著影响,并与孕次有很大关系。本文的多水平模型有助于全面认识我国妇女人工流产的影响因素。     

小议IO与PO及风险防范

资产证券化业务在我国刚刚拉开序幕，本文介绍了在CMO的基础上发展起来的衍生工具IO和PO．分析了其收益中存在的风险，并提出从宏微观两方面入手进行风险防范。     

Foundations and Applications for Contractualist Business Ethics

Contractualism is one of the most promising ‘centers of gravity’ in business ethics. In this guest editorial we provide a concise roadmap to the field, sketching contractualism’s historic and disciplinary antecedents, the basic argumentative structure of the contract model, and its boundary conditions. We also sketch two main dimensions along which contributions to the contractualist tradition can be positioned. The first dimension entails positive versus normative theorizing – does a given contribution analyze the world as it is or how it ought to be? The second dimension involves four different levels of analysis that are commonly employed in contractualist business ethics: the nano, micro, meso, and macro levels. We then proceed to position the articles comprising this special issue along these two dimensions.     

Examining Group Facilitation In Situ: The Use of Formulations in Facilitation Practice

In this paper we examine how the talk of the facilitator shapes group workshop interactions by using the conversational object ‘formulation’. The data consist of video recordings of a corpus of four facilitated workshops held with management and development teams. By adopting an exploratory video-based investigation using conversational analysis to examine our data, we highlight the significance of three distinct set of formulations used by facilitators in workshops. Specifically, our findings show how formulations that encourage reflection or facilitate action, together with those collaboratively produced, enable sense making and the achievement of a temporal conversational order among participants. This research contributes to the study of facilitated workshops by offering a more nuanced approach to the understanding of the craftsmanship of doing facilitation, its effects on the workshop process and, ultimately, workshop outcomes.     

我国现代城市流动商贩的发展与治理研究——基于商贩演化的经济社会学视角

现代流动商贩是在古代商贩数次分化中沉淀下来的包容性最强的底层社会群体。承袭了古代商贩流动谋生的特点,但在“职业”与“身份”、发展的“时间”与“空间”、活动的“集市”与“常市”以及所处的“阶层”和“地位”等方面具有特殊性。尤其是城市化的发展,使商贩从一个概念,发展成一个群体,演变成一种现象,甚至转化为一个“问题”。进城流动商贩问题的形成包括流动性爆发和治理问题两个方面。流动商贩的治理应以民生为导向,以其城市融入为目标,在政府与市场构成的二维坐标内寻求出路。从宏观到微观形成一个“三维九元”的立体治理体系。     

宁波游憩商业区系统研究探析

本文通过对宁波游憩商业区的实证研究,总结出宁波所呈现出来的由三江口这一单核结构向海曙、江东、江北三大区并存的多核结构转变的动态发展图景,进而明确指出宁波已基本形成了"成长三角"型游憩商业区系统(SRBD)。在成长三角理论和旅游地生命周期理论的指导下,本文还从整体和分区两方面入手对宁波游憩商业区系统的构建策略进行了初步的探讨。     

供应链企业之间信任问题研究

本文认为,信任在供应链管理中具有十分重要的作用,它是供应链的关键组织原则,是供应链企业相互合作的前提和基础,是保证供应链正常运转的支柱,可以提高整个供应链快速响应客户的能力。影响供应链企业间信任的因素多种多样,既有宏观因素,也有微观因素(如满足客户需求能力、信息沟通与共享程度及利益公平和程序公平的程度等)。企业要维护和提升供应链企业之间的信任,必须增强自身的核心竞争力,提高信息沟通与共享能力,进行经常性的沟通、交流,设计有效契约,并建立信任机制。     

我国频遭技术性贸易壁垒的成因及对策

伴随我国国际贸易地位的提高及与世界经济联系的加强,我国已进入贸易摩擦多发期,其中技术性贸易壁垒已超越反倾销成为阻碍我国产品出口的首要非关税壁垒。如何冲破技术性贸易壁垒并利用合理的技术性贸易壁垒保护我国国内市场和经济安全成为亟待解决的问题。本文试图对我国频遭技术性贸易壁垒的成因从宏观和微观两个层面进行具体分析,从而对跨越该障碍提供一些启示。     

A space of one’s own: spatial and identity liminality in an online community of mothers

This paper investigates the role of an online community in the life of 11 Taiwanese women living in the UK and considers the implications this empirical case has for theorising about motherhood and the spatial dimensions of online/on-site space. Findings from a nethnographic and ethnographic fieldwork show how online discussions reflect and amplify the liminal identities of the community’s members. In looking at doing mothering at a collective rather than at the individual level, this study highlights how collective practices of consumption perpetuate liminal identities, exacerbating consumers’ sense of being out of place. It shows how online space is at the same time the product of online and on-site liminal identities and liminal social interactions and the re-producer of such interactions.     

Corporate Use of Social Media: Technology Affordance and External Stakeholder Relations

Business organizations are beginning to recognize the substantial potential of social media for enhancing corporate communications with external stakeholders, including investors, customers, and the general public—all of whom can affect firms’ financial future. Social media applications reach a wide spectrum of external stakeholders, help them express themselves and connect with one another, and engage them in ongoing conversations with the firm. Despite growing interest in this area, there has been limited research on this important topic. Accordingly, we focus on wikis, social networking sites, micro-blogging sites, and video-sharing sites, among many social media applications, and identify their respective beneficial attributes within the context of external communication. In so doing, we illuminate the prominent technical features of the four social media applications and review the existing literature in order to identify how business organizations take advantage of the unique features to facilitate their communicative activities in practice. We ground our analyses in validated conceptual frameworks in the fields of information systems and communication, such as the notion of technology affordances and Hutton’s (1999) framework for public relations. As a result, we suggest the “Eight Affordances” of the four social media applications that help corporate communicators. This study expands the social media and technology affordance literature into the important, yet understudied, external communications field.     

Mastering the Marketing Communications Mix: Micro and Macro Perspectives on Integrated Marketing Communication Programs

One difficult challenge for marketers is the large, diverse means of communication and communication options that are available to support their brands (e.g. TV, print, and interactive advertising; trade and consumer promotions; arts, sports, and cause sponsorships; etc.). Consequently, marketers must understand what various marketing communication options have to offer and how they should be combined to optimize their marketing communications programs. Towards that goal, this paper considers issues in how to develop, implement, and evaluate an integrated marketing communication program. Specifically, to provide micro perspectives -- especially relevant for academic research -- we introduce the Marketing Communication Tetrahedron as a means of classifying and analyzing factors influencing marketing communication effectiveness along four broad dimensions (i.e. factors related to the consumer, communication, response, and situation). To provide macro perspectives -- especially relevant for managerial planning -- we provide criteria as to how integrated marketing communication programs can be designed and evaluated as a whole (i.e. according to coverage, contribution, commonality, complementarity, robustness, and cost considerations). We also describe how the two perspectives relate and conclude by discussing theoretical and managerial implications and outlining future research directions.     

加强我国高校大学生领导力教育研究

领导力是一种有效地促进社会变革、推动社会进步的力量,是一种未来社会所不可或缺的能力。领导力是当代大学生必备的基本素质,高校作为社会主义培养合格建设者和可靠接班人的重要阵地,在大学生中开展领导力教育是十分迫切的重要任务。探索了大学生领导力教育的内涵及构成要素,分析了高校加强大学生领导力教育的必要性,并从高校宏观层面和大学生微观层面提出了加强大学生领导力教育的有效举措。