Conceptual underpinnings for transformative research in a service ecosystems context to resolve social issues – framework foundations and extensions

ABSTRACT

A number of services within society are designed to improve the well-being of its members and transform lives. Some services focus on the protection and support of vulnerable members of society, for example, those suffering the effects of drug use, mental health conditions, violence or poverty. Clients of such social services may also come from minority or marginalised cultural backgrounds. Typically, social services aim to reduce disparities and enhance individual and population well-being. A major challenge for social policy-makers and social service providers is to establish and maintain constructive engagement between the social services and those they are intended to serve. Some of these vulnerable clients are deemed ‘hard-to-reach’ (HTR) by policy-makers and service providers. Yet, the transformation of lives requires the involvement of the focal actor (client) and their service or activity system, as well as the engagement of other actors, such as the social worker embedded in their service or activity system. This paper aims to further unpack a novel approach, called integrative transformative service framework. This contribution extends its conceptualisation which fuses mainly three different approaches, namely Transformative Service Research (TSR), (Cultural-Historical) Activity Theory (CHAT) and (Regulatory) Engagement Theory (RET).     

Institutional and economic drivers of entrepreneurship: An international perspective

Entrepreneurial activity varies significantly across countries and over time. The economic and institutional context is a determining factor that can drive and lend shape to entrepreneurial activity. The search for a deeper understanding of the role of this factor constitutes a promising and important research stream. A thorough review of the specialist literature identifies groups of countries with similar economic and institutional environments. Subsequent analysis highlights differences in entrepreneurial activity and innovation outcomes between these homogeneous groups. Results indicate significant differences, not only in entrepreneurial activity, but also in the type of entrepreneurship and innovation results. These findings mark a relevant step forward in the identification of different environment types, and the effects of environment on entrepreneurial activity and innovation results.     

Equity-Indexed Life Insurance: Pricing and Reserving Using the Principle of Equivalent Utility

Abstract

The author applies the principle of equivalent utility to price and reserve equity-indexed life insurance. Young and Zariphopoulou (2002a, b) extended this principle to price insurance products in a dynamic framework. However, in those papers, the insurance risks were independent of the risky asset in the financial market. By contrast, the death benefit for equity-indexed life insurance is a function of a risky asset; therefore, this paper further extends the principle of equivalent utility. In a second extension, the author applies the principle of equivalent utility to calculate reserves, as introduced by Gerber (1976). In a related paper, Moore and Young (2002) price equity-indexed pure endowments, the building blocks of equity-indexed life annuities.     

Measuring environmental performance: use of the toxics release inventory (TRI) and other US environmental databases

This article examines the most comprehensive databases that measure US corporate environmental performance that have become available during the 1990s. These include the US Environmental Protection Agency's Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) and databases maintained by Kinder, Lydenberg, Domini, and Co., the Council on Economic Priorities and the Investor Responsibility Research Center. We describe these databases and identify the significant studies on environmental performance in the field of management that use these databases. We indicate three trends that should improve the quality and quantity of publicly available environmental performance data. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Comparing U.S. and Japanese corporate-level operating performance using financial statement data

This study uses financial statement data restated to a similar reporting basis to compare the operating performance of U.S. and Japanese companies, identifying possible strategic and environmental explanations for the differences observed. Comparisons are made for U.S. and Japanese samples as a whole, for groups of Japanese firms (keiretsu v. nonkeiretsu), and for 11 industries. The results show that neither country appears to generate systematically higher profit margins, but that U.S. firms turnover assets other than inventory more quickly and therefore have higher rates of return on assets. More intensive examination of these results suggests that environmental factors, such as cultural or structural differences, are the primary causes of the observed differences in the data analyzed.     

Auto pollution and congestion in an urban model: An analysis of alternative strategies

Congestion and pollution externalities associated with automobile driving are examined for their effect on urban structure. A monocentric urban model which incorporates household preferences for both an unpolluted environment and for leisure time is presented, and used to evaluate alternative pricing and emissions policies on automobile use and their effects on city structure. Optimal tax gradients for driving are derived, and compared with second best cases of per mile taxes and no taxes. As externalities gradients become more nonlinear, the welfare gains from employing optimal taxes rather than a per mile tax are increased. The appropriate choices of an emission standard, highway capacity, and highway pricing policy must be made simultaneously and depend on household preferences.     

