Business Unity Research Articles

Innovative development of small resort towns: the triad of science, business, and education

Urban areas are places associated with the transformation of ideas into practices, social initiatives, and spatial economics. The study aims to assess the triad interaction between education, science, and business as a multiplier on the socio-economic development in the region. The study built a conceptual model of socio-economic space in the context of innovative urban development: the unity of education, science, and business. The statistical analysis allowed the author to substantiate the peculiarities of the local triad. The study revealed correlations in the influence of education, science, and business on changes in the regional system. The paper suggests that the triad of education, science, and business rests on territorial specifics. This feature is the determining factor of innovative development in the field of resort towns. The presented research uses the quantitatively measured influence of the triad as a multiplier by combining values of the unity of education, science, and business. The study found that the mentioned indicator reflects the wellbeing and quality of the labor resources in the region. On the one hand, the multiplicative influence of the triad is a guarantee of an increase in the wellbeing level within the borders of the region. On the other hand, it requires adaptation of the innovative development of resort towns to the current growth of the workforce and a decrease in innovative advantages on a local scale. The findings provide policymakers with significant indicators on the way to stabilizing the regional economy and effective decision-making. The study of the interaction between education, science, and business in the context of socioeconomic development can become a crucial tool for formulating policies aimed at stabilizing the region's economy and improving the quality of life of its residents, particularly in resort cities. The obtained results can provide guidelines for the development of innovation support programs and the planning of investment strategies, taking into account the specifics of territorial conditions.

Differentiated de-Europeanisation: UK policy-making in finance after Brexit

ABSTRACT This paper examines the impact of Brexit on UK financial services policy, explaining recent reforms to the domestic financial regulatory framework and assessing the prospects for future divergence from EU rules. Deploying the lens of de-Europeanisation, we show that the failure to include financial services in the final UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement necessitated major institutional changes. By contrast, there has been very limited change to date with respect to policy, while the government’s ambitions for a ‘Big Bang 2.0’ package of regulatory reforms have been significantly scaled back. Drawing on insights from the political economy of finance, we argue that this process has been shaped by contested adaptational pressures mediated by three key variables: business unity, financial stability, and administrative capacity. The result is an emerging pattern of differentiated de-Europeanisation in financial services, ranging from intentional regulatory divergence to active alignment with EU rules.

PROTEST ACTION WITHIN THE AMBIT OF THE LABOUR RELATIONS ACT 66 OF 1995 COSATU v Business Unity of South Africa (2021) 42 ILJ 490 (LAC)

Protest action is not a new phenomenon in democratic South Africa. In the 1980s and 1990s, many stay-aways were used by workers to demonstrate opposition to government policy. However, the Industrial Court was disinclined to grant such actions protection and, as a result, they were deemed unlawful under the Labour Relations Act 28 of 1956 (1956 LRA). Unlike protest action, strike action was regulated and defined under the 1956 LRA. Nonetheless, the International Labour Organisation (ILO)’s Fact-Finding and Conciliation Commission on Freedom of Association criticised the narrow definition of “strike” in the 1956 LRA, stating that employees should be permitted to strike in protest against the government’s economic and social policies.Under the democratic dispensation, the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 (the Constitution) clearly provides that everyone has the right, peacefully and unarmed, to assemble, to demonstrate, to picket and to present petitions (s 17) and that employees have the right to strike (s 23(2)(c)). The term “assemble” in section 17 of the Constitution has been interpreted to cover meetings, pickets, protest marches and demonstrations that are aimed at expressing a common opinion. Based on these constitutional provisions, employees can therefore use economic power to support their various demands. In terms of section 1 of the Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995 (LRA), one of the aims of this Act is “to advance economic development, social justice, labour peace and the democratization of the workplace”. Among other measures, this is done through allowing employees and their organisations the right to engage in protest action. While a strike is focused on “matters of mutual interest” between employees and their employer, protest action is focused on the “socio-economic interests” of employees (s 213 of the LRA). Strike action is the most common and better understood of the two actions, while protest action is often misconstrued. Protest action assists employees, their trade unions and federations to play an important wider role in society. Through protest action, employees can influence policy decisions in society. Section 77 of the LRA gives effect to and regulates the right to engage in protest action.South Africa has experienced many protests and as a result, the country has been referred to as “the protest capital of the world”. Federations of trade unions such as the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) have over the years organised a number of protests, including those against labour broking and high tolls. Protests are used for various reasons, including those related to service delivery. However, the focus in this discussion is on protests regulated by the LRA. Given the number of protests that take place in South Africa, it is important that the concept of protest action, and the nature and scope of the right to engage in protest action as regulated by section 77 of the LRA, be properly understood. The discussion focuses on COSATU v Business Unity of South Africa ((2021) 42 ILJ 490 (LAC)), which deals with the interpretation of section 77 of the LRA.

