Facing famine: Somali experiences in the famine of 2011

In 2011–12, Somalia experienced the worst famine of the twenty- first century. Since then, research on the famine has focused almost exclusively on the external response, the reasons for the delay in the international response, and the implications for international humanitarian action in the context of the “global war on terror.” This paper focuses on the internal, Somali response to the famine. Themes of diversification, mobility and flexibility are all important to understanding how people coped with the famine, but this paper focuses on the factor that seemed to determine whether and how well people survived the famine: social connectedness, the extent of the social networks of affected populations, and the ability of these networks to mobilize resources. These factors ultimately determined how well people coped with the famine. The nature of reciprocity, the resources available within people’s networks, and the collective risks and hazards faced within networks, all determined people’s individual and household outcomes in the famine and are related to the social structures and social hierarchies within Somali society. But these networks had a distinctly negative side as well—social identity and social networks were also exploited to trap humanitarian assistance, turn displaced people into “aid bait,” and to a large degree, determined who benefited from aid once it started to flow. This paper addresses several questions: How did Somali communities and households cope with the famine of 2011 in the absence of any state-led response—and a significant delay in a major international response? What can be learned from these practices to improve our understanding of famine, and of mitigation, response and building resilience to future crises?     

Colonial famine responses: The Bagamoyo district of Tanganyika, 1920–1961

Peasant food shortfalls during the colonial period were not emergencies in that they were unexpected but rather were a part of peasants' existence arising from failure to effectively control their natural resource base against the vacillations of nature. State famine relief represents the most elementary attempt at regularizing the productive base of precapitalist modes of production in transition. Famine relief was a major function of the colonial state. Current theories about the present food crisis tend to overlook the historical legacy of famine and consequently sensationalize or moralize a phenomenon which has been part and parcel of precapitalist modes of production throughout history.     

Detecting food emergencies: Lessons from the 1979 Bangladesh crisis

Much of the work done on Bangladesh's vulnerability to food emergencies has focused on the famine of 1974. However, it is also instructive to consider the experience of 1979, when outright famine was narrowly averted, although there were certainly excess deaths from starvation in some localities. This paper outlines the main features of the crisis and considers the degrees of usefulness of available macroeconomic indicators of stress which might be taken as a basis for government action in the future. The paper concludes by briefly outlining the kinds of action which are likely to be most appropriate to arresting a developing food emergency in Bangladesh.     

The food crisis and environmental conservation in Africa

In spite of good rains in Africa in 1985, 30-35 million people suffered the effects of famine. Much of Africa is still dependent on food aid. The main causes of insufficient food production are land degradation--desertification--and high population growth. Distribution of the US $2.9 billion in food and non-food aid has been hampered by transport and logistical problems. The major challenge for 1986 is non-food support. Only US $460 million (15.3%) of non-food aid had been received as of March. Country profiles of Angola, Chad, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Somalia, Sudan, Lesotho, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Zambia show a pattern of high food assistance needs and displaced refugee populations. The 1st 6 of the group suffer from civil strife. There is some good news; e.g. Niger, which is embarking on agressive agricultural development, and Tanzania, which has enjoyed bumper crops, but the crisis is clearly far from over. Few African Governments have been willing to face the population problem; population in the area will probably continue to increase at 3% yearly. It is shown that desertification: reducing the biological potential of the land through over-exploitation, animal husbandry, and deforestation, is a wordwide problem particularly acute in Africa. Lost production totals $26 billion annually. Straightforward cost-benefit analysis of projects to halt or reverse the problem does not adequately take factors such as human attachment to the land into account. Unfortunately halting desertification does not receive the attention it should receive from donor agencies. Investment goes towards high-return projects, e.g. power dams; sugar factories, when a more careful study reveals that returns from afforestations are much more long-term. There has been increased consciousness of the long-term benefits of dryland rehabilitation, which will hopefully impact policy in the future. But since desertification is a self-accelerating process, there is a need for very rapid action.     

The causes of famine: A refutation of Professor Sen's theory

This article argues that Sen's theory of famine will lead to the wrong diagnosis and the wrong remedies for famine and will therefore worsen the situation. His analysis of the Bengal famine is a case in point. It is based on unreliable and inaccurate statistics. Even the statistics he does use contradict his thesis. His explanatory hypotheses are shown to be theoretically and factually wrong. The actions of the Bengal government of 1943 are looked at in the light of Sen's recommendations.     

