Comparative Case Study Analysis Research Articles

The dynamics of social capital in first-year teaching teams: a comparative case study analysis

ABSTRACT Developing social capital in university teaching teams is a worthwhile exercise which can benefit students, educators and wider institutions through improvements in areas such as knowledge sharing, a critical component of effective teams. This case study analysis explores the social capital and knowledge sharing of two teaching teams at an Australian university. It found that strong positive signs of ‘bonding’ social capital were evident in terms of trust, relatedness and support, and these attributes were seen to be important in assisting the performance of these teams especially the sharing of knowledge. However, our research findings suggest that new information was more likely to be sourced internally rather than externally, which may pose a risk of lack of new ideas and innovation. A further finding was that existing social capital within the university teaching teams differed, suggesting that social capital development should not entail a one-size-fits-all approach. This research presents a useful social capital evaluation tool and provides leaders with the information needed to attend to group-specific nuances in developing team social capital, including knowledge sharing and access to new ideas. Meeting team-specific social capital needs through cultivating trust, belonging and support can benefit the teaching team, students and the institution.

Politicized Sustainability and Agricultural Policy: Comparing Norm Understandings of International Organizations

ABSTRACT The article connects research on politicization, policy change and policy autonomy, and critical constructivist norm research. It asks how the politicized global norm cluster of sustainability impacts international organizations’ (IOs) agricultural policies. The qualitative comparative case study analysis shows that the FAO, UNEP and WTO react to politicized sustainability but pursue different norm interpretations and prioritizations of agricultural approaches. The different understandings are explained with institutional factors (policy autonomy and reflective capacities) that channel norm interpretations and prioritizations of agricultural approaches. The article concludes that politicization is necessary but not sufficient to explain IOs’ norm understandings and policies towards sustainable agriculture.

Infrastructure in the Jungle: Infrastructure and Ideology in the Refugee Camps in Calais and Along the U.S.–Mexico Border

Abstract This article examines infrastructures as a tool for managing populations, specifically migrants and refugees, and more broadly, infrastructure as a communicative trope for social belonging and citizenship. Infrastructure emerges as a key site of ideological contestation. Refugees and their advocates argue that infrastructural breakdowns require greater investment of resources and social care. Opponents point to infrastructural breakdowns as evidence that refugees and migrants do not belong and are a drain on national resources. Through a comparative case study analysis of the refugee camp in Calais, France, and at the U.S.–Mexico border, this article argues that infrastructure and infrastructural breakdowns mediate and communicate claims to territory, political recognition, and legitimacy.

Ecosystem services mapping and assessment for policy- and decision-making: Lessons learned from a comparative analysis of European case studies

This paper analyses and compares a set of case studies on ecosystem services (ES) mapping and assessment with the purpose of formulating lessons learned and recommendations. Fourteen case studies were selected during the EU Horizon 2020 “Coordination and Support Action” ESMERALDA to represent different policy- and decision-making processes throughout the European Union, across a wide range of themes, biomes and scales. The analysis is based on a framework that addresses the key steps of an ES mapping and assessment process, namely policy questions, stakeholder identification and involvement, application of mapping and assessment methods, dissemination and communication and implementation. The analysis revealed that most case studies were policy-orientated or gave explicit suggestions for policy implementation in different contexts, including urban, rural and natural areas. Amongst the findings, the importance of starting stakeholder engagement early in the process was confirmed in order to generate interest and confidence in the project and to increase their willingness to cooperate. Concerning mapping and assessment methods, it was found that the integration of methods and results is essential for providing a comprehensive overview from different perspectives (e.g. social, economic). Finally, lessons learned for effective implementation of ES mapping and assessment results are presented and discussed. Graphical Abstarcat in Fig. 1.

ROLEX AND APPLE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BRAND REPUTATION AND BRAND VALUE CONCEPTS AND TRADEMARK REGISTRATION IN THE CONTEXT OF GLOBALIZATION

The brand that constitutes one of the informal elements of businesses; on the one hand, the origin of goods or services, on the other hand, the goods and services of an enterprise to differentiate goods and services from other businesses to perform functions. With the globalization, the brand phenomenon has gained the position of being the most important tool that serves the purposes of increasing the competitiveness of businesses and channeling consumer preferences in the beneficiary position. The brands are important for consumers and intermediaries as well as for consumers. Therefore, the legal protection of the brand; It is important for the brand owners not to experience reputation and financial losses. In the study, the concept of brand, brand value, trademark registration and brand reputation are mentioned and the effects of Apple and Rolex brands on brand reputation and value in the context of globalization were discussed. The methodology of our study is based on comparative case study and content analysis of the two brands that constitute the focus of our research on the basis of specific criteria.

