Suchergebnisse

Oman provides an interesting context to examine how formal institutions encourage local enterprise. We examine the views of local entrepreneurs about the effectiveness of government policies that are intended to foster indigenous small business. We ask how they evaluate the entrepreneurial ecosystem. We provide an overview of the remarkable context, the Sultanate of Oman; thriving oil based economy, but characterised by a high percentage of expatriate business ownership. Moreover, the current industrial and commercial structure looks unlikely to be able to provide sufficient satisfying jobs for the rapidly expanding youthful population. The government has responded by creating modern formal institutions to facilitate enterprise and by providing a number of well-funded programs to enable local entrepreneurship. This forms the basis of our research problem, establishing how local entrepreneurs respond to these initiatives to address the low levels of local entrepreneurship. We conducted a face-to-face interview -survey with 60 Omani SME owners asking about how well the initiatives had addressed their cultural and practical 'requirements'. We found that many respondents were motivated by a quest for independence coupled with the need for a 'good' job. However, we also found that the sheer joy of entrepreneuring delighted some respondents. The initiatives had provided the means of achieving this self-determination. The formal structures were very supportive; initial funding for example was readily available. However, we also found the informal structures were less developed. There was evidence of an emergent cognitive appeal and approval for entrepreneurship. We argue that there is need to develop such informal institutions to help existing businesses to grow and to cultivate an Omani enterprise culture.

Russia-EU customs cooperation legal base in force has been outdated and is hardly able to meet demands of trade-economic cooperation between Russia and EU. In particular, structure and substance of Russia-EU customs cooperation regulation do not allow to successfully respond to the challenges of bilateral trade. This is stipulated by legal changes at international level for Russia including ratification of International convention on harmonization and simplification of customs procedures of May 18, 1973, forming of Customs union, WTO accession) and following reforms of custom procedures in Russia. Besides, legal base of Russia-EU customs cooperation does not take into consideration the following measures of modernization of customs regulation in the EU: active use of preliminary information change, electronic methods of fulfilment of customs formalities as well as implementation of modern customs techniques, targeted at simplification and securing of customs formalities. Due to the above-mentioned facts and keeping in mind the high role of mutual trade for well-being of both Russia and EU, improvement of customs cooperation legal base becomes the urgent task. The author of the article points out the Initiative Russia-EU «Partnership for modernization» is able to be one the most crucial instruments of development of Russia-EU customs cooperation legal base. The Initiative is conceived to contribute to economic growth of Russia and EU by virtue of implementation of modernized agenda including in customs sphere. Because of that author analyses customs cooperation issues provided by the Initiative, detects its weak points and proposes approaches towards enhancing Russia-EU trade-economic cooperation by means of modernization of trade flows customs administration.

It is a fact that the world is aging and the developed countries are the most affected by this reality. In consequence, the majority of the population comprehends elderly people. The present knowledge society is characterized by technologies, digital devices and by the so called ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) and most present-day activities uses those devices. Recently, several expressions and services have introduced the 'e' and it is common to talk about e-commerce, e-learning, e-banking, e-government, e-Health… it means that citizens must be digitally literate to deal with and use those services as a routine of their everyday life. However there are a large number of people who have not the necessary digital skills and consequently they become info-excluded. The group of the info-excluded is represented by women, people with a low level of literacy, the unemployed, and the elderly. Being sure that the elderly will constitute in the future (and in the present) the greater percentage of the citizens it is urgent to promote initiatives in order to train those citizens in ICT. The European Union already felt that need and therefore several action plans were launched (e.g. The Riga Declaration; i2010 e-Inclusion Initiative). Is it consensual that ICT will promote a better quality of life so the elderly will benefit from it in order to promote an adequate active aging. It is the aim of this article to discuss the main initiatives carried on and present the main obstacles, advantages, and some clues for the near future for the use of ICT by elderly people.

In this study I examined examples of implementation of conservation policies initiated by the adoption of the Convention on Biological Diversity (1992). I focused on the 101 conservation initiatives conducted during the period of 2002-2012 on the territories of groups classified by the international law as indigenous peoples. I assessed a degree to which conservation benefited indigenous communities as means to combat poverty and ecological degradation. I focused on the connections between the provisions of the CBD Article 8(j) that specified the importance of protecting indigenous and local communities' traditional knowledge and practices (TK) to conservation, and the actual realities of conservation initiatives in which indigenous expertise was used. I learned that despite the wide use of elements composing TK in the projects examined, only certain communities benefited from the conservation initiatives, with a predominant part of beneficiaries located in the states that insured greater degree of legal and social protection to indigenous individuals as citizens of those states. For the most part conservation was imposed upon indigenous groups; some communities suffered displacement and poverty loosing the lands and resources to the conservation authorities. At the same time in other cases conservation projects offered an opportunity for indigenous individuals to advance their perspectives on managing traditional lands and natural environments and thus, to some degree, advanced underlining these groups' interests. I concluded that collaborative work between indigenous groups and the outside agencies remains the key means toward improving the indigenous economies and relations with external actors while also serving as a means to care for the environment across geo-political boundaries.