Konsep Kesatuan Usaha : Pendekatan Socioemotional Wealth dan Family Embeddedness

The purpose of this study is to analyze and make conclusions about the concept of business unity that will be associated with socioemotional wealth and family embeddedness. This study will portray SMEs from the concept of business entity. This study uses Social-Emotional Wealth (SEW) and Family Embeddedness (FE). There are five dimensions in SEW and three dimensions in FE. This research uses qualitative research with the object of research of several food and beverage and batik UKM in Salatiga and Surakarta. The selection of research objects is based on the length of the business and the family's business management. The technique used in this study was an interview with six people as key informants. The results showed that the majority of SMEs in this study had applied the concept of a business entity. The social-emotional wealth approach has a bigger role than the kinship family approach because external factors trigger the development of SMEs in maintaining their business continuity more and internal factors of family members actually reduce company performance because they are prone to conflict and thus costs. that happened was bigger.

IMPACT OF HUMAN RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT ON ORGANIZATIONAL FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE AND ITS IMPACT ON GOOD GOVERNMENT GOVERNANCE

The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of Human Resources Development on Financial Performance and Its Implication on Good Government Governance. Accounting is concerned in recording financial reporting to the management of the company as a business entity that is not the owner of the company so that the concept of business unity is the center of accountability and financial statements are central to the company's financial accountability to be good. In Government Accounting Standards (SAP) are standardized and confirmed the existence of Reporting Entities and Accounting Entities, as Reporting Entities is a government unit consisting of one or more accounting entities which according to statutory provisions must submit accountability reports in the form of financial and non-financial reports. Financial reporting is conveyed internally and tiered to higher units in the context of consolidating financial statements by financial reporting entities. Each government unit can be determined as an accounting entity if the unit in question manages the company's financial budget.Keywords: Human Resources Development, Financial Performance, Good Government GovernanceJEL Classifications: G2, O15, O16DOI: https://doi.org/10.32479/ijefi.8508

Capital united? Business unity in regulatory politics and the special place of finance

AbstractWhile organized business is a key actor in regulatory politics, its influence is often conditional on the level of unity or conflict occurring within the business community at any given time. Most contemporary regulatory policy interventions put pressure on the normal mechanisms of business unity, as they are highly targeted and sector‐specific. This raises the question of how business unity operates across a highly variegated economic terrain in which costs are asymmetric and free‐riding incentives are high. In this paper, we empirically assess patterns of business unity within regulatory policymaking across different regulated sectors. Our analysis utilizes data from hundreds of regulatory policy proposals and business community reactions to them in the telecommunications, energy, agriculture, pharmaceutical, and financial sectors over a variety of institutional contexts. We find considerable empirical support for the “finance capital unity” hypothesis – the notion that the financial sector enjoys more business unity than other regulated sectors of the economy. When the financial sector is faced with new regulations, business groups from other sectors frequently come to its aid.

