Global controversies in local settings: anti-fracking activism in the era of Web 2.0

In this era of global challenges in energy policy, the importance of siting of facilities connected to development of energy system is greater than ever. At the same time, spreading of these facilities has often been controversial in surrounding communities. This article advances the debate on this phenomenon by focusing on an aspect of siting controversies that has become a game changer in recent years but has received remarkably little attention: the role of Web 2.0 in siting conflicts. To explore the impact of Web 2.0, the paper uses a case study approach, examining the influence of access to the Internet in two siting conflicts associated with shale gas prospecting in Poland in the period from 2012 to 2014. The possibilities that Web 2.0 offers to residents and other local actors in siting conflicts – access to knowledge, the ability to reframe the local debate using international resources, and mobilization of a network of support by sharing their version of the story – influence the dynamics of risk communication during siting controversies.     

The Efficiency of Political Mechanisms for Siting Nuisance Facilities: Are Opponents More Likely to Participate than Supporters?

The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics - Public opposition often hinders the siting of nuisance and noxious facilities. However, there is often support for the siting plan within the...     

Biomedical risks and citizenship: depoliticizing cell site deployment in the Netherlands and Southern California

Cell phone technology has become a ubiquitous quasi-utility worldwide. Meanwhile, controversies around its health risks are continually emerging in locations around the world. In this paper, we argue that the ongoing controversy is primarily the effect of practices that are trying to govern cell site risks, rather than inherent uncertainties or qualities of the technology. We understand this as a process of medicalization that engenders bio-citizenship. We extend bio-citizenship theory by exposing how actors show an astute and reflexive awareness of the mobilizing potential of medicalization.

We study the governance practice of cell site deployment in the Netherlands and Southern California, USA and investigate how the risk issues and citizenship concerning cell site deployment are co-produced in four main governance practices. Network roll-out practices move health risks backstage, prevention practices push health risks and uncertainties into the future. Design practices actively avoid cell site risks, whereas care practices contain them. Government and industry have become aware of the contentious effect of cell site deployment and govern this to protect the roll-out of the technology. We call this depoliticization. Depoliticization can unintendedly open up new avenues for citizen mobilization.     

Sustainable development and the market : A framework for analysis

The environment has been confined to the margins of most research in the social sciences, particularly theoretical work on development. One consequence is that the environment has lacked an historical focus, which would allow us a broader, more comparative view of how nature is transformed under the impact of capitalist development. The object of this article is to sketch out such a framework, beginning with ‘autochtonous’ societies, in which sustainability, rather than development, is the key characteristic. The role of the market in transforming such societies is explored through a typology of social and environmental systems. In the light of the transformation of environmental goods, made necessary by market accumulation, the role of ‘environmental management’ is considered, and found to be inadequate. Sustainability, as a concept, needs to be related to the role of the market within the process of development itself.     

Extending corporate accountability: A survey and framework for analysis

This paper has three objectives: to review the state of the art with regard to the literature on corporate internal audit activities; to report on a research study of recent developments in the scope and organization of the internal audit function in major companies in U.S.A.; and to propose an analytical framework which may be used in future research to describe the scope, procedures and responsibilities of the corporate internal audit function. Although there appears to be some confusion in the extant literature regarding the definition and scope of certain internal audit efforts, this research provides new evidence that major U.S. companies are engaging in unprecedented experiments into the use of auditing as a tool for enforcing management and social accountability. This is a movement away from the traditional financial audit which is frequently assumed to fully circumscribe the internal audit function. The implications for implementing heightened standards of corporate accountability should be of interest to audit committees of boards of directors, corporate management, investors, consumers, and future researchers.     

