Informal Links Research Articles

Women and Power in Zimbabwe: The Need for Feminist Approaches in Considerations of Political Elites

Women politicians in Africa often find themselves in precarious positions as they negotiate their place in men-dominated environments. Their positions are further complicated because political power remains weakly institutionalised in most parts of Africa and highly dependent on informal links between individuals/groups and their respective networks. Given this, this paper looks at both formal and informal networks and relationships, as shaped by local political culture and contexts, to advance the search for a way to provide a more reliable picture of the realities of women politicians within the African context. It advances the elite theory by demonstrating how a feminist approach helps provide a way of understanding political elites that accounts for contextualised gendered power dynamics and experiences. It does so using Zimbabwe’s Joice Mujuru as a case study. The paper combines an African feminist approach and discourse analysis to trace the various debates and discourses around Joice Mujuru’s power to influence policies and decisions, her reputation, and her precarious position in Zimbabwe’s men-dominated political spaces. The paper concludes that a feminist perspective in considerations of political elites helps to better comprehend how various political cultures and contexts shape the understanding of women’s roles and positions in political groups and networks and their relationship to power centres. Such comprehension can shed light on contextual factors to take into account when considering effective ways of promoting women’s political leadership. Ultimately, the paper proposes an African feminist method to help create a path to further explorations of African elite groups and networks in gender-sensitive and context-based ways.

Research on performance feedback path under the influence of organizational restructuring

In diverse and changing environments, organizations often need to reorganize their teams in order to adapt to market changes, improve performance and promote innovation. Team restructuring involves the merging, realignment, or reorganization of different departments or teams, usually accompanied by reassignment of personnel, changes in roles, and new job requirements. The innovation and organizational theory literatures argue that implementing radical innovation can be facilitated or hindered by the organization’s structural design (Abraham YNahm, 2003), a process in which the integration of elements and performance feedback become crucial factors that affect the success of the team and employee satisfaction. team success and employee satisfaction. Specialization, formalization, informal social relations and link mechanisms have positive significant effects on innovation capability (Mohammad Iranmanesh, 2021) The purpose of this paper is to analyze the feedback paths of factor integration and performance outputs of reorganized teams in the hope of providing a multifactorial theoretical support for reorganized teams and finding positive feedbacks of performance outputs.

Getting around the roundworms: Identifying knowledge gaps and research priorities for the ascarids.

The ascarids are a large group of parasitic nematodes that infect a wide range of animal species. In humans, they cause neglected diseases of poverty; many animal parasites also cause zoonotic infections in people. Control measures include hygiene and anthelmintic treatments, but they are not always appropriate or effective and this creates a continuing need to search for better ways to reduce the human, welfare and economic costs of these infections. To this end, Le Studium Institute of Advanced Studies organized a two-day conference to identify major gaps in our understanding of ascarid parasites with a view to setting research priorities that would allow for improved control. The participants identified several key areas for future focus, comprising of advances in genomic analysis and the use of model organisms, especially Caenorhabditis elegans, a more thorough appreciation of the complexity of host-parasite (and parasite-parasite) communications, a search for novel anthelmintic drugs and the development of effective vaccines. The participants agreed to try and maintain informal links in the future that could form the basis for collaborative projects, and to co-operate to organize future meetings and workshops to promote ascarid research.

Non-equilibrium large deviations and parabolic-hyperbolic PDE with irregular drift

Large deviations of conservative interacting particle systems, such as the zero range process, about their hydrodynamic limit and their respective rate functions lead to the analysis of the skeleton equation; a degenerate parabolic-hyperbolic PDE with irregular drift. We develop a robust well-posedness theory for such PDEs in energy-critical spaces based on concepts of renormalized solutions and the equation’s kinetic form. We establish these properties by proving that renormalized solutions are equivalent to classical weak solutions, extending concepts of (DiPerna and Lions in Invent. Math. 98(3):511–547, 1989; Ambrosio in Invent. Math. 158(2):227–260, 2004) to the nonlinear setting.The relevance of the results toward large deviations in interacting particle systems is demonstrated by applications to the identification of l.s.c. envelopes of restricted rate functions, to zero noise large deviations for conservative SPDE, and to the Gamma -convergence of rate functions. The first of these solves a long-standing open problem in the large deviations for zero range processes. The second makes rigorous an informal link between the non-equilibrium statistical mechanics approaches of macroscopic fluctuation theory and fluctuating hydrodynamics.

