Why ‘Good Governance’ Fails: Lessons from Regional Economic Development in Colombia

By critically reviewing different strands of literature on institutional change and development, this essay argues that, in order to fully understand subnational economic development, we need to move away from ‘good governance' explanations in which geography‐specific analyses of power structures and elite interests are largely absent. Using findings for Colombia and insights from economic geography and heterodox political economy theories, this essay gives theoretical and conceptual guidelines and approximations for future studies on regional economic development. The contribution provides a place‐based discussion of how the historically evolved distribution of power balances, context‐specific elite interests, and the interaction between place‐bound actors and place‐less dynamics affect subnational institutional arrangements shaping policies and development outcomes. The conclusions drawn are not limited to Colombia and will prove beneficial to researchers studying regional economic development in subnational contexts elsewhere in the world.     

The Comparative Economics of EU ‘Subsidiarity’: Lessons from development/regional economic debates

The term ‘substantive subsidiarity’ characterizes a radical position in the major debate in the European Union (EU) on how to structure territorially‐based power in a closely interlinked economy. A similar debate took place in the period between the 1950s and the early 1990s over the need for radical reform of spatial economic and power structures in Canada and less developed countries. The difficulty in constructing supporting arguments from economics for both these positions can be better understood by looking at the whole range of economic thought on spatial structures. A characterization of this range into three models reveals how economics generally supports centralizing tendencies. The assumptions required to make a case for stronger, more local authorities in the EU, Canada or less developed economies are shown to be restrictive. The article concludes that the case for substantive subsidiarity in the EU, which calls for radical decentralization to more local levels of government, claiming efficiency and equity gains, faces a similar challenge to that faced by earlier economists writing on less developed economies. L’expression ‘subsidiarité rélle’ définit une position radicale dans le grand débat qui anime l’Union Européenne sur la manière de structurer un pouvoir sur un territoire, dans une économie interdépendante. Entre les années 1950 et le début des années 1990, des discussions similaires se sont déroulées sur la nécessité de réformer profondément les structures spatiales du pouvoir et de l’économie au Canada et dans des pays sous‐développés. Dans les deux cas, on peut plus aisément appréhender la difficulté de trouver dans l’économie une source d’arguments favorables, si on observe l’éventail des pensées économiques sur les structures spatiales; en ramenant cette palette à trois modèles caractéristiques, on peut établir que l’économie penche généralement vers la centralisation. Par ailleurs, l’article démontre la nature restrictive des hypothèses permettant de dépeindre des autorités à la fois plus fortes et plus locales dans l’UE, au Canada ou dans des économies en développement. L’article conclut que la défense d’une subsidiarité réelle au sein de l’UE – appelant à une décentralisation radicale à des niveaux plus locaux de gouvernement, tout en revendiquant des gains d’efficacité et d’équité– est confrontée à un défi similaire à celui qu’ont rencontré les économistes passés quand ils écrivaient sur les économies en développement.     

Climate Change Leadership as Sustainability Leadership: From the C‐Suite to the Conference of the Parties

Corporate leaders are increasingly called to enact roles as climate change leaders because of escalating risks to production and operations from man‐made climate change. An examination of corporate leaders’ roles within a United Nations Global Compact initiative, Carbon Pricing Champions, shows that three core practices were critical in advancing climate change leadership efforts: securing and maintaining top leader support, embedding the work within the organizational culture, and collaborating with like‐minded companies.     

Increasing Returns and the Growth of Industries in the EU Regions: Paradoxes and Conundrums

Abstract

Verdoorn's law is estimated in a spatial econometric framework for individual manufacturing industries using EU regional data. Estimates of encompassing returns to scale are large, but other explanatory variables, including measures of industrial specialization and diversity, tend to be insignificant. The method of normalization with either output or input growth as the regressor matters, and the use of an instrumental variable approach does not resolve this problem. As in other studies, the static-dynamic Verdoorn law paradox exists. A theoretical argument is made, however, that the dynamic Verdoorn law is the correct specification and this is confirmed empirically.

