Institutional context matters: identifying the ‘right’ setting is the first empirical choice

The Political Economy of Macroprudential Policy

Macroprudential policy in the EU: A political economy perspective

The characterization of how entrepreneurial a region or country is has generally been shaped by a narrow view of what actually constitutes entrepreneurship. In the case of Germany, this has led to a characterization of Germany as not being particularly entrepreneurial. Such a view is at odds with the remarkable, high-performing family business, widely held to be the backbone of the economy. The purpose of this paper is to suggest that the interpretation prevalent in entrepreneurship literature is problematic due to a too narrow operationalization of the entrepreneurship concept. As Zahra (2007; 2014) emphasized, context matters. One particular organizational manifestation of entrepreneurship, family business, may be congruent in specific spatial and institutional contexts but not in others. Other geographic and institutional contexts may be congruent with the contrasting startups. Thus, an important and novel contribution of this paper is to analyze the geography of family business as distinct from startups: two ends of the entrepreneurship continuum, embedded in different kinds of entrepreneurial ecosystems. We generate innovative maps working with official data, showing the distinct distribution of both kinds of entrepreneurship in different ecosystems. These findings are connected with spatial effects, living conditions and lead to recommendations for policy measures.

PurposeThis paper investigates the role of the founder CEO and board independence in shaping the way in which Indian and Italian family firms (FFs) pursue international growth via two modes, that is exports and FDI. This article claims that country's context matters in determining the relationship between the presence of the founder CEO and FFs' extent of exports and extent of FDI. Further, this article examines the moderating role of board independence on the above-mentioned founder CEO–FF's international growth relationship.Design/methodology/approachUsing a fixed-effect panel data method, this article tests the hypotheses on a sample of 1,275 Indian FF-year observations and 705 Italian FF-year observations over the period 2008–2015.FindingsThis article reveals that the presence of a founder CEO is positively associated with the extent of exports but negatively associated with the extent of FDI in Italian firms. However, in case of Indian firms, the presence of the founder CEO is negatively associated with the extent of exports as well as with the extent of FDI. This founder CEO's influence on the firm's international growth is mitigated by the presence of an independent board in Italian firms; however, this moderation is not significant in the case of Indian firms.Research limitations/implicationsIt is important to capture heterogeneity within family firms and across institutional contexts while studying family firms' international growth. Further, it is important for international business scholars to theorize for different modes of international growth because challenges faced in expansion via exports are different from the challenges faced in expansion via FDI (foreign subsidiaries). Therefore, family firms leadership might prefer a certain mode of international growth.Practical implicationsThe findings of the study imply that national culture and institutional context could play an important role in determining (a) Founder CEO's inclination towards FF's extent of exports and FDI as well as (b) the effectiveness of an independent board in mitigating founder CEO's influence on FF's international growth.Originality/valueThis work is one of the very few studies that examines the impact of FF's heterogeneity and country heterogeneity on two modes of international growth, namely exports and FDI, in the Indian and Italian contexts. Further, this work provides empirical evidence on the independent board's role in mitigating founder CEO's influence in decision making in the case of Italian firms. Extant literature expects an independent board to encourage FFs' international growth both via exports and FDI; this study shows that independent boards could reduce the founder CEO's inclination towards exports and mitigate founder CEO's influence on the decision making; however, this mitigation effect is highly context dependent.

Understanding ethnic hiring discrimination: A contextual analysis of experimental evidence

Context matters: Acculturation and work-related outcomes of self-initiated expatriates employed by foreign vs. local organizations

Learning analytics research has highlighted that contexts matter for predictive models, but little research has explicated how contexts matter for models’ utility. Such insights are critical for real-world applications where predictive models are frequently deployed across instructional and institutional contexts. Building upon administrative records and behavioral traces from 37,089 students across 1,493 courses, we provide a comprehensive evaluation of performance and fairness shifts of predictive models when transferred across different course contexts. We specifically quantify how differences in various contextual factors moderate model portability. Our findings indicate an average decline in model performance and inconsistent directions in fairness shifts, without a direct trade-off, when models are transferred across different courses within the same institution. Among the course-to-course contextual differences we examined, differences in admin features account for the largest portion of both performance and fairness loss. Differences in student composition can simultaneously amplify drops in performance and fairness while differences in learning design have a greater impact on performance degradation. Given these complexities, our results highlight the importance of considering multiple dimensions of course contexts and evaluating fairness shifts in addition to performance loss when conducting transfer learning of predictive models in education.

