Explanatory Framework Research Articles

Exploring the Characteristics of Solid Waste Management Policy in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area

The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) plays an important role in China’s development strategy. With recent GDP growth and high population density, solid waste generation has emerged as a significant challenge for the region. This study sought to clarify GBA’s solid waste management policies by constructing a two-dimensional policy analysis framework covering nearly 99 available policy texts. This quantitative method provides an explanatory framework for solid waste management policy in GBA, identifying the main policy objectives and instruments as well as making comparisons. Additionally, given the variations in policy format resulting from regime differences, this paper utilizes a novel approach to encode the documents. The results of the study indicate that both Macao and Hong Kong have made greater progress than Shenzhen in waste management development. While Shenzhen is primarily focused on source control, Macao and Hong Kong have transitioned to the recycling stage, with Hong Kong having a more advanced system. It is recommended that Shenzhen increase its engagement in information sharing, learning, and collaboration with Macao and Hong Kong. Moreover, it is observed that Shenzhen’s waste management approach relies heavily on administrative measures, whereas Macao and Hong Kong have implemented social participation-oriented and economic incentives-oriented policies, respectively. There is also an adaptation deviation between Waste Collection and Treatment Development (WCTD) and the policy instruments used to achieve it in the three cities. It is imperative that the three governments utilize their policy tools in an effective manner and have a rational use of power and the performance of functions. These findings can provide recommendations for promoting inter-city learning and collaboration in the GBA.

What Does Morality Have to Do with It? What Haidt and Moral Foundation Theory Reveals about White Evangelical Christian Women Who Advocate for Politician Donald J. Trump

This qualitative research offers an explanatory framework to identify potential moral motives evangelical Christian women demonstrate when championing Donald J. Trump, who defies biblical morality. Through focus groups and in-depth semi-structured interviews and utilizing Haidt’s Moral Foundation Theory (MFT), which hypothesizes that conservatives rely on all five of his moral value pairings in their moral implementation. This study juxtaposes whether MFT pairing references are applied when evangelical white Christian women expound on their admiration for the politician, Donald J. Trump. The findings from this study suggest that MFT verbiage accounts for a considerable amount of moral rationale from the participants, who consider their religious faith to be first and foremost in their lives when discussing politics and their political viewpoints. Their discussions and answers touch on all five of Haidt’s moral value pairings. These conservative Christian women’s long-established sanctified realm of religion, family, and the sovereign state hold firm in today’s political debate.

Two decades of research on board gender diversity and financial outcomes: Mapping heterogeneity and future research agenda

AbstractThis study seeks to comprehend the sources of substantial heterogeneity in the findings of board gender diversity and firm financial performance over the last two decades. We present an explanatory framework primarily ignored in previous review studies and chronologically review theoretical perspectives, analytical frameworks, measures, associations, and methodologies from 1996 to 2022. We employ a four‐step systematic review methodology and a three‐point thematic analysis framework. Our findings provide an explanatory framework outlining various channels that impede and facilitate the impact of board gender diversity on firms' financial outcomes. Our review reveals a plethora of descriptive studies that focused solely on one rather than multiple theoretical perspectives, which is a potential limitation and the root cause of heterogeneity in existing study findings. Heterogeneity is also linked with differences across studies in capturing firm performance, statistical inquiry, periods of studies, study samples, gender diversity of independent board members, family or non‐family affiliations, omitted variable bias, the proportion of women directors on corporate boards, and economic contexts. Another reason for disparities in existing research is that gender diversity is not the only measure of diversity. Consequently, it is unclear when and which kind of board diversity measure should capture a firm's financial performance. We highlight the significance of the complexity perspective to address the limitation of measuring firm financial performance intently as a function of BGD from a singular theoretical perspective. Further, to better understand the antecedents of BGD, studies should use psychological and behavioural perspectives via an interview‐based research design to encapsulate the team and individual attributes of BGD. Based upon our review, we suggest that future research should consider cultural differences to understand the antecedents of BGD on firm financial performance.

