Institutional Attributes Research Articles

Legitimacy and anti-corruption disclosures: insights into the early effects of the European Non-Financial Reporting Directive

Purpose This study aims to investigate corporate anti-corruption disclosure (ACD) strategies during the regulative debate surrounding the European Directive 2014/95/EU which for the first time regulated ACD in Europe. By using a legitimacy framework, it assesses whether companies improved proactively their voluntary ACD during the transposition phase to address potential regulatory changes. Moreover, it investigates how organizational and institutional factors influence companies’ reaction. Design/methodology/approach This paper hand-collected ACD data (quantity, scope, quality and transparency) from non-financial reports for the years 2010–2015 for a set of 56 (28 EU and 28 non-EU) companies (336 firm-years observations). The study applies difference-in-difference analysis to assess the effects of the debate. Moreover, it tests the association of ACD with organizational and institutional attributes. Findings The study shows that EU-companies are proactively changing their disclosures. The response is positively influenced by industry exposure to corruption-risks and by lower government corruption, while self-reported negative disclosure impacts negatively. Further, lower government corruption increases the effects of industry exposure to corruption-risks. However, the impacts vary with the disclosure metric. Originality/value Besides reinforcing legitimacy as a driving-force in shaping ACD during the transition phase to a regulated context, the paper integrates traditional legitimacy arguments with insights related to the institutional context. This contributes to improving the understanding of the empirical setting where the production of regulation occurs and can support future regulative processes.

Financial intermediation around national elections: Evidence of state-owned banks as credit smoothers

This study assesses the impact of presidential and parliamentary elections on different aspects of financial intermediation, considering ownership structure as a determining factor. Consistent with the smoothing hypothesis, state-owned banks (SOBs) observed a lending growth rate of 6.67% higher during the presidential election than private sector commercial banks and subsequently experienced a decrease. During the parliamentary election cycle, indications of reciprocal trade between SOBs and peer banks emerge. SOBs step in to address the lending gap created by competing banks' reduced credit offerings, and vice versa, until the electoral uncertainty subsides. Banks implemented a more rigorous policy about their loan practices before the election years. Deposit liabilities of foreign-owned banks grew by 11.49% in the post-parliamentary election year, while SOB witnessed a contraction in deposits in the year following the presidential election. The results have consequences for national savings, investments, and economic growth. The findings align with the level of development a country exhibits, the composition of its banking sector, and its institutional attributes.

Farmers’ evolving attitudes on environmental conditionality in the CAP: a farm level examination of temporal shifts

AbstractGiven the anticipated shift in the allocation of resources under the common agricultural policy (CAP) toward increasing positive environmental outcomes, this study explores farmer attitudes toward the current principle of connecting direct payments to environmental conditionality, known as cross compliance. Furthermore, we explore whether there have been changes in farmer attitudes toward cross compliance over time by posing identical questions to farmers in both 2010 and 2018. A supplementary survey was designed and administered in conjunction with the core EU Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) to assess farmers’ attitudes to linking CAP payments to environmental conditionality. The findings of a generalized ordered logit model indicate a high level of support among farmers for linking direct payments to good agricultural practices and cross compliance standards. Factors influencing farmers’ acceptance of cross compliance can be categorized into several domains, including farm and farmer characteristics, social and institutional attributes, and economic factors. Notably, the level of subsidy dependency emerges as a highly significant factor, with farmers who rely more heavily on direct payments being more inclined to disagree with cross compliance requirements.

The neighbourhood effect on mental well-being in the Global South

ABSTRACT Although individual mental health is a growing concern for the Global South, the southern literature on health and planning has paid limited attention to space-sensitive neighbourhood studies on addressing the crisis. This paper highlights the importance of a holistic neighbourhood environment in shaping the mental well-being of citizens. Through a cross-sectional study of 14,222 households in 272 neighbourhoods of 13 cities across seven countries, the paper claims that there is a place effect on the mental well-being of citizens in rapidly urbanising Asian and African cities. This study demonstrates that the diverse physical and social attributes of neighbourhoods influence mental well-being. Better coverage of neighbourhood services, improved waste disposal services, quality neighbourhood health facilities and educational opportunities, high family solvency, safety, trust in neighbours, dwelling satisfaction, and habits of exercise are found to be the most influential attributes for good mental well-being. However, institutional attributes, like political leadership for neighbourhood management and neighbourhood-level associations, are less likely to be associated with good mental well-being. As the significance of influential attributes varies among neighbourhood wealth categories, cities and countries, a shift towards a place- and context-specific neighbourhood approach for policymaking can best address the mental well-being in rapidly urbanising cities in the Global South.