Transformations in the built form as a reflection of social change, the case of apartment buildings in Amman

Purpose This study aims to trace the transformation in the form of apartment building and the connotations it has in understanding the changes that occurred in the Jordanian society’s lifestyle over the past five decades. Design/methodology/approach A comparative case study analysis has been conducted amongst 170 apartments, covering 70 design attributes related to aspects of appearance, spatial organisation, parking and access to building, outdoor space and finishing. This was followed by experts and households solicitation to help giving more confidence on the validity and reliability of findings regarding the sorts and justifications for the changes that have taken place in the form of apartments over the studied time frame. Findings The results reveal changes in design attributes indicating particular alterations in people’s lifestyle. New interests act in formulating recent housing design attributes. People seem to turn into a more open social life within public community but more privatised living amongst family members. People are becoming more attached to indoor modernised lifestyle, in homes and public areas where activities take place. This entails pursuing a more comfortable, facilitating and enjoyable life that presents luxury and tranquillity. Originality/value Understanding the relationship between transformations in the built form of apartment buildings and the associated social alterations provides useful insights towards improving housing provision to better match the ever-changing demands of people and respond to alterations in their lifestyles.

What explains sub-national variation in maternal mortality rates within developing countries? A political economy explanation.

Available evidence on maternal mortality rates (MMR) reveals stark differences not only between but also sub-nationally within countries. However, the causes of sub-national variation in MMR remain under-researched and under-theorised. This is a serious problem given the widespread reliance on local authorities to deliver health services in developing countries, which means that sub-national efforts to curb MMR are critical. We propose a multi-level political economy analysis framework which, when applied in Uganda, usefully explained the sub-national differences. Drawing on process tracing and rigorous comparative case study analysis of two otherwise similar districts, this approach was able to identify certain political economy factors as being critical to shaping different levels of progress on MMR. The key variables that matter at district level are not necessarily the 'formal' factors identified in the literature, such as levels of democracy and citizens' power. Rather, the character of the local ruling coalition influences how they play out in practice. This analysis of local power relations needs to be located within a similar understanding of the political economy of health provisioning at a national level, which in many developing country contexts is itself profoundly shaped by international actors. Since the early 2000s, political developments have catalyzed a growing sense of vulnerability within Uganda's ruling coalition leading to political capture of the health ministry and undermining efforts to prioritise maternal health at the national level. With development agencies further undermining the emergence of a coherent centralized strategy, performance at the local level has become dependent on whether 'developmental coalitions' of political, bureaucratic and social players emerge to fill the vacuum. The paper concludes that the large variance in capacity and commitment to reduce maternal mortality within subnational levels of government has to be understood in relation to the local political settlement within which health service provision operates.

Application of an Institutional Assessment and Design (IAD)-Enhanced Integrated Regional Energy Policy and Planning (IREPP) Framework to Island States

The integrated regional energy policy and planning (IREPP) framework was devised to evaluate the feasibility of energy policies in meeting declared national targets. While the framework advances the comprehensiveness of the feasibility assessment by bringing in concepts like environment economic equity, the muted way in which institutional factors and capacity are addressed remains weak and ineffective. Here, we corrected this weakness by presenting an IREPP framework that is enhanced by integrating principles of the institutional assessment and design (IAD) framework. The IAD framework emphasizes the careful consideration of contextual factors, it draws attention to the full range of transaction costs, and does not presume a priori that one type of institutional arrangement. This IREPP-IAD framework was used to evaluate the feasibility of energy policies in three different island jurisdictions—Taiwan, Mauritius, and Trinidad and Tobago. With ambitious national targets, these islands are good testing grounds for this updated approach. Through qualitative comparative case study analysis, several institutional factors were found to play an influence if national energy policies are likely to meet set targets. These factors included: government/policy decision makers and the decision/policymaking environment; governance structure and commitment for energy policy; existing policy instruments and tools that are in play and those planned; polycentricity; stakeholder participation and community building; market dynamics; information transparency; pilot programs and technology innovations/research; compliance or responsibilities under the Paris Accord; grid connectivity and monitoring of the policy implementation progress. This study contributes in two ways. First, by providing a more robust framework for assessing institutional arrangements that moderate how energy policies are implemented and second, providing insightful assessments of the energy policies in three island jurisdictions, thereby increasing our understanding of island energy policymaking and implementation in these understudied geographies.

