Organizational Forms Research Articles

Public trust in Chinese elder-care social enterprises: common awareness and diverse perspectives from key stakeholders

Chinese elder-care social enterprises (SEs), emerging hybrid organizations that address welfare problems in elder care through business activities, face ambiguity as the institutionalization of the SE sector is growing rapidly. Few studies have focused on changes in public behavior and trust in this emerging organizational form. The purpose of this research is to identify public trust in Chinese elder-care SEs through the theoretical lens of stakeholder trust. A qualitative methodology was adopted in this study. Common awareness and diverse perspectives among stakeholders were identified by conducting 17 semi-interviews and 3 participatory observations on 5 key stakeholder groups of Chinese elder-care SE, followed by a thematic analysis. The findings identified common awareness and diverse perspectives among stakeholders. First, weak public awareness and confusion were emphasized toward the concept and practice of elder-care SEs. Additionally, although conceptualizing the hybrid nature evoked positive perceptions, the analysis identified a weak consensus about SE norms. In terms of the diverse perspectives of stakeholders, this study found that stakeholders manifested heterogeneous rigor and adherence to social and business dimensions, suggesting the hybrid nature of elder-care SEs. We further interpreted these diverse findings and proposed a framework to explicate different characteristics of stakeholder trust on the basis of hybridity. This research fills a research gap by providing empirical findings on the public trust of an emerging organization. Despite its limitations, the findings demonstrated an understanding of public trust through a relationship-specific perspective, which qualitatively integrated the commonalities and particularities of entities that constitute the public. This work contributes to future studies through its theoretical scope and analytic framework.

Эффективность оптимизации здравоохранения: правовые аспекты

The article analyzes the contradictory nature of legislative and other legal acts of federal and regional authorities on the introduction of “new forms of labor and wage organization” in the healthcare sector. The negative consequences of such legal measures are described. The next intentions of the developers of legal sources dedicated to correcting negative situations in the economy are noted.

Big Science: before and after the Manhattan Project

Abstract Although the concept of Big Science is not well defined, it is often identified with expensive and government-funded post-World-War II projects in physics and space research. However, this definition is too narrow both with regard to chronology and with regard to the sciences in question. Apart from offering some general comments on the notion of Big Science this paper adopts a historical perspective by singling out a few cases of pre-twentieth century Big Science projects in physics and astronomy. These were exceptions, however, and it was only with the Manhattan Project and the early generations of high-energy accelerators that the Big Science era truly started. As argued the development involved new forms of organisation as well as new ethical problems relating to the role and responsibility of the individual scientist.

The Story of Czech Anarchism: Ideas and Practices of Czech Libertarians, 1883‐1930

The rich history of Czech anarchism is not well-known internationally. The movement was comprised of thousands of proletarians (especially Northern Bohemian miners) and some important poets. It ended in a surprising and original way with the formation of an anarchist political party in 1914. This led to participation in national governments between 1918 and 1922. To explain the dynamics, the article narrates five separate stories of the Czech anarchism. After a summary recounting the development of the Czech anarchist movement from a temporal and spatial point of view, it examines ideas about the individual and society, organisational forms and organisations, and, finally, the national question, gender, and direct action.

Network technologies as a tool for self-presentation of small religious groups (the case of Buddhism new for Russia)