A framework for the analysis of firm risk communication

In this paper, we propose a framework for the analysis of risk communication and an index to measure the quality of risk disclosure. Mainstream literature on voluntary disclosure has emphasized that quantity can be used as a sound proxy for quality. We contend that, in the analysis of the disclosure of risks made by public companies, attention has to be paid not only to how much is disclosed but also to what is disclosed and how.We apply the framework to a sample of nonfinancial companies listed in the ordinary market on the Italian Stock Exchange. To verify that the framework and synthetic index are not influenced by the two factors recognized in the literature as the most powerful drivers of disclosure behavior for listed companies, we use an OLS model. The regression shows that the index of disclosure quantity is not influenced either by size or industry. Thus, the synthetic measure can be used to rank the quality of the disclosure of risks.     

Refining the bootstrap method of stochastic dominance analysis: The case of the January effect

This study investigates the effect of sample size and population distribution on the bootstrap estimated sampling distributions for stochastic dominance (SD) test statistics. Bootstrap critical values for Whitmore's (1978) second- and third-degree stochastic dominance test statistics are found to vary with both data sample size and variance of the population distribution. The results indicate the parametric nature of the statistics and suggest that the bootstrap method should be used to estimate a sampling distribution each time a new data sample is drawn. As an application of the bootstrap method, the January small firm effect is examined. The results conflict with the SD results of others, and indicate that not all investors would prefer to hold just a portfolio of small capitalization firms in January.     

How (not) to talk about the uncertain: siting geological disposal for highly radioactive waste in the Czech Republic

There is an ongoing controversy in the Czech Republic over where to site a deep geological repository for the country’s radioactive waste. Recently, the negotiations between municipalities and state authorities responsible for radioactive waste management experienced a sharp turn: after several years of dialogue guaranteed by the promise of the state authorities not to start site investigations at preselected sites without the consent of affected municipalities, the state authorities suddenly decided not to keep this promise, and to start site investigations without the municipalities’ consent, saying that time for dialogue will come after the site investigations will have been completed. This article explores the period of the failed dialogue with respect to how risks and uncertainties were treated in the negotiations. Drawing on two strands of scholarship on risk and uncertainty, the risk governance school and the STS perspectives on sociotechnical controversies, two paradigms for dealing with risk and uncertainty are outlined. These are used as a framework to analyse how implementers and local stakeholders articulated possible risk or uncertainty issues in negotiations about the Czech geological disposal between 2009 and 2013. The analysis shows that whereas the implementers adopt (sometimes even an extreme version of) the risk-based paradigm, the positions of the local stakeholders seem to be mixed. These observations lead to two conclusions: first, at the theoretical level, perhaps some of the STS literature was too quick to assume that people ‘want’ uncertainty. Second, at the practical level, it is suggested that in the light of the failed dialogue, it might be worth for the implementers to take a lesson from the uncertainty-based paradigm, and consider the possibility that perhaps still more work needs to be done in order to turn uncertainty into risk.     

Dis-Ag-reement: the construction and negotiation of risk in the Swedish controversy over antibacterial silver

What constitutes a potentially hazardous object is often debated. This article analyses the polemic construction and negotiation of risk in the Swedish controversy over the use of antibacterial silver in health care and consumer products. This debate engages the media, government agencies, parliament and government, non-governmental organizations and companies. Texts and websites from these actors were studied using content analysis. Antibacterial silver is construed by some actors as a risk object with harmful effects on a series of objects at risk: the environment, public health, organisms and sewage treatment. In contrast, other actors deny that antibacterial silver is a risk object, instead construing it as mitigating risk. In such a schema, antibacterial silver is conceived of as managing the risk objects of bacteria and micro-organisms, in turn managing the risk objects of infection, bad smell and washing, and in turn helping the environment and public health (objects at risk). The structure of the debate suggests two basic modes of risk communication. First, antibacterial silver is construed as a risk object, endangering a variety of objects at risk, such as organisms, public health, the environment and sewage treatment. Second, this association between antibacterial silver and objects at risk is obstructed, by denying that antibacterial silver is a risk object or by associating silver with the benefit of mitigating risk.     

