Role Of Corporations Research Articles

Everywhere but Nowhere: Development Experiences of the International Game Developers in Finland during the Covid-19 Pandemic and Remote Work

The Covid-19 pandemic has influenced people's views on work, and a significant portion of the global game industry converted to remote work during the pandemic. To explore the status of game development in this pivotal moment, we have conducted semi-structured interviews with 27 immigrant/expatriate game developers ("game expats") in Finland analyzing their migration push and pull on societal, industrial, social, and individual factors. The results indicate societal and industrial factors simultaneously influencing game expats' migration intention, but with an increasing influence of game corporation's role on developers' both on-the-job and off-the-job embeddedness due to an absence of (local) community activities during the pandemic. The data also reveals that game developers are valuing the physical workspace for face-to-face interactions, despite the industrial norm of digital tools and seamless transition to remote work. Furthermore, an alarming stratification and hierarchization within the game industry were identified, which game developers self-dividing in-house versus outsourced workforce even if they were both required to work remotely. This paper contributes to game studies on game developers' experiences as an attempt to investigate the local context of game development. It is also one of the first snapshots of game work practices in Finland during the Covid-19 era.

The myth of economic incentives around the debate on the design of optimal pension systems: A survival analysis for the Argentine case

AbstractFrom a panel of administrative data of contributors to the Argentine pension system, a survival analysis was carried out to compare the time in months until contributor status is lost for individuals who reach the minimum retirement age. The analysis involves two periods: one where the fully funded scheme was in force and the other with the pure pay‐as‐you‐go scheme in effect. It is observed that the survival curve of the contributor status during the second period is always above that in the first one, indicating that the probability of maintaining this status was always higher during the second period. Likewise, it was found that belonging to the cohort/group of the first period is significant in explaining the risk of losing contributor status, even controlling for other relevant variables. This result contrasts with the predictions of the World Bank about the best incentives that the fully funded scheme would generate for the supply of formal labor.Related ArticlesAngelaki, Marina, and Leandro N. Carrera. 2015. “Radical Pension Reforms after the Crisis: A Comparative Analysis of Argentina and Greece.” Politics & Policy 43(3): 378–400. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12117.Hazakis, Konstantinos J. 2015. “The Political Economy of Economic Adjustment Programs in the Eurozone: A Detailed Policy Analysis.” Politics & Policy 43(6): 822–54. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12141.Jakee, Keith, and Keith Stacy. 2021. “Revisiting Pension Reform in Sweden: The Role of Corporatism (and Why it Matters).” Politics & Policy 49(3): 651–81. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12405.

Development of eco‐industrial parks in Ethiopia: The case of Hawassa Industrial Park

AbstractAs win‐win solutions at the park level, eco‐industrial parks (EIPs) have become the mainstream model to realize a sustainable transition of industrial parks in the world. However, few cases have been implemented in Africa, even though Africa is fertile ground for the growth of industrial parks. This study explores the transition process and outcome of a typical African industrial park—Hawassa Industrial Park (HIP) in Ethiopia. We adopted the international framework for EIPs and applied the strategic niche management (SNM) framework to uncover the transition performance and process. This study shows that HIP's development is a clear articulation of implementing the sustainable development strategy and the industrial park development corporation's role. However, the analysis also identified limitations such as the impracticability of certain framework criteria and inapplicable indicators. Although HIP is still at the nascent stages of EIP implementation, we have found three critical factors for EIP development in Ethiopia from our preliminary observation. These include the importance of actors, the learning process, and having standards for an indicator system. These indicators are of exceptional value to Ethiopian researchers and practitioners in integrating sustainability into local economic development.