Business Unity and Anticorporate Protests: The U.S. Fortune 500 in 2010*

Do large corporations respond to social movement protests following a firm-centric rationale or do they develop their strategies relationally? If they do so relationally, do corporate networks help foster class-wide unity in their responses to protests? We address these questions through an examination of protests against U.S. Fortune 500 firms. We incorporate data on board of director interlocks and corporate involvement in policy planning organizations to test the effect of corporate networks on firm behavior. Utilizing firm- and dyadiclevel analyses, we show that firms more embedded in the capitalist class concede to protest demands less often while retaliating against protesters more. However, this resistance is moderated by the ideologies of the networks in which the firm is embedded: firms connected to relatively liberal groups instead display the reverse pattern. These findings suggest class-wide networks shape corporate responses to protests in ideologically identifiable ways and enable greater unity between these firms.

The Political Mobilization of Firms and Industries

Corporate political activity is both a long-standing preoccupation and an area of innovation for sociologists. We examine the limitations of investigating business unity without focusing directly on processes and outcomes and then review studies of five types of business political action that offer lenses into corporate power in the United States: engagement in electoral politics, direct corporate lobbying, collective action through associations and coalitions, business campaigns in civil society, and political aspects of corporate responsibility. Through these avenues, we highlight four shifts since the 1970s: (a) increasing fragmentation of capitalist interests, (b) closer attention to links between business lobbying and firms' social embeddedness, (c) a turn away from the assumption that money buys political victories, and (d) new avenues of covert corporate influence. This body of research has reinvigorated the classic elitist/pluralist debate while also raising novel questions about how business actors are adapting to (and generating changes within) their sociopolitical environments.

The Battle for Influence: The Politics of Business Lobbying in the European Parliament

AbstractTheEuropeanParliament (EP) has become an increasingly important lobbying venue for business due to the recent enhancement of its regulatory powers. Existing research, however, disagrees on the extent to which the intensified business lobbying has resulted in increased business influence onEPpolicy outcomes. Some studies find a ‘business bias’ in theEP, while others still perceive it to be a forceful promoter of diffuse interests (such as consumer and environmental groups). This article examines the conditions under which business groups shape policy outcomes in theEP. The article uses a comparative qualitative case study design of four recent legislative dossiers, and draws on process‐tracing ofEUdocuments and lobbying letters, and 145 interviews. It finds that the ability of business to leave its fingerprints onEPreports depends on a number of factors – most notably business unity, low issue salience and dossiers being dealt with by mainstream committees.

Business as a regulatory leader for risk governance? The compact initiative for liability and redress under the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety

In March 2008, the six world leading agro-biotechnology companies, presented a private, international instrument for liability and redress to cover the environmental damage caused by genetically modified organisms. The proposal was rejected by governments, who instead adopted a binding supplementary liability and redress protocol to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, with no content transfer from the business initiative. Elaborating on this case study, it is explained how powerful business proposals can turn into a policy failure. Business conflicts are identified as one major explanatory factor. The fragmentation of business interests and the lack of business support for the six major firms’ initiative have discredited the role of corporations as regulatory leaders. Business unity is found to be a decisive, necessary condition for the endorsement of corporate proposals by policymakers.

A middle range theorization of energy politics: the struggle for energy efficient appliances

Treadmill of production (TOP) theory and ecological modernization theory (EMT) are adapted to a middle-range theorization of energy politics, specifying the conditions that each theory would best apply to struggles over the energy system. It is hypothesized that EMT will prevail when there are high levels of public awareness of an issue, a record of past regulation, a threat of future regulation, and disunity of the business class; and that TOP power relations are more likely to prevail are low public consciousness, absence of past regulation, low threat of future regulation, and high levels of business unity. The usefulness of this contextualized approach is explored using a historical qualitative case study of the struggle in the United States to implement national mandatory and voluntary definitions of energy efficiency for home appliances. The implications of the findings are discussed in light of efforts to transform energy systems.