EVALUATION OF NATURAL CLIMATIC CONDITIONS IN REALIZED ENERGY EFFICIENT BUILDINGS

The analysis and evaluation of the features of spatial architecture layout design, structural and engineering solutions of modern energy-efficient low-rise residential buildings have been conducted, taking into account the climatic zoning of the Earth. Research methods are based on a comparative analysis of the modern case studies focuses on the construction of energyefficient low-rise residential buildings. A number of studies have been devoted to the problem of designing energy-efficient passive houses in a climate like Ukraine, but there is still no common typological basis for designing. Further studies have focused on implementing the passive house standard, as well as realized passive house projects have been launched in different parts of the world. This experience is considered as an example of project practices and norms of Europe, Asia, and Arab countries. These examples were grouped by climatic conditions and analyzed from the point of view possibilities of adopting their feasibility solutions to the particular Ukrainian climate and conditions.

Saving the Planet by Cutting Corporate Taxes: A Comparative Case Study Analysis

This Article examines corporate tax trends in the context of the press­ing global issue of climate change. Multinational corporations play a huge role in the global economy. We argue that the role of for-profit corporations should not be limited to making short-term profits for their shareholders. If corporations benefit from corporate tax reduc­tions, some of that benefit should be shared with society. This Article explores the connection between climate change and corporate activity through a new lens: corporate tax policy. It expands the current inquiry about the impact of taxes on corporations by connecting that discussion to the impact of multinational corporate activity on the global environment. To date, while research has been done on the interaction between corporate tax avoidance and corporate social responsibility, no research has examined the connection between the global trend of corporate tax rate cuts and the increasingly important influence of corporate environmental social responsibility. This Article begins to fill that gap by making a qualitative inquiry into the interac­tion between effective corporate tax rates, corporate tax cuts, and cor­porate social responsibility.

Are Chinese Acquirers Discriminated against in Cross‐border Mergers and Acquisitions? An Analysis Based on Covered Transactions Filed with CFIUS

AbstractThis study employs a sample of covered transactions filed with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) of cross‐border mergers and acquisitions targeting American companies based on publicly available news reports and announcements to examine the heterogeneity hypothesis in the CFIUS review process. A comparative analysis of case studies and an empirical analysis of logit regressions are performed. We also explore how CFIUS reviews may have an impact on corporations' future mergers and acquisitions decisions in a panel data model setting. The results show that both unfair treatment in CFIUS review and the deterrent effect of CFIUS interventions have contributed to the recent sharp decline in China's direct investment in the US.

Climate adaptation pathways for agriculture: Insights from a participatory process

Climate change presents significant risks and opportunities for agriculture. Agricultural producers are likely to be adversely affected by changes in higher mean temperatures, more frequent extreme climatic events, and an increase in inter-annual weather variability, with implications for established management practices. While probabilities of future change in key climatic variables become more refined, significant uncertainties remain, complicating efforts at adaptation action on the ground. Adaptation pathways planning allows stakeholders to consider a range of possible futures, identify and evaluate adaptation options, and sequence them over time. The aim is to have a robust plan that is flexible enough to deliver desired outcomes regardless of how the future unfolds. We developed and applied a pathways approach to support regional adaptation planning in Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand, a premier food- and wine-producing region, where changing land use, competition for freshwater, and climate change, are presenting challenges to agricultural producers and rural communities. Working with a range of stakeholders from local government, community and the region’s diverse agricultural sectors, comparative case study analysis in two catchments is used to identify values relating to productive landscapes, likely impacts of climate change and potential adaptation options at the local level. Actions for key areas of decision making were evaluated and sequenced over time, providing the basis for a regional adaptation pathway. The results highlight the complex interaction between climatic and non-climatic drivers of change at the local and regional scale, and the need to closely consider trade-offs and synergies in any adaptations. With adaptation rapidly emerging as a priority for policy-making and practice, the results can help inform and empower stakeholders to implement actions towards climate adapted futures, and demonstrate the utility of pathways approaches for local- and regional planning.

Enhancing the capacity of water governance to deal with complex management challenges: A framework of analysis

Despite numerous efforts to promote and implement more integrated approaches, coordination problems persist and impede sustainable water governance and management. This paper introduces a framework for guiding a transdisciplinary diagnostic approach (i.e. a context-sensitive assessment of multi-level water governance, which is combined with a change management process) to address such coordination problems. The approach aims at addressing some of the challenges identified in scientific scholarship and water governance practice by combining context-specific participatory assessments of individual cases with comparative case analysis guided by a generic conceptual framework. The focus is on implementation processes at regional and local scale and their embedding in a multi-level water governance system and a specific environmental and societal context.A coherent approach and formalized representation across individual cases is essential to develop cumulative knowledge and to improve the diagnostic strength of the approach. Based on a broad literature review and exploratory study of multiple, diverse cases conceptual framework identifies a variety of factors that are expected to be important for understanding the performance of environmental governance and management systems. The paper makes explicit the hypotheses on relationships between core variables that resulted from framework development. The framework, including the collection of hypotheses, offers a structured approach for analysing a phenomenon as complex and multi-facetted as coordination. It allows identification of multiple pathways that may lead an improvement or a decline in performance, respectively. The framework can find more widespread application in supporting comparative case study analyses with a focus on improving the understanding of policy implementation also beyond the field of water governance and management.