Rendements croissants et croissance des industries dans les régions de l'UE: paradoxes et énigmes

Résumé La loi de Verdoorn est estimée dans un cadre conceptuel économétrique spatial pour les industries de fabrication individuelles en utilisant des données régionales de l'UE. Les estimations des rendements croissants à l’échelle, englobant, sont importantes, mais d'autres variables explicatives, comprenant des mesures de spécialisation et de diversité industrielles, ont tendance à être insignifiantes. La méthode de normalisation utilisant comme variable indépendante soit la croissance d'entrée soit celle de sortie importe, et l'utilisation d'une approche IV ne résout pas ce problème. Comme dans d'autres études, le paradoxe statique-dynamique de la loi de Verdoorn est présent. Cependant, dans un argument théorique, nous avançons que la loi de Verdoorn dynamique est la spécification correcte, ce qui est confirmé empiriquement.

Aumento de las ganancias y crecimiento de la industria en las regiones de la UE: paradojas y acertijos

Résumén Se estima la Ley de Verdoorn en un marco econométrico espacial para empresas manufactureras individuales usando los datos regionales de la UE. Las estimaciones para las ganancias englobadas a escala son grandes, pero otras variables explicativas, incluyendo las medidas de especialización y diversidad industrial, tienden a ser insignificantes. Importa el método de normalización ya sea usando crecimiento de ganancias o entradas como regressor, y el uso de un enfoque IV no resuelve este problema. Al igual que en otros estudios existe la paradoja estática-dinámica de la ley de Verdoorn. Sin embargo, se argumenta teóricamente que la dinámica ley de Verdoorn es la especificación correcta y esto se confirma empíricamente.

     

英国城市化进程的阶段性借鉴

人类已进入城市化的新阶段,全球70亿人口中超过半数生活在城市里.英国作为世界上率先实现城市化的国家,拥有250余年的城市化实践.英国城市走过了集群化、郊区化、逆城市化、城乡一体化的道路,英国城市化经历了自发蔓延、先放任后治理、法制管理、规划先行、城乡一体的进程,为包括中国在内的城市化高速发展的新兴国家,提供了研究城市化发展进程及其内在规律的启示.通过文献搜集、比较研究、案例分析等研究方法,总结英国城市化各阶段特征,详列英国应对“城市病”的具体举措,尤其是英国目前通过城市化缩小城乡差别,普及公共服务的经验,以资借鉴.     

我国逆向物流发展的国外经验借鉴

逆向物流的发展对于我国节约型社会的构建有着重大意义。为了推动我国逆向物流的发展，我们有必要借鉴西方发达国家逆向物流发展的经验。本文从逆向物流的概念和发展现状出发．对西方发达国家逆向物流发展经验进行介绍并对我国逆向物流的发展提出了借鉴。     

Entrepreneurial Leadership in the Context of Company Start‐Up and Growth

Starting a new business is easy. Leading a start‐up and transitioning from founder to CEO is hard. As a result, less than 1 in 25 new companies will grow to have 50 or more employees. This article examines three important challenges faced by entrepreneurial leaders at start‐up: developing a vision, achieving optimal persistence, and executing through chaos. The article also considers three capabilities needed by founders who seek to continue to lead their companies during the growth stage of the entrepreneurial process: strategic thinking, coaching, and self‐evaluation. The Siegfried Group, LLP, a leading national CPA firm that provides Leadership Advisory and Talent Delivery services to Fortune 1000 organizations, is used as a brief case study to illustrate key challenges and capabilities associated with entrepreneurial leadership.     

从台湾农村空间的发展看农村都计区的成败

在1970年代后的工业化快速增长时期,台湾的农村都市计划区被规划为农村的经济中心、公共服务与社区中心,同时进行农村空间与土地利用的管制.从台湾农村空间的实际发展分析农村都计区的成败,认为:台湾的都计区实际上是农村基层开发与经济全球化的空间策略,它确实刺激了农村工商业发展;但因处于全球分工末端,农村又必然存在建设用地蔓延、土地资源耗竭、环境严重污染与公共设施难以实现等诸多问题.在产业外移导致农村全面衰败之后,台湾开始反思外向型的、自上而下的农村经济全球化发展,并积极探索“自下而上”的社区整体营造.作者认为大陆农村应吸取台湾农村在发展过程中的经验教训,也应选择自下而上的发展方式.     