Paving the Road to “Too Big to Fail”: Business Interests and the Politics of Financial Deregulation in the United States

The debate over the political power of business has witnessed a revival after the global financial crisis of 2007—2009. We begin by arguing that business political fragmentation or unity has important consequences for policy outcomes. The structure of the U.S. government is conducive to incremental policy changes, often in response to business pressures. In turn, these changes shape the political interests and alliances of business. We illustrate this dynamic through an analysis of the political processes leading to the enactment of the Financial Modernization Act (FMA) of 1999, which repealed Depression-era regulations and allowed commercial banks to enter the securities and insurance business and vice versa. The FMA condoned the emergence of largely unregulated diversified financial institutions, which proved “too big to fail” during the crisis. Several factors contributed to the FMA: political institutions, international competition, the ideological convergence of the Republican and Democratic parties, and the political interests of financial industry actors.

Corporate Unity in American Trade Policy: A Network Analysis of Corporate-Dyad Political Action

This essay examines factors that produce political unity among large U.S. corporations advocating free trade. Expanding on old debates, these data and analyses validate the importance of organizational and class cohesion approaches to corporate political action. Methodologically, the political unity of pairs (dyads) of firms in trade policy activism is analyzed with quadratic assignment procedure regression. Shared membership in prominent policy networks and board interlocks positively predict corporate political unity across three areas of trade policy influence, from the executive branch to the legislature. Non-network organizational indicators also significantly predicted corporate trade policy activism. The findings support business unity accounts of corporate political action and suggest that higher levels of firm embeddedness within intercorporate networks facilitate collective corporate political action.

Paving the Road to 'Too Big to Fail' - Business Interests and the Politics of Financial Deregulation in the U.S.

The debate over the political power of business has witnessed a revival after the global financial crisis of 2007-2009. We begin by arguing that business political fragmentation or unity has important consequences for policy outcomes. The structure of the U.S. government is conducive to incremental policy changes, often in response to business pressures. In turn, these changes shape the political interests and alliances of business. We illustrate this dynamic through an analysis of the political processes leading to the enactment of the Financial Modernization Act (FMA) of 1999, which repealed Depression-era regulations and allowed commercial banks to enter the securities and insurance business and vice versa. The FMA condoned the emergence of largely unregulated diversified financial institutions, which proved “too big to fail” during the crisis. Several factors contributed to the FMA: political institutions, international competition, the ideological convergence of the Republican and Democratic parties, and the political interests of financial industry actors.

From ‘As Good as Gold’ to ‘Gold Diggers’: Farming Women and the Survival of British Family Farming

AbstractThe survival of family farming in British agriculture has long been a topic of interest for rural researchers and is undergoing something of a current renewal of interest. However, insights from feminist approaches remain underutilised despite the crucial role farming women continue to play in family farming. This article addresses the unity of farm, family and business by interpreting it as a patriarchal way of life. An ethnographically informed repeated life history methodology is employed to study in detail the family members of seven farms in rural mid‐Wales. Findings show that the recent survival of the family farms investigated has been heavily dependent upon compliance with a patriarchal ideology that demands that women be ‘as good as gold’. However, it is discovered that a new view of women is emerging in the world of British family farming, that of ‘gold digger’. Women entering relationships with farming men are increasingly being considered a threat to farm survival by virtue of their entitlements if the relationship breaks down. The necessity to study the intricacies of personal relationships in family farming has important implications for most future research into this form of agricultural business arrangement.

The Maturing of the Japanese Economy: Corporate Social Responsibility Implications

Abstract:This paper examines corporate social responsibility in Japan today within the context of the paradigm of the moral unity of business. Under this paradigm, business is expected to operate under the same set of moral standards operative in other societal institutions. We suggest that amicro moral unitycharacterizes Japan—business activity is linked to that society’s moral values but only within carefully circumscribed communities of interest. Because of the strains brought on by the maturing of the Japanese economy, the negative consequences of this micro moral unity are now becoming apparent. A new paradigm will be required to address these challenges. A possible foundation for such a paradigm, based on the emerging notion ofkyosei(living and working together for the common good), is discussed.

The Rise of an Inventive Profession: Learning Effects in the Midwestern Harvester Industry, 1850–1890

This article makes use of nearly one thousand patents to trace the origins and evolution of professional invention in the midwestern harvester industry. These data indicate that professional inventors had become integrated into the industry by the 1870s. This unity of business and invention made firms loci of learning and fostered the rise of a market in technology through which patents and patentees became available.