This article analyses the results of a long-term study of the strategies of the Russian-speaking Buddhist community in relation to the Internet and new media. The authors present the results of a study of two cases of Buddhist digital innovators - communities of the Russian-speaking branch of the International Dzogchen Community and Russian Theravada. The authors chose these two cases for analysis, since they are representative for the sociological consideration of the multidimensional connections between online and offline communications of Russian digital Buddhism. The subject of the study seems to be especially relevant, since in modern sociology more and more attention is paid to the study of the influence of media technologies, the Internet and social media on religious traditions, practices and forms of social organisation of religion. The reason for this is the deepening process of mediatisation of modern societies. It has brought with it fundamental transformations of various spheres of social activity. Religions are involved in the process of mediatisation, that poses a number of serious questions that require new answers unknown to their traditions. Thus, the digitalisation of sacred texts brings with it the devaluation of the tradition of canonical knowledge and interpretation of sacred texts. In this complex context of reformatting social reality, Russian traditional religions are developing their own reflections and responses to the risks of mediatisation. On the Russian-language Internet, Orthodoxy, Islam, Judaism and Buddhism are represented by a rich variety of websites of the corresponding religious communities and centres of various trends, podcasts, channels, publics, groups and blogs on social networks. And, as the results of sociological research demonstrate, the discussion of the correlation of the value-normative coordinates of everyday life with religious-doctrinal regulation serves as the semantic core of trans-local religious communications mediated by media. New digital media challenge religious traditional values, since they provide space and ways of forming new religious authorities, new ways of influencing a certain religious group. The study was conducted using a methodology developed by the authors, combining methods of mathematical modelling and qualitative sociology. The authors conclude that, paradoxically, non-traditional Buddhist organisations in Russia have adopted an innovative strategy and have proven to be very creative in attracting new media and promoting their own presentations in the public space. And the directions of Buddhism that have been institutionalised in the past 30 years, on the contrary, are conservative.

Развитие административно-территориального устройства Кабардино-Балкарии в 1920-е го-ды: проблемы, задачи, тенденции

The article studies the problems of internal administrative and territorial reorganization of the Kabardino-Balkarian Autonomous Oblast (Region) in the 1920s. During this period, there was an active process of searching for effective forms of power organization, the formation of a system of Soviet autonomies and the establishment of a new Russian state in the region. In such circum-stances, the Soviet government identified one of the fundamental factors of state national policy as taking into account the interests of non-titular peoples living closely in national autonomies – national minorities. In Kabardino-Balkaria, those minorities included Cossacks, mountain Jews, Germans, Kumyks, etc. The governance of the Kabardino-Balkarian Autonomous Oblast (Region) has actively joined in solving the issues of their self-determination. At the same time, certain forms of self-determination of national minorities provided for direct subordination to regional authorities. The administrative and territorial transformations carried out in the 1920s affected the foundations of the national autonomy of the Kabardian and Balkarian peoples, which was reflected in the institutional transformation and involvement in its structure of the majority of peoples liv-ing on the territory of Kabardino-Balkaria. The issues of self-determination of national minorities were considered in July 1925 at the plenum of the Central Executive Committee of the Kabardino-Balkarian Autonomous Oblast (Re-gion), the transcript and protocol of the decision of which are published as an appendix to this ar-ticle. They are of great scientific importance for understanding the main problems, tasks and trends in the development of the administrative and territorial development of Kabardino-Balkaria in the reviewed period.

ОЦІНКА ЕФЕКТИВНОСТІ РОЗВИТКУ ВИРОБНИЧОГО ПОТЕНЦІАЛУ ПІДПРИЄМСТВА АВТОСЕРВІСУ

The main task of the automotive service enterprise is to efficiently provide high-quality technical maintenance and repair services for vehicles that meet consumer expectations. The production of quality services in automotive service enter-prises primarily depends on the state and level of the potential of the production process. This is determined by the condition of the technical and technological support of the production base, the level of professionalism of employees involved in the production of technical maintenance and repair services for vehicles, and the perfection of the organization and manage-ment forms of the enterprise’s production potential. There is a need to determine the directions and rational level of costs to increase the production potential of the enterprise. Accordingly, the purpose of the study is to develop a model for assessing and justifying the directions and volumes of increasing the production potential of the automotive service enterprise. When planning the development of production processes and increasing production potential, it is necessary to evaluate the direc-tions and the corresponding level of capital investments in the development of the enterprise and its production process components. It is essential to consider that the costs of increasing production potential must be economically justified. The demand for services and the price per norm-hour of service production work should simultaneously ensure the expected qual-ity of the service for consumers and the reimbursement of costs invested in the development of the enterprise. The level of improvement and development of the service production process in specific directions should be determined and evaluated based on the economic effect obtained from the implementation of measures to increase the production potential of the en-terprise. The analysis and evaluation of the effectiveness of improving the production process of the enterprise are based on determining its real and potential capabilities for carrying out production activities. A mathematical model has been devel-oped to assess the effectiveness of directions for developing production potential and possible losses in the implementation of unjustified, ineffective decisions. A methodology has been developed for determining the effectiveness of investments in the development of the production potential of the enterprise and the directions and volumes of costs for its improvement. Keywords: auto service services, production process, potential, efficiency, evaluation.

