How standard are standards: An examination of language emphasis in project management standards

In light of current work toward the development of global standards for project management, this paper analyzes differences between a selection of various countries' existing project management standards. The analysis is conducted using computational corpus linguistics techniques, resulting in the identification of similarities and differences between the standards of five countries.     

Towards the formalization of ‘small is beautiful’: Societal effectiveness versus economic efficiency

Economic efficiency criteria are often based on considerations of concentration, standardization and centralization of activities which may undertake or omit entirely various internal and external diseconomies of by-products associated with any growth process. This paper re-examines the context in which the efficiency criterion is usually applied. The notion of effectiveness is analysed theoretically from two perspectives. Social costs are introduced initially in a static framework and then the inertia of large organizations is discussed in a dynamic perspective. The flexibility of the system in adjusting to rapid changes in technology is analysed from a structural approach based on smaller and more decentralized organizations.     

The regional variations of entrepreneurial dynamism: a mixed methods study

ABSTRACT

Given that added knowledge and deeper understanding are needed with regard to regional variations in the creation of new firms, this study seeks to answer the following two research questions: What are the variables that explain entrepreneurial dynamism and how may they be apprehended under the four necessary and complementary dimensions of this phenomenon, namely the demand, supply, institutional and spatial dimensions? And how should the nature and interrelatedness of these dimensions and their associated variables influence regional policymakers and other regional stakeholders in their efforts to stimulate entrepreneurship in their region? In order to do so, we used mixed methods to collect and analyze regional data, first doing a regression analysis of quantitative data on 97 small regions in Canada’s province of Québec, followed by a qualitative survey of regional stakeholders on eight matched pairs of regions. A phenomenological qualitative analysis was then effectuated in order to gain a deeper understanding of the research variables’ effects and thus grasp the complex socio-economic reality of entrepreneurial dynamism in a region. The results of the study confirm the importance and interrelatedness of the four dimensions of entrepreneurial dynamism in providing new insights into these questions. Moreover, the findings that results from these quantitative, qualitative and holistic analyses have implications for the policies of regional authorities and for the actions of other regional stakeholders.     

The Role of the Media in Sustaining Ireland's Housing Bubble

This paper examines Irish mainstream media coverage of the housing bubble that burst in 2007 and plunged Ireland into economic and financial crisis. It is shown that news organisations largely sustained the bubble until the property market collapsed. As such, news stories reflected the views and interests of the Irish corporate and governmental sectors, which had adopted neoliberal policies during the ‘Celtic Tiger’ years (1990s to 2007). A political economic conceptualisation of the Irish media outlines four factors explaining why this is so: (1) news organisations have multiple links with the political and corporate establishment, of which they are part, thus sharing similar interests and viewpoints; (2) just like elite circles, they hold a neoliberal ideology, dominant during the boom years; (3) they feel pressures from advertisers, in particular, real estate companies; and (4) they rely heavily on ‘experts’ from elite institutions in reporting events. The last section presents a detailed empirical analysis of Irish media coverage (newspapers and television) of the housing bubble that confirms the above claims. It is shown that prior to the bubble's collapse, the media made little mention of it, remained vague about it or tried to refute claims that it even existed, thus sustaining it.     

Enhancing Access to the Global Food Manufacturing Value Chain: The Role of a Food Safety Technical Regulation in Ghana

Demonstrating compliance with food safety requirements of the global food economy is a prerequisite for access. This article presents an overview of the governance within global value chains and their impact on the prospects of developing countries accessing and participating in the global food manufacturing value chain. Based on fieldwork undertaken in Ghana, the article investigates the issues that hinder compliance of the Ghanaian food manufacturing sector with the basic requirements of food safety and investigates the potential role of a technical regulation in enhancing compliance, and therefore participation, in the global food manufacturing economy.     

CRITICAL STOCK PRICE NEAR EXPIRATION

We study the critical price of an American put option near expiration in the Black-Scholes model. Our main result is an estimate for the difference ( t )- K between the critical price at time t and the exercise price as t approaches the maturity of the option.