Reflections on the relevance of integrated multiregion models: Lessons from Physics

This article examines the set of conceptual, theoretical, methodological and empirical developments in physics, wherein tremendous advances have been recently made. The validity of a pluralistic attack is demonstrated. For regional science this strongly suggests that scholars should pursue, sometimes simultaneously, sometimes sequentially, solid empirically-oriented studies, theories involving grand intuitive leaps, deterministic and non-deterministic models, micro- and macro-analyses, partial and general theories, dynamic and static models, and equilibrium and disequilibrium analyses. We should never hesitate to engage in integrated multiregion models or studies that can more effectively attack policy questions, even though we must combine approaches with some underlying inconsistencies.     

Effects of Mentoring on the Development of Leadership Self‐Efficacy and Political Skill

This study of 260 business graduate students considered the relationship between mentoring and leadership self‐efficacy, and mentoring and political skill. Comparisons between nonmentored and mentored individuals showed that having a mentor was associated with increased political skill but not with increased leadership self‐efficacy. Among mentees, higher quality mentoring relationships were associated with significantly higher leadership self‐efficacy but not with significantly higher political skill. Results suggest that the presence of a mentor affects protégé development of political skill, but the quality of the relationship is important for protégé development of leadership self‐efficacy.     

Relearning from the old masters: Lessons of the American System of Manufacturing

Nineteenth and early twentieth century America witnessed the development of a spectacularly successful manufacturing infrastructure that propelled the United States into the forefront of the world's economic powers. The “American System of Manufacturing, ” a term once used exclusively by historians to describe the progress of the firearms and other light metalworking industries in early nineteenth century New England, has been recast in this paper to describe the advances in management practice, work force attitudes, and process technology that characterized American industry from 1800 through the 1930s.The managers responsible for building the American System of Manufacturing addressed themselves to the extraordinary opportunities made possible in their day by an unprecedented season of technological ferment. Their insights and managerial responses, which are the focus of this paper, led to the establishment of product quality and reliability, and excellence in technology-driven manufacturing, as the cornerstones of American industry.The comfortable maturity into which American industry drifted during the 1950s and 1960s disrupted the evolutionary progress of the American System. Confident that the age-old “problem of production” was firmly in check, American managers redirected their efforts away from the shop floor and towards marketing and finance. The ensuing absence of innovation in product and process innovation, and in the management of the work force, created a competitive vacuum that has been exploited by aggressive foreign producers. The heightened challenge to America's basic industries posed by these foreign competitors has induced lengthy debate among academics, industry officials, and practicing managers, concerning the steps that need to be taken to redress America's declining industrial capacity. Our contribution to this re-examination has two objectives. First, we will attempt both to categorize the types of management issues and production problems that since 1800 have confronted American managers, and to identify the practical responses these issues elicited. Second, we will combine the insight garnered from our historical examination with our knowledge of contemporary management issues to detail the lessons of the American System and to identify areas in the realm of production and operations management where change is most needed.Our inquiry has revealed that changes in the character of American industry occurred as workers and managers instituted new approaches to better manage technology. The succession began with the concept of manufacturing as a sequential flow process. Later, this basic notion was expanded as managers used advances in both process and product technology to provide for the competitive continuity of their firms. The rapid pace of technological diffusion in nineteenth century America not only fostered the growth of external, technology-based suppliers, but also complicated the task of production management by requiring firms to coordinate their internal resources with the actions of suppliers. This change necessitated, of course, that managers keep abreast of a bewildering array of changes in production and process technology.The management developments that emerged in response to the appearance of technology-oriented suppliers were the most advanced expressions of American manufacturing at the end of the nineteenth century. These advances are of interest to us for yet another reason, however, because the existence of a skilled manufacturing infrastructure helped prepare the ground for the first generation of automobile manufacturing. Although the first car producers were by and large assemblers who put together in rented shops components supplied by others, their efforts rested on a, by then, well-developed and widely diffused competence in manufacturing. Only because a host of other non-automotive shops and companies had mastered the full range of skills, technical and organizational, pioneered during the nineteenth century, could the first generation of work on automobiles proceed.Driven by the scale economies associated with capital-intensive, high-volume operations, relationships between auto producers and suppliers shifted in focus and emphasis as the car industry matured. In particular, the growing requirements of specialization and coordination in the auto industry demanded an increasingly bureaucratic form of organization and, by extension, the development of managerial skills appropriate to that form. The mastery of a genuine “flow” system of production at high-volume levels defined the organizational competence on which would rest the great manufacturing achievements of twentieth century American industry.With the development of a dominant product design and the production base responsible for building it, American industry had by the outbreak of World War II achieved unquestioned dominance in the work of manufacturing. Or had it? Industry certainly thought so for the post-war decades were to see a redirection of effort away from production management. The search for greener managerial pastures left untapped, however, the potential to be reached by diligent and relentless concentration on the work of production, and obscured gains attainable from better training and utilization of the work force. The task now facing American producers in a hotly contested global struggle for industrial ascendancy is to begin to understand and to extend the lessons that emerge from their now dormant industrial heritage.     