Revisiting Pension Reform in Sweden: The Role of Corporatism (and Why it Matters)

Defying a trend across the industrialized world, Sweden is one of the few countries to fundamentally restructure its public pension system. This reform has spurred interest in explaining how the Swedish political system accomplished a feat that has eluded so many other nations. Anderson claims it was largely due to politically powerful unions and industrial groups supporting government efforts, while Feltenius counters that Anderson underestimates the influence of smaller, issue‐oriented pressure groups, the pensioners' organizations. The Anderson‐Feltenius dispute reflects disagreement over Pierson's theory of welfare state development and retrenchment, as well as the persistence and influence of corporatism. We re‐examine, in detail, the argument proffered by Feltenius and suggest, as a theoretical matter, both he and Pierson neglect the importance of informal rules in political decision making. We also present additional evidence, ignored by Feltenius, that unions—and by inference corporatism—remained influential during Sweden's reform. We thus argue Sweden's experience is unlikely to be valuable for noncorporatist countries.Related ArticlesAngelaki, Marina, and Leandro N. Carrera. 2015. “Radical Pension Reforms after the Crisis: A Comparative Analysis of Argentina and Greece.” Politics & Policy 43 (3): 378‐400. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12117König, Pascal D. 2015. “Moral Societal Renewal or Getting the Country Back to Work: Welfare State Culture as a Resource and a Constraint for Policy Discourse.” Politics & Policy 43 (5): 647‐678. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12130Pierson, Chris, and Louise Humpage. 2016. “Coming Together or Drifting Apart? Income Maintenance in Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.” Politics & Policy 44 (2): 261‐293. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12150

Transformations of corporatism in neoliberal era

This article is devoted to the study of the formation and current state of corporatism in Western European countries. Author shows how the evolution of corporatism took place since the XIX century and how corporatism was transforming during the XX century. Particular attention is paid to the last stage of the development of corporatism, which is associated with the evolution of neoliberalism and political pluralism. Corporatism is seen as a form of interaction between organized groups of society and the state, and as a political-ideological category rooted in medieval social philosophy. Corporatism flourished in the post-war decades, when most of the countries of Western Europe took the path of creating vertically integrated associative groups representing the interests of the main socio-economic groups, primarily business and employees. At the same time, corporatism has always been built on a clear value foundation, which implies the pursuit of public interests and the equal distribution of resources among all parties of corporate agreements. The article shows how the onset of neoliberalism led to a reduction in the role of corporatism. Since the 1990s, in those countries that traditionally lined up to the process of agreeing on and adopting key political decisions on a corporate basis, there has been an obvious pluralisation of the systems of interest groups, which is increasingly replacing the tradition and practice of corporatism. At the same time, corporatism does not disappear; in many countries it remains an important element of collective bargaining, but its nature and content are changing. We can conclude that the classic concepts of corporatism are not able to fully explain its current state, it is necessary to use new approaches that could reveal the essence of the transformations taking place.

Does corporate social responsibility affect corporate profit margins?

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is increasingly playing a major role in Corporate Business Strategy. Initially, many firms played "lip service" to CSR in trying to be compliant with a new initiative that perceived with being counter to the primary responsibility of having a sustainable business and making adequate returns to the shareholders. Today, CSR has had its profile raised in all major corporate firms and is a major topic not only in firm advertising, but also in the media and boardrooms. For example, recent studies are claiming that the Technology sector is in a unique position to assist corporations using their core competencies in data analytics. While many businesses understand that CSR is the "responsible" thing to do, very few have quantified CSR. CSR needs to be investigated and the only way to do so is to conduct studies on the full impact of this important corporate initiative. This paper analyses the relationship between the major components of CSR and Corporate Financial Performance (CFP). Using a random selection of 100 companies from the Fortune 500, as well as four independent components of CSR, a multiple regression was performed. The four variables were selected from a CSRHub data collection of over 17,000 companies. The final model analyzed the following four independent components of CSR: (1) Community, (2) Employee, (3) Environment, and (4) Governance. The findings show that a linkage exists between firm's profit margin and CSR, with the primary effect coming from the CSR value of employees.