Does institutional industry context matter to performance? An extension of the institution-based view

Utilising and extending the Varieties of Capitalism model by Hall and Soskice (2001) and its use in higher education (HE) studies (Graf, European Journal of Education, 44 , 569–585, 2009), this paper illustrates the impact of diverse socio-economic contexts of partnering institutions on the policies and practices of transnational higher education in China. While prior research explored Sino-foreign cooperation models, much of it predates the pandemic and emphasises ‘sending countries’ over ‘host’ countries. Furthermore, previous studies have overlooked significant differences in the socio-economic policy contexts which even exist within countries described as having centralised modes of governance. This study reassesses the Chinese Ministry of Education’s goals in the Chinese Foreign Cooperation in Running Schools policy (MOE, 2013) and explores how partnerships take place in and between socio-economic contexts - such as market or state-coordinated societies - and we argue that policymakers and university partnership managers need to understand these variations in each partner’s context. We exemplify this approach by comparing partnerships within so-called ‘Liberal Market’ Economies and ‘Coordinated Market’ Economies from the Varieties of Capitalism framework — using the case of the Sino British College in Shanghai and the Sino Danish Centre in Beijing focusing on cooperation between these foreign and Chinese institutions. We analyse shifts in Chinese HE policies post-COVID. Our findings show that these joint ventures show the potential to build partnerships on shared understandings of ‘success’ brought about by similar modes of governance. The article contributes to the literature by advancing the use of the varieties of capitalism framework to highlight the role of economic governance models in allowing shared ideas of success between partners. It further highlights the need to understand sub-national or provincial levels of governance in countries such as China (Liu & Lim, Policy Reviews in Higher Education, 8 (1), 29–55, 2024) but also highlighting how stakeholders in any transnational partnership need to be aware of potential opportunities and challenges depending on local governments.

Since February 2015, the government has provided tourism as a leading sector in development. It is, however, that this premise needs to be reviewed. As one of the popular destinations in Indonesia, after Bali, Yogyakarta is still dealing with acute poverty problems with an 11,7% poverty rate and disparity index of 0,423 (Gini ratio) by March 2019. This situation showed that tourism has not contributed to its vital role in empowering the community. The primary problem is concerning the lack of participation based-community in developing and managing tourism. Regarding that problem, community-based tourism is present as an alternative tourism model because it is concerned with optimizing local potentiality and local community empowerment. Meanwhile, some aspects, including access, amenities, and attractions, are essential in tourism development. In line with issues, the acceleration of digital technology has encouraged nomad workers and experience-based tourism attraction—both elements then actualized in nomadic tourism. According to the case study method, this research has investigated the potentiality of the nomadic tourism model in the Special Region of Yogyakarta: Bukit Kosakora (Kosakara Hill) in Gunung Kidul, Taman Bambu Air (Water Bamboo Park) in Sermo Reservoir, Kulonprogo, and Bukit Lintang Sewu (Thousand Stars Hill) in the Mangunan, Bantul, Yogyakarta. The three places are potentially pioneers of nomadic tourism in Yogyakarta. The research results highlight that all of these places have amenities, attraction, and access as opportunities to be nomadic tourism. However, they have implemented the basic principles of community-based tourism, but the realization is not yet fully optimal because of the matter in the institutional context.

In January 2013 the Australian Government established the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. The terms of reference require the Royal Commission to inquire as what should be done to eliminate or reduce impediments that currently exist for responding appropriately to child sexual abuse and related matters in institutional contexts, including addressing failures in, and impediments to, reporting, investigating and responding to allegations and incidents of abuse. Further, the Commission is directed to focus on systemic issues and to be informed by an understanding of individual cases. In November 2013 the Royal Commission held a public hearing into the Anglican Diocese of Grafton's response to child sexual abuse at the North Coast Children's Home and in October 2014 published its Report.