Well-Being as an Effective Aspect in the Perception of Vital In-between Spaces within Art and Architecture Faculties

In recent years, well-being has become an increasingly important consideration integrated with functional aspects in the design of educational spaces due to its significant impact on the built environment. Although the features of educational spaces have been explored in a myriad of studies, the potential of in-between spaces has not been well explored. This paper reveals the significance of in-between spaces in educational buildings beyond their functional use as the fundamental circulation within a building, indicating that they also play a dynamic role through their design as elastic gathering spaces that encourage informal interactions and link users psychologically and visually, which affects their well-being. However, the potential of these spaces is often overlooked compared to the main educational spaces. Additionally, during the design process, there seems to be a tendency to reduce these spaces to a bare minimum, in favor of exploiting larger spaces, which shows that they are regarded as merely connecting points or transitional spaces. The research problem addressed here is the lack of a clear, adequate understanding of the effect of designing in-between spaces on the productivity and well-being of users, as there are no criteria regarding in-between space designs to enhance well-being. The current paper aims to evaluate the reality of the in-between space design within the art and architecture faculties of Jordanian universities according to the perception of faculty members and students based on well-being requirements. Accordingly, a survey was designed to address the 11 key criteria identified in the literature, including (1) physical features and visual appearance; (2) size and design of in-between spaces; (3) circulation and movement space zoning; (4) ergonomics and furnishing; (5) lighting; (6) colors and finishing; (7) acoustics; (8) heating, ventilation, and air conditioning; (9) visual communication and instructional tools; (10) social and cultural spaces; and (11) accessories. The paper utilizes a mixed approach through survey and observation, where the findings are analyzed from three case studies to reveal the dimensions that need to be taken into account and developed to meet the needs of users. The results of the study demonstrate that the specific dimensions of circulation and movement, ergonomics and furnishings, colors and finishing, and accessories must be taken into account to create an interactive environment that advances the educational process and therefore enhances productivity.

Travail invisible et liens informels entre campagne ordinaire et rue populaire

Cet article fait le récit de la vente informelle d’épis de maïs franciliens dans les rues de l’agglomération parisienne en montrant qu’une partie de cette activité contribue à la relocalisation silencieuse du système alimentaire urbain dans les quartiers populaires de la métropole. En l’abordant à travers les témoignages des travailleurs et non uniquement par la géographie des flux de marchandises, il a été possible de montrer le rôle moteur des efforts quotidiens de subsistance dans le renouvellement de la ville par ses marges. La vente de maïs dans la rue doit cependant faire face aux contradictions internes du modèle de la ville durable : alors qu’il n’a jamais été autant question de réduire l’empreinte écologique de l’alimentation des villes par la relocalisation des approvisionnements, la requalification urbaine des quartiers populaires réduit les possibilités de déploiement de systèmes intermédiaires frugaux qui renouvellent les liens avec la campagne voisine.

(In)formal distribution channels in Romania during the 1980s: Entrepreneurial foreign students within the Second Economy

This article explores the role of entrepreneurial foreign students in the entangled informal networks of the second economy in Romania during the 1980s by questioning an underexplored part of the distribution chain, namely the provision of commodities missing or in short supply which further fueled the black market. Using a network analysis that traced improbable connections, we identified an unexpected channel in the form of international trade fairs, seen here as potential occasions where informal links are most likely to be first realized. The case study figured the second economy as a transnational place where various actors competed in the generation of hard currency.

Scaling up sustainability through new product categories and certification: Two cases from India

IntroductionThe Indian food system faces a nexus of challenges in supply, demand and market linkages in the face of environmental and human development needs. The current agri-food system demands large-scale sustainable innovations, facilitated by an action-oriented approach by the rising number of actors in the agricultural space. These actors include public, private, non-profit and research institutions. They increase the scope for innovations to emerge and scale up through refocused investments and novel collaborations. Such successes in India, furthermore, can provide models of promising innovation pathways for many other countries in the Global South. Yet few case studies are available on successful innovations that have gone beyond the longstanding technology-led approach.Methods (case study methods)This article presents two cases of other pathways. The first is an example of a differentiated new product category: the “pesticide-free” food product category and dedicated value chain established by Safe Harvest Private Limited. The second is an example of self-regulation through a certification standard: the Trustea code created within the Indian domestic tea industry.ResultsBoth are driving sustainability at scale in Indian agri-food systems in two very different contexts, with the private sector leading the way.DiscussionThey offer insights on the roles of end users, trust, informal and formal links and actions, government endorsement, innovation bundling, and partnership.