City to city learning and knowledge exchange for climate resilience in southern Africa.

Southern African cities face several challenges including management of rapid urbanization, rising populations, expanding informal settlements; adequate water and other service provision, and a host of governance challenges. Climate change and variability add a compounding effect to this complex, multi stressor context. Addressing the complexity requires an understanding of urban ecosystems functioning and interactions amongst the built and natural environment (climate) and human systems. In this paper we argue that learning is essential for cities to be resilient to current and future challenges. We profile the Future Resilience for African CiTies And Lands (FRACTAL) project which contributed towards climate resilient development by providing relevant climate information for decision-making at the city regional scale in southern Africa. Following FRACTAL’s city-to-city learning approach of sharing good practices, knowledge and experiences framed around transdisciplinary research, the study cities of Harare, Lusaka, Windhoek and Durban conducted city learning exchange visits between 2017 and 2018. We used a mixed methods approach to collect and analyze historical climate and hydrological data and current socio-economic and development data among the cities. A qualitative, in-depth, case study comparative analysis was used to identify similarities and differences as well as lessons drawn from the learning process during the city exchanges and these were complimented by desktop studies. Results showed water scarcity, large informal settlements, reliance on external water and energy sources, inadequate protection of ecologically sensitive resources and service provision as some of the common complications in the cities. Several lessons and transferable practices learnt from the cities included effective water conservation and waste management and the use of public-private partnerships in Windhoek, community engagements in Durban and Lusaka while lessons on decisive leadership in dealing with informal settlements emanated from Harare’s limited informal settlements. Lastly, Durban’s Adaptation Charter and integrated climate planning provided lessons for biodiversity protection and mainstreaming climate change at city governance level. While we recognize that cities are context-specific we consider these good practices as being broadly transferable to other southern African cities. We conclude that social, experiential and structured learning can be an innovative way of multi-stakeholder engagement and a useful approach to increase city resilience planning across southern Africa and cities that face similar developmental challenges.

The IMF's Financial Catch-22: Global Banker or Lender of Last Resort?

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has dual institutional roles: a steward of international financial stability and a global banker safeguarding the resources of its sovereign shareholders. But, how does the IMF behave when its balance sheet becomes exposed to higher-than-usual credit risk, creating a financial catch-22? We expect the IMF varies its lending behavior, based on the nature of sovereign credit crises. When there is high contagion risk, the IMF aims to preserve global financial stability as a lender of last resort by extending large loans, notwithstanding its balance sheet strains. The IMF employs policy conditionality to hedge its lending risk, but prioritizes alleviating global market turmoil over program compliance. When market contagion is contained, however, the IMF is more likely to act as a traditional banker, suspending programs for non-compliance. Ironically, given its tendency to forgive non-compliance as a lender of last resort, our theoretical framework suggests that the Fund intensifies its moral hazard problem. We test our theoretical priors by conducting a comparative case study analysis of IMF decision-making over time for two of its largest borrowers: Argentina and Greece. Leveraging volumes of hundred-paged minutes from IMF executive board meeting archives and extensive field research interviews, we illustrate the lending stances of IMF directors evolve in response to changes in global contagion risk. By examining the IMF’s own institutional agency under high financial risk, this study offers new insights for the study of international political economy and international organizations.

Income statement as an assessment tool of an airport operator: A case study of Polish airports

Objective: This article aims to show the characteristics of airport finances and its implications for operational management. It presents comparative case study analysis and tools to evaluate income statement data as a basis for assessment of the financial condition of an airport operator. Research Design & Methods: The paper is divided into three parts. The first one focuses on the characteristics of airports’ typical revenue structure and is operational consequences to the managerial board. It is discussed how to resolve infrastructure bottleneck problems with financial techniques. The second part is devoted to the operational cost analysis with an attempt to check whether popular hypotheses concerning airports’ finance specifics apply to Polish regional airports. The analysis examines the elasticity of fixed costs regarding the number of passengers served. The last part of this paper contains a break-even point analysis of Polish regional airport as a benchmarking tool of comparative analysis. Findings: An analysis of costs at Polish airports was carried out confirming the thesis about a very high share of fixed costs in the total operating costs of aviation activities and its small elasticity regarding number of passengers served. Profitability thresholds at Polish airports were examined, confirming the thesis that profitability is usually achieved after exceeding the 1 mln number of passengers served annually. This number corresponds to annual revenues of about PLN 50 million. Contribution & Value Added: Investigation of the measures and determinants of airports finance characteristics gives insight into the relationship between infrastructure throughput and break-even point.

