Comparative Case Study Method Research Articles

The Unfaithful Male in Monogamous and Non-Monogamous Marriage: A Phenomenological Case Study

A comparative case-study method grounded in phenomenology with the use of interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) demonstrated similarities and differences between two men’s experiences with engaging in extramarital affairs who were married to women in either a monogamous or a non-monogamous union. Despite the difference in their marital arrangements, both men were unfaithful to their wives and demonstrated similar themes in their lives, which included religious obligations, communication conflicts, loss of connection in marriage, deception, sexual restriction, absent fathers, compartmentalization of sexual behavior, guilt, and addiction. Differences included how men created boundaries, emotional connections with affair partners, power differentials, and sexual experiences.

Barreiras de desempenho e políticas públicas: análise em cooperativas de agricultura familiar

O presente estudo tem como objetivo identificar as principais barreiras inibidoras do desempenho em cooperativas da agricultura familiar e compreender como essas barreiras podem tornar-se entraves para o acesso e a execução de políticas públicas. Foi adotado o método de estudo de caso comparativo em duas cooperativas, Cooperativa dos Produtores Rurais das Matas de Minas (COOPRAMM) e Cooperativa dos Produtores da Agricultura Familiar Solidária (COOPAF), tendo como objeto de análise entrevistas realizadas com membros do conselho de administração. Foi possível constatar algumas barreiras em comum entre as cooperativas, como restrições de recursos e baixa participação dos associados. Os elementos que as particularizam – associados à trajetória histórica, ao gerenciamento e à assistência técnica – se mostraram como barreiras inibidoras para o desempenho e também para o acesso ao mercado institucional na COOPRAMM. A contribuição que se busca é tornar este estudo útil para gestores públicos, mediante o diagnóstico das principais barreiras que constituem obstáculos para o desempenho e para o acesso e a execução de políticas públicas, o que pode contribuir na proposição de iniciativas governamentais para apoiar o fortalecimento dessas organizações como entidades articuladoras do mercado institucional.

Location, location, relocation: how the relocation of offices from suburbs to the inner city impacts commuting on foot and by bike

PurposeIn recent decades there has been increasing focus on the development of compact and accessible urban environments, in part based on the reasoning that this can help to reduce the transportation requirements of city residents. Travel intensive land uses such as office workplaces are often offered incentives from policy makers to relocate to central locations well served by public transport (transit oriented development). To date, the academic literature on integrated transport and land use planning has largely been focused on the reduction of private car usage and promotion of public transport. This paper adds a complementary dimension, testing the hypothesis that intra-city workplace relocation towards city centres promotes walking and bicycling.MethodsThis paper uses a comparative case study method. Employee travel surveys were conducted before and after the 2015 relocation of an office workplace in Trondheim, Norway from urban periphery to city centre. Three similar office relocation cases in Trondheim and Oslo (post-2000) are used for comparison to the case study. Changes in travel distance, time, costs, optimal route and potential for walking and bicycling in the case study are considered alongside actual changes in transport mode.ResultsWalking and bicycling levels have a clear inverse relationship with distance to the city centre, due in large part to reduced commuting distances and increased parking costs following relocation. For the case study, the modal share of walking and cycling increased by a factor of 2.5 and 2.8 respectively. Relocation similarly led to a tripling in the number of case study employees who have a commute distance of less than 6 km, the employees’ median acceptable cycling distance. Active commuting levels from the former and current workplace locations match closely with the share of active commuting in the Norwegian National Travel Survey data for the corresponding neighbourhoods.ConclusionAlthough the function of workplaces and their employees can vary significantly within a city neighbourhood, travel behaviour is to a large extent determined by supply variables like time and cost. Central workplace locations with good public transport accessibility are shown to create significantly improved opportunities for walking, cycling and public transport commuting compared to peripheral workplaces with little competition to workplace accessibility by car.