Triple Helix interactions in a rural context: The case study of a regional business incubator

This study explores the relationships within university-industry-government interactions, with specific reference to the business incubator of Penela, Portugal. It describes the formal, informal and human resource links between the sample of thirteen firms based in the incubator and universities, as well as the relations between Penela Town Council and the incubator. The impact of all these linkages on the development of the biotechnology and agricultural sectors is considered. The results confirm that the dynamics of the relations between the Triple Helix actors led to the emergence of the Penela Incubator. The latter operates as a mechanism of knowledge/technology transfer and stimulates cooperation between the university and industry, which is characterized by mostly informal links. In addition, the research revealed that these interactions had a positive impact on the development of the region, resulting in the creation of companies and the introduction of innovative products.

International sourcing and the productivity of SMEs in transition countries: Formal and informal ‘region effects’ and the communist footprint

We study how SMEs in transition countries can boost productivity by sourcing inputs from regions with which they share formal institutional links (the European Union) or informal links (the former communist bloc). Additionally, we discuss how the length of the communist footprint may modify these productivity gains. Using a sample of SMEs located in Eastern Europe, we find a positive relation between firm productivity and inputs from regions with formal and informal institutional links. We also find that this positive relation is weaker for firms with longer communist footprints that source inputs from EU countries.

On Being an Ombudsman: Protecting the Public Interest While Navigating the Minefield of Policy Networks

After 50 years of institutional history in Canada, the focus of ombuds has shifted from resolving individual complaints to improving the quality of government services for all. New tools in the ombuds world enabled the conceptualization and promotion of administrative fairness. Ombuds’ acquired expertise, which, shared with government, improved the delivery of services. Public systemic investigations are now seen as the ultimate expression of ombuds effectiveness. Consistent dialogue with public servants and organisational administrators inevitably links ombuds to policy networks. While informal links to policy networks can help ombuds resolve cases, they can also inadvertently create distance between ombuds and complainants. A former ombuds officer at Columbia University, Marsha Wagner emphasizes the importance of identifying systemic issues in ombuds practice, i.e., ombuds who do not focus on systemic issues may be derided as “wannabes”. This article suggests the pendulum has swung too far from the individual complainant to a systemic focus and urges caution in contemporary ombudship.

Barriers and opportunities to incorporate scientific evidence into air quality management in Mexico: A stakeholders’ perspective

Air pollution is among the most pressing environmental issues worldwide. Unfortunately, an effective reduction in air pollution remains elusive, and so does the incorporation of scientific evidence into air quality policies. This paper takes seven Mexican cities as study cases to document barriers and opportunities to incorporate scientific evidence into air quality policies. Supported by the Grounded Theory approach, we conduct and analyze interviews to decision-makers, researchers, and representatives of non-governmental organizations involved in programs aiming to improve air quality in Mexico. Findings from this study illustrate differences across cities in the technical capacity to produce evidence, and document barriers shared to incorporate evidence into air quality management – including institutional capacity, interest groups, legal frameworks, and limited knowledge transfer. Opportunities that increase integration of evidence into air quality policies include follow-up programs, guaranteed research funding, contextualizing the topics to be investigated as a public problem, and assigning a crucial role to research so that formal and informal links among decision-makers and scientists are formed and strengthened.