Turnip hoeing matches in Aberdeenshire, 1840–1940: Material practice and cultural impact

Abstract This article explores the competitive hoeing matches, which were a significant feature of certain parts of Scottish rural life in the period 1840 to 1940. An analysis of newspaper reports shows how important such matches were in Aberdeenshire, attracting significant numbers of both competitors and spectators. By contrast, similar reports for the rest of Scotland show only a small number of such matches outside the northeast. Reasons for the differences are attributed to both material factors, such as the visibility of cultivation, and the social structure of the areas. In Aberdeenshire, a culture valorising hard work and skill was set in a social structure of small farmers and farm servants, which led to self-sustaining organisational forms. By contrast, elsewhere a top-down form of organisation prioritising the needs of farm productivity meant that competitive hoeing matches failed to kindle much enthusiasm. The value of a focus on taken-for-granted practices is the way it can shed light on such contrasts.

Collaborative Optimization of a Matrix Manufacturing System Based on Overall Equipment Effectiveness

When several traditional flow-shop lines operate in parallel, the operation mode with no communication between production lines will no longer be the optimal production paradigm. This paper describes matrix manufacturing systems (MMS) in a general manner from the perspective of related works, comparing different manufacturing organizational forms and their characteristics. Subsequently, MMS are extracted during the parallel production of multiple surface mount technology (SMT) lines. An overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) online calculation model and a collaborative optimization method are proposed based on the OEE of the MMS. The innovative idea of this study is to divide existing multiple parallel SMT lines into MMS. The efficiency of each matrix unit (MU) was calculated, and a collaborative optimization method was proposed based on an indicator (OEE). In this paper, an example of eight SMT lines is presented. The partitioning of MUs, OEE calculation of each MU, and the low OEE unit collaborative optimization method are described in detail. Through a case study, the architecture of the collaborative optimization model for the MMS was constructed and discussed. Finally, the improvement in the OEE proved the effectiveness and usability of the proposed architecture.

Three Shanghai General Meetings and Catholic Publishing in the First Half of the Twentieth Century

The Catholic publishing undertaking in China experienced significant growth in the first half of the twentieth century, both in the scale and in the form of organization. This effort’s importance is twofold: for the Church in China back then, publications facilitated communications both inside and outside the Church; for researchers today, these files contain a vast amount of information on Catholic life, valuable for the enrichment of historical understanding. This paper uncovers the internal driving mechanism of this process through three Shanghai general meetings: the Plenary Council in 1924, the All-China General Congress of Catholic Action in 1935 and the Catholic Press Convention in 1947. The co-ordination fostered by these meetings generated resilience and efficiency for publishing activities allowing them to be sustained and to prosper during an unsettling period. The Council heralded cross-congregational and cross-national co-operation by standardizing publishing practices and forming designated central organizations. Inheriting these guidelines, Catholic journalist delegates of the Catholic Action Congress in 1935 gathered to discuss practical methods, leading to a proliferation of Catholic publications. Despite setbacks during the Sino-Japanese War, Catholic publishing quickly resumed following the Press Convention held in 1947, which reinforced collaboration regardless of affiliations through a central organization. The three general meetings not only showcase the historical trajectory of Catholic publishing, but also the constant endeavor to bridge gaps between communities.