Success rates of behavior change counseling programs (e.g., weight loss, smoking cessation, and debt management), where consumers seek to overcome their destructive habits and enhance well-being, are very low. Characterized by extended and complex service encounters, the providers of these programs face the challenge of gaining consumers' compliance to adhere to the programs' requirements and turning these consumers into effective co-producers of the service outcomes. This study investigates the process of customer organizational socialization in these programs, how it may promote co-production behaviors, and thus enhance consumers' well-being as well as satisfaction with the organization. The context of debt management programs is used to test the model. Data were obtained from 364 clients of a major credit counseling organization in the United States. The results reveal the differential effects of three aspects of socialization (role clarity, task mastery, and goal congruence) on three different types of consumer co-production behaviors (compliance, individual initiative, and civic virtue). Overall, compliance has the greatest contribution to well-being, while both compliance and individual initiative enhance satisfaction with the organization. Furthermore, consumers with a higher or lower ongoing dependence on the organization have different routes to well-being, with the high-dependence group relying on individual initiative, and the low-dependence group favoring compliance. This study contributes to the literature of co-production, organizational socialization, and consumers' well-being by showing how these three streams are connected. Managerial and policy implications focus on the need for these organizations to include efforts to ensure that consumers are effectively socialized into the program.

In 2008, the XVII Portuguese socialist government launched the initiative 'e.escolinha' as a programme within its 'Technological Plan for Education'. This initiative aims to ensure access for all primary school children to a personal computer named 'Magalhães' with educational content and generalize the use of computers and the Internet in early learning. This paper presents a documental analysis of policy documents, complemented by interviews of policy makers, examining the ways children and children media users are (re)presented. We started from the position that these sources draw on both of these conceptions in order to present the 'e.escolinha' initiative, and we are interested in a deconstruction of those notions. Based on questionnaires administered to children aged 8-10 years old, the paper also focuses on the ways children experienced this policy. We find that this policy is more centred on access to technology and the Internet than on children. The child is conceived in terms of his or her future, seen as an adult in the making. Technology is a kind of passport to the future, enabling success in a competitive labour market. In general, the sources reveal an idealised political vision of the benefits of technology for the teaching and learning process and for children's educational success, which contrasts with both the way the children experienced this policy and mainly with the way that the children use the 'Magalhães' computer. We conclude by discussing the importance of taking into account the socially and politically constructed nature of technology and emphasizing the social dimensions of use and access. ; Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia ...

Since the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) (1948), the extent to which individuals should bear responsibilities for the fulfilment of universal human rights has been a contentiously debated subject. Despite conflicting value-based claims, the approach of international human rights law traditionally has been to recognise states as primary obligation bearers. While the UDHR focuses primarily on state obligations, deliberately unspecified duties of individuals are included under Article 29(1). The meaning of these duties has remained contested, often by relativist critics claiming that a stronger focus on responsibilities would provide a more balanced approach to human rights. The end of the Cold War brought a renewed interest in the normative potential of human rights and a parallel renewal of relativist objections to the universality of the UDHR. In this context transnational campaigns have emerged to advocate for a universal declaration of human responsibilities complementary to the UDHR. The issue has received attention from a number of initiatives, including those of United Nations bodies and agencies and of nongovernmental organisations. The most prominent of these initiatives have received firm opposition from influential Western state and non-state actors. Approaching the topic from a constructivist perspective, this dissertation draws on the social movement literature on the international political opportunity structure to argue that the activities of opponents to human responsibilities initiatives, particularly their framing of human responsibilities as having the potential to undermine and weaken the international human rights framework, have constrained the political opportunities available to human responsibilities campaigns.

Purpose
– Over the last decade, multiple initiatives have been undertaken to learn how to capture the carbon footprint of a supply chain at a product level. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the process of standardization to secure consistency of product carbon footprinting (PCF) and to outline how the current developments in PCF support the need for a standardized method to measure and report environmental performance in supply chains.


Design/methodology/approach
– This paper is based on a literature review and a review of international standards for PCF which brings knowledge of PCF to the existing literature of green supply chain management.


Findings
– The multiple initiatives for standardization each improve the understanding of standardized methods of conducting PCF. At the same time, however, important differences exist between the standards in terms of the modelling framework to be used when conducting a PCF, and a paradox exists concerning methods for securing future standardization of PCF.


Research limitations/implications
– Standards for evaluating emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in supply chains are evaluated without consideration of other environmental impacts. In addition, the research only compares international standards, thereby excluding national initiatives.