СОЦІАЛЬНА ВІДПОВІДАЛЬНІСТЬ ЗАКЛАДІВ ВИЩОЇ ОСВІТИ ЯК ЧИННИК РОЗВИТКУ В УМОВАХ СТРУКТУРНО-ІННОВАЦІЙНИХ ПЕРЕТВОРЕНЬ

A special research focus is put on the critical need to adapt performance of higher education institutions to the specifics of global-institutional transformations associated in the first place with modern economic development trends. The core of any higher education institution activities relies upon the readiness of society to develop this kind of activity. To gain strong public support, universities should perform certain social activities (community project funding, provide social protection for employees, caring for the environment, etc.), along with informing society about such activities, thus emphasizing their importance. The research hypothesis is represented by a statement that institutionalization of social responsibility of higher education institutions should be transformed into a process of formalization of socioeconomic relationships which are characterized by a gradual transition from informal links and chaotic (unorganized) interactions between universities to formalized relationship patterns with a clearly organized structure, hierarchy and a regulatory framework. The purpose of this study is to determine the role of social responsibility of higher education institutions as a powerful driver in boosting structural innovative transformations. To attain the objectives set, the following research methods have been employed: an evolutionary method, historical and systemic approach, analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction techniques – to render explicit concept definitions; an institutional approach – to enhance the hierarchical structure and content of the elements of social responsibility of higher educational institutions. The findings have revealed the nature of the institutional approach and the specifics of its application to explore social responsibility of higher education institutions. In addition, an improved hierarchy and the content of social responsibility structural elements have been suggested for higher education institutions. It is argued that the developed principles of the hierarchical structure of social responsibility of higher education institutions will contribute to shaping robust behavioural patterns within the innovative educational paradigm that meet the demands of all stakeholders in the higher education system.

Understanding the veterinary antibiotics supply chain to address antimicrobial resistance in Lao PDR: Roles and interactions of involved stakeholders

In response to the global call to mitigate risks associated with antimicrobial resistance (AMR), new regulations on the access and use of veterinary antibiotics are currently being developed by the Lao government. This study aims to explore how the implementation of these new regulations might effectively reduce and adapt the sale, distribution and use of veterinary antibiotics in Lao PDR. To this end, we used the theory of change, framing the AMR issue within the context of the stakeholders involved in the veterinary antibiotics supply chain.Qualitative and quantitative methods were used to collect data, based on questionnaires (n=36 antibiotic suppliers, n=96 chicken farmers, n=96 pig farmers), and participatory tools such as a workshop (n=10 participants), semi-structured interviews (n=20), and focus group discussions (n=7 participants). The stakeholders’ understanding of the AMR issue and potential challenges related to the implementation of new regulations regarding access and use of antibiotics, were also investigated.We mapped the veterinary antibiotic supply chain in Lao PDR, and analysed the roles and interactions of its stakeholders. Twenty-three stakeholders representing the private and the public sectors were identified. Many informal and formal links connected these stakeholder within this supply chain. The lack of veterinarian-farmer interaction and the evolving nature of the veterinary antibiotics supply chain accentuated the challenges of achieving behaviour change through regulations. Most of the antibiotics found on farms were categorized by the World Health Organisation's as critically important antibiotics used in human medicine.We argue that AMR risk mitigation strategy requires dialogue and engagement between private and public sectors stakeholders, involved in the importation, distribution, sale and use of veterinary antibiotics. This study further highlighted that AMR is a complex adaptive challenge requiring multi-sectoral approach. We believed that a sustainable approach to reduce and adapt veterinary antibiotics use should be prepared in collaboration with stakeholders from private and public sectors identified in this study, in addition to the new regulations. This collaboration should start with the co-construction of a common understanding of AMR issue and of the objectives of new regulations.

The mechanism of synergetic interaction of policy instruments of central banks with the governments of their countries as an element of increasing the level of economic development in the face of an epidemic threat

Goal. The purpose of the research is to conduct a comparative study of the work of the Central Bank of the world with their governments in the context of forming a mechanism for synergistic interaction of its economic policy instruments to improve the level of economic development. Topicality. The actualization of this study is the need to establish effective formal and informal links between the central bank as a system-forming financial institution that shapes the monetary policy of the state and the government as a governing body that creates a virgin economic policy. There is a need for a systematic comparative analysis of the experience of developed and developing countries in order to form an effective tool for economic policy of the central bank with its government and make effective management decisions aimed at improving the level of economic development. Results. The system of relations between the central bank of developed and developing countries and their governments is described. Factors of positive and negative influence on the formation of economic policy tools of the central bank of the countries and their governments are revealed. Formal and informal links have been analyzed between the world country’s central bank and its government in the process of implementing the central bank’s economic policy. The mechanism of synergetic interaction of the tools of economic policy of the central bank of the countries with their governments is improved, which contains indicative indicators of the interactions of the central bank, ministries, government of the countries for the purpose of making effective management decisions. The necessity of systematic work of all stakeholders (central bank, government, other stakeholders) in the process of forming economic policy, the implementation of which can affect the level of economic development of the state, is substantiated. Conclusions. The comparative analysis with elements of benchmarking estimation is carried out The mechanism of relations of the central bank of the country with its government is improved. The role of this interaction of the country's central bank with its government and other stakeholders was assessed.