Consumer reactions to technology in general and to a specific technological innovation: Supermarket checkout scanners

Intellectuals have been concerned with technology's impact on society. Many, if not most, viewed the results of technology as being more negative than positive. It has been supposed that consumers also held these negative views. Research in one major United States city indicates that this may not be the case. Generally consumers gave positive evaluations of technological change. However this did not mean they evaluated one result of technological change, checkout scanners, positively. Views of technology were related to demographic characteristics. Generally the older, non-employed, poorer respondent had a more negative view.

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Verbraucher-Reaktionen auf generelle und spezifische technologische Entwicklungen: das Beispiel Checkout Scanner (automatische Lesegeräte) in Supermärkten

Zusammenfassung Zahlreiche Veröffentlichungen befassen sich skeptisch mit der Geschwindigkeit und den Ergebnissen des technischen Fortschritts. Einige Autoren nehmen an, daß es auch bei Konsumenten Vorbehalte gegenüber technologischen Veränderungen gibt, und vermuten, daß diese Vorbehalte Auswirkungen auf das Anbieterverhalten haben, wenn es um die Einführung von für den Kunden sichtbaren neuen Technologien geht. Ein Beispiel für solche Technologien sind automatische Code-Leser an Supermarkt-Kassen.Der Lebensmittelhandel hat lange gezögert, solche automatischen Lesegeräte einzuführen; er befürchtete negative Reaktionen der Kunden auf diese Geräte und auf die damit verbundene Aufhebung der Preisauszeichnung am einzelnen Produkt. Diese Geräte können die computergespeicherten Produktpreise abrufen, sodaß der Handel keine Preisauszeichnung mehr an der Ware vornehmen muß. Einige Untersuchungen zeigten, daß Konsumenten mit dem Wegfall der Preisauszeichnung nicht einverstanden waren, und vermuteten als Ursache eine allgemeine Abwehrhaltung der Konsumenten gegenüber Technologie. Der vorliegende Beitrag berichtet über eine im Jahre 1982 in Milwaukee, USA, durchgeführte Untersuchung zur Überprüfung dieser Vermutung.Die Ergebnisse dieser Untersuchung deuten insgesamt daraufhin, daß die meisten Befragten dem technologischen Fortschritt positiv gegenüberstehen. Die überwiegende Meinung ist, daß Technologie das tägliche Leben beeinflußt, aber auch, daß das Tempo der technologischen Entwicklung angemessen ist und ihre Ergebnisse nützlich sind. Was speziell die Checkout Scanner betrifft, so gibt es nur sehr wenige Befragte, die sie grundsätzlich für eine schlechte Einrichtung halten. Anders sieht es aus, wenn nach dem Wegfall der Preisauszeichnung gefragt wird. Die überwiegende Mehrheit spricht sich gegen diesen Wegfall aus, zugleich sind aber nur sehr wenige Befragte der Meinung, daß die Preisauszeichnung an der Ware gesetzlich vorgeschrieben werden sollte. Die Einstellung zur Technologie hängt von demografischen Eigenschaften ab. Negative Einstellungen finden sich vor allem bei älteren, arbeitslosen und einkommensschwachen Befragten.Die Studie zeigt also, daß Konsumenten die technologische Entwicklung insgesamt auch dann positiv einschätzen, wenn sie mit einzelnen Ergebnissen dieser Entwicklung unzufrieden sind. Unzufriedenheit mit einzelnen Ergebnissen führt nicht notwendigerweise zu der Meinung, der Status quo müsse mit gesetzlichen Mitteln erhalten bleiben.

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Frederick W. Langrehr is a Visiting Associate Professor, Institute of Business Management, and Virginia B. Langrehr is an Associate Professor, School of Family, Home and Social Sciences, both at Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah 84602, USA.     

Evaluating the Ethics of Inversion

In the last five years, a number of U.S. companies have either moved their locus of incorporation to countries with more favorable tax laws, or announced such moves. Given this trend toward “inversions”, and the polemics that have accompanied it, we offer two ways in which the ethics of such a move can be evaluated. We provide multinational executives with two applications of ethics to inversion: Kant’s deontological theory and the consequentialist perspective of utilitarianism.