The Structure of Corporate Political Action: Interfirm Relations and Their Consequences.

The power of big business is one of the perennial issues in American political life. In this book Mark Mizruchi asks to what extent are large corporations unified politically - or, more precisely, when do companies agree on issues and when do they disagree? This is an important question in a democracy whose vitality depends on a wide sharing of power. Adopting a structural model of social action. Mizruchi examines the effects of factors such as geographic proximity, common industry membership stock ownership, and interlocking directorates on the campaign contributions of corporate PACs and corporate testimony before Congress. He finds that organizational and social networks among firms have the greatest effect in determining similar political behaviour. These results establish for the first time that the nature of relationships among firms is what generates business unity, more so than other forms of common interest. This kind of structural united front is what leads to the important political successes of big business.

Money Talks: Corporate PACs and Political Influence, by Dan Clawson, Alan Neustadtl and Denise Scott

Part 1 Money changes everything: why does the air stink? - the candidates perspective, the current law, corporate PACS our research - the interviews overview and background - what is power? business is different, the limits to business power. Part 2 Raising money and running the PAC: establishing the rules - a brief history of compaign finances, SUN-PAC - the hidden face of power raising money - campaigns to raise money, coercion to contribute, untapped material running the PAC - the PACs internal structure, increasing managers' political participation, democracy in action?, Congress approves. Part 3 Gifts - networks of obligations: understanding gifts - deciding on contributions, requests and member pressure, the decision process, pragmatic criteria, ideological contributions, controversy - why and how often? giving more than a campaign contribution - PAC contributions build networks, conclusion. Part 4 Access - I can get to waxman for $250: myth one - key notes are the issue - high visibility issue, low-visibility issues and non-issues, what a typical bill is like, the bottom line, business hegemony myth two - money is explicitly exchanged for votes - are these loopholes available to everyone?, keeping track and knowing the players, getting access and shaping a solution, defending the changer and getting it through, the PAC is only a part of the process, why corporations can do what others can't myth three - political party matters - myth four - business wins without effort - language and euphemism, policy implications. Part 5 Ideology - defending free enterprise: characteristics of an ideological orientation - relation to lobbying, candidates and races, a formula for self-destruction the rise and fall of ideological behaviour - the ideological mobilization of the 1970s, the PAC contribution to this ideological mobilization, did this mobilization make a difference, the Democrats - taking care of business assessing corporate ideological donations. Part 6 Business unity, business power: building business unity - learning about issues, asking each other for money, can industry competitors work together?, business unity beyond the industry, how campaign finance laws coerce business to unity control of the economy - levels of inequality, business decisions, the pinto gas tank, spending the money, confronting business power. Part 7 They might start running it strictly for the votes: PAC directors on PACs - A Tool and Nothing Else, reforms aren't imminent, By the Time they change It, It's Too Late piecememal reform won't work - the purpose of the current system, economy and policy - contradictory principles, what should campaign reform aim to do? public financing - objections and arguments against, arguments for, new rules for primaries be realistic. Consequences: the character of congress, political change, business power.

Corporate Mobilization and Political Power: The Transformation of U.S. Economic Policy in the 1970s

Despite their otherwise divergent arguments, pluralist, state-centered, and neo-Marxist relative autonomy conceptions of political power in societies share the view that the capitalist class is generally incapable of unified political action. Yet, a striking feature of policy struggles in the United States between 1974 and 1981 was the dominant influence of a well-organized and unified business lobby. I examine business unity and political influence in the context of recent U.S. policy history. Tracing the legislative histories of the unsuccessful Labor Law Reform and Consumer Protection Agency bills of the 1 970s, and the successful Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981, a class-based, corporate power structure perspective is supported. The historical conditionsfostering the political mobilization and intraclass cohesion of business in the 1970s, and the theoretical implications of the breakdown of business unity after 1981, are also examined.