Participation in multiple policy venues in governance of Chile's Santiago Metropolitan Region: When institutional attributes can make the difference

AbstractThe complexity of metropolitan polycentric governance is still challenging scholars and practitioners, who have mostly been engaged in a normative debate in which scant attention has been paid to the coexistence and interdependence of institutional solutions. The ecology of games framework (EGF) can be used to remedy this gap. By incorporating the analysis of institutional variation into EGF propositions about venues' interdependence, this article examines the mechanisms of metropolitan governance configuration resulting from institutional complexity at the inter‐municipal level. Provincial forums, municipal associations, and inter‐municipal agreements are the policy venues studied in the Santiago Metropolitan Region, Chile. Official documents reporting formal agreements in 2017–2021 help to capture the inter‐municipal governance network to which we apply exponential random graph models (ERGMs). The results show the positive effects of mandated provincial venues on inter‐municipal ties and the absence of the effect of self‐organized municipal associations, tendencies that prevail even when incorporating other relevant covariates into the models. These results nourish the EGF debate about interdependencies between coexisting policy venues, emphasizing the role of the different institutional attributes framing the policy venues and the effects of these differences on governance formation.

Determinants of academic major choice: a comparative study of business programs in Bangladesh

This paper aims to examine the determinants influencing students' choices of academic majors, with a specific focus on business programs at private universities in Bangladesh. It evaluates the relative impact of various factors including subject interest, perceived prestige of the major, faculty reputation, earning potential, and availability of the major. Additionally, this study seeks to analyze how these determinants align with broader socio-economic and institutional contexts. Employing a hybrid analytics method, the study utilizes both quantitative analysis and factor analysis techniques. A dataset of 276 students from three private universities in Bangladesh was surveyed using a structured questionnaire based on a Likert scale. This data was collected over a period that reflects the current trends and perceptions among students regarding their choice of academic majors. The main findings of the study demonstrate that (i) intrinsic interest in the subject significantly influences major choice, (ii) perceptions of economic outcomes associated with the profession, such as earning potential, play a crucial role, and finally, (iii) institutional factors like faculty reputation and the prestige of the major also significantly impact students' decisions. These findings underscore the complexity of factors that students consider when choosing their academic majors, highlighting the interplay between personal interests, economic considerations, and institutional attributes.

An examination of flood resilience in London Borough of Southwark

This paper examines the flooding resilience of the London Borough of Southwark, and the extent to which resilience concepts are incorporated into local flooding management practices. With climate change causing shifts in the global pattern of flood events combined with rapid urban population growth, the importance of cultivating urban resilience is widely recognized by researchers and practitioners alike. This study develops a Flood Resilience Index (FRI) inspired by the CORFU project, based on natural, physical, economic, social, and institutional attributes of the borough. Secondary data from the Legatum Institute Prosperity Index and the Thriving Places Index were used to allow for replicability and comparison with the rest of the UK. Results derived from the FRI revealed that Southwark's low levels of flooding resilience stem from a combination of natural vulnerabilities, compounded by urban challenges including housing poverty, lack of green space, and limited social capital. By locating the gaps in flood resilience and cross-examining these gaps in light of Southwark Council's flooding management strategy, this study contributes to the understanding of urban flood resilience and provides a framework for evaluating resilience in other urban areas.

The influence factors of innovation networking formation based on ERGM: Evidence from the smart medical industry

With the growth of the social economy and technology, innovation networks have emerged as one of the most significant methods for analyzing the evolution of industrial innovation. Yet, there is a shortage of studies analyzing the components that influence network creation. By highly integrating digital technology with the traditional medical industry chain, the smart medical industry has become one of the important sectors of the digital economy. With the advent of internet-based diagnosis and treatment technologies, innovation inside the smart medical industry has taken the form of a network. This study aims to construct an innovation network by organizing and analyzing patent data from China's smart medical industry cooperation, covering the period from 2005 to 2022. The data is sourced from the IncoPat database. The analysis utilizes the Exponential Random Graph Model (ERGM) approach to conduct regression analysis on various factors. These factors include endogenous structural characteristics, node feature variables such as node emergence time and institutional attributes, as well as the distance network and IPC attribute network. By examining the driving mechanism and influence mechanism that influence the innovation network, this study contributes to the smart medical industry research by gaining a better understanding of the current status of innovation network, which can be advantageous for businesses in this field to accurately recognize and actively promote their innovation practices.