Government instruments to support the commercialization of university research: Lessons from Canada

Increased efforts are made in most industrialized countries to promote the commercialization of university research, for instance, through spin-off firm formation. Many studies have investigated the initiatives set up in the university sector that aim to support and facilitate the commercialization of research, such as technology transfer offices (TTO). However, few studies have looked at the increasing number of instruments introduced from the government. This paper reviews the Canadian support structure at federal level that aims to support the commercialization of publicly funded research. Two types of programs can be identified. Firstly, programs made to induce structural reforms within the university sector in order to improve the institutional capabilities to facilitate commercialization projects. Secondly, programs providing support to specific commercialization projects. This paper explores how these types of programs are operated at government level. An example of implementation at university level is also given. The lessons to be learned from the Canadian case are related to how the government initiatives encourage a bottom-up approach. This is accomplished by providing resources for direct use in commercialization projects or to develop professional expertise in technology transfer in the university sector, by experimenting with new initiatives, and finally by facilitating cooperation between commercializing organizations.     

Supporting the productivity and wellbeing of remote workers: Lessons from COVID-19

We examine the survey responses of 278 individuals who transitioned from the workplace to working from home (WFH) as a result of the Covid 19 pandemic to understand how individuals’ attainment of productivity in work and meaning in life are affected by WFH. We also assess their perceived stress and health challenges experienced since WFH. On average, workers perceive that productivity and meaning changed in opposite directions with the shift to WFH—productivity increased while the meaning derived from daily activities decreased. Stress was reduced while health problems increased. By investigating these changes, we identify important common sources of support and friction associated with remote work that affect multiple dimensions of work and life. For example, personal fortitude is an important source of support, and the intrusion of work into life is an important friction. Our findings lead to concrete recommendations for both organizational leaders and workers in setting key priorities for supporting remote work.     

Arts and Leadership: Vision and Practice at the IEDC‐Bled School of Management

In 2012 the Association of MBAs (AMBA) nominated IEDC‐Bled School of Management as one of the four most innovative MBA programs from the more than 700 schools accredited by the association. This recognition stems from IEDC’s history of being a disruptive innovator and the entrepreneurial drive of the school, its founder Professor Danica Purg, and many other collaborators from around the world. One shining emblem of this is the school's groundbreaking work in the use of the arts in business education. The nod from AMBA was a recognition of the integration of the arts within IEDC’s management and leadership development programs. From its inception IEDC has incorporated cultural, artistic, and esthetic activities in its degrees and other programs. Over the last decade this has become a core activity across most programs. The development stems from IEDC’s belief that education dominated by functional knowledge alone cannot prepare contemporary leaders for the challenges they face in an increasingly complex world. The belief is lived every day at IEDC. Described as “a creative environment for creative leadership,” its faculty boasts not just finance, accounting, and marketing, but professionals from the arts, social sciences, and humanities. Its architecture is designed to inspire, and the large collection of original art that adorns its campus deepens students’ thinking and reflection.     

Enhancing adaptive transfer of cross-cultural training: Lessons learned from the broader training literature

Drawing insights from the broader training literature, we argue that evaluation of cross-cultural training effectiveness should adopt comprehensive criteria, including cognitive, skill-based, and affective learning outcomes as well as adaptive transfer. We propose that the integration of an error management supplement in cross-cultural training can enhance trainee acquisition of self-regulation skills and self-efficacy that facilitate adaptive application of learning to novel cultural situations. In addition to the traditional error management training designs (i.e., positive error framing), the current paper describes additional design elements to promote acquisition of cognitive strategies, prevent premature automaticity, alleviate concerns about error occurrence during learning, and enhance readiness to transfer. In addition, we offer propositions regarding the effects of the supplement on learning and transfer outcomes, along with implications for future research and practice on cross-cultural training.