In this article, we examine whether and how the institutional context matters when understanding individuals’ giving to philanthropic organizations. We posit that both the individuals’ propensity to give and the amounts given are higher in countries with a stronger institutional context for philanthropy. We examine key factors of formal and informal institutional contexts for philanthropy at both the organizational and societal levels, including regulatory and legislative frameworks, professional standards, and social practices. Our results show that while aggregate levels of giving are higher in countries with stronger institutionalization, multilevel analyses of 118,788 individuals in 19 countries show limited support for the hypothesized relationships between institutional context and philanthropy. The findings suggest the need for better comparative data to understand the complex and dynamic influences of institutional contexts on charitable giving. This, in turn, would support the development of evidence-based practices and policies in the field of global philanthropy.

Social informatics: Overview, principles and opportunities

Purpose Entrustable professional activities (EPAs) provide a framework for supervising and assessing readiness for independent practice in postgraduate medical education. Their implementation has raised concerns about legal liability. This study explored practical and legal implications of EPA implementation across international contexts. Methods Fifteen participants from various specialties and 12 countries across six continents, all involved in EPA implementation, participated in qualitative semi-structured interviews. Interviews focused on accountability, competence assessment, and legal considerations. Thematic analysis was conducted. Results Five themes were identified: (1) Shifting accountability: EPAs shift accountability to trainees as competence increases, though supervision remains essential; (2) Sharing responsibilities: EPAs support role clarity and shared responsibility, with autonomy varying by setting; (3) Ascertaining competence: EPAs offer a transparent framework for competence assessment; (4) (Mis-)conceptions of legal consequences: legal concerns were largely unfounded as supervisors were still viewed as legally accountable; and (5) Context matters: implementation is shaped by institutional, regulatory, and cultural contexts, requiring local adaptation. Conclusions Participants perceived EPAs as strengthening educational accountability and competence assessment without altering legal responsibilities. Successful implementation depends on alignment with local context, emphasizing their role as flexible educational tools rather than legal instruments. Continued research should examine their long-term legal and institutional impact in postgraduate training.

This meta-ethnography investigates how contextual factors influence the implementation and effectiveness of gambling harm prevention and reduction interventions. Despite growing recognition of gambling as a public health concern, many interventions focus on individual responsibility and lack evidence of effectiveness. This study synthesizes qualitative research to examine how social, institutional, and cultural contexts shape seven intervention types: educational campaigns, exclusion programs, availability regulations, spending limits, advertising restrictions, behavioral feedback, and behavioral interruptions. A systematic literature search was conducted across multiple databases (Medline, PsycINFO, SocINDEX, Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts, Worldwide Political Science Abstracts, Web of Science, and Google Scholar). A quality appraisal using the CASP checklist identified eight methodologically weak or low-quality studies, which were excluded from the synthesis. Fifty-one peer-reviewed qualitative studies were reviewed, with 37 included in the final synthesis. The findings highlight a core tension between harm prevention and reduction goals and the financial imperatives of gambling revenue. Interventions are variably perceived and implemented depending on context and framing. A lines-of-argument synthesis was used to develop an interpretation across the interventions, indicating that system-level interventions are often weakened by the economic interests of governments and the gambling industry, while individual-level interventions shift responsibility onto gamblers and staff, often resulting in limited effectiveness and unintended consequences such as migration to alternative gambling products. Limited high-quality studies per intervention, few focused on online gambling, and regional bias may affect transferability. This review underscores the need to reframe gambling harm as a systemic issue and to develop context-sensitive public policies that are clearly communicated to target populations. Effective prevention requires countering the gambling industry's framing, which individualizes responsibility, resists regulation, and justifies availability on economic grounds, through strategies integrating systemic regulation, digital prevention tools, and harm-reduction. Policymakers should examine interventions and their assumptions, placing public health above gambling revenue.