Interplay Of Institutions Research Articles

Institutional shaping of CDE implementation in BIM-enabled AEC projects

The common data environment (CDE) for information sharing is one of the fundamental requirements for effective workflow management to harness the potential of building information modeling (BIM). While studies are replete on BIM from a technology adoption perspective, notably lacking in the literature is the understanding of the influence of institutions and their pressures on CDE adoption as an information management platform. This study aims to address this gap. Using the action research approach, a flagship university construction project in India was studied to understand the interplay of institutions and CDE adoption. Institutional theory was used as a theoretical lens to illuminate and analyze the implementation issues of CDE. The findings show that CDE implementation undergoes a series of transformations due to institutional pressures. The responses to institutional pressures are conformance, coupling and decoupling, and mutations. Insights of this study guide practitioners to be aware of the processes through which institutional pressures contextualize and transform the intended change. Accordingly, findings can help managers and public sector agents on aspects related to nudging and shaping the implementation of change through action strategies and tactics. The study extends the BIM adoption/localization literature by highlighting that institutional pressures modify the objectives of CDE. It theorizes the processes through which institutional pressures contextualize and transform a change agenda.

Encounters of hesitant politics and an unwavering energy transition. Media reflections in Romania

The paper examined how political hesitancy shaped the energy transition in Romania. Aiming to reveal the contribution of the media to (re)frame energy transition, we employed topic modelling to identify the core categories that marked the interplay of actors and institutions, value systems, contingent power and resources, and the underlying policy setting. Results revealed eight major categories covering institutional setting and power struggle; the wider economic context; incumbent energy fossil fuels companies – repositioning; emerging green energy actors – positioning; geopolitics; heating and energy distribution; corporate social responsibility; energy market liberalisation, and a residual category related to press verbosity. Through these results we contributed to a finely-grained identification of specific themes on Romanian energy, added insights on how hesitancy is enacted through delays, circumventing the rules, establishing non-compliance, and denials. Our approach showed that the power transmitted by various actors through the media was politically marked and incongruent to the holistic paradigm that energy transition should embrace. Aside from its empirical focus, this paper also contributes by engaging with the hesitant politics concept that provided a flawed solution that while looked counterproductive it also proved invaluable in dodging the complex and uncertain paths of energy transition.

Pobrecitos: Determinations of deservingness in the Costa Rican asylum process

AbstractThis article examines how Costa Rica's asylum process enacts bureaucratic bordering, shaping refugee deservingness through intertwined logics of security and humanitarianism. Based on fieldwork from 2016 to 2022, the analysis focuses on two areas: daily interactions between asylum officials and applicants, and the bureaucratic practices in humanitarian aid distribution. The first case analyzes a form of micro‐level bureaucratic bordering in the ways officials draw on racialized understandings of cultural, social, and economic differences to categorize asylum seekers as deserving or undeserving. The second explores how a restructured aid system, with NGOs as filters, erects bureaucratic barriers that complicate access to services for asylum seekers. Both cases demonstrate how deservingness is determined through the interplay of institutions, actors, and procedures, reflecting broader trends of the intersection of security and humanitarianism in migration management, ultimately marginalizing those least equipped to navigate the bureaucratic complexities of the asylum system.

Advocacy and legal aid for homeless people. Challenges and insights from a study of voluntary organisation in Italy

ABSTRACT The connection between homelessness, social exclusion, and the deprivation of fundamental rights has been extensively studied. The intricate interplay of laws, policies, regulations, institutions, and service practices forms a complex network of mutually reinforcing factors, that can pose a significant challenge to the homeless. This article presents the findings of a qualitative study focused on the Italian nonprofit organisation called ‘Street Lawyers’ (SL) which provides legal assistance and advocacy for homeless people. Due to social exclusion, homeless experience daily violations in exercising their rights and encounter many obstacles within the welfare system. The aim of the research was to investigate how SL's mission is implemented, what needs are met and the complexity of their interventions. The findings demonstrate how, despite the organisation's legal mandate, SL face various difficulties and needs that emphasise the hardships experienced by the homeless people. These issues extend beyond the legal sphere and offer insightful perspectives on the trajectories and support system of the homeless. By revealing the obstacles homeless people face in claiming and enjoying their rights, the article shows the potential of this legal aid practice, particularly when it goes beyond a formal legalistic approach and embraces a socio-political interpretation of rights.

