Shifting models of equality? Union Equality Reps in the public services

This article explores how far the emergence of public sector Equality Representatives represents a departure from a distinct radical model of union self‐organisation generated by the collective mobilisation of politically conscious identities, towards a more inclusive liberal model of equality based on abstract notions of ‘fairness’.     

Creative Mediations of the City: Contemporary Public Art as Compass of Metro Manila's Urban Conditions

In this article, public art is proposed as creative agency mobilized to form urban imaginaries. These alternate visions are largely facilitated by artists and art collectives using urban communities as performative grounds. These projects promote a view of art as an effective channel for ‘recentering’ — the identification of a multitude of centers that endlessly fracture and shift, very much resembling the nature of cities themselves. An alternate vision of the city through cartography informed by contrast, temporality and ephemerality is proposed alongside dominant representations of the city. Works by artists Alma Quinto, Mark Salvatus and Wire Tuazon are representative examples of such strategies. Diverse in tactics and platforms, defined by site‐specific mediations, the projects facilitated by these artists reveal the uneven conditions that beset Metro Manila and its outlying areas. Quinto's altered Urban Plan/Duyan is the result of her engagement with women in an informal settler community in San Andres Bukid, Manila, while Salvatus's web‐based Neo‐Urban Planner is an astute observation of the obsessive yet futile ordering of people and space by the state. Tuazon's Amphibian installation is a commentary on the encroachment of multinational interests in local communities. These interventions are foils to state‐ and private‐led urban development schemes. Their strength lies in their direct engagement with the sphere of public dialogue and self‐determination. These artistic practices and strategies are shaped by community interaction, revealing that meanings residing in urban forms are relentlessly negotiated by the numerous actors that inhabit the city.     

Start‐up financing: How founders finance their ventures' early stage

Although the entrepreneurship literature has advanced our understanding of start‐up financing, little is known about the mechanisms founders use to finance the beginning of a venture. Drawing upon resource‐based view, this study relocates bootstrapping is a strategic choice rather than a necessity. By analysing the financial behaviour of 3,017 new business owners, we reveal owner‐financed bootstrapping is a strategic choice rather than a necessity. We also demonstrate related techniques that are used independent of industry, initial capital, financing difficulties, and impeded revenues.     

Understanding the effect of market orientation on circular economy practices: The mediating role of closed-loop orientation in German SMEs

The implementation of circular economy (CE) practices is considered a key driver towards sustainable development of firms. Earlier studies point to the general strategic approach of market orientation as an antecedent to CE practice implementation. Still, insights are limited as the mechanisms underlying this relationship remain unclear. Based on a sample of 121 German small and medium-sized enterprises (SME), we empirically examine how the strategic approach of closed-loop orientation mediates the relationship between market orientation and the implementation of three types of CE practices. Using structural equation modelling, we find that while market orientation is positively related to all three types of CE practices, closed-loop orientation mediates these relationships for only two. Our study extends CE literature by suggesting that market orientation is translated into closed-loop orientation to spur CE practice implementation. We also offer a differentiated understanding of CE practice implementation in the context of German SMEs.     

Interpreting the risks of AIDS: A case study of long‐distance truck drivers

This is a study of long‐distance truck drivers ‐ their perceptions of working conditions, social networks, and health and sexual practices. Its purpose is to place AIDS in the work and life context of truckers in order to establish the meaning of ‘risk’ of AIDS. The research also aims to contribute to practical, multilateral action by all players in order to address the problems drivers in the industry face, one of which is AIDS. The findings are based on a study of 213 long‐distance truck drivers passing through the midlands of KwaZulu‐Natal, South Africa, during ten days in April 1995. Drivers are in trucking to feed themselves and their families. The sophisticated road network, the need to earn money and the poor rates of pay create a work routine which puts them under continuous pressure to drive. Their work routine is exhausting, lonely, isolating and boring. It is also dangerous and hard. These conditions of employment take a toll on drivers’ health and emotional well‐being. Despite or because of the intensity of their work routine they look for opportunities to unwind. For many this includes buying drink and sex, the few recreational activities which are readily available, immediately gratifying and congruent with the demands of a job which leaves truckers ‘dreaming of home’. Buying sex is tantamount to a condition of work. Objectively, the core of drivers who acknowledge having unprotected sex with multiple partners ‐ between a third and half of all drivers ‐ can be considered to be at high risk. Their susceptibility to AIDS may be greater if additional sexual and health factors are taken into consideration. Subjectively, drivers do not relate the risks of AIDS to their own practices or their ‘knowledge’ that having multiple partners increases the danger. Their fears are greatest where they have been tested for HIV, or they know or have heard of someone who has died of AIDS. The fluidity of the boundaries of risk, for them and the women they interact with on the road and at home, presents a huge personal and personnel crisis in an industry which is notable for the lack of support it provides to drivers. The risk of AIDS has to be acted on, but it cannot be treated in isolation from other problems of health and working conditions which have a bearing on the well‐being of truckers.     

How Organizational Culture Influences Innovativeness,Proactiveness, and Risk‐Taking: Fostering Entrepreneurial Orientation in SMEs

The beneficial outcome of a firm's entrepreneurial orientation (EO) has been widely researched, but literature and empirical studies about factors and conditions that foster EO remain scarce. The Competing Values Model is used to investigate the relationships between key dimensions of organizational culture (group, hierarchical, developmental, and rational) and three dimensions of EO in small and medium enterprises. A study of 298 enterprises showed that developmental, group, and rational culture has a strong positive impact on EO, whereas the impact of hierarchical culture is negative. Thus, our results highlight the importance of an external orientation of organizations to foster EO.