Do Overconfident CEOs Pay More to Shareholders? Evidence from the US Market

This paper aims to discover evidence on the possible impact of CEO overconfidence on payout policy, and the role ofcorporate boards in offsetting the possible negative effects of this overconfidence. Our investigation demonstrates theeffect of overconfidence on the choice of payout method, specifically regarding the repurchases-dividends mix. Wealso evaluate the ability of corporate governance mechanisms to reduce or even eliminate the negative effects of CEObehavior on payout decisions.This study is conducted using a sample of 671 non-financial companies from the US for the period of 2007–2016. Weapply probit regressions to study different aspects of payout decisions, and use a panel GMM estimator to check forpossible endogenous effects. Using a corporate governance quality index, we test the ability of boards of directors toreduce negative effects of CEO’s overconfidence on the payout decisions.Our findings confirm the hypothesis that overconfident CEOs tend to increase the levels of payout in the form ofrepurchases, while the levels of cash dividends are unaffected by this type of CEO behavior. Moreover, an overconfidentCEO is more likely to initiate repurchases if this has not been done already. The results further illustrate thatoverconfident CEOs not only pursue higher levels of repurchases, but also switch more often from cash dividends torepurchases. However, it is also shown, in contract to previous research in the field, that efficient boards of directors havevery limited power in eliminating the negative effects of CEO overconfidence.This paper contributes to the existing literature by analyzing the specific area of CEO overconfidence using data fromthe United States, and follows specific lines of inquiry which have not been deeply studied. Further possibilities toexplore the implications of this research exists particularly in the consideration of its apparent contradiction of previousresearch. There is yet scope to determine applicable tools of reducing the negative effects of specific CEO behaviors. It ispossible to identify and investigate other relevant behavioral characteristics that may influence payout decisions. Further,these characteristics may be evaluated to see if the operation of these interrelations reproduce alternative results in termsof the effect of corporate governance, both in the US and in other markets.

Norwegian Fascism in a Transnational Perspective: The Influence of German National Socialism and Italian Fascism on the Nasjonal Samling, 1933–1936

Following the transnational turn within fascist studies, this paper examines the role German National Socialism and Italian Fascism played in the transformation of the Norwegian fascist party Nasjonal Samling in the years 1933–1936. It takes the rivalry of the two role models as the initial point and focusses on the reception of Italy and Germany in the party press of the Nasjonal Samling. The main topics of research are therefore the role of corporatism, the involvement in the organization caur and the increasing importance of anti-Semitism. One main argument is that both indirect and direct German influence on the Nasjonal Samling in autumn 1935 led to a radicalization of the party and the endorsement of anti-Semitic attitudes. However, the Nasjonal Samling under leader Vidkun Quisling never prioritized Italo-German rivalry as such. Instead, it perceived itself as an independent national movement in the common battle of a European-wide phenomenon against its arch-enemies: liberalism and communism.

PENGARUH PYRAMID OF STRUCTURE DAN PENGUNGKAPAN TRANSAKSI PIHAK BERELASI TERHADAP TINDAKAN EKSPROPRIASI, DIMODERASI OLEHTATA KELOLA PERUSAHAAN

The objective of this study is to analyze the effect of company’s ownership through pyramid structure, and related party transaction disclousure, on expropriation practices, with corporate governance asmoderating variable. The concept of expropriation practices in this study is measured by related partytransaction assets, liabilities (RPT AL) and related party transaction sales, expenses (RPT SE).Analytical technique used is hierarchical regression analysis for testing hypotheses developed in thisstudy. Research population is a manufacturing company listed in Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) during years 2014-2016, and the sample is selected using purposive sampling method. The results of this studyfails to prove effect of company’s ownership through pyramid structure, and related party transactiondisclousure on expropriation practices. Furthermore, this study indicates the corporate governance canto increase the level of related party transactions disclosure, but has not been to reduce the expropriationpractices caused by company’s ownership through pyramid structure. This study contributes to the theory of agency type II which discusses conflict of interest between controlling and non-controllingshareholders, especially the problem of information asymmetry, which can be minimized by the role ofcorporate governance.

Companies and the Rise of Economic Thought: The Institutional Foundations of Early Economics in England, 1550 to 1720

Seventeenth-century England was the site of a profound transformation of early economic thought. The amount of works published increased rapidly and the works became less concerned with morality and scripture and more concerned with national prosperity and empirical evidence. We show that the proliferation of the chartered company in a context of low state representation of merchants play an important role in this shift. We outline the mechanisms through which chartered companies impacted publication rates of economic texts and provide systematic evidence of the impact of companies and merchant representation with a time series analysis of the period from 1550 to 1720 that controls for a number of other possible factors. We further supplement this analysis with data on author biographies and the changing contents of the works. The results are consistent in supporting the importance of chartered company in stimulating the new discourse on economics and suggest a new appreciation of the role of corporatism in stimulating both economic discourse and the shape of the early expansion of the public sphere in England.