制度短缺与劳工短缺——"民工荒"问题研究

本文认为,在劳动力市场信息不充分的条件下,外来工（农民工）主要（只能）通过私人网络关系去寻找工作。利用网络寻找工作不一定能使他们得到工资较高的工作岗位．却可以节省找工成本。由于外来工工资较低,所以,他们不能安心在所在企业工作,因而有较高的流动率。高流动率造成了劳工短缺即“民工荒”。作为群体的外来工之所以工资低,主要是最低工资标准丧失了调节作用,这是基本的、直接的制度缺陷。外来工的高流动性还塑造了劳资关系双方的短期行为。本文还进一步讨论了农民工高流动率和不能转化为真正的职业工人的制度背景．这就是“半工半耕”和城乡二元户籍划分的正式制度、乡土社会的传统社会规范和社会公众（包括农民工自身）对农民工的认知心理等非正式制度。     

A service perspective on business relationships: The value creation, interaction and marketing interface

Adopting a service perspective or logic on business directs suppliers' focus in business relationships towards engaging with their customers' business processes. The purpose of this article is to analyze implications for value creation and marketing of adopting a service logic in business relationships. In the article it is demonstrated that a service perspective is multi-dimensional, enabling the mutual creation of value, with service as a mediating factor in that process. It is argued that value creation, purchasing, usage and marketing are intertwined processes. Here supplier-customer interactions are in a focal position. This perspective enables marketers to better understand how to develop and extend service offerings through assistance to customers' processes relevant to their businesses. Therefore, the underpinning logic of industrial interactions is analyzed in detail, extending marketing's conventional boundaries.     

企业的嵌入性研究述评

此文回顾了嵌入性内涵及其维度认知的3个视角--经典、虚联系和网络视角。同时发现一般企业、初创企业和跨国企业的嵌入性研究使用的维度视角存在差别。通常意义上的一般企业研究经常运用经典视角和虚联系视角，初创企业研究则多运用经典视角，而跨国企业更倾向于网络视角。在此基础上本文探讨了企业嵌入性研究的未来空间。     

试论企业危机管理体系的构建

由于环境的日益复杂多变,在全球化与网络化的当今社会,任何企业都不可避免的面临着各种危机与潜在危机的威胁.为了防止或降低危机对企业所带米的伤害,适时适当的危机管理不可或缺.本文在对危机和危机管理进行诠释的基础上,根据危机发展过程提出企业的危机管理体系,希望对有效的危机管理产生借鉴作用.     

Coming to terms with vulnerability: a critique of the food security definition

This paper seeks to improve the practice of vulnerability assessment for food security purposes by addressing long-standing issues that have hampered the development of both theory and methods. In food security contexts, vulnerability is usually defined in relation to an outcome, such as hunger, food insecurity or famine. This precludes employing the concept for the more specific task of evaluating the susceptibility of a population to explicitly-identified exogenous events or shocks that could lead to these outcomes. This lack of specificity has clouded interpretation of causal factors of food insecurity and famine. Alternatively, in a widely-applied framework for disaster risk assessment, the concept of vulnerability serves the more specific purpose of identifying characteristics of population groups or other elements that make them more or less susceptible to experiencing damage when exposed to particular hazards or shocks. Risks of negative outcomes are created by the combination of hazards and vulnerability, and vulnerability is defined by its relation to hazards rather than directly in relation to the outcomes themselves. The result has been an easier and more transparent translation of concepts into practice. That this latter formulation can also be applied in the food security context is illustrated through an analysis of food security risks in Tanzania. The analysis identifies economic alternatives households can exercise to meet their minimum annual food requirements. Exogenous threats or shocks that can suppress or eliminate particular alternatives exercised by different groups are identified as a means of assessing households' vulnerability and consequently their risks of becoming food insecure, or falling below the minimum threshold.     

基于经济后果观的金融危机与公允价值会计研究

会计准则作为会计信息生产与提供的规范,并不是一种单纯的技术手段,而是一种具有经济后果的制度。文章从经济后果角度对金融危机下的经济后果进行了分析,为完善我国公允价值会计准则提供参考。     

Feeding the famine? American food aid and the GMO debate in Southern Africa

The inclusion of genetically modified maize in food aid shipments to Southern Africa during the 2002 food crisis rekindled debates over agricultural biotechnology. As the region edged ever closer to famine – putting the lives to some 14 million Africans at risk – corporate pundits, government officials and biotech’s critics debated the health and environmental dangers posed by the new technology.By situating the decision to send genetically modified maize to Southern Africa in the context of US–European debates over agricultural biotechnology, it becomes clear that the promotion of biotechnology has nothing to do with ending hunger in the region. Indeed, American food aid shipments to Southern Africa have little to do with the famine at all. Instead, I argue that US food aid policy following the 2002 crisis was intended to promote the adoption of biotech crops in Southern Africa, expanding the market access and control of transnational corporations and undermining local smallholder production thereby fostering greater food insecurity on the Continent.     

Electronic money: understanding its use to increase the effectiveness of policy

Policy on electronic money and electronic commerce would be more effective if there was a better understanding of the use of electronic money. The users’ perspective would complement the supply-side, economic and technological understanding of money with an understanding that emphasises the use of money in its social and cultural context. Mistaking the partial story for the whole can lead to costly misjudgements for providers and regulators. It also leads to an incomplete understanding of communication, innovation and social change.This article presents a methodology for exploring the users’ perspective, drawing on case studies on the actual use of electronic money. The user and his/her activities are placed at the centre. This leads to three shifts: the questions change, language and key concepts alter and the adoption and use of innovations is seen as a social activity. The users’ perspective presents three challenges for providers and policymakers. The first is to collect qualitative and quantitative data not only on the diffusion of innovations, but how innovations are used and not used in particular social and cultural contexts by different users. The second challenge is to find a language that will connect the economic analysis of supply and demand, cost and price with the study of use, trust and meaning. The third challenge is to acknowledge the interrelationship between the economic and non-economic aspects of our lives.     

