Suchergebnisse

Since the inception of market reforms until the present day Russian institutions have been shaped primarily by economic and political elites, with minimal involvement of the rest of the society in this process. Outcomes of such "institutional outsourcing" for the society depend on the affinity between elites' preferences and societal needs. Low quality of Russian institutions is explained in the paper by a substantial conflict of interests between the society and unaccountable elites. Prospects of Russian modernization are thus contingent on the accumulation of civic culture and more effective representation of the society in the process of institutional change.

Outsourcing has become a central topic in the public debate. Especially social organisations fear the wide consequences, such as dismissals and/or income losses causing social and economic problems. Often firms are flexible enough to decide about outsourcing after knowing the domestic marginal costs and may therefore use it as a threat to dampen the opportunity to realize a high wage level. However, politicians and labour unions are interested in realizing an adequate income level and securing existing jobs. To achieve the employment aim, due to the cost reduction motive of outsourcing, the domestic wage level has to fall. However, this is contrary to the aim of an adequate income. To solve this puzzle, an instrument is needed that i) helps to decrease domestic wages and thus increase the job security, without lowering the workers' income, or alternatively to promote the domestic production location ii) increases the productivity of integrated production for a given domestic wage level. Profit sharing may be such an instrument. Since the workers participate in the firm's success, their motivation increases and they have an incentive to increase effort and thus productivity for a given wage level. On the other hand, also the wage level is affected. Here, one would expect a wage reduction due to the opportunity of substituting wage income with profit income, without lowering the income level. Therefore, profit sharing may meet the mentioned criteria. Since it can be granted to high-skilled or low-skilled workers, we distinguish between these two cases in our analysis by focussing in the first part on the effects of profit sharing on flexible outsourcing and the labour market outcome if the labour market is imperfect. Since outsourcing may also have a long-term character and thus be interpreted as an investment decision, it can be used for decreasing average production costs in a general sense, if it saves fixed production costs, even if the price for the outsourced input is higher than domestic marginal costs. ...

Information technology outsourcing : an introduction / Suzanne Rivard, Benoit A. Aubert -- Population-level learning and the evolution of IT outsourcing decisions / Jérôme Barthélémy -- Strategic profiles and information technology outsourcing / Benoit A. Aubert, Anne-Marie Croteau -- Information technology outsourcing : questions of language / Teresa Marcon and Abhijit Gopal -- A methodology for IT sourcing decisions / William R. King -- Institutional and individual antecedents of information technology sourcing arrangements / Pankaj Nagpal, Kalle Lyytinen -- Firm characteristics and allocation of IT budget to oursourcing / Wonseok Oh -- Information technology outsourcing risk : a resource-based perspective / Bouchaib Bahli, Suzanne Rivard -- Investigating trust in outsourcing : a study in the health care industry / Ebrahim Randeree, Rajiv Kishore, H. Raghav Rao -- Managing the IS outsourcing relationship / Kim Langfield-Smith, David Smith -- Vendor commitment in an ASP outsourcing context : a comparative evaluation of the roles of power and partnership / Matthew Swinarski, Rajiv Kishore, H. Raghav Rao -- Governance of complex IT outsourcing partnerships / Erik Beulen, Pieter Ribbers -- Coordination of complex information system development projects : a case study of Finnish universities / Antti Nurmi, Petri Hallikainen, Matti Rossi -- Management of outsourced IS development projects : the role of social capital and intellectual capital / Rajiv Sabherwal -- Contracting in IT outsourcing : hierarchical and psychological contractual elements as key managerial governance mechanisms / Christine Koh, Soon Ang -- The offshore outsourcing landscape : historical development and challenges for the IS discipline / Beena George, Rudy Hirschheim

How has social work, which has emerged as a distinct profession in the PRC with the full support of the party-state, come to produce neoliberal outcomes similar to those found in other, capitalist countries? In this article, I draw attention to the government purchase (goumai) of social work services, which is commonly considered as confirmation of state capacity and leadership rather than the passing on of state responsibilities to civil sectors with tight budgets. Ethnographic research on the actual social work practices in Shenzhen's Foxconn town reveals how neoliberal-style outsourcing has converged with diverse historical legacies, thus creating precarious labour conditions for frontline social workers. Neoliberal dynamics end up filling most of these social work positions with migrant youth from the countryside, reproducing and perpetuating China's rural-urban divide. Institutional efforts at social care may not only reduce the existing inequalities but may also rely upon and even reinforce them. (China Q/GIGA)