Agents, audiences and peers: why international organizations diversify their legitimation discourse

Abstract In the face of public contestation, international organizations (IOs) invoke norms in their public communication to enhance relevant audiences' legitimacy beliefs. This article offers the first comprehensive analysis of what we term normative diversity in IOs' discursive legitimation by drawing on a novel dataset on norm-based justifications in more than 32,000 paragraphs of text published by 28 regional IOs between 1980 and 2019. We show that IOs vary strikingly in this respect: whereas some IOs invoke a narrow set of norms, often focused on economic welfare and functional capability, others engage a wide variety that includes security, national sovereignty, democracy or human rights. To explain this variance, we specify and test an explanatory framework that emphasizes IO audiences, agents and peer organizations as distinct origins. Our statistical analysis reveals that IOs diversify their discursive legitimation to 1) address heterogeneous audiences, 2) reconcile competing beliefs amongst agents themselves, and 3) integrate the legitimation of peer IOs. These findings indicate that IOs respond to the growing complexity of international cooperation in their discursive legitimation and may raise policy-makers' awareness of the difficulties in contemporary legitimation efforts.

Behavioral mechanism of herders to maintain forage-livestock balance: an explanatory framework and empirical test incorporating emotions and desires

Behavioral mechanism of herders to maintain forage-livestock balance: an explanatory framework and empirical test incorporating emotions and desires

Workplace Bullying: A Comprehensive Overview of Its Causes, Effects, and Organizational Prevention Strategies

The paper provides an overview of the definition and explanatory framework of workplace bullying, explores the factors that contribute to it, and discusses the serious consequences that both individuals and organizations may face as a result. Additionally, the paper offers practical recommendations for organizations to mitigate and prevent workplace bullying. Through this study, the author aims to contribute to the ongoing dialogue surrounding workplace bullying and assist organizations in creating a safe and supportive work environment for their employees.

Mobilising ideas in the COVID-19 pandemic: Anti-lockdown actions and the Identity-Deprivation-Efficacy-Action-Subjective well-being model

We tested how well the Identity-Deprivation-Efficacy-Action-Subjective-wellbeing (IDEAS) model predicts citizens’ intentions to engage in collective action opposing their government, and their subjective well-being. Representative samples from Scotland, Wales, and the county of Kent in England were surveyed during the COVID-19 pandemic in October 2020 (N = 1,536). Results largely support our preregistered hypotheses, confirming that the IDEAS model offers a valid explanatory framework for how relative deprivation predicts both collective action opposing one’s government and levels of subjective well-being. In the case of collective action, there were significant effects of collective relative deprivation (cognitive and affective) and collective efficacy on social change beliefs, which in turn positively predicted collective action intentions. The role of national identification was more nuanced, revealing both negative indirect effects via collective efficacy and relative deprivation, and a positive indirect effect via political orientation. Findings also suggest interesting directions for future research on national identification.

Describing and explaining consciousness.

Consciousness is a property of advanced brains and as such a biological feature. Explaining biological features is somewhat different from explaining physical phenomena; in the former case, the key is to first define its functional role (the reason why it was selected) and then to outline the evolutionary trajectory leading to its presence. In the case of consciousness, there are reasonable models for both. Further research is required to substantiate these models, but they offer, arguably, the best explanatory framework.

The aging of farmers and its challenges for labor-intensive agriculture in China: A perspective on farmland transfer plans for farmers' retirement

As a major labor-intensive agricultural producer globally, China is facing a rapidly aging farming population and a persistent exodus of young farmers. There are no clear answers to the questions of how China's labor-intensive agriculture will be shaped by these challenges and what future changes will occur. Exploring the agricultural practices of older farmers and the farmland transfer plans (FTPs) of farmers for retirement and the associated mechanisms is important for answering these questions. Thus, we construct an explanatory framework for FTPs using a nested structure consisting of factors at 3 levels, macrocontext, meso-region, and microindividual, and conduct an empirical study based on a field survey of two villages with specialized fruit and vegetable cultivation in China. The results demonstrate the negative effects of an aging farming population on labor-intensive agricultural production, returns, and risk resistance capacities. While macrolevel contextual characteristics in China determine the widespread psychological rejection of farming by the young generation, the interaction of objective factors, including their education level, jobs, wages and their family's agricultural resources and farming practices, shapes the individual heterogeneity in intergenerational farmland transfer plans; moreover, location and geography are among the core factors affecting the regional differences in FTPs. Finally, this paper envisions multiple possible trajectories of China's labor-intensive agriculture and the corresponding geographical patterns under the challenges of the aging of farmers.