Practical implications
– Standardization efforts can be expected to shape the future practice of measuring emission of GHGs in companies and supply chains which provides a framework for reducing impacts.


Originality/value
– Papers that outline the standardization process for PCF have been examined, but this paper adds value by categorizing the field, outlining the latest standards, and by being the first paper to compare standards for PCF on selected criteria and identify gaps.

Résumé Depuis plusieurs années, l'idée de réformer les soins de santé primaires comme stratégie d'amélioration de la performance du système de santé fait consensus au Canada parmi les politiciens, les décideurs, les cliniciens et les chercheurs. Toutefois, ce n'est que plus récemment que de réelles initiatives de transformations ont été entreprises dans différentes provinces canadiennes comme dans d'autres pays. À cet égard, le modèle de Groupes de médecine de famille (GMF) mis en place au Québec apparaît comme une initiative prometteuse pour améliorer l'organisation des soins de santé primaires. Un GMF est un regroupement de médecins qui travaillent en étroite collaboration avec des infirmières pour dispenser des services auprès de personnes inscrites, sur une base non géographique. L'objectif de cet article est d'analyser le potentiel du modèle GMF comme levier d'amélioration de la performance du système de santé et de discuter des voies possibles d'amélioration de ce modèle. Dans un premier temps, nous discutons l'historique de l'organisation des soins primaires au Québec. Ensuite, nous présentons le modèle GMF au regard des quatre fonctions clés des systèmes de santé identifiées par l'OMS soit 1) le financement, 2) la génération de ressources humaines et technologiques, 3) la prestation de services individuels et collectifs et 4) la gouvernance. Nous discutons par la suite des voies possibles pour faire progresser la réforme en nous inspirant particulièrement du modèle Family health team implanté dans la province de l'Ontario. Nous concluons en proposant des recommandations qui pourraient inspirer d'autres initiatives en cours, notamment les maisons de santé qui s'implantent progressivement en France. Prat Organ Soins. 2011;42(2):101-109

PurposeTo present a national profile of developments in higher education for sustainable development in the Philippines and to analyse a new initiative to accelerate environmental education for sustainable development (EESD) within academic institutions.Design/methodology/approachThis is an evaluative review that examines the design and piloting of an innovative scheme within the Philippine education system. The analysis is situated in relation to the approaches taken by prior initiatives and framed in order to draw out significant challenges, developments, and prospects for EESD at the organizational level.FindingsThe paper finds that EESD in the Philippines has an official base in the National Environmental Education Action Plan, which provides a framework to guide higher education. Two national networks promote environmental education, while environmental training and curriculum projects have been supported by government agencies and academic institutions, but without explicit policy support for more widespread changes. In contrast, the Dark Green Schools (DGS) program offers a distinctive "whole institution" approach and accreditation system devised in line with the principles of EESD for coherent systemic change. The design and pilot year of the DGS program shows positive potential for "greening" academic institutions and the issues that arise in seeking curriculum change, future funding, and formal support at sector level.Originality/valueThe DGS is an innovative program to promote "whole institution" change for EESD in the Philippines. Whilst similar approaches have been developed in some countries at the level of school education, such initiatives are rare at the level of higher education. This paper therefore includes lessons and findings that help to inform global debate in this important area of EESD in higher education.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the mismatch between the language and rhetoric used by UK Central Government departments to promote particular policy options and initiatives and the experiences of Third Sector organisations engaged in such programmes. The paper provides an overview of policy development involving the Third Sector in the UK and seeks to provide a practice and political context to facilitate the analysis.Design/methodology/approachThe paper draws upon empirical research undertaken with Third Sector and public sector agencies in specific initiatives in England. The methodology adopted includes an analysis both of the policy documents and official guidance notes provided as well as qualitative data drawn from interviews with key participants in the process.FindingsThe paper observes that for both parties in the process the relationships/experience was uncomfortable. The diversity, size, ethos and shape of the Third Sector were not fully understood by public sector agencies and the implications of the governance and decision making processes were not fully grasped by either party.Research limitations/implicationsWhile the policy and practice implications are explicitly discussed in the paper it is rooted in the particular organisational structures/culture of the UK (and England in particular). While comparisons are possible they are to be found in the discussion on processes.Practical implicationsThe paper adds to the analysis/understanding of the policy and practice relationship(s) between the Third Sector and central/local government and points to ways in which these relationships are likely to become more significant over time.Originality/valueThe paper adds to the literature on the Third Sector but is significant because of its focus on specific policy initiatives.

