Suchergebnisse

AbstractThis article provides an overview of the organization of formal long‐term care (LTC) systems for the elderly in ten old and 11 new EU member states (MS). Generally, we find that the main responsibility for regulating LTC services is centralized in half of these countries, whereas in the remaining countries, this responsibility is typically shared between authorities at the central level and those at the regional or local levels in both institutional and home‐based care. Responsibilities for planning LTC capacities are jointly met by central and non‐central authorities in most countries. Access to publicly financed services is rarely means tested, and most countries have implemented legal entitlements conditional on needs. In virtually all countries, access to institutional care is subject to cost sharing, which also applies to home‐based care in most countries. The relative importance of institutional LTC relative to home‐based LTC services differs significantly across Europe. Although old MS appear to be experiencing some degree of convergence, institutional capacity levels still span a wide range. Considerable diversity may also be observed in the national public–private mix in the provision of LTC services. Lastly, free choice between public and private providers exists in the vast majority of these countries. This overview provides vital insights into the differences and similarities in the organization of LTC systems across Europe, especially between old and new MS, while also contributing valuable insight into previously neglected topics, thus broadening the knowledge base of international experience for mutual learning.

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze whether or not the reputation of a region/country in the international wine market depends on a region/country's efforts to specialize in a specific grape variety.


Design/methodology/approach
Data on 19,959 bottles of wine corresponding to six vintages across ten wine producing regions worldwide are used to estimate a hedonic price model that measures consumer valuations of the different wine attributes.


Findings
The results of this study show that although variety specialization has successfully underpinned the reputation of some New World regions, such as the Napa Valley (with its Cabernet Sauvignon) or Oregon (with its Pinot Noir); in others, such as Australia (with its Shiraz), this has not been successful.


Practical implications
Over the last ten years, the exponential growth of Australian bulk wine exports has seriously harmed the reputation of Australian wine. With respect to the Napa Valley wines, price discount received by Australian wines increases between the 1997 and 2007 vintage from 33 to 61 percent. Thus, in order to successfully build a collective reputation of an entrant (New World) country, an institutional framework that mediates differences of interest between the large and small vineyards and, above all, that regulates the free-rider problem in the wine market is required.


Originality/value
This paper empirically illustrates how cooperative (and non-cooperative) behavior between firms can help to build (and to destroy) collective reputation of wines that come from the same region or country.

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to explore the adoption, use, and performance of e-trade systems in South Korean businesses.


Design/methodology/approach
– The authors developed a modified Technology Acceptance Model extended through resourced-based view theory, to address the performance aspect, hitherto neglected in previous studies. Using the new model, 114 businesses were surveyed, measuring relationships between perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, e-system usage, and business performance. Latent mean analysis was performed to examine the moderating effects of high and low e-trading system usage.


Findings
– Through latent mean analysis, the authors determined that the influence of variables varies depending on the level of e-trading system usage. In both the high and low usage groups, perceived convenience influenced reuse of e-trading systems and reuse also had effects on business performance.


Research limitations/implications
– The authors only examined Korean enterprises, so it would be useful to also examine the foreign counterparts in international e-trade transactions. Follow-up studies could examine how the dynamics of the sector change over time. Qualitative case study approaches could better understand the perspectives of firms in relation to management strategy formulation and decision making.


Practical implications
– The results provide important insight for managers and policymakers concerned with developing electronic trading system strategies, and e-trading system contexts.


Originality/value
– Although many studies have explored relationships among perceived advantages, such as usefulness and convenience and use and performance, none have investigated the relationship between usage and business performance targeting e-trading systems.

Accelerating political and economic reforms in Myanmar are shaping the country considerably. In a fast-changing national landscape, Myanmar is a developing country in East Asia with a rapidly evolving early childhood sector. Although empirical research on early childhood in Myanmar is generally limited, it is likely that current reforms in the country and internationally will significantly influence the way children and childhood are defined and understood. This article will offer a critical discussion of constructions of childhood and the critical issues and debates pertaining to children's care and education. The article argues that competing national agendas, particularly in the context of fragile, developing nations with complex political and socio-economic conditions, present new challenges in shaping children's care and education. It contends that an inherent paradox remains in that while early childhood is increasingly recognised by governments as a 'public good', the early childhood sector, its governance and infrastructures face considerable challenges in a largely resource-limited environment, thus highlighting the stark disparity between aspirational policies and social reality. The article also presents an insight into an on-going longitudinal preschool teacher training project that began in 2003, developed collaboratively between the Myanmar government and a group of volunteer early childhood care and development specialists and organisations, as an illustration of how early care and education is being conceptualised in the country. In a wider global context, the discussion will also explore the ways in which international advocacy for children's rights, as reflected, for instance, through the Millennium Development Goals, is shifting the way children and childhood are perceived nationally and globally.