Making the news: Heterogeneous media coverage and corporate litigation

Research summary: This study explores how relative prominence shapes rivalry between firms. Corporate litigation, an increasingly costly domain of interfirm rivalry, is threatening not just because of the immediate legal stakes but because of the indirect losses that unwanted negative publicity inflicts on defendants. I argue that potential defendants' incentives to avoid such losses create a source of value that firms can capture by agreeing to forgo litigation. The more prominent a firm is relative to rivals, the greater its threat and the more value it stands to capture from potential targets by sparing them from litigation. Managerial summary: The power to attract media attention can be valuable to firms beyond its role in managing relations with investors or the public. It can also provide leverage against industry rivals. Being sued by a prominent firm carries the threat of potential damaging publicity, especially for lesser‐known rivals. Firms may be able to leverage this threat to elicit concessions in return for sparing rivals from litigation. Prominent firms stand to benefit not just from eliciting concessions from rivals but from the ability to do so while avoiding costly litigation. Data from the semiconductor industry show that firms that command much higher levels of media coverage than rivals are able to avoid litigation more often than firms with comparable or lower levels of media coverage. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Doing good deeds in times of need: a strategic perspective on corporate disaster donations

Major corporations often respond charitably in times of disaster. However, disasters can also impose nontrivial costs on firms themselves, and under adverse conditions, firms typically donate less, not more. This paper takes a strategic perspective on corporate magnanimity in times of crisis by looking at the relationship between firm value, reputation, and donations by U.S. Fortune 500 firms in the case of Hurricane Katrina. In general, we find that Katrina's landfall was associated with significant negative abnormal stock returns. In particular, we find that a reputation for social irresponsibility was associated with both the greatest drop in stock prices and the greatest likelihood of making a subsequent charitable donation in response to the disaster. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

From Corporate Crisis to Turnaround in East Asia: A Study of China Huajing Electronics Group Corporation

In this article, we investigated some of the pre-conditions of crisis faced by technology-focused firms, as a group, in the emerging markets facing globalization and looked at the modalities for turnaround. We applied the “entrepreneurial leadership” model recently proposed by Gupta, Macmillan and Surie (2004) for defining the processes needed for adapting to the globalization-induced crisis. Our context for the globalization-induced crisis was the 1997 East Asian crisis, and we studied how the crisis galvanized a leading Chinese electronics firm—Huajing—to develop and execute a turnaround strategy for recovering from a near bankruptcy state. We discussed how organizational and other factors conjoined to create crisis at Huajing in the midst of globalization and trace the process through which entrepreneurial leadership was implemented. We distil various insights into a prototypical, unified model that underscores the significance of entrepreneurial leadership in developing and applying the different strategic flexibility platforms embedded in the resources and capabilities of the firms and in generating a relationship-anchored market position. The findings suggest that in situations where the crisis occurs at the level of organizational field, firms need turnaround strategies that help strengthen not only their organizational field but also their own value generation capabilities.     

Opening and closing open innovation projects: A contractual perspective

In this article we introduce three concepts from transaction cost economics that have so far remained excluded from the open innovation literature, and that enable us to address the demands in the literature for an explanatory mechanism for closing open innovation: unanticipated disturbances, tolerance zone and interpretations of contracts. First, we argue that threats resulting from unanticipated disturbances are absorbed in a tolerance zone and lead to adaptations in knowledge sharing. Second, we argue that these threats and changes in knowledge sharing at the project level impact the interpretation of the open innovation contract at the firm level. Adopting a contractual perspective, the article contributes to the open innovation literature by explaining the tolerance zone of transitioning between closed and open innovation. We illustrate in a case study on a B2B open innovation project how a threat to value creation leads to a continuation of open innovation, whereas a threat to value capture leads to a closing of open innovation.     

Interpreting and responding to strategic issues: The impact of national culture

Perceptions of environmental uncertainty and organizational control influence strategic behavior. As national culture influences these perceptions we expect to find cultural differences in interpretation and response to strategic issues. Given a case describing an issue concerning deregulation of the U.S. banking industry, managers completed questionnaires rating interpretations and responses to that issue. National culture was found to influence interpretation and responses. In particular, Latin European managers when compared with other managers were more likely to interpret the issue as a crisis and as a threat. Latin Europeans were also more likely to recommend proactive behavior. This study indicates that different cultures are likely to interpret and respond to the same strategic issue in different ways. These differences may help to explain and predict different responses of European countries to ‘1992’.     

The impact of information technology on 'traditional' occupations: the case of welding

This article argues that accounts of occupational change are flawed by lack of attention to the relationship between structure and agency. It uses the example of welding to critique, in particular, the work of Casey and Zuboff. Welding is an example of a manual craft occupation that, whilst subject to some change, has not been as dramatically affected by information technology as some analysts might suggest. In this it may have parallels with other occupations and this suggests not only further areas for research but also considerations about theoretical approaches. In particular, attention is drawn to the importance of the temporal dimension in social analysis.