Driving factors for the involvement of agroindustries in the sustainable development goals

The literature treats the approach to corporate engagement with sustainable development goals as a growing field that requires new discussions. Seeking to contribute to this theme, this study aimed to identify the driving factors for the involvement of agroindustries in sustainable development goals by measuring indicators identified as possible determinants of this engagement. This is a descriptive and quantitative study through survey research with a sample of food agroindustries, conducted in Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil), using the Structural Equation Modeling technique to analyze the equation and structural models. The initial hypothesis confirmed in the study is that engagement with sustainable development goals can occur from two perspectives: organizational attributes and institutional attributes. Ten organizational attributes that determine involvement are listed: sustainability initiatives, governance structure, relationship with stakeholders, inter-organizational collaboration, innovation, moral behavior, ethical motivation, values, competitiveness, and business model. Regarding institutional attributes, three driving factors for involvement in sustainable development goals were identified: tolerant, institutional influencer, and institutionalization.

Third Culture Kids: The consequences of multiculturalism and nomadism in the context of identity, well-being and education

In a globalizing world, increasing migration tendencies lead to broad social consequences. More and more young people can be defined as Third Culture Kids (TCK), individuals exposed to diverse cultural paradigms in the early developmental years. Being a TCK significantly affects the development of identity, well-being and overall functioning. There are also substantial consequences of TCKs experiences in the field of education. Yet, the problem of new forms of multicultural identities is not sufficiently represented within Polish research. The following review aims to fill this gap and present the latest trends in studies on the TCK phenomenon. This article critically evaluated existing research regarding Third Culture Kids. It further presented the consequences of the multicultural experience of TCK, emphasizing significant problems and benefits of multiculturalism and global nomadism in the areas of well-being, identity and education. Importantly, ways of dealing with multicultural identity, the so-called multicultural identity configurations, were presented as moderators of the influence of multiculturalism on the functioning of TCK. Factors supporting TCKs well-being and educational success were indicated, including psychological (multicultural identity integration, cultural intelligence, global mindset) and institutional (teaching systems, psychological support) attributes.

Accelerating Organizational Change to Build Mentorship Culture in Zambian Universities.

Strong cultures of mentorship and research remain underdeveloped at many African universities, threatening future knowledge generation essential for health and development on the continent. To address these challenges, a mentorship program was developed in 2018 at the University of Zambia with an aim to enhance the institutional culture of mentorship and to build institutional capacity through an innovative 'train the trainer' faculty development model. In this study, we documented perceptions of lived experiences related to mentorship culture by following trainers and trainees and their mentees over two years. We analyzed these perceptions to assess changes in institutional attributes regarding mentorship. We identified positive change in institutional culture towards mentorship, and this change appeared sustainable over time. However, a slight decrease in indicators for year two emphasizes the need for a continued culture of learning rather than assuming that one-off training will be sufficient to change culture.

IFRS adoption and foreign direct investment in Sub-Saharan African countries: Does the levels of Adoption Matter?

This study makes an effort to determine how international financial reporting standards (IFRS) adoption levels affect net FDI inflows to sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries using a panel data spans from 2005 to 2020. The results of the two-step system’s generalized methods of moments (GMM) estimation reveal that while both partial and full adoption is found to be insignificant, the sign is negative for full IFRS adoption. However, a statistically significant and positive effect of the interaction between institutional attributes and full IFRS adoption has been discovered. Among other factors controlled, the most significant influencing FDI flows to Africa are found to be infrastructure, trade openness, and human capital. The empirical result is used to derive some policy implications.

Influence of Rural Out-Migration on Household Participation in Community Forest Management? Evidence from the Middle Hills of Nepal

Rural out-migration was a rare socio-economic phenomenon when community forestry began in the 1980s in Nepal. Now, out-migration significantly influences nearly every aspect of rural livelihoods in the country. However, it is unclear how out-migration affects community forestry governance, which is essential for sustainable rural development. Therefore, this paper addresses the following research question: Does rural out-migration affect forest users’ participation in community forestry decision-making and management practices? This paper draws on data collected from an extensive survey of 415 households from 15 community forest user groups in 2 Mid-Hill districts of Nepal. The research used ordered-logit regression to model the impacts of out-migration on participation in forest management and decision-making, while controlling for a number of other socio-economic factors. The model results show that total household size and number of internal migrants, together with multiple resource characteristics and institutional attributes, were major factors affecting participation in decision-making and forest management. However, the number of international migrants did not have a significant role in determining the levels of the participation. This study provides valuable insights for future community forestry policymaking that aims to address the effects of out-migration on community forest management in Nepal.