Governance structure, organizational form, and business performance: A study of the Shanxi piaohao (banks), 1820s–1930s

This paper studies Shanxi piaohao, China’s first and largest private remittance banking group, established by a group of merchants from Shanxi province. Drawing on extensive primary sources, our study offers the first empirical analysis of the piaohao’s business organisation and performance. We show that piaohao thrived but were also constrained by their own private rules. In their earlier development, they successfully overcame the commitment problem by implementing a townsmen-guarantor-based recruitment system, a centralised M-form structure, and a multilateral punishment mechanism. To align the interests of shareholders and employees, they created employment shareholders and offered a competitive compensation scheme. However, piaohao’s governance structure became obsolete as shareholders increasingly failed to monitor head managers in the later period. A drastic increase in business volume and a changing business climate also exposed the defects of a centralised structure. As modern Chinese banks rose to prominence, the piaohao were gradually outcompeted and declined.

Envisioning ecological security through local direct action: community resistance with global resonance

ABSTRACT As climate change becomes a pressing concern for policymakers and citizens around the world, a variety of security discourses have emerged framing the environment as a security issue. While dominant frameworks focus on securing national interests, the international order, or individuals, the ecological security framework presents an alternative discourse. Ecological security requires a refocusing of the security discourse onto the environment itself, vulnerable communities, and future generations, and requires the exploration of alternative, relational forms of social and economic organisation. This framework has often been discounted as an impractical and radical alternative to dominant discourses, however, I argue that ecological security can, and is, being enacted by local communities around the world through radically relational activist methodologies. I suggest that direct action methodology employed by environmental activists can enable the enactment of ecological security by local communities. By investigating the connections and overlaps between blockade-style activism, direct action methodology, and Indigenous resurgence, it is possible to envision a locally-based, radically relational, bottom-up model of ecological security. Through an investigation of the conflict between Wet’suwet’en land defenders and the Coastal GasLink pipeline, this community-activist-ecological security nexus is drawn out and examined as a possible path forward for climate security.

Social services and organizational legal forms of their provision

Social services and organizational legal forms of their provision

ДИНАМИКА РАЗВИТИЯ БИЗНЕС-ДЕМОГРАФИИ ОРГАНИЗАЦИЙ В УСЛОВИЯХ ЦИФРОВОЙ ЭКОНОМИКИ И ЕЕ ВЛИЯНИЕ НА ПОДХОДЫ К ОЦЕНКЕ ЭФФЕКТИВНОСТИ ДЕЯТЕЛЬНОСТИ

The relevance of the research is justified by the change in the external environment of organizations’ activities, which is manifested in the integration of ICT technologies into the sphere of organizations’ activities. The turbulence of the external environment also affects the business demography of organizations that require detailed analysis. The study presents the cur - rent structure of organizations in the cross-section of various organizational and legal forms and reveals the current share of non-financial corporations in the gross value added of Russia. Shows changes in the business demographics of domestic com- mercial organizations by form of ownership, current number, opening and closing in the 21st century. The dynamics of activity in the registration of new IT-organizations and in the use of special software by commercial organizations is reflected, and the dynamics of IT-industry development by main indicators is revealed. The growth of the share of IT-organizations in the total number of different organizations over time is revealed. The influence of the dynamics of development of business demogra- phy of commercial organizations on the established approaches to assessing the effectiveness of their activities has been es - tablished. The necessity to revise these approaches in the conditions of the digital economy has been substantiated, and the corresponding proposals have been put forward.