The organizers of the 2014 US National Climate Assessment (NCA) made a concerted effort to reach out to and collaborate with Indigenous peoples, resulting in the most comprehensive information to date on climate change impacts to Indigenous peoples in a US national assessment. Yet, there is still much room for improvement in assessment processes to ensure adequate recognition of Indigenous perspectives and Indigenous knowledge systems. This article discusses the process used in creating the Indigenous Peoples, Land, and Resources NCA chapter by a team comprised of tribal members, agencies, academics, and non-governmental organizations, who worked together to solicit, collect, and synthesize traditional knowledges and data from a diverse array of Indigenous communities across the US. It also discusses the synergy and discord between traditional knowledge systems and science and the emergence of cross-cutting issues and vulnerabilities for Indigenous peoples. The challenges of coalescing information about climate change and its impacts on Indigenous communities are outlined along with recommendations on the types of information to include in future assessment outputs. We recommend that future assessments – not only NCA, but other relevant local, regional, national, and international efforts aimed at the translation of climate information and assessments into meaningful actions – should support integration of Indigenous perspectives in a sustained way that builds respectful relationships and effectively engages Indigenous communities. Given the large number of tribes in the US and the current challenges and unique vulnerabilities of Indigenous communities, a special report focusing solely on climate change and Indigenous peoples is warranted.

AbstractThis paper addresses the rising suicide rate in Greece since the economic crisis began in 2008. By 2011, Greek and international media were reporting the Greek suicide rate as the fastest rising in Europe; dozens of "spectacular" public suicides were taken as symptoms of an "epidemic." In this paper, I explore different accounts of this "epidemic": statistical studies and press reports on suicide since the crisis; notes written by people who committed or attempted suicide in public during the crisis; and narratives of suicidality from psychiatric patients before the crisis, in dialogue with local psychiatric epidemiologies. These accounts summon three axes of comparison around suicide in Greece: historical difference, defined by the economic crisis and the time before; locale, contrasting the public sphere of media coverage and consumption with a particular region distinguished by its "suicidogenic" features; and evidence, moving from the public discourse on suicide to clinical ethnographic research that I conducted in northeastern Greece a decade ago. I show that each way of accounting for suicide challenges the epistemologies and evidence at work in the others; the tensions and the interactions among them are signs of indeterminacy in suicide itself, taken as an object of inquiry. In the public discourse on the Greek crisis, the many meanings of suicide have been condensed and fixed as a politics of protest. Yet, I argue, comparison among epistemologies of suicide and recognition of its indeterminacy generate a space for thinking about suicide beyond the publicity of the crisis.

Although recently criticised in the academic literature, the past few decades have seen international demand for policies to be based on evidence. In this article three aspects of the process of evidence‐based policy (EBP) are briefly examined. They include: (1) how evidence becomes socially worthy of the title; (2) the problems which arise for EBP when there is conflicting or rival evidence; and (3) facets of the transition from evidence to policy – the evidence–policy nexus. After problematising evidence‐based research in this limited way, the issues are clarified and illustrated by reference to the history of the Supported Accommodation Assistance Program (SAAP: 1985–2008), renown at the time as the major Australian program for people who were homeless. SAAP involved an agreement enshrined in legislation between the Commonwealth and all states and territories of the Federation. The argument is based on evidence from the four official national reports of the policy which, over the period of the program, evaluated SAAP and were commissioned and accepted as authoritative by federal, state and territory governments. In a nutshell, the argument is that, at each iteration of SAAP, subsequent policy discounted one of the sets of evidence in the official National Evaluations. This concerned the clear evidence of a lack of external, affordable accommodation options which, in turn, undermined the objectives of the program. The issue remains topical as more recent evidence substantiates the imperative for increased accommodation options for clients ready to exit agencies.

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to examine the evolution in subsidiary performance and the factors influencing this performance based on a unique database of approximately 800 multi-national company (MNC) subsidiaries in developing countries. Developed-country multi-national companies (MNCs) are increasingly establishing subsidiaries in developing countries. The potential gains are high; however, so are the risks. While the issue of subsidiary performance should be at the heart of any international business (IB) enquiry into MNC activity in developing countries, surprisingly little research has examined this issue.Design/methodology/approach– Based on a comprehensive literature review of the IB performance literature, it is hypothesized that subsidiary performance essentially is shaped by five clusters of factors: location, industry, MNC capabilities, subsidiary role and entry strategy. These factors' ability to explain variance in subsidiary performance is tested through a multiple regression analysis.Findings– MNC subsidiary performance in developing countries has improved enormously in recent decades. Especially, MNC capability and subsidiary role-related factors appear to explain variance in performance, while location factors appear to have less explanatory power. This suggests that strong MNC capabilities and organization can make MNCs succeed regardless of location.Practical implications– The key preparatory work for MNCs contemplating entry into developing countries is to carefully scrutinize internal capabilities and organization.Originality/value– The paper presents a model for explaining variation in subsidiary performance in developing countries specifically. The paper offers unique empirical insights into the state and drivers of subsidiary performance in developing countries.