Participatory safety barrier analysis: a case from the offshore maritime industry

This paper argues that a participatory approach directly involving employees in safety barrier analysis can provide ‘added value’ to traditional barrier analyses. Employee participation (EP) could motivate employees to use their knowledge, suggest improvement measures and express their concerns. EP has not received much attention from safety researchers, although one may find several indirect arguments for EP informing the influential safety theoretical perspectives. An example of how participatory safety barrier analysis can be completed and what can be accomplished through such an approach is illustrated via a case study from an offshore logistics chain, and by an analysis of barriers that should prevent collisions between supply vessels and offshore installations. Such collisions could be the initiating event for a major accident. The empirical foundation for the paper is a hazard identification technique session, group and individual interviews, document studies and two search conferences involving approximately 150 participants. It is argued that a participatory approach to safety barrier analysis can reveal ‘holes’ in the defences that otherwise could have gone overlooked, and contribute to the generation of contextualized, definite measures that could strengthen a safety barrier system.     

The design and use of performance management systems: An extended framework for analysis

Issues in the area of performance management and management control systems are typically complex and intertwined, but research tends to be based on simplified and partial settings. Simplification has made the work easier to carry out, but it has come at the price of increased ambiguity and conflicting findings from different studies. To help mitigate these issues, this paper puts forward the performance management systems framework as a research tool for describing the structure and operation of performance management systems (PMSs) in a more holistic manner. The framework was developed from the relevant literature and from our observations and experience. In particular, it elaborates the 5 questions of Otley's [Otley, D., 1999. Performance management: a framework for management control systems research. Management Accounting Research 10, 363–382] performance management framework into 12 questions and integrates aspects of Simons’ levers of control framework.Anecdotal evidence suggests that the extended framework provides a useful research tool for those wishing to study the design and operation of performance management systems by providing a template to help describe the key aspects of such systems. It allows an holistic overview to be taken while making this a feasible task. The paper uses material from two field studies to illustrate how the framework can be used to provide an overview of the major performance management issues within an organization.     

The professional development of European accounting academics: A proposed theoretical framework for future research

Over the last decade there has been a growing interest in the professional development of accounting academics and the effectiveness of their teaching. There is recognition that this development impacts on the primary roles of accounting educators: teaching, research and administration. This paper examines the career stories of accounting educators from different European countries. The aim is to develop a theoretical framework to provide new insights into the process of professional development. The comparative analysis of these career experiences led to the development of a proposed conceptual framework for gaining an understanding of the professional development of accounting educators. Drawing on these findings, the paper proposes that an awareness of the key-factors and the process of professional development of accounting educators may provide a new way of understanding the complex relationships among identities, system of beliefs, and behaviours related to teaching, research and administration.     

Lasting impacts and perceived inequities: community reappraisal of the siting of a regional biosolids processing facility in rural Ontario

This paper presents a comparative study of the shift in community perceptions pre- and post-siting of a biosolids processing facility – the Organic Material Recovery Centre – in the rural Township of Southgate, Ontario. The study responds to the need for comparative studies examining residents’ perceptions of contested noxious facilities during acrimonious siting processes and later during facility operations. Interviews were conducted before and after the techno-industrial facility was sited to compare community perceptions of the proposed and operational facility, and further examine residents’ experiences with residual impacts and reflections on the siting process. Results reveal that once the facility began operations and residents had the opportunity to understand its operational mandate and directions, many residents seem to accept the facility as less threatening to well-being, quality of life and core values. Nonetheless, sustained community concerns shifted to invisible impacts and long-term uncertainty. Findings highlight lingering intra-community conflict between those supporting and those who remained concerned about negative impacts. As a result of the hostile community conflict, the local politics seems to have morphed into a ‘one-issue’ political scene, whereby all issues are divided along the lines of municipal councillors opinions of the facility These findings make methodological contributions with pre- and post-siting comparative qualitative research and contribute theoretically to our understanding of residents’ reappraisal of contested noxious techno-industrial facilities, show sustained divisive social impacts within the community, and call for meaningful consultation and increased participatory siting processes that accounts for the diversity of values and expectations during facility siting.     