Lessons Learned from Rural Electrification Experiences with Third Generation Solar Home Systems in Latin America: Case Studies in Peru, Mexico, and Bolivia

There are 17 million people without access to electricity services in Latin America. This population lives in small isolated and scattered communities with low incomes where it is difficult to achieve 100% access to electricity by the grid extension. Therefore, it is necessary to create market mechanisms and promote off-grid electrification in which photovoltaic (PV) technology plays a fundamental role. This research assesses successful projects developed in Peru, Mexico, and Bolivia, where 3rd Generation Solar Home Systems (3G-SHSs) are being introduced to support off-grid initiatives. To do so, we applied a mixed-methods approach including a comparative case study analysis, an extensive literature review, focus group discussions, and field research. Thereby, the lessons learned reveal that confidence, commitment, and flexibility are the main pillars of rural electrification. Additionally, it is demonstrated that the combination of various business models—an energy service company, fee-for-service, pay-as-you-go, and a microfranchising—with 3G-SHSs is powerfully effective in terms of sustainability. Our findings are useful to policy makers, researchers, promoters, and other stakeholders to rethink intervention strategies in rural areas. Access to electricity must be a state policy to facilitate the participation of new actors, especially of the private sector and communities, and the introduction of innovative business models and high-quality technology.

How operations matters in healthcare standardization

Purpose Process management approaches all pursue standardization, of which evidence-based medicine (EBM) is the most common form in healthcare. While EBM addresses improvement in clinical performance, it is unclear whether EBM also enhances operational performance. Conversely, operational process standardization (OPS) does not necessarily yield better clinical performance. The authors have therefore looked at the relationship between clinical practise standardization (CPS) and OPS and the way in which they jointly affect operational performance. The paper aims to discuss this issue. Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted a comparative case study analysis of a cataract surgery treatment at five Belgium hospital sites. Data collection involved 218 h of observations of 274 cataract surgeries. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used. Findings Findings suggest that CPS does not automatically lead to improved resource or throughput efficiency. This can be explained by the low level of OPS across the five units, notwithstanding CPS. The results indicate that a wide range of variables on different levels (patient, physician and organization) affect OPS. Research limitations/implications Considering one type of care treatment in which clinical outcome variations are small complicates translating the findings to unstructured and complex care treatments. Originality/value With the introduction of OPS as a complementary view of CPS, the study clearly shows the potential of OPS to support CPS in practice. Operations matters in healthcare standardization, but only when it is managed in a deliberate way on a hospital and policy level.

A Case Study Performance Analysis of Design-Build and Integrated Project Delivery Methods

ABSTRACT For an owner, choosing the appropriate project delivery method is one of the most important decisions to make for a project. Although there is a plethora of studies on these delivery methods, there is limited research comparing the alternative delivery methods with each other to determine the best methods for different construction projects. The objective of this study was to provide an overview on Design-Build and Integrated Project Delivery while comparing their performance on the construction of two transmission control building facilities. Using a comparative case study analysis, both qualitative and quantitative data were collected, and the two projects were compared based on five performance metrics: total cost growth; cost per square foot; total schedule growth; construction intensity; and change-order factor. The results showed that the DB project did not compare as favorably regarding the metrics used. Also, the level of collaboration effort and the use of BIM significantly improved the performance of the IPD project. By understanding the delivery methods and comparing them, owners can make an informed decision when choosing delivery methods for similar projects. As a recommendation, the study suggests the use of a more rigorous statistical analysis to determine whether the same findings hold true.

Strategic Responses to Grand Challenges: Why and How Corporations Build Community Resilience

We explore why and how corporations seek to build community resilience as a strategic response to grand challenges. Based on a comparative case study analysis of four corporations strategically building community resilience in five place-based communities in South Africa, as well as three counterfactual cases, we develop a process model of corporate practices and contingent factors that explain why and how some corporations commit to community resilience building and whether they try to do so directly or indirectly. We thus help explain corporations’ strategic contributions to community resilience, and we emphasise the role of place-specific resources, social-ecological system viability, and limited statehood in motivating such organisational responses to grand challenges.