The impacts of organizational structure on operational performance through innovation capability: innovative culture as moderator

This study aims to test the impact of organizational structure on the innovation capability and operational performance of manufacturing firms considering innovation capability as a moderator. Data were collected through a survey completed by 212 medium and large manufacturers in Malaysia and analysed using the partial least squares technique. Results show that specialization, formalization, informal social relations and link mechanisms have positive significant effects on innovation capability. Furthermore, the relationship between innovation capability and operational performance is supported. Innovation capability also positively moderates the impacts of informal social relations and link mechanisms on firms’ innovation capability. Findings of this study help managers of manufacturing firms to enhance their firms’ innovation capability and operational performance. This study is the first attempt in the organizational structure literature to operationalize innovation capability and operational performance using a multidimensional concept. Furthermore, this study also extends the literature by testing the moderating effect of the innovative culture.

SME credit constraints and access to informal credit markets in Vietnam

PurposeA review of literature has documented that accessing formal credit and other banking services has always been a crucial challenge for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The alternative, therefore, tends to be informal channels. However, the credit constraint vis-à-vis informal channel link does not appear to be well documented in the literature. This study aims to investigate whether credit constraints significantly affect the probability of accessing informal credit, as well as the credit values of Vietnamese SMEs.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses a trinary approach and correlated random-effects Probit and Tobit techniques to avoid the incidental coefficients problem.FindingsThe results suggest that relative to unconstrained and partially constrained firms, fully constrained firms tend to be more active in the informal credit markets, shown by their higher probability of informal credit access and larger credit values.Originality/valueTo the best of authors’ knowledge, this is the first study on Vietnam that takes a different approach to credit constraints and examines their impact on informal credit access. Policy implications arise and are discussed.Peer reviewThe peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-11-2017-0543

Tamil Character Recognition, Translation and Transliteration System

Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is the machine conversion of handwritten or typed data into machine encoded scripts. English, is the informal link to all the regional languages in India and is used to publish reports, papers, magazines and records. Monolingual systems are incapable of doing so, thus increasing the need of bilingual frameworks. We have created a character recognition system that converts the user’s input in the Tamil language to English. Additionally, we can also perform transliteration of Tamil to English and vice versa. The bilingual OCR system, “MOZHI VALLAAN,” which has an accuracy of 94%, will be used.

Outsourcing cyber power: Why proxy conflict in cyberspace may no longer pay

A sizable literature implies that states can achieve military and foreign policy objectives “on the cheap” by outsourcing covert operations to willing non-state proxy actors, be they mercenaries, patriotic zealots, pranksters, or simply enemies of enemies. By outsourcing, a host government can claim plausible deniability while all the while cashing in on strategic gains. Attribution is notoriously difficult in cyberspace, so outsourcing should especially prevalent. Puzzlingly, strategies of cyber outsourcing have not widely diffused, even in countries where hackers are both highly capable and ideologically sympathetic to host state objectives. This article leverages a formal analytical model to hypothesize about why it might no longer pay to outsource to cyber proxies. Default explanations, including principal-agent problems, are neither sufficient nor necessary to explain recently observed patterns. Instead, I argue, new attribution technologies, particularly the willingness of states to make allegations about informal state-proxy links on the basis of circumstantial and cumulative rather than legally admissible evidence, mean that outsourcing carries no real added benefit to offset its risks. Normative momentum regarding the international law on state responsibility should only reinforce this trend as international audiences come to more fully accept nontraditional forms of attributive evidence.

Parlamentarier für Europa – Die Vernetzung des Bundestags mit europäischen interparlamentarischen Körperschaften durch Doppelmandate (1950-1969/70

The article examines inter-parliamentary institutions as a factor for interstate cooperation in Europe in the 1950s and 1960s. For this purpose, an analysis of the relationship between the parliamentary assembly of the European Communities, the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Western European Union and their connections to the Bundestag through dual mandates is carried out. Based on the relevant literature, the article highlights formal and informal inter-organizational links as well as partly overlapping and competing competences between these inter-parliamentary institutions. By using the example of the Federal Republic of Germany, multiple connections between the Bundestag and the emerging European parliamentary level are shown. Finally, the article focuses on the disentanglement of the parliamentary levels in the 1970s.