Environmental protest outcomes in austerity-era neoliberalism: perseverance and politics

ABSTRACT This paper explores environmental protest outcomes during the decade of the 2010s in the UK. In doing so, it presents the results of a qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) of all 54 major environmental protest campaigns during the period. The study explores alternative causal conditions relating to a number of strategic and tactical options that environmental movements typically face. It finds that two alternative routes were sufficient for environmental protest campaigns to be successful: perseverance over time, in which longstanding campaigns staged a relatively large number of protest events; and instances where opposition political parties drew on, and supported, the demands of protesters. Interestingly, some of the more contested tactical options, including whether to adopt more or less disruptive methods, were inconclusive in explaining the successful outcome of protest-led campaigns. The article argues that this supports the case for tactical diversity. The findings show how in a context of austerity-era neoliberalism, where the government was (ostensibly) committed to tackling climate change, then protests (regardless of the organisational form or type of protest) proved able to exert effective pressure upon the government and firms, to ensure some degree of concession to the climate movement, provided that the protest campaign was able to persevere over time and/or secure the support of opposition political parties. This suggests a susceptibility, by both the state and firms during austerity-era neoliberalism, to (considerable) popular and political pressure arising from protest, but in the absence of which economic interests would otherwise take priority over environmental concerns.

Міжнародно–правова практика мобілізації та способу комплектування Збройних Сил

The article examines the peculiarities of the legal regulation of the mobilization process in the United States of America, Great Britain, Finland, and the Baltic countries, the practice of which has its own specifics associated with national traditions, the conditions of military and reserve service, the geographical location of the country, and other characteristic features. It is noted that the full-scale invasion of Russia on the territory of Ukraine forces most European countries to take urgent measures aimed at changing the methods of mobilization for war, as well as shifting the economy to the production of military equipment and the implementation of organizational and legal forms and methods of conscription and replenishment of mobilization resources as in their own countries and in NATO. It has been proven that when a decision is made on the mobilization deployment of the armed forces in the USA, the draft of men is carried out in 6 stages, which include organizational and legal actions aimed at the adoption by Congress of relevant amendments to the mobilization legislation, the procedure for the draft of specific persons based on the drawing of a lottery, the implementation of attestation persons and enlistment of conscripts for active service. The right to serve in the United States, on the basis of secondary education, has all citizens of the United States and citizens of other states who permanently reside in the state. Staffing of the army of Great Britain is mainly carried out on a professional basis. However, the government of the kingdom, in order to reduce the level of crime, youth unemployment and the Russian threat to the West, is inclined to return mandatory military service to the country in 2025. Candidates for joining the army mobilization reserve are recruited by theMilitary Information and Career Bureau. It is outlined that the armed forces of Scandinavia and the Baltic States, in contrast to the armies of the United States and Great Britain, continue to expand the conscription process due to the increased threat from Russia. Thus, the order of recruitment of the armed forces of Finland is carried out on the basis of the Law “On Conscription for Military Service”, in Latvia the mobilization process is regulated by the Law "OnMilitary Service", Lithuania conducts military conscription in accordance with the Law “On Military Conscription”, and in Estonia the legal basis of the defense of the country is regulated by the Law “OnMilitary Service”. It has been proven that military servicemen, conscripts and reservists are mainly criminal, administrative, disciplinary and materially responsible for violating mobilization legislation in NATO countries. It is noted that the domestic mobilization legislation requires targeted legal support, adaptive military management and a complex and systemic approach to the organization of the mobilization process.

Современное состояние и тенденции развития сельскохозяйственной потребительской кооперации

Today, small forms of management in the Russian agro-industrial complex occupy a significant share in the structure of producers for certain groups of agricultural raw materials and food. Institutional transformations that have taken place over decades in the agro-industrial complex have shown the viability of such a form of organization as agricultural cooperation. The advantages that determine the competitiveness of cooperation include reducing transaction costs, economies of scale, increasing the share of rural producers in the final price of products, etc. Modern socio-economic trends dictate new conditions for the formation of food chains and the participation of economic entities in them. In this connection, there is an urgent need to analyze trends in the development of agricultural consumer cooperation. This will make it possible to determine strategic directions for development and justify relevant measures of state support for both small business forms themselves and the cooperative form of their organization. The purpose of the study is to comprehensively analyze and substantiate the development trends of the institution of agricultural consumer cooperation, as the most important component of ensuring food security in Russia in modern conditions. Achieving this goal involves the use of general scientific methods of cognition (historical and logical, comparative and system-structural) and traditional methods of economic analysis. The trends in the development of the Institute of Agricultural Consumer Cooperation have been studied. A comprehensive analysis of the competitive advantages and weaknesses of small business forms in the agro-industrial complex was carried out. The potential for growth of the institution of agricultural consumer cooperation in the conditions of transformation of the socio-economic space has been identified. The experience of supporting agricultural cooperatives in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation was studied. Measures of state support for the development of this institution that are relevant to current trends in economic development are substantiated. The results of the study and the conclusions drawn on their basis will be useful for supporting management decisions in the field of development of the agro-industrial complex, increasing the efficiency of planning and implementing state support for the small business sector in the agro-industrial complex