The Role of Corporatism in Building a New Model of Major-Country Relationships

Building a new model of major-country relationships is an unprecedented undertaking requiring theoretical support. However, existing theories, whether Western or Chinese, find it hard to assume the task of providing the theoretical foundation for such a model. Corporatism, which has both Chinese and Western cultural elements, offers conditions for such an undertaking. Although China-U.S. relations have some unusual features, corporatism offers the prospect of directing them away from the “Thucydides trap” and avoiding the political tragedies of major powers. For China and the world, making corporatism or group cooperation the central idea in building the new model of major-country relations will be a big step forward for the model and for international relations.

The Corporatist Wave Corporatism and the Diffusion of 'Organic Representation' in European Dictatorships

The paper examines the role of corporatism as a set of authoritarian institutions that spread across inter-war Europe and which was an agent for the institutional consolidation of fascist era dictatorships. Institutionalized, in many cases in the wake of polarized democratizations, inter-war dictatorships tended to choose corporatism both as a process for the repression and co-optation of the labour movement, interest groups and of elites through ‘organic’ legislatures. Powerful processes of institutional transfers were a hallmark of inter-war dictatorships and we argue corporatism was at the forefront of this process of cross-national diffusion of authoritarian institutions.

“PROPAGANDISTS FOR THE BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES”: THE OVERLOOKED PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN THE CARNEGIE CORPORATION AND SSRC IN THE MID‐TWENTIETH CENTURY

The Carnegie Corporation's role as a patron of the behavioral sciences has been overlooked; its support for the behavioral sciences not only began earlier than the Ford Foundation's but was also at least equally important to their success. I show how the close postwar collaboration between the Carnegie Corporation and the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) to promote the behavioral sciences emerged after a struggle between Carnegie and the Rockefeller Foundation over the direction and leadership of the SSRC. I then focus on three postwar projects Carnegie helped conceive and fund that were publicized as the work of the SSRC: Chase's The Proper Study of Mankind (1948), Stouffer et al.'s The American Soldier (), and the Michigan's Survey Research Center 1952 election study. In each of these projects, Carnegie deliberately muted its own role and promoted the remade SSRC as a major advocate for the behavioral sciences.

Contesting the Value of “Creating Shared Value”

This article critiques Porter and Kramer's concept of creating shared value. The strengths of the idea are highlighted in terms of its popularity among practitioner and academic audiences, its connecting of strategy and social goals, and its systematizing of some previously underdeveloped, disconnected areas of research and practice. However, the concept suffers from some serious shortcomings, namely: it is unoriginal; it ignores the tensions inherent to responsible business activity; it is naïve about business compliance; and it is based on a shallow conception of the corporation's role in society. [Michael Porter and Mark Kramer were invited to respond to this article. Their commentary follows along with a reply by Crane and his co-authors.]

PROMOTION OF CORPORATE GOVERNANCE FOR SUSTAINABLE FOREST DEVELOPMENT IN SRI LANKA

Forestry offers many market and non-market benefits of subsistence needs, commercialproduction and environmental services. The forests in Sri Lanka are used by many whilemanaged by a few. Hence, the arrangement to govern the multiple interests and needs ofdifferent stakeholders have to be clearly defined or understood. Otherwise, there will be alittle change in livelihood of forest communities and further degrade the remaining forestresources. The key elements of corporate governance are the transparent and equitablerelationships between stakeholders, accountability and participatory decision making.The papers discuss the problematic issues affecting forest development; the role ofcorporate governance in forest development; and the impacts of improving governanceon sustainable forest development. The major problematic issues are described in termsof the nature of forest resources and the nature of the ownership. The major roles ofcorporate governance are recognized as: the reforms of administrative and political bodythat make and implement forestry and environmental laws; the way these bodiesrepresent and are accountable to forest communities and civil society; and thearrangements that enable forest communities and civil society to enter into dialogue withthe government. The impacts of improving corporate governance would be the balancedpower and decision-making between central government and local government; promotedrelationship between government and forest communities; and developed relationshipswithin the forest communities

Putting public value at the heart of cultural excellence: Exploring a transformational journey of workplace strategy at the BBC

