Suchergebnisse

Host governments severely impact international relief operations. An openness to assistance can lead to the timely delivery of aid whereas a reluctance to receive assistance can have devastating consequences. With lives at stake and no time to lose in humanitarian crises, understanding the host government's impact on the logistics performance of international humanitarian organisations (IHOs) is crucial. In this paper, we present an in-depth multiple-case study that explores this aspect. Results show that host government actions are explained by their dependency on IHOs and the levels of tensions between their interests (i.e., conflicting strategic goals). In addition, a host government's regulatory and enforcement capabilities are important for ensuring that they can safeguard their interests. We derive four stances that host governments can adopt in regulating logistics-related activities: non-restrictive, opportunistic, selectively accommodating and uncompromising. Each of these has different implications for the logistics performance of IHOs. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is aimed at analysing the influence of the host government policies on foreign direct investment (FDI) knowledge spillovers.Design/methodology/approachStarting from the analysis of the literature, the paper has introduced a theoretical model that has been illustrated analyzing the Iranian case.FindingsGovernments can promote the realisation of knowledge spillovers only if they create the conditions for improving the absorptive capacity of local firms and the connections between local firms and foreign investors (strategic approach). Moreover, in many emerging countries, governments are directly involved in relationships with foreign investors through state‐owned companies. According to this, the Iranian case shows how the direct government involvement, if it is matched with a strategic approach, can encourage the realization of FDI knowledge spillovers.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper presents some limitations: other quadrants of the proposed model need to be further explored adopting other case studies; moreover, the Iranian case can be examined more in deep.Practical implicationsFrom a policymaker's point of view, the paper is an useful tool because it gives them many suggestions about what FDIs attraction policies have to be adopted in order to realize FDI knowledge spillovers.Originality/valueFrom a theoretical point of view, the paper gives a contribution to the literature on FDI spillovers highlighting the direct relationships between host government policies and FDI knowledge spillovers, especially revaluing the opportunities stemming from a direct government intervention. Moreover, this paper contributes to increase the knowledge on the Iranian context often neglected by international management studies.

Host governments severely impact international relief operations. An openness to assistance can lead to the timely delivery of aid whereas a reluctance to receive assistance can have devastating consequences. With lives at stake and no time to lose in humanitarian crises, understanding the host government's impact on the logistics performance of international humanitarian organisations (IHOs) is crucial. In this paper, we present an in-depth multiple-case study that explores this aspect. Results show that host government actions are explained by their dependency on IHOs and the levels of tensions between their interests (i.e., conflicting strategic goals). In addition, a host government's regulatory and enforcement capabilities are important for ensuring that they can safeguard their interests. We derive four stances that host governments can adopt in regulating logistics-related activities: non-restrictive, opportunistic, selectively accommodating and uncompromising. Each of these has different implications for the logistics performance of IHOs.

The literature on environmental regulation of the upstream oil and gas sector in developing countries and economies in transition has focused largely on domestic legislation as well as a number of intergovernmental agreements and, more recently, voluntary industry initiatives. Much less notice has been taken of environmentally relevant content of contracts negotiated between international oil companies and petroleum producing states, which often have a significant if not dominant role in shaping the regulatory regime for oil and gas operations. The only major study on this subject, carried out by Zhiguo Gao, was published in 1994. Gao concluded that environmental issues had not received enough attention in the oil and gas contracts that he had reviewed. His conclusion raises two questions, one empirical and one normative, that this article aims to explore: (1) have environmental issues received greater attention in more recent oil and gas contracts? (2) should contracting parties give further consideration to environmental issues and, if so, in what areas and through what types of provisions? A limited survey indicates that oil and gas contracts negotiated and signed in the last fifteen years generally give greater attention to environmental protection than those signed previously, but the coverage of specific topics varies widely as does the strength of terms. Additionally, concerns that certain contractual provisions may actually undermine rather than bolster environmental protection efforts have become more prominent in the period since Gao�s study. Thus, there remains significant scope for oil and gas contracts to be improved from an environmental governance perspective.

The policy responses of asylum governments to mass influxes of refugees have varied considerably. Focusing on less developed countries, this article explores why some host governments respond in relatively generous ways, while other governments act more restrictively. The policy alternatives available to receiving governments are classified, and a set of factors influencing refugee policy formation is explored. These factors include: the costs and benefits of accepting international assistance, relations with the sending country, political calculations about the local community's absorption capacity, and national security considerations. However, the end result is not a neat solution yielding a rationally evolved refugee policy. Host governments also struggle with bureaucratic politics, the position of refugees in domestic politics, power struggles between government ministries and among decisionmakers, paucity of information, bureaucratic inertia, and other complications that must be teased out at the empirical level.

After brief discussion of the general losses refugees incur in connection with displacement, the paper examines empirically the structural & institutional factors that discourage refugees from taking initiatives to recoup their losses & to construct sustainable livelihoods in countries of asylum, as well as the conditions that perpetuate poverty, vulnerability, & marginalization. The paper argues that in developing countries refugee status, regardless of duration, leads to the acquisition of neither nationality nor denizenship. Basic rights & sources of livelihoods are apportioned on the basis of nationality & not residence. Lack of belonging to a spatially bounded community or geopolitical state entity is therefore the single most important factor that prevents formulation & implementation of long-term development programs. 36 References. Adapted from the source document.