War and economy. Rediscovering the eighteenth-century military entrepreneur

Abstract

The detrimental effects traditionally assigned to warfare in the development of pre-industrial economies have obscured the prominent role that military entrepreneurs played in economic development in this period. Historiography minimises the extent to which war and the concomitant strengthening of the central state provided a whole new range of opportunities for capital investment, a tendency that has been strengthened by the paradigm of Redlich’s ‘decline of the soldier-entrepreneur’ and the technological determinism of the debate on the Military Revolution among others. The aim of this introduction is to look into the background of this relative lack of interest and to reaffirm the mutual dependence of eighteenth-century state-formation and the business of war.     

NATURAL RESOURCE ABUNDANCE,INSTITUTIONS AND TAX REVENUE MOBILISATION IN SUB‐SAHARA AFRICA

The contribution of natural resources to tax revenues has generally yielded mixed results in the literature. This study asserts that the missing link to explaining these differences is the quality of institutions. More resource revenues reduce tax revenues when institutions are poor. Using an interaction term for natural resources and institutional quality, we show that institutions are decisive for the contribution of natural resources to tax revenue mobilisation. The interaction effect is statistically significant after controlling for per capita gross domestic product (GDP), an alternative measure of quality of institutions and additional regressors. This finding is robust to different econometric specifications and the type of natural resources.     

Does supplier development lead to supplier satisfaction and relationship continuation?

The primary purpose of this study is to find out if supplier development can serve as a means for buying firms to actively increase supplier satisfaction and eventually predict relationship continuity. Supplier relationships provide an essential means for buying firms to access and leverage supplier resources. One way in which buying firms influence the supply management process is through supplier development. The findings show that supplier development is an important means by which buying firms can increase supplier satisfaction. Supplier development significantly predicts the future of business relationships. Further analysis based on polynomial regressions provides evidence to show how congruence or discrepancy between economic and non-economic satisfaction impact continuance.     

Analysing legal mobilisation’s potential to secure equal access to socioeconomic justice in South Africa

ABSTRACT

From the moment South Africa became a liberal democracy, the Government promised to deliver on social security for the poor. However, South African NGOs have reported that several barriers prevent poor South Africans, and black women in particular, from accessing the country’s social assistance system. Government inaction has compelled NGOs to approach the Courts. As reflected in a series of court judgements, many problems faced by the system relate to the administration of payments by South African and multinational corporations. But is this the complete story?

Applying a critical, analytical lens of legal mobilisation to explain the potential of legal mobilisation to secure progressive structural change, this article will assess the extent to which civic-based, legal advocacy aimed at securing access to social grants, and challenging the manner in which these grants have been administered, has the potential to more strategically advance socioeconomic justice and inequality for South Africa’s poor.     

Integrating Alternative Data (Also Known as ESG Data) in Investment Decision Making

ABSTRACT

What is environmental, social, and governance (ESG) data and how do we evaluate its quality and effectiveness? This form of evaluation is important, as it is a precondition for investors trying to integrate ESG in investment decisions. Previous literature describes intrinsic properties of ESG data (e.g. multifaceted-ness and context dependence) and highlights a trade-off between the validity and reliability of ESG data, which is often tied to the lack of theoretical foundations and scarcity of high-quality ESG data. Encouragingly, new data technologies have improved the accessibility, availability, and transparency of ESG data, but an agreed theoretical framework to evaluate ESG data quality is still lacking. This paper seeks to fill that theoretical gap by proposing a ‘user-oriented’ approach to evaluate ESG data. In this framework, we consider ESG data to be a ‘continuous concept with limitless boundaries’ and characterise it in terms of its width and depth. The bearing of width and depth on ESG data quality is ultimately a function of the investment decisions in which such data is used: the approach we endorse is therefore user-centric. This study then shows how ESG data, when it is of high quality, maps onto the investment decision-making processes.     

