Effects of Pastoralism and Rabbits on the Economy and Culture of the Diyari People of North‐Eastern South Australia

The contraction of Aboriginal people from South Australian deserts is associated with European pastoral expansion. Confined to areas near water, livestock damaged vegetation locally, but introduced rabbits, not reliant on drinking water, spread well beyond pastoral settlement. Thus, rabbits caused almost universal desertification and were an equal factor in disrupting the former food web that sustained Aboriginal people. Within 30 years of the rabbits' arrival, important totemic animals like rabbit bandicoots had disappeared, leaving the people not only short of traditional game but also culturally bereft. A comparative economic approach to Aboriginal totemism explores changes in both ecological and cultural contexts.     

Employability and the ICT worker: a study of employees in Scottish small businesses

This article reports on the changing nature of employment and employability for high‐tech workers in Scotland over the last decade. A somewhat stagnated industry has led to extrinsic rewards such as a good work–life balance, being prioritised over creative work and skills development. The sector is now dominated by small, specialist organisations providing limited training for the few remaining graduates.     

Debugging the system: the impact of dispersion on the identity of software team members

This paper looks at the impact of dispersion of groups of software workers on team and organizational identification. The paper examines at two case studies of software organizations operating in Scotland. One case study is drawn from a software division of a large national telecommunications company, the other from a medium-sized indigenous software firm. Within each organization we examined groups of employees based within and outwith their employing organizations. Our results were broadly consistent with established work within other sectors in finding that the team largely replaced the organization as a focus for identification. However, we also found that there was no difference in the salience of organizational identification between dispersed employees and those based within their employing organization. For many employees the focus on the team as opposed to the organization was a way of reducing subjective uncertainty within a changing corporate environment. Finally, we established that it is team identification rather than organizational identification for software workers that is a greater determinant of affective outcomes such as job satisfaction. The results of this study impact upon contemporary theories of HRM, which promote the design of work systems in order to engender commitment to, and identification with, the organization.     

Nature-based tourism,resource dependence,and resilience of Arctic communities: framing complex issues in a changing environment

Current research on tourism in the Arctic has focused largely on the extent, location, and type of tourism activities that occur in the region. Recently, challenges have been identified that the tourism industry is likely to face in the wake of global changes, including climate change. Related research, conducted within and outside of the Arctic, suggests that rural communities can become economically dependent on natural resource extraction (e.g. oil, gas, timber harvesting, and mining of minerals) and non-extractive resources (e.g. nature-based recreation and tourism), limiting diversification and potentially threatening resilience of rural communities. In the western USA, communities have become dependent on both extractive and non-extractive natural resource activities including nature-based tourism; however, it is less clear whether a similar situation is occurring in Arctic communities. In this article, we propose a framework and indicators to analyze the potential dependence of Arctic communities on nature-based tourism and the resilience of Arctic communities to potential boom–bust cycles of nature-based tourism. To do so, we examine the current state-of-knowledge about tourism and nature-based tourism in the Arctic through the lens of boom–bust dynamics and social-ecological systems.     

Reaching through the fog: Institutional environment and cross‐border giving of corporate foundations

Research Summary : Corporate philanthropy has long been recognized as an important part of multinational strategy, yet we know relatively little how charitable giving is allocated across countries. Using a sample of 208 U.S.‐based corporate foundations from 1993 to 2008, we find that the foundations give more in countries with opaque institutional environments, but they do so through international intermediaries. They also give more when the funding firms have new entries in countries with weak institutions—hence greater needs for the social license to operate—or when their operations require stronger connections with local suppliers or customers. These findings point to the use of corporate philanthropy as part of corporate diplomacy when the local institutions are ineffective and the importance of reaching out to local constituents is high. Managerial Summary : Corporate foundations play an important role in firms' charitable giving across countries. This article analyzes how foundation giving is associated with the funding firm's need to navigate the local business environments. Using a sample of 208 U.S.‐based corporate foundations from 1993 to 2008, we find that foundations give more in countries characterized by weak rule of law and high levels of corruption, and when the funding firms have newly established subsidiaries or stronger need to connect with local stakeholders there. However, donations to countries with weak institutions are more likely to go through international intermediaries to avoid potential liabilities. The results are consistent with the view that corporate foundations support corporate diplomacy and help obtain the social license to operate in the host countries.     

ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION ON IMMIGRATION

This article is based upon presentations at the closing session of the 14th International Conference of the Western Economic Association International (WEAI), hosted by the Newcastle Business School, University of Newcastle, Australia, January 11–14, 2018. The panellists are: Orley Ashenfelter, Daniel L. McFadden, Abigail Payne, Jason Potts, Robert Gregory, and Wade Martin. (JEL J6)