Purpose– This paper aims to present a model that explains how knowledge contributions of international joint venture ("IJV") partners can be balanced or imbalanced, which affects each partners' trust needs, with implications for future partner relationships.Design/methodology/approach– Illustrative examples aid in explaining propositions associated with the knowledge/trust needs balance model. In addition, consideration is given to the trust-building complication of liability of foreignness and the implications balance or imbalance.Findings– In total, 12 illustrative cases are evaluated to determine whether the knowledge contributions of the IJV partners are balanced. Knowledge intensity associated with the venture is assessed to determine the value of the foreign firm partner's knowledge contribution. Cultural distance between the relevant countries provides a measure of the host country partner's knowledge contribution. Balance is assessed after factoring in mitigating partner experience. The cases provide examples of four different balance/imbalance situations.Practical implications– A critical aspect of a successful IJV is knowledge sharing and trust is required for the freest flow of information. It is important for firms entering into IJVs to more fully understand the relationship between the knowledge contributions of IJV partners and trust. When knowledge contributions are more evenly balanced, the relationship between the partners will be stronger.Originality/value– The paper distinguishes between balance and stability/instability, expands the literature on knowledge intensity and contributes the new concept of trust needs. Balance at the start of an IJV has implications for the future relationship of the partners.

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to investigate decision-processing effects of incidental emotions in managerial decision-making situations.


Design/methodology/approach
– A complex multi-attribute, multi-alternative decision task related to international human resources management is used as a research vehicle. The data are obtained by means of an electronic information board.


Findings
– Happiness and anger cause the decision maker to process less decision-relevant information, whereas fear activates more detail-oriented processing. The results are explained within the valence model and cognitive-appraisal framework.


Research limitations/implications
– A boundary condition of the study is the level of induced emotions. Processing effects of extremely high levels of emotions are not examined, which necessarily limits the generalizability of the findings. Also, the experiment focusses on the decision-processing effects of single isolated emotions extracted by manipulations; future research needs to examine decision-making implications of an entire emotion episode, which is likely to contain emotion mixtures.


Practical implications
– For managers, this study demonstrates the importance of being mindful of how incidental emotional states can bias choice processing in complex managerial decisions.


Originality/value
– This study extends earlier organizational research by focussing on decision-making consequences of emotion, rather than those of mood or stress. It brings together research on incidental emotions and process-tracing methodologies, thereby allowing for more direct assessment of the observed effects. Decision-processing consequences of emotion are shown to persist throughout a content-rich managerial decision task without being neutralized by an intensive cognitive engagement.

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to describe the Italian state of art of Health Lean Management (HLM) and to analyze the Italian projects that connect this approach with clinical risk management (CRM).


Design/methodology/approach
– After introducing Italian healthcare system and its main challenges, relevant Italian experiences have been searched investigating regional health plans (RHPs), managerial reports, books, workshops, conference proceedings and hospital web sites. The degree of experience of each Italian region has been first studied. Further, field of applicability, objectives, tools, practices and results of the projects with first signs of HLM and CRM integration have been analyzed.


Findings
– Although interest in new managerial approaches is spreading in almost all the territory and new managerial solutions are fostered in many RHPs, HLM projects are implemented patchy in Italy. For what regards HLM projects with CRM connections, the Italian context seems aligned with the international one, apart from few features. First indications for the implementation of HLM projects with CRM connections emerged.


Originality/value
– Healthcare systems are facing multiple challenges in a context where public funds decrease but quality of care must be guaranteed. Combining different managerial approaches could solve these issues. In this research, for the first time, a map about Italian HLM adoption has been drawn, and Italian HLM projects with CRM connections have been analyzed. The results constitute one of the first contributions useful to develop guidelines for the implementation of projects pursuing efficiency, quality and safety objectives.