A European view on the legitimacy of accounting procedures: Towards a deliberative-accountability framework for analysis

Accounting rules affect fundamental areas of social interaction encompassing groups that have diverse and conflicting interests regarding financial reporting. In the absence of a coherent social choice theory, concepts of legitimacy can be used to assess the acceptance of accounting standard-setting processes and their resulting norms. In this paper, we analyze the standard-setting process in Europe. Accounting rules in Europe are developed in a two-stage process involving both private standard-setting and public rule-making. From a structural perspective, the European Union (EU) is well positioned to develop legitimate accounting procedures. However, the original purpose and the ensuing legitimacy of its control mechanism are jeopardized when EU structures are used and sometimes abused for policy formation and the creation of EU-IFRS.     

Outsourcing and firm performance nexus: An analysis using the conventional and panel double-bootstrap procedure

Industrial performance is an essential element of economic progress. In this study, we examine the impact of outsourcing on industrial performance using the firm-level data of 191 textile companies in India over the period 2000–2015. First, we follow the conventional non-parametric two-stage procedure and analyse the nexus between outsourcing and firm performance under a single-objective setting. We then test the influence of outsourcing on the performance of multiple-objective firms using reverse directional distance function scores. To address the bias in efficiency estimation and the serial correlation issue in the second-stage regression, we use truncated regression and the double-bootstrap procedure for panel data analysis. Our results show an improvement in industrial performance over the study period. Our analysis following the conventional two-stage procedure shows that the outsourcing of manufacturing activities and professional jobs contributes to industrial performance. The relation between outsourcing and firm performance essentially remains the same in a more reliable analysis using a panel double bootstrap procedure.     

A framework for the analysis of interview data from multiple field research sites

In general, papers reporting the results of research studies disclose little detail regarding attributes of study design, analytical processes and methods actually used by researchers. This paper describes in some depth the method choices and analytical protocol used in a field study project. The paper describes initially the link between research question, research design and analytical protocol. The major focus of the paper is the application of a systematic analytical protocol designed to encourage completeness and impartiality in the collection and analysis of qualitative data. These method issues are examined in the context of the author's experiences in the field and through the process of data analysis. The methods used are also examined critically in retrospect.     

刍议“逃税罪”案件行政程序与刑事程序的关系

随着《中华人民共和国刑法修正案(七)》的颁布实施,偷税罪被逃税罪取而代之。本文分析了行政程序与刑事程序的关系,并对逃税罪进行了法律解释,提出了行政处罚前置是符合逃税罪立法与司法实践应有的程序选择。     

基于政府参与情形的混合巨灾债券设计与实证分析

我国是属于自然灾害多发的国家,但由于保险市场与资本市场相对落后,目前对于巨灾的管理仍然主要依靠政府事后的财政拨款与民间捐赠。本文借鉴并改进了国内外相关研究结论,构建了由保险市场、资本市场以及政府所组成的巨灾风险分担模型。在该模型的基础上,以熵测度为准则,设计了一种有政府参与的混合巨灾债券,这种债券是传统的简单巨灾债券与...     

Customers and investors: A framework for understanding the evolution of financial institutions

Financial institutions are financed by both investors and customers. Investors expect an appropriate risk-adjusted return for providing financing and risk bearing. Customers, in contrast, provide financing in exchange for specific services, and want the service fulfillment to be free of the intermediary's credit risk. We develop a framework that defines the roles of customers and investors in intermediaries, and use it to build an economic theory that has the following main findings. First, with positive net social surplus in the intermediary-customer relationship, the efficient (first best) contract completely insulates the customer from the intermediary's credit risk, thereby exposing the customer only to the risk inherent in the contract terms. Second, when intermediaries face financing frictions, the second-best contract may expose the customer to some intermediary credit risk, generating “customer contract fulfillment” costs. Third, the efficiency loss associated with these costs in the second best rationalizes government guarantees like deposit insurance even when there is no threat of bank runs. We further discuss the implications of this customer-investor nexus for numerous issues related to the design of contracts between financial intermediaries and their customers, the sharing of risks between them, ex ante efficient institutional design, regulatory practices, and the evolving boundaries between banks and financial markets.