Pathways for improving rangeland governance under constraining land tenure systems: Application of a participatory Bayesian Belief approach.

This paper analyzes the complex relationships of factors influencing rangeland governance in the arid areas. A Bayesian Belief Network (BBN) model was developed in a participatory way to illustrate and assess the weight of a combination of environmental, social and institutional factors enabling the achievement of strengthened rangeland governance at a local level. The Bayesian model was applied in Tataouine situated in south of Tunisia. A complex diagram was built in a participatory way to illustrate the most important interactions between rangeland socioecological system components. Then, a BBN model was applied for a predictive purpose, by inserting evidence conditional probabilities on the most frequent land tenure systems in the region, and thus exploring pathways to improve rangeland governance under each of these systems. Results show that overall improvement of rangeland governance in the study area is highly related to the type of tenure system, performances of farmers organizations, clarification of boundaries between neighboring rangelands, and diversification of the production systems in place by including other agricultural activities in addition to pastoralism. Pastoral areas with tenure systems characterized by combined grazing of private and collective rangelands were revealed to be the most constraining for successful rangeland governance. However, even under such tenure system, the improvement of a set of institutional attributes, especially in relation to the empowerment of farmers organizations can help improving local governance.

Does a liability of foreignness in liquidity apply to US IPOs?

We provide evidence regarding two unanswered and consequential questions regarding share trading liquidity, a primary motive for US listings, for the prominent listing cohort of foreign-firm US initial public offerings (FIPOs). First, we test whether FIPOs exhibit a ‘liability of foreignness (Bell et al. 2012) in liquidity’ (LFL) compared with matched domestic-firm IPOs (DIPOs), despite listing requirements that are more stringent than for the mature cross-listed foreign firms studied previously. Second, we test whether US IPO LFL is moderated by FIPO home country institutional attributes that promote liquidity. Our findings for 327 FIPOs from 36 countries between 1990 and 2012 reveal that US IPO LFL is moderated, but not eliminated, by FIPO home country attributes, thus indicating incomplete bonding with US institutions. These findings extend prior research and serve to inform foreign firms considering US IPOs, exchanges competing for them, listing facilitators, regulators, and investors regarding a salient listing consideration.

Two Logics of Non-Recurrence after Civil Conflict

Abstract This article examines the interactions of two under-theorised means to forestall recurrence of violence and human rights abuses after conflict with two very different, but by no means mutually incompatible, logics. The first of these is guarantees of non-recurrence (gnr s), a branch of transitional justice characterised by a deeply formalist, institutionalised logic. The second is political settlements characterised by a highly informal logic. This article explores the conceptual terrain between these two logics of non-recurrence. It demonstrates a mismatch between the faith of transitional justice policy-makers in the centrality of gnr s to non-recurrence, on the one hand, and the actual process of guarding against conflict resumption as it is shaped extra-institutionally by the informal practices that underpin settlements, on the other. Post-conflict states generally place greater faith in the informal logic of settlements than the institutionalist logic of gnr s. Arguing that the prospects for non-recurrence are not fully captured if we focus only on the legal and institutional attributes of the state, it shows that settlements evolve or disintegrate incrementally over time. This critically conditions when gnr s are essential and efficacious. Put another way, the fate of gnr s in particular institutions depends on how settlements in general maintain the peace. Transitional justice theorists should be open to the possibility that guarantees of non-repetition are the fruit, not the precondition, of social order.