The roles of emerging multinational companies’ technology-driven FDIs in their learning processes for innovation

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to contextually theorise the different patterns of emerging multinational companies’ (EMNCs’) learning processes for innovation and the different influences of their technology-driven FDIs (TFDIs) on the processes. Design/methodology/approach A comparative case study method and process tracing technique are employed to investigate how and why firms’ learning processes for innovation took place, how and why the TFDIs emerged and influenced the firms’ learning processes in different ways. Findings The paper identifies two different patterns of learning process for innovation (Glider model vs Helicopter model) and two different roles of the case firms’ TFDIs (accelerator vs starter) in the different contexts of their learning processes. It is found that the capability building of the domestic wind energy industry has an important influence on the case of EMNCs’ learning processes and thus on the roles of their TFDIs. Research limitations/implications The limitation of the paper lies in its small number of cases in a specific industry of a specific country. The two contextually identified learning models and roles of TFDIs may not be applied to other industries or other countries. Future research should investigate more cases in broader sectoral and geographic scope to test the models and also to identify new models. Practical implications For EMNCs, who wants to use the Helicopter model to rapidly gain production and innovation capability, cross-cultural management and integration management are crucial to practitioners. For emerging countries with ambitions to explore the global knowledge and technology pool, besides of the EMNC’s capability building, the capability building in the domestic industries should not be overlooked by policy makers. Originality/value The paper develops a dynamic and contextual analytical framework which helps to answer the important questions about how and under what context a TFDI emerges and influences firm’s learning process for innovation. It theorises the EMNCs’ learning process and TFDIs in the context of the development of the domestic industry. It strengthens the explanatory power of the learning-based view and adds new knowledge to the current FSA/CSA discourse in the international business literature.

Pursuing Higher Education in Rural Pennsylvania Schools: Shaping the College Path

Rural youth are now graduating from high school at rates comparable to their peers in urban and suburban schools, however far fewer rural youth pursue postsecondary education. Using a comparative case study method, we explore postsecondary preparation efforts at three rural school districts. Each case represents a different classification of rural: fringe, distant, and remote. We find that while all three districts offered similar postsecondary preparation programs, the amount and array of available course offerings and levels of additional support provided by the community differed. We also explore how the values and philosophies of school administrators shaped the postsecondary preparation efforts. These findings are considered through the lens of previous research on factors that influence the educational outcomes of rural youth, including literature on rural brain drain.

Unleashing the watchdogs: explaining congressional assertiveness in the politics of US military interventions

This article contributes to a burgeoning literature on parliamentary war powers by investigating the case of the US Congress drawing on both International Relations (IR) research and traditional war powers studies. Applying a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis and case study method, we examine the conditions shaping congressional assertiveness. The article shows that the lack of national security interests and divided government are important conditions for members of Congress to criticize presidential intervention policies. While previous US war powers studies focused on the influence of partisanship, this article holds that domestic as well as international factors influence congressional behavior. A short comparative case study of two US military interventions (Libya 2011, ISIS 2014–15) during the Obama presidency serves to illustrate the findings.

Client organizations and the management of professional agency work: The case of English health and social care

A growing reliance on agency workers can lead to significant risks for client organizations, especially in core organizational roles. It has been suggested while these risk can be mitigated through investments in human resource management (HRM) directed at agency workers, in reality these will be hard to implement. This article draws upon Lepak and Snell's (1999) HR architecture model and uses a comparative case study method to explore this issue, focusing on agency working in core nursing and qualified social worker roles. The findings illustrate how client organizations can become more involved in the management of agency workers than has previously been acknowledged. Our analysis also identifies the conditions that shape this client‐side involvement, including the nature of agency worker contracts, the role of temporary work agencies, competing organizational cost‐control priorities, and perceptions of the regulatory context. These conditions are brought together in a general model for understanding the largely neglected role that client organizations play in the HR management of agency workers.

Forming international collaborative innovation and government funding as a double-edged sword

Prior research has indicated that small ventures are more inclined to pursue collaborative innovation to overcome lack of resources and access to new market with government support. But how government support can facilitate the formation of collaborative innovation by small ventures is less known. Small ventures, many of which are founder led or owned and managed by families, have different goals and less inertia in forming collaborations compared to large corporations. However, less is known about small ventures’ readiness in forming collaborative innovation. Using comparative case study method with polar sampling, we sampled four UK firms forming international collaborative innovation with Chinese organizations under a government funded innovation programme in the UK, a matrix comprising differences in ownership and collaboration status. The inductive analysis unveils the evolvement of collaborative innovation with a process view from the early formative stage throughout the process and the dark side of government support. Thus, this study contributes to the existing literature by providing understanding on the role of government funding at the formative stage of international collaborative innovation and propositions for future research avenues.