The Brazilian state has contradictory laws, policies and practices with regard to the rights of indigenous peoples. Despite the adoption of a democratic Brazilian constitution in 1988 that incorporated a multicultural conception of indigenous rights and the subsequent ratification of new international norms of human rights for indigenous peoples, the practices of the courts and of the various sectors of the state reflect a legal cultural dualism and a "bipolar" state. The case of the Xucuru people sent to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights shows the conflicts between legal and political cultures characterized, on one hand, by an individualistic and colonial approach to indigenous civil rights and, on the other hand, a collectivist and multicultural perspective on the human rights of indigenous peoples. O Estado brasileiro possui leis, políticas e práticas contraditórias em relação aos direi-tos indígenas. Apesar da nova constituição democrática de 1988 ter incorporado uma concepção multicultural dos direitos indígenas e de o Estado ter ratificado normas internacionais de direitos humanos dos povos indígenas, as práticas dos tribunais e de vários setores do Estado refletem uma situação de dualismo da cultura jurídica e um Estado "bipolar." O caso do povo Xucuru encaminhado à Comissão Interamericana de Direitos Humanos demonstra os conflitos entre culturas jurídicas e políticas caracterizadas, de um lado, por uma abordagem individualista e colonial dos direitos civis dos indígenas, e, de outro lado, por uma perspectiva coletivista e multicultural dos direitos humanos dos povos indígenas.

Purpose– Temporary agency workers (TAWs) are regarded as experiencing employment conditions that tend to facilitate high strain. In this study, the authors view this situation as not being inevitable and dependent on the opportunity of having positive experiences in the professional context. The purpose of this paper is to propose that perceptions of the human resource management (HRM) practices system are positively related to work engagement, which in turn, is positively related to context free well-being.Design/methodology/approach– These hypotheses were tested with two samples of TAWs, from Portugal (n=241) and Brazil (n=228), contracted by the same international agency. Data were analyzed with multiple group analyses.Findings– Results confirmed that in both the Portuguese and Brazilian samples the HRM practices system is positively related to TAWs' context free well-being and their work engagement mediates this relationship. However, the authors also verified that the relationship between work engagement and satisfaction with life was stronger for the Portuguese TAWs than for their Brazilian counterparts.Research limitations/implications– The study is limited, due to the nature of the data (self-reported) and the lack of a longitudinal design.Practical implications– An important implication of this research study is that agencies should acknowledge the fact that HRM practices are an investment with a return from TAWs, since they are positively related to their well-being.Originality/value– The findings highlight the importance of the HRM practices system in developing positive psychological states with TAWs, not only at work, but also outside this context. This observation was confirmed in two different countries.

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to enhance the understanding of customer-brand relationships in the international marketplace, and empirically investigates and compares the customer-brand relationship development process between Indian and Chinese markets. In detail, four out of Hofstede's original five national culture dimensions were adopted as moderators in the process of customer-brand relationship development between two markets.Design/methodology/approach– To test hypotheses, responses from 539 Indian and 400 Chinese mobile phone consumer samples were achieved, and the proposed model was estimated by using structural equations based on the partial least squares algorithm.Findings– The results demonstrate that utilitarian value and brand affect play a significant role in building brand loyalty for Chinese consumers, while hedonic value and perceived risk contribute more in building brand loyalty for Indian consumers.Research limitations/implications– This study indicated that the cultural difference affects both on brand trust formation and on the relationship between brand trust/affect and brand loyalty, implying that more customized brand management strategies should be adopted.Practical implications– Global brand values must be communicated for each culture appropriately. It is desirable that the identified match, utilitarian value-Chinese customers and hedonic value-Indian customers, be consistently presented to each cultural market in a more integrative manner.Originality/value– This study identified that the route from the development of value proposition to building up brand trust and brand affect is a critical step toward achieving brand loyalty in Indian and Chinese markets.

Abstract: The Europeanization of national civil procedure law consists out of several pillars. The influence of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) is well known. A second pillar of the European influence on civil procedure law is the growing number of European regulations concerning the crossroads of civil procedure law and private international law. This article focuses on the Europeanization of national law by a third, 'invisible pillar'. The European influence in the 'invisible pillar' concerns many topics, such as ex officio application law, burden of proof, means of proof, costs, the free choice of a lawyer, the threshold amount exempt from seizure and arbitration. The first part of this invisible pillar follows from the role of national civil procedure law in enforcing EU law. The European Court leaves the procedural law to the national courts. The second area of the invisible pillar concerns procedural rules in Directives. A close look at several Directives reveals that the list of procedural topics touched upon by Directives is far from small. Directives contain procedural rules relevant for various capita of the civil procedure law of the Member States. This article seeks to shine some light on parts of this pillar by examining three topics: ex officio application, costs and the free choice of a lawyer, and legal expenses insurance. These examples serve to demonstrate that this area covers a wide variety of topics. Three problems relating to this invisible pillar will be identified: uncertainty, external differences, and internal differences.