An evolving explanatory framework for understanding the complex profile of cerebral visual impairment

An evolving explanatory framework for understanding the complex profile of cerebral visual impairment

Crimea in Ukraine: Smoothing the Edges as Diversity Institutionalization

From the early 1990s, Ukrainian Crimea seemed to face the Russian majority’s separatist inclinations and far-reaching political claims of the formerly deported Crimean Tatars. Nevertheless, the peninsula’s autonomous status secured ethnopolitical stability for about 19 years, and the article considers how the established regime of diversity governance contributed to the autonomy’s endurance. The author concludes that this regime did not fit into an explanatory framework of inter-group balance, such as power-sharing. Among the factors securing durablity were the ambiguity of official narratives, loosely formalized participatory mechanisms encouraging opportunisic behavior and the maintenace of the elites’ and population segments’ expectations.

Recentralization and the long‐lasting effect of campaign‐style enforcement: From the perspective of authority allocation

AbstractThis paper discusses whether the effect of campaign‐style enforcement can surpass the short term from the perspective of authority allocation. Based on the theory of authority allocation, we establish an explanatory framework for the impact of authority allocation on the effect of campaign‐style enforcement. We argue that, through authority allocation, the central government has both formal authority and real authority, which helps to extend the effect of campaign‐style enforcement beyond the short term. We empirically studied the regulatory compliance in China's environmental administrative talk from 2014 to 2016. Statistical findings supported by robustness checks confirm our theoretical hypotheses. Further analysis shows that campaign‐style enforcement can be more effective when local officials have longer tenure, higher levels of education, or older age. Our paper shows that authority recentralization on specific issues can bridge the conflict of policy goals between central and local governments, prolonging the effect of campaign‐style enforcement.

Factors influencing motivation of patients diagnosed with depression to have electroconvulsive therapy.

WHAT IS KNOWN ON THE SUBJECT?: The clinical effect of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) has been confirmed for a majority of patients with several psychiatric disorders. ECT is mostly used in patients with severe depression. Choosing, persevering with and completing ECT depends on the patients' motivation for undergoing this therapy. However, the factors influencing patients' motivation for ECT have not yet been studied. WHAT THE PAPER ADDS TO EXISTING KNOWLEDGE: Four important factors that influence the motivation of patients diagnosed with major depression to have ECT were identified: (1) psychological pain and distress; (2) perceived need for treatment; (3) perception of ECT as an effective treatment; (4) influence of the environment. The first factor, psychological pain and distress, was perceived as the primary motivator for starting and continuing ECT. WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE?: Professionals should be aware of the factors that influence patients to have electroconvulsive therapy and their own role in the decision-making process and during treatment. As patients are susceptible to emotional support and as the motivation of patients for starting and continuing ECT is positively influenced by the advice and support of mental health professionals, these professionals have a key role in motivating patients for ECT. When the patient has decided to start ECT, mental health professionals should explore the factors that influence their motivation and regularly assess these factors so that they can guide the patient in their process. The professional should have an overview of these factors and investigate how they can be positively influenced to help patients keep their motivation during the treatment process. This will contribute to person-centred care and could lead to better treatment outcomes. ABSTRACT: Introduction The factors influencing patients' motivation for undergoing electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) have not yet been subjected to a thorough study. Knowledge of these factors could improve the quality of care for patients with depression recommended to have ECT. Aim To identify the factors that influence the motivation of patients diagnosed with depression to have ECT. Method This qualitative study followed a grounded theory approach in which semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 patients from four different psychiatric hospitals to study their perspectives on factors influencing their motivation to have ECT. Results The explanatory framework of factors influencing motivation for ECT comprises four main categories, starting with the most important category, psychological pain and distress, and continuing with the following categories: perceived need for treatment; perception of ECT as an effective treatment; environmental influences. Discussion In this study, we found that the psychological pain and distress of depression, and their consequences in daily life, had been the primary experiences that motivated patients to start and continue ECT. Implications for Practice This is the first study that has examined motivational factors for patients with severe depression to participate in ECT. Professionals appear to have a key role in motivating patients for ECT. They should explore factors that influence motivation for ECT, regularly assess their motivation and intervene on influential factors.