El enfoque institucional del cuidado en infancia: Chile y Uruguay

The article compares the childcare regime in Chile and Uruguay by applying the institutional approach. We examine three political instruments on childcare: care services for children from 0 to 5 years old, domestic paid work, leaves and money to care. We use the comparative international case study method, by using different data sources. The outcomes show that both countries display a mixed pattern between familialism and des familialism and diverse types of socioeconomic and gender equity according to the political instruments types analyzed.

Bureaucratic autonomy and policy capacity in the implementation of capitation payment systems in primary healthcare: comparative case studies of three districts in Central Java, Indonesia

ABSTRACTSubstantial variations in policy implementation at the subnational level have long plagued Indonesia – a vast developing country that has witnessed regional variations in policy performance since administrative decentralization took place. Using a comparative case study method, this study examined institutional factors that affected the implementation of capitation payment systems among primary healthcare providers in three districts in Indonesia. Though possessing jurisdictional similarities in terms of their sociocultural characteristics and political party dominance, differences in the degree of bureaucratic autonomy and policy capacity among local health actors at the district level engendered implementation variations in terms of the policy performance and implementation styles of local health actors. Both diagnostic and analytical insights derived from the findings of this study could pave the way towards better stakeholder engagement when contemplating local level capacity-building initiatives, making them better suited to local policy contexts in the future.

Modelos influyentes en las cooperativas de ahorro y crédito en Colombia

El estudio sobre las “modelos influyentes de las cooperativas de ahorro y crédito en Colombia”, permite determinar las prácticas que han asegurado la viabilidad y permanencia de dichas organizaciones, porque han facilitado el desarrollo socio económico de sus miembros, así como el mejor estar en las comunidades donde actúan. Igualmente, permite identificar el o los modelos referentes internacionales para estas organizaciones y su grado de influencia. La metodología empleada fue el método comparativo con estudio de caso, el cual brindo la posibilidad de análisis y reflexión de las prácticas de las organizaciones objeto de estudio; abordando la comparación de los modelos influyentes, tipificados a nivel tanto nacional como internacional y que en alguna época fueron referentes para las organizaciones cooperativas en Colombia, en sus prácticas de ahorro y crédito. Plantea al lector los procesos, los desarrollos y las prácticas que se mostraron determinantes para la estabilidad de las organizaciones cooperativas de ahorro y crédito en cada uno de los momentos históricos, demarcando su alcance.

Constructing the CEO Personal Brand: The Case of Four Pioneering CEOs in Turkey

CEOs are high-profile figureheads who have a critical role in their organization. Because of their high impact on firm performance and brands, stakeholders and the public follow them. The main purpose of this study is to explore pioneering Turk CEOs’ construction of the CEO brand. The study focuses on the determinants and process of CEO branding and relies on content analysis of four CEOs’ biographies using purposeful sampling. The comparative case study method was conducted using a grounded approach. As a result of the study, CEOs’ career background, leadership in change, impression management, and firm brand became the determinants for the CEO brand building process. In this process, career background provides an advantage to leadership in change, and impression management mediates the relationship between leadership in change (performance) and CEO branding.

KILNOJAMŲJŲ KULTŪROS VERTYBIŲ APSAUGOS IR EKSTREM ALIŲ SITUACIJŲ VALDYMAS: DVIEJŲ LIETUVOS ATMINTIES INSTITUCIJŲ ATVEJIS

The aim of the article is to analyze international and local legal instruments regarding the protection of movable cultural heritage. It also highlights the importance of instructions and orders of ministerial departments related to the protection of cultural heritage. Furthermore, the article provides a research-based analysis regarding the management of emergency situations and the protection measures of movable cultural property in the Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences and National Museum Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania. The research was based on the comparative case study method, which makes it possible to focus on and delve deeply into the essence of a single problem. The research was conducted using a questionnaire and a structured interview, during which two respondents from memory institutions were interviewed. The answers, provided by the respondents, help to determine the possibility of practical implementation of the objectives raised in the legal acts of the Republic of Lithuania regarding the protection of cultural property. Emphasized in the research is identification of threats, allocation of responsible personnel, enactment of preventive measures and the importance of establishing and implementing specific actions on both theoretical and practical levels.