Sustaining the ecosystem of higher education in China: Perspectives from young researchers

The sustainable development of higher education in China has been a key priority for the national, social, economic and political development. Responding to the severe competition in various university ranking systems, most universities in China have set aims to enhance their sustainability in research and publication. There has been a prominent conflict that young scholars are expected to be productive, with publications in academic journals, competitive in receiving national and municipal research grants, and prestigious in the national and international arenas, or they will be terminated by the ‘six-year-up-or-out’ policy. Recent reform in higher education that calls for a sustainable development for young researchers is a strategy to revert the side effects from global university ranking systems by nurturing young researchers in their early academic lives, enhancing their productivity in research and publication internationally, and enhancing their global competitiveness without harming sustainability in academic development. This research explored (i) the difficulties that most young scholars face in sustainable academic research development, (ii) the factors that enhance or inhibit research productivity of young researchers, and (iii) the work lives in their early-career development in China. A qualitative study was conducted with data obtained from semistructured, in-depth interviews of 24 young university researchers from three provinces and a municipality in China. Findings show that factors that relate to sustainable research productivity are individual attributes, discipline attributes, institutional attributes and policy attributes. Lastly, suggestions for policy making in higher education and for improving sustainable research development of young researchers in China are provided and implications for future research are discussed.

Influence of institutional attributes on fulfillment of transfer and breeding recommendations in zoos and aquariums.

Compliance with Breeding and Transfer Plan (BTP) recommendations is important to promote long-term viability and meet the management goals of the Association of Zoos and Aquarium Species Survival Plans (SSPs®). However, individual institutions may fulfill recommendations at different rates, potentially compromising management efforts. We examined institution-level fulfillment rates of BTP recommendations (i.e, "Hold,""Send To,""Breed With," and "Do Not Breed"), and how rates differ based on institutional attributes related to resource levels, geographic location and climate, involvement in population management, and the SSPs in which institutions participated using conditional random forests and generalized linear mixed models. We analyzed 52,182 recommendations from 375 SSPs issued to 170 institutions in BTPs published from 2012 to 2019. Contrary to predictions, our results did not reveal large differences in fulfillment rates based on resources, geographic location, or climate variables at the institution level. We found modest patterns indicating that recommendation fulfillment for Hold and Do Not Breed recommendations in mammals was lower with longer interplanning periods, while fulfillment of Hold recommendations in birds increased with the average experience of individuals in SSP leadership roles. For herptiles, fulfillment of Send To recommendations was moderately higher in institutions with species spread across more herptile taxonomic advisory groups (the management unit for related species). Although our results suggest that overarching institutional factors do not have a strong influence on fulfillment rates at the scale of our study, more focused research within a specific temporal window, taxa, or suite of SSPs may reveal more informative patterns for population management.

The inception of housing pathways in urban China: the declining household formation of young adults from 2011 to 2017

ABSTRACT The homeownership rate of young adults has surged to an unprecedented level in urban China, despite rising housing prices and significant rural-urban migration. A trend analysis of nationally representative microdata shows that household formation is the missing link in the paradox and that many young adults aged 18–44 have failed to form independent households from 2011 to 2017, thereby delaying the start of their housing pathways. When factors such as socioeconomic and institutional attributes are controlled for, age differences in household formation decrease as expected. However, the age differences grow surprisingly larger over the study period, reflective of reform-induced changes in resource allocation. Further analysis demonstrates significant heterogeneity in headship status. While local young adults are squeezing into homeownership, migrants are overrepresented in the relatively stunted rental sector. Thus, while migration has brought newcomers to urban China and kept the headship rates from falling even further, institutional barriers have blocked migrants’ housing pathways. Overall, the pace of change is breathtaking. There is a growing divergence in young adults’ housing pathways, which depends on the timing of market entry, institutional attributes, housing prices, and personal income.

Identifying and Addressing Institutional Problems Constraining the Financial Performance of Rice Cooperatives in the Philippines

Farmer-controlled cooperatives contribute significantly to the growth of the rice sector in the Philippines, the country’s most important agricultural sector. Despite ongoing financial support from various government agencies, many of the country’s rice cooperatives struggle to remain viable. Cooperative failure is often attributed to poor management, inadequate capital, and opportunistic side selling by members. However, a growing body of literature views these problems as symptoms of much more fundamental flaws in the institutional arrangements that characterize traditional cooperatives. Relationships between indicators of financial performance and institutional attributes observed in case studies of four Philippine rice farmer cooperatives were identified using hierarchical cluster analysis. The results of this analysis were interpreted against causal relationships predicted by the New Institutional Economics theory. Financial performance improves when cooperatives require their members to invest in proportion to their patronage, allow members to adjust their shareholding, and periodically redeem members’ shares. Other performance-enhancing institutional arrangements could be adopted if the Philippine Cooperative Code authorized directors to issue class B shares. The findings also highlight operational and governance practices that improve financial performance, which directors can and should apply.