A rose by any other name? Transdisciplinarity in the context of UK research policy

This paper assesses developments in transdisciplinary research in the UK. While we support the thesis that transdisciplinarity is still not mainstream and is rarely supported per se by funders of research, this paper examines the extent to which UK research policy has embraced the concept of transdisciplinarity. Five empirical case studies provide data about the interrelationship between the interdisciplinary and impact or knowledge exchange aspirations of Research Council UK (RCUK) investments. We find evidence that, to an extent, UK research funding policy is achieving some elements of transdisciplinarity in practice, if not in name.Drawing on broader debates about the limitations of knowledge mobilisation and the challenges of conducting interdisciplinary research, we reflect on how the situation has changed since our original 2004 paper. The evidence suggests that the absence of the ‘transdisciplinary’ label is not necessarily impeding the framing of research funding schemes oriented towards societal issues. Nevertheless, several areas where capacity-building is required, including training for early career interdisciplinary researchers; improved research leadership skills; and the capacity to evaluate the quality of transdisciplinary processes and to learn from such evaluations, are identified.     

Union use of social media: a study of the University and College Union on Twitter

The importance of the Internet to trade unionism has not gone unnoticed by academics, and while many have perceived the need for unions to engage in social media, there has not been any study of how unions use social media. This paper provides a systematic examination of union social media use in terms of method, scope and content. The University and College Union (UCU) Twitter account was used as a case study. Tweets (n = 1,615) were collected over a four‐month period (January 1–April 30, 2014) from the official UCU account with followers (n = 12,301) also categorised to determine who is listening. Findings are discussed with reference to earlier debates on union use of the Internet. We find that while UCU has moved with technological developments by using Twitter, the content of the union's messages remain in line with traditional union communication, and the engagement opportunities of social media are underutilised.     

Mobilising supplier resources by being an attractive customer: Relevance,status and future research directions

For buying companies, supplier resource mobilisation is an essential process in gaining and sustaining preferential access to supplier resources. This editorial provides insights into the processes of supplier resource mobilisation and introduces three empirical studies on supplier resource mobilisation. We first introduce the supplier resource mobilisation cycle. This cycle may serve as a roadmap for purchasing and supply management (PSM) practitioners seeking to improve access to supplier resources. In addition, this article informs PSM scholars about the status of the supplier resource mobilisation literature and proposes avenues for future research. The cycle includes six stages: (1) becoming an attractive customer, (2) segmenting suppliers, (3) generating supplier satisfaction, (4) becoming a preferred customer, (5) engaging in supplier-oriented actions, and (6) integrating supplier resources. Finally, we introduce the articles in this issue that each examine a different stage of the supplier resource mobilisation process.     

From organizational values to mobilization of human resources

This study examines the relationship of perceived organizational values to employee mobilization behaviours as mediated by perceived organizational support (POS) and affective organizational commitment. Firstly, a scale comprising three types of perceived organizational values (interpersonal values, formal values, and individual well‐being‐centered values) was developed and validated using a sample of 580 employees. Secondly, the relationships among variables were examined using structural equations modeling on an independent sample of 260 employees. POS mediated the relationship between employees' perceptions that their organization values the individual well‐being of its members and their affective organizational commitment, which in turn mediated the relationship between POS and individual mobilization behaviours. The contributions of these findings to advancing scholarship and practice are discussed. Copyright © 2010 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Boundary spanning leadership,resource mobilisation,and performance of university-industry R&D projects: a study in a Japanese university

Acquisition of university knowledge has grown significantly for firms to complement an internal knowledge base of technological innovation. Recognising the significance, an increasing body of literature has analysed the performance of university-industry R&D projects by adopting managerial and social approaches. Despite the important role played by project leaders, existing research paid scant attention to the critical ability and quality of successful project leaders in acquiring university knowledge. To address these limitations, this study performed a survey of firms that collaborated with the Ritsumeikan University in Japan and investigates the influence of boundary spanning leadership of project leaders in firms on both knowledge and commercial performance of R&D projects. Furthermore, it also evaluates the mediation effect of university resource mobilisation that links boundary spanning leadership and project performance.