The transition from traditional banking to mobile internet finance: an organizational innovation perspective - a comparative study of Citibank and ICBC

The development of Financial Technology (FinTech) in areas such as mobile Internet, cloud computing, big data, search engines, and blockchain technology have significantly changed the financial industry. FinTech is expected to overturn the traditional banking business model, forcing banks to upgrade and transform.This study adopts a comparative case study method to contrast and analyze the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) and Citibank. It analyzes the strategies, organizations, HR systems, and product innovations adopted by these two banks in response to the impact of FinTech. This paper proposes an “electric vehicle” mode for ICBC and an “airplane mode” for Citibank. Further, it describes the difficulties encountered by the Chinese banking industry and proposes some feasible ways to upgrade. “Technology power” will become the core competitive concept for the financial institutions of the future.

Cross-National Variation in Occupational Prestige

This article investigates cross-national differences in occupational prestige amongst French, American and Canadian privacy officers. Privacy officers design and implement programs to protect private information in organizations. As a consequence, members of the privacy occupation serves as key interfaces between organizations and their information environments. The current study seeks to extend structuralist theories of occupational prestige- which suggest that all complex societies engender similar hierarchies of occupations. In contrast, in my chosen empirical case of privacy officers, I find that national contexts accord varying degrees of prestige to the privacy occupation. On the one hand, American privacy officers are upwardly mobile and endowed with the potentiality of being strategic organizational actors. On the other, French privacy officers are low-status actors- largely relegated to documentation and compliance tasks. Using a comparative case study method and a multimodal data corpus (intervi...

Risk management process: Profiling of islamic microfinance providers

This study intends to compare and contrast the risks faced by two types of Islamic microfinance providers in Malaysia, which are non-governmental organization and commercial financial institution. Using comparative case study method, interview sessions were conducted on staffs of two Islamic microfinance providers. With respect to their disbursement and repayment system, it was found that both Institution A and Institution B are both exposed to Shariah risk, operational risk and credit risk. In addition to that, as Institution B is an established and reputable financial institution in Malaysia, it is also exposed to reputational risk.

Network-based automation for SMEs

The implementation of appropriate automation concepts which increase productivity in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) requires a lot of effort, due to their limited resources. Therefore, it is strongly recommended for small firms to open up for the external sources of knowledge, which could be obtained through network interaction. Based on two extreme cases of SMEs representing low-tech industry and an in-depth analysis of their manufacturing facilities this paper presents how collaboration between firms embedded in a regional ecosystem could result in implementation of new automation solutions. The empirical data collection involved application of a combination of comparative case study method with action research elements. This article provides an outlook over the challenges in implementing technological improvements and the way how it could be resolved in collaboration with other members of the same regional ecosystem. The findings highlight two main automation related areas where manufacturing SMEs could leverage on external sources on knowledge - these are assistance in defining automation problem as well as appropriate solution and provider selection. Consequently, this paper develops and discusses a set of guidelines for systematic productivity improvement within an innovative collaboration in regards to automation processes in SMEs.