Urban habitats and food insecurity: Lessons learned throughout a pandemic

BackgroundAn increasing amount of literature raises the issue of food deserts and urban heterogeneity in larger metropolitan cores throughout North America. Specific to Canadian cities, the disparity between access to health, education, and affordable food is of growing concern. Recently, these drivers seem to be significantly linked to the propagation of COVID-19. This paper explores the spatially-explicit dynamics of food deserts in Toronto, by integrating Geographic Information Systems and machine learning to understand the clusters of food deserts. The integration of spatial analysis with self-organizing maps (SOM) offers insights on the relation between neighborhoods, geodemographic profiles and urban characteristics, and whether one might expect consequences of food insecurity given COVID-19. MethodsThe paper starts out with developing a machine learning algorithm based on SOM to define meaningful clusters within the hedonic dataset. Further to this, an exploratory regression was built per cluster as to allow an exploratory spatial analysis to derive an explanatory framework for the key characteristics of socio-economic profiles within the Greater Toronto Area and impacts of SARS-CoV-2. ResultsThe findings suggest that there are clear spatial profiles within the urban core of Toronto in regards to food deserts, showing a direct relation between socioeconomic characteristics and the results on environmental injustice and livability. These profiles are strongly linked with the areas of COVID-19 occurrence, and share a very similar socio-demographic profile, particularly in regards to young and lower income families. ConclusionThere are several food deserts currently in Toronto, Ontario. The integration of policies that involve public health and spatial decision-support, particularly when linked to machine learning to aggregate characteristics of big data, establish a multi-functional understanding of the complexity of food security. This has a direct relation with diet, environment, and the opportunity to enhance subjective well-being in city cores.

What can outliers teach us about entrepreneurial success?

PurposeStudies of unicorns and gazelles can offer detailed information about the process of enterprise development but are unrepresentative as examples of entrepreneurial success. In presenting a novel method for outlier analysis, this article combines insights from case studies of unusual organizations with explanatory frameworks that management scholars have applied to broader samples of firms, irrespective of their survival.Design/methodology/approachThe authors illustrate the approach to outlier analysis using a prominent case from economic history: the House of Rothschild, founded during the 18th century, which became the most famous investment bank in Europe. Following the iterative refinement of mechanisms using comparison data on Jewish enclave firms, this analysis sheds light on the sources of dissimilarity in outcomes between Rothschild and the comparison group.FindingsThe study results suggest that the House of Rothschild's longevity can be explained via the mechanisms of risk sequencing, intergenerational transfers and spatial brokerage. The authors show that these mechanisms are not idiosyncratic to one enterprise but instead generalize to other family firms.Originality/valueOutlier analysis encourages a rapprochement between case study and large-N research. The high failure rate of new organizations means that those yielding a large amount of information to researchers tend to be exceptional. By obtaining data on a comparison group of startups founded by similar entrepreneurs, analysts can probe the mechanisms of success identified for unicorns or gazelles.

Naturopathic Workforce: A Global Resource Toward the Declaration of Astana Goals-A Multimethods Study.

Introduction: The World Health Organization identified health to be the most important social goal and the 1978 Declaration of Alma Ata placed primary health care central to its attainment and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as the template. The Astana Declaration called on a change of focus in primary care, from treatment of specific diseases to the prevention and inclusion of both scientific and traditional knowledge. Such objectives require public-private partnerships in providing health care, including traditional and complementary medicine systems such as naturopathy that align. However, there is limited understanding of global regulatory frameworks and officially recognized training for naturopathy. Materials and Methods: This descriptive study employs an adapted mixed-methods explanatory framework to examine naturopathy regulation and education. Analysis merges data arising from a descriptive policy analysis of regulation from 36 countries and survey analysis from 65 naturopathic organizations from 29 countries. Results: Four types of workforce regulation were identified within 107 countries where naturopathy was practiced-statutory registration or occupational licensing, coregulation, negative licensing, and voluntary certification. No form of naturopathic regulation was most common. Higher graduate/postgraduate education and access to a broader range of practices were more frequently reported in countries where naturopathy is statutory regulated. Government audits were more frequently reported where naturopathy was statutory regulated or coregulated. Discussion: Naturopathic philosophy and practice align with primary health care goals outlined in the Declaration of Astana. The naturopathic workforce represents an untapped health care resource with a demonstrated track record of translating these aspirational goals into practice. However, naturopathy remains inconsistently regulated globally, serving as a significant barrier to partnering with other health system actors to attain the health-related SDGs. Workforce regulation for the naturopathic profession offers increased standards, reduced risks, integrative health workforce planning, and assistance to countries toward achieving the promise of the Declaration of Astana.