On May 26, 2010, Canada's Minister of Finance tabled in the House of Commons a draft Securities Act. The purpose of the Act is to establish Federal government jurisdiction over securities legislation and create a Federal Securities Regulatory Authority. With this initiative, the Federal government proposes to centralize the regulatory apparatus to ensure uniformity of policies and regulations across Canada and meet international standards of quality and comprehensiveness. But this initiative also raises significant constitutional and economic policy issues. In a comprehensive paper examining the main arguments supporting a centralized securities apparatus, Pierre Lortie, Senior Business Advisor at Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP, argues that sound public policy should move ahead only if there is a strong body of empirical evidence demonstrating that the performance of the current regime is significantly inferior to that of other countries — particularly the United States — and that a centralization of the regulatory apparatus is necessary to correct the situation. The paper demonstrates that Canada's decentralized securities regulatory regime has in fact shown flexibility, a great capacity to adapt to changing circumstances and an unrelenting ability to respond to particular industry or regional needs. It has also provided strong assurances against the hasty adoption of disruptive and costly regulations because it is less susceptible to the imposition of politically expedient or faddish requirements or the influence of a dominant industry or interest groups. In contrast, a centralized system runs the risk of turning into a disruptive, costly and regrettable initiative that will not give Canadians what they expect, while erasing many of the benefits achieved so far.

This paper discusses major challenges for the development of teacher education for inclusion through an analysis of relevant recent experience in Malta. Inclusion in society and in education has been explicitly on the Maltese national agenda for the past two decades. The Faculty of Education of the University of Malta has been one of the main actors of the inclusion initiative and has also taken a European initiative through the recent co-ordination of a seven-country, 3-year European Union Comenius project on preparing teachers for responding to student diversity. This paper is based mostly on the reflective experience of the author at the Faculty of Education over the past several years. A brief picture of the Maltese education system is followed by a description of the challenges that have been encountered in the promotion of inclusion. These include the development of a rights-based approach to the education of persons with disability and the widening of its application to all minority or disadvantaged groups, and the impact of political and social contexts on the development of inclusive schools. These developments are then related to intertwined initiatives for teacher education for diversity that were further influenced by the leadership of deans and heads of the department in the faculty of education. Finally, four current issues are highlighted, namely: the strategic balance between the education of specialist educators and that of all teachers for diversity, and between specific and infusion models for such education, and, finally, the pedagogic balance between the academic and experiential learning about inclusion, and between the theory and practice of inclusive teaching. ; peer-reviewed

The problem with environmental degradation has been one of the main issues both social and political in recent times. Major reasons for the environmental pollution that companies produce are mainly contributed to the market inefficiency which calls for an immediate action in this field. Nowadays the environmental revolution is gaining a greater intensity and there has been a significant change in how companies do business. And, as the demands placed upon industry to improve its environmental performance are likely to grow even further, not only is it ethical for a company to improve its environmental performance rather, it is sound business practice. Entrepreneurs and administrators are increasingly putting efforts in the incorporation of the environmental variable in their strategic planning, aiming at the more rational use of natural resources. As ecologically responsive organisations, companies are increasingly adopting a set of corporate initiatives aimed at mitigating a firm's impact on the natural environment, the initiatives that reduce the firm's "ecological footprints". The initiatives could include changes to the firm's products, processes, and policies, such as reducing energy consumption and waste generation, using ecologically sustainable resources, and implementing an environmental management system. Overall, an environmental management system which embeds the concept of sustainable development into the processes of production and supply of goods and services is efficiently and effectively implemented and functioning if there are different mechanisms that efficiently and effectively combine the technological process, economic and business growth and sustainability. Such a system that is integrated into the organisation's global management system, strongly contributes to its competitiveness and corporate and brand image.

This article concerns problems of evolution of the Polish position towards the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) of the European Union (EU) since the Polish aspirations to accession to the EU. Therefore, the first point is addressed to the Polish position on these issues prior to accession to the EU. There are analyzed the then EU's relations with NATO, including the problem of their mutual competition, and Polish anxiety concerns to this issue. There are discussed the efforts of following governments and key political positions. It is proved that the process of gradual improvement of relations between the EU and the NATO meant that Poland became increasingly modify its skeptical position towards the European initiatives. The main attention is focused on the possibility of the implementation of Poland's national interests. There is presented intensification of Polish involvement in the creation of the ESDP. A particular manifestation of Polish involvement in the development of the ESDP became our involved in the creation of the EU Battlegroups. There are presented problems relating to the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty and changes in the documents of the Polish national security, too. Moreover, there are analyzed changes in the international situation and relations between major Polish partners in the EU. An important issue, which is discussed in this article, is the involvement of Poland in the EU mission in Africa, and the importance of Polish initiative of the Eastern Partnership . The author argues that Poland needs for its national security the two institutions, both the EU and the NATO. Therefore, in the interest of Poland is to support European initiatives to strengthen the ESDP.