Manajemen Mutu dalam Upaya Peningkatan Prestasi Sekolah

Research was conducted in SDN Tanah Tinggi 3 Tangerang and SD Islam Al-Ikhlas Tangerang. This research aims to knowing and analyzing how quality management is applied for improving school’s achievement. This study is focusing on quality management with the sub-focus of planning and actuating. The approach that used for this study is qualitative approach with comparative case study method descriptively. Based on the result and research data analysis, found that quality planning for improving school’s achievement are done by a work-meeting forum, each component in the school determines school’s objective based on existing vision and mission of the school and then the targeted objective will be decided by analyzing school’s needs. The analysis of school’s needs then will be used for arranging school’s programs and work programs for improving the achievement and planning for the future. The decision making was done then followed by the policies, from the planning for improving school’s achievement activities then a planning of improving school’s achievement could be created. In the practice, development of achievement improvement programs was done especially in the scope of Adiwiyata. it held by developing the policies of environmental caring and culture, developing the curriculum of environmental basis, developing participative basis activities and improving the management and structure and infrastructure empowerment. From those aspects, they can create improvement of school’s achievement on environmental aspect. For SDN Tanah Tinggi 3 on improving and developing its academic achievement needs curriculum development on student’s self-empower and extracurricular. Meanwhile for SD Islam Al-Ikhlas on human resources development needs more human resources.

Determinants of courses of action in bioenergy villages responding to changes in renewable heat utilization policy

The Energiewende in Germany includes organizational innovations for the provision of renewable energy to rural communities, often referred to as “bioenergy villages”. These villages have dealt with frequent regulatory and economic changes, but little is known about what determines their response to such changes. We investigate courses of action in five villages in the federal state of Brandenburg (Germany) in response to changes in the regulatory framework promoting better utilization of surplus heat from biogas facilities. Our comparative case study method draws on interviews with village stakeholders and complementary material to scrutinize action situations and focal transactions in bioenergy value chains. A framework combining institutional economics and value-chain approaches guides our analysis. The findings suggest that linkages between action situations in bioenergy villages can facilitate accommodation of conflicting expectations of village actors in their responses to future changes, as they create opportunities and enhance capabilities to balance interests of actors and promote cooperation and coordination across value chains. Village and higher-level policy aiming to future-proof villages’ facilities against challenges of the Energiewende could capitalize on linkages of action situations across bioenergy value chains.

Book Review: Visual Culture and Public Policy: Towards a Visual Polity? by Victor Bekkers and Rebecca Moody

Visual Culture and Public Policy: Towards Visual Polity? Victor Bekkers and Rebecca Moody. London and New York: Routledge, 2015. 242 pp. $140 hbk.The goal of Visual Culture and Public Policy: Towards Visual Polity? authored by Victor Bekkers and Rebecca Moody is threefold. One aim is to explore the evolution of contemporary by the growing number of information and communication technologies (ICTs) used to create and distribute information over the last two or three decades. Second is to explore the links between what the authors call visual culture (e.g., visualization of events) and public policy-making in political and societal contexts, especially with the rise of populist democratic process. And third is to conceptualize the changing nature of relations between media, including new and social media, and the entire cycle of public policy making from agenda setting to policy design. The authors use several case studies from North America, Europe, and other regions to illustrate their arguments and theoretical assumptions and discuss the future implications.Bekkers and Moody specialize in research on public administration and public policy, with focus on contemporary technological trends and changes that affect policy-making in modern democracies, especially in Europe. Both are professors of public policy and public administration at Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. This volume is part of broader research project dubbed the Erasmus Studio Rotterdam, which asks the following: How do media images interplay and impact politics and the policy-making process in relation to public communication in modern democracies? How are and policy-making intertwined, elaborating concepts of and public communication?The 10 chapters of the monograph are designed to assess the background, development, and interactions between media culture, politics, and policies of contemporary democracies in the era of the information and social media revolution. To conceptualize their research approach, the authors have developed their theoretical framework, research methodology, and analytical model based on a comparative case study method. They argue that although policy makers make much use of the power that resides in words, scholars in public administration have not paid substantial attention to the emergence of new persuasive practices in which pictures, videos, films, photos, and 3D simulations are being used to frame policy problems and policy actions. This process of visualization of actions is co-evolv[ing] with other social, economic, cultural and practices.The book opens with four chapters that introduce the world of images, providing brief historical overview and conceptualization of modern technologies and their impact on policy process. Chapters 1 and 2 deal with the emergence and history of visualization in modern societies, going beyond the so-called CNN effect (or how television has shaped public opinion) into recent technological inventions that have created whole new world of events and consequently led to new social, economic and practices. …