Taxation in insolvency (bankruptcy) procedures of legal entities

Subject. The article analyzes a set of norms related to the legal regulation of personal income tax, corporate income tax, VAT, and other taxes, as well as the order of their collection (payment) from a bankrupt, depending on its organizational and legal form. The choice of the research object is due to the presence of problems related to ambiguous issues in taxation in bankruptcy proceedings.The purpose of the study. The article attempts to comprehensively analyze the legal support of the current measures regulating the taxation of bankrupt organizations and individuals, current law enforcement practice, and the legal positions of the country's highest courts.Methodology. The leading research method is a formal legal one.Conclusions. The article reveals and concretizes a number of legal problems. The authors argue their own point of view on the taxation of bankrupt organizations and individuals, taking into account the practice of the highest judicial authorities, which, according to the authors.It is concluded that there are grounds to talk about the formation of such a new legal institution of financial law as "public bankruptcy law".

The unusual DAO: An ethnography of building trust in “trustless” spaces

Blockchains have been discussed as a response to the decline of trust for as long as the technology exists. This paper expands the discourse on trust in blockchains to decentralised autonomous organisations (DAOs), novel forms of organisation deployed on top of a blockchain. I show how core tenets about trust in blockchains are mirrored in the design of DAOs. Echoing Nissenbaum’s call to nourish trust online, an ethnographic case study of the blockchain art collective DADA exemplifies how DAOs may be designed differently to allow for trust to emerge. The paper contributes to the scholarly debate on trust in blockchains, by extending it to the layer of DAOs and describing various avenues for further research and builds a more nuanced understanding of DAOs as a modular framework to address declining trust online. Overall, the findings indicate how the affordances of DAOs can be expanded to encompass both “trustless” organisation and trusted online communities.

From needs to policy action: Italian agri-food districts as a case of territorial cooperation

In the context of ecological and social challenges in global food systems, this study investigates the potential of agri-food districts to foster balanced territorial development. A multi-step approach to developing sustainable agri-food districts is outlined. How these districts, as integrated systems and meso-level organizational forms, can enhance sustainability through governance is then assessed. This research uses a context-driven analysis pathway involving stakeholder participation and needs identification. The theoretical background, the Italian regulatory framework, and a case study from Lombardy are presented. Needs are identified through participatory approaches and actions are prioritized using desk research and a narrative SWOT analysis combined with key stakeholder discussions (focus group). A total of eighteen needs are identified and categorized into 3 dimensions of sustainability: economic, environmental, and socio-institutional. Findings indicate that agri-food district organization has great potential to help achieve local and regional policy goals in line with the shift to sustainable approaches in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The paper proposes actions to strengthen district capacity-building, focusing on internal governance and sustainable production chains. Additionally, initiatives to attract young people to rural areas and agreements for ecosystem services in agri-food districts are suggested. These actions aim to promote sustainability and competitiveness while addressing challenges related to governance, innovation, branding, demographics, and environment. In conclusion, the study prompts critical inquiry into governance models and system dynamics. The innovative aspects of this study lie in its methodological approach, integration of theory and practice, holistic perspective, policy relevance, and critical inquiry, which collectively contribute to advancing knowledge and understanding in the field of sustainable agriculture and territorial development.