The arrival of a new Director General and Chairman of the BBC Trust in 2004, together with the eighth BBC Charter, which came into operation from 1st January, 2007, heralded a new era for the BBC and prompted a fresh approach to the property portfolio. The Charter, which runs for ten years, contained a number of new commitments that aimed to redefine the Corporation's role as a public service provider. BBC Workplace is playing a pivotal role in supporting the BBC's efforts to deliver public value. This paper outlines the transformational journey taken by BBC Property/BBC Workplace to develop an intelligent real estate strategy that empowers the Corporation to deliver high-quality, original content, drive innovation, support challenging new technologies and engage a global audience. Today, the BBC's real estate portfolio comprises 207 properties and 571,000m2 of space across the UK. Over the last decade, the BBC Property/BBC Workplace teams have focused on an intense programme of portfolio optimisation to deliver the Corporation's vision of ‘public value’, while ensuring flexibility and innovation to attract and retain the best creative talent. This paper will explore lessons learned from four milestone projects in the BBC Property/BBC Workplace journey towards a new, more intelligent, real estate strategy.

Corporatism and Authoritarian Institutions in Interwar European Dictatorships

This paper examines the role of corporatism as a political device against liberal democracy that permeated the political right during the first wave of democratisation, and especially as a set of authoritarian institutions that spread across interwar Europe and which was an agent for the hybridisation of the institutions of fascist-era dictatorships. Powerful processes of institutional transfers were a hallmark of interwar dictatorships, and we will argue corporatism was at the forefront of this process of cross-national diffusion, both as a new form of organised interest representation and as an authoritarian alternative to parliamentary democracy. The diffusion of political and social corporatism, which with the single-party are hallmarks of the institutional transfers among European dictatorships, challenges some rigid dichotomous interpretations of interwar fascism.

The Transnational Corporation and New Corporate Citizenship Theory

A recent conceptualisation of corporate citizenship by Matten and Crane (2005) shifts focus onto the corporation's role in providing individuals with the rights they are entitled to as citizens. This expanded corporate role is depicted as filling an institutional vacuum resulting from the withdrawal of the state. Marking an innovation to the corporate citizenship literature, we devise a three-part analytical framework from political institutionalism to question the concept's ideological and empirical groundings. Incorporating a constrained game theory perspective, we use an example of the provision of Western corporate services by low-labour-cost nation-states to argue that the concept as strategy would in some circumstances exacerbate the implications of globalisation on individual citizenship rights. The analytical framework has application for research directed toward proposals to extend the reach of corporations in traditional public services and, more generally, for studies of corporate responsibilities.Future research on corporate citizenship would be strengthened in recognising, as we do, institutional incentives, constraints, decision-making modes and resources as used by the transnational corporation.

Europe vs America: Institutional hysteresis in a simple normative model

We show how the differences in US and European institutions can arise in a normative model. The paper focuses on the labor market and the government's decision to set unemployment benefits in response to an unemployment shock. The government balances insurance considerations with the tax burden of benefits and the possibility that they introduce adverse “incentive effects” whereby benefits increase unemployment. It is found that when an adverse shock occurs, benefits should be increased most when the adverse incentive effects of benefits are largest. Adjustment costs of changing benefits introduce hysteresis and can help explain why post-oil shock benefits remained high in Europe but not in the US. Desirable features of the model are that we obtain an asymmetry out of a symmetric environment and that the mechanism yielding hysteresis is both simple (requires the third derivative of the utility function to be non-negative) and self-correcting. Empirical evidence concerning the role of corporatism is discussed.

Europe vs. America: Institutional Hysteresis in a Simple Normative Model

We show how the differences in US and European institutions can arise in a normative model. The paper focuses on the labor market and the government's decision to set unemployment benefits in response to an unemployment shock. The government balances insurance considerations with the tax burden of benefits and the possibility that they introduce adverse incentive effects whereby benefits increase unemployment. It is found that when an adverse shock occurs, benefits should be increased most when the adverse incentive effects of benefits are largest. Adjustment costs of changing benefits introduce hysteresis and can help explain why post-oil shock benefits remained high in Europe but not in the US. Desirable features of the model are that we obtain an asymmetry out of a symmetric environment and that the mechanism yielding hysteresis is both simple (requires the third derivative of the utility function to be non-negative) and self-correcting. Empirical evidence concerning the role of corporatism is discussed.