Seventy years, 1000 samples, and 300,000 SPM scores: A new meta-analysis of Flynn effect patterns

Several studies have investigated and found the gradual rise in IQ over time or the Flynn effect (FE) but inconsistent results on the FEs across types of countries and age groups were reported. The current cross-temporal meta-analysis aimed to examine the temporal correlations between mean IQ scores from Standard Progressive Matrices and year of publication, moderated by types of countries and age groups covering seven decades (1948–2020). The given relationships were weighted by sample sizes. The dataset included 1038 independent samples (N = 299,155) from 72 countries. The results generally supported the FE with the IQ gain of 0.22 points per year, but the magnitudes of the IQ gains depended on types of countries and age groups. Stronger FEs were evident in middle-income countries and younger generations. A multicausal explanatory framework should be utilized to explain the underlying mechanism of the secular IQ gains across factors.

Causal reasoning for algorithmic fairness in voice controlled cyber-physical systems

Automated speaker recognition is enabling personalized interactions with the voice-based interfaces and assistants part of the modern cyber-physical-social systems. Prior studies have unfortunately uncovered disparate impacts across demographic groups on the outcomes of speaker recognition systems and consequently proposed a range of countermeasures. Understanding why a speaker recognition system may lead to this disparate performance for different (groups of) individuals, going beyond mere data imbalance reasons and black-box countermeasures, is an essential yet under-explored perspective. In this paper, we propose an explanatory framework that aims to provide a better understanding of how speaker recognition models perform as the underlying voice characteristics on which they are tested change. With our framework, we evaluate two state-of-the-art speaker recognition models, comparing their fairness in terms of security, through a systematic analysis of the impact of more than twenty voice characteristics. Our findings include important takeaways to enable voice controlled cyber-physical-social systems for everyone. Source code and data are available at https://bit.ly/EA-PRLETTERS.

Accountability, governance, and institutional change in intergovernmental relations: A theoretical framework

AbstractThis article develops an explanatory framework of institutional change in intergovernmental relations. Using new institutionalism, we focus on a main explanatory factor—the players' perceptions of their own accountability and that of others. Integrating the concepts of multiple accountability and felt accountability, we develop the concept of an accountability gap, meaning differences between the perceptions of players in the central government about their responsibility to provide local services and the perceptions of players at the local level about their responsibilities. Our claim is that perceptual gaps concerning accountability in a two‐tiered or multi‐tiered system may influence their interests, strategies, and behavior and hence determine the timing and pace of specific institutional changes. We illustrate the theoretical framework by examining how Spain managed the COVID‐19 pandemic.Related ArticlesAguado, N. Alexander. 2018. “Mayor‐Council Form of Government and Policy Responses in Times of Economic Travail.”Politics & Policy46(5): 714–30.https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12273.French, Edward P., and Doug Goodman. 2011. “Local Government Human Resource Management Past, Present, and Future: Revisiting Hays and Kearney's Anticipated Changes a Decade Later.”Politics & Policy39(5): 761–85.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747‐1346.2011.00312.x.Kwon, Sung‐Wook, and Sylvia Gonzalez‐Gorman. 2019. “Influence of Local Political Institutions on Policy Punctuation in Three Policy Areas.”Politics & Policy47(2): 300–25.https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12295.

Can the predictive mind represent time? A critical evaluation of predictive processing attempts to address husserlian time-consciousness

AbstractPredictive processing is an increasingly popular explanatory framework developed within cognitive neuroscience. It conceives of the brain as a prediction machine that tries to minimise prediction error. Predictive processing has also been employed to explain aspects of conscious experience. In this paper, I critically evaluate current predictive processing approaches to the phenomenology of time-consciousness from a Husserlian perspective. To do so, I introduce the notion of orthodox predictive processing to refer to interpretations of the predictive processing framework that subscribe to representational views of cognition. As it turns out, current predictive processing accounts of time-consciousness are orthodox given their commitment to representational views of both brain functioning and perception, and, on the other hand, their reliance on the primacy of imagination over perception. However, I argue that such accounts are in fact closer to a Kantian-Brentanian approach to the phenomenology of time-consciousness than to the Husserlian account that they attempt to account for.