Governance and legal considerations supporting prehospital emergency care in low and middle-income countries—For the Special Series on Prehospital Care in LMICs

The global imperative to expand prehospital emergency care in low and middle-income countries to reduce health disparities and improve outcomes for time-sensitive health conditions is well established in academic literature and public policy discussions. However, the governance and legal frameworks essential for the strategic development of prehospital systems remain understudied and inadequately addressed. This paper delves into the critical role of governance in prehospital systems, emphasizing its impact on equity, human rights, and the provision of timely, quality emergency care.Health system governance, defined as a complex interplay of mechanisms, processes, and institutions, is a neglected yet pivotal component of prehospital care. By highlighting previously described barriers, we underscore the opportunity to strengthen prehospital care through improved governance, particularly in leadership and legislative standards. Drawing on the World Health Organization’s Health System Building Blocks and the Emergency Care System Framework, we elucidate the multifaceted nature of governance in the prehospital context, including the coordination of diverse stakeholders, the establishment of standards, and the creation of accountability mechanisms. We emphasize the importance of applying a human rights perspective to governance, ensuring non-discriminatory and timely access to emergency care. Through the application of an established governance framework of 10 principles to assess prehospital system governance, we offer policymakers and stakeholders a structured approach to identify weaknesses, propose solutions, and evaluate progress in the prehospital system.To provide practical insights, we present a contemporary case study of Ghana’s National Ambulance Service Act and the Health Institutions and Facilities Act of 2011, which establish a structured approach to governance and oversight while reflecting Ghana’s commitment to advancing emergency care yet faces common challenges to operationalizing the laws.We advocate for a renewed focus on governance as an essential building block for effective prehospital emergency care. By providing a comprehensive framework and case study analysis, the paper offers actionable insights to guide policymakers and stakeholders in developing and evaluating governance initiatives that improve the availability, accessibility, acceptability, and quality of prehospital care globally.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the development of global health law: managing crises or achieving structural changes?

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a global crisis with multiple causes, effects and consequences going beyond its immediate health impact. On the one hand, environmental drivers may have facilitated the spillover of the virus to humans, while on the other the pandemic has affected most areas of international relations and revealed a troubling lack of equity and solidarity within and among countries. However, what was the real crisis? Framing COVID-19 as a health crisis brought the negotiation of a new pandemic agreement into WHO as a crisis measure to fill the gaps left by the International Health Regulations and reduce the risk of future pandemics. International law has been defined as a “discipline of crisis”, evolving through responses to violent shocks, and COVID-19 seems to confirm this view. However, international law has also been shaped by a counternarrative highlighting the structural causes of crises and addressing them rather than the symptoms. This historical tension has negatively affected the negotiation of the pandemic agreement, with Global South countries moving beyond a crisis approach and demanding “equity” through structural changes to the pharmaceutical market, support for self-reliance in pharmaceutical manufacturing and guarantees of financing. This fault line also has consequences for global health law in general, in particular because the scarcity of dedicated global health instruments and the limited mandate of WHO questions what issues can be regulated through that organization and which will require the interplay of different institutions and regimes, pointing to regime complexity as the appropriate conceptual tool to undertake that analysis.

The role and interplay of institutions in water governance in the Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia.

Institutions can play a key role in coordinating how natural resources are effectively managed and used without over-exploitation. Institutions are laws, policies, and organizational arrangements that permit, forbid or regulate human action. This study aimed to look into the roles of formal and informal institutions, and their interactions in water resources governance in the Central Rift Valley (CRV), Ethiopia. Key informant interviews, focus group discussions, and secondary data sources were employed to collect relevant data. The result of the study indicated that the influence of informal institutions on formal institutions or vice versa was insignificant, and unable to change the actions of water users in the CRV. Other limitations observed in water resources governance in the CRV include a lack of actors' clear roles and responsibilities, absence of meaningful decentralization, limited engagement of key actors in policy development, lack of synergy between the institutions, and absence of enforcement mechanisms. Considering the local contexts and community's traditional knowledge of water governance in water-related policy, rules, and regulations, and enhancing the capacity of local-level institutions, strong interplay among all institutions involved in water governance, and meaningful actors' engagement were recommended to advance the role of institutions in water resources governance in the CRV and in the country. Hence, a mechanism that enables to harmonize formal and informal institutions in water management system can enhance the governance of water resources in the study area and elsewhere in the country.

Fintechs Reshaping the Financial Ecology: The Growing Trends and Regulatory Framework

The concept of financial ecology encompasses the intricate interplay of financial systems, institutions, and technologies within the economic ecosystem. It emphasizes the symbiotic relationships and dependencies that shape the modern financial world. Development of Fintech has the potential to significantly enhance and reshape the dynamics of the financial ecology, introducing new players and altering established relationships within the ecosystem. In today’s digital realm, the financial landscape has gained significant steam in its adoption of technology tools to dispense its services. The ‘internet economy’ is relied upon to produce new market development opportunities and occupations and become the greatest business opportunity for organisations in the future. India has come up significantly in the global discussion on financial technologies over the last two decades. Through a systematic review of the literature on this area, this article identifies that the regulatory framework requires provisions to support greater fintech inclusion. Moreover, several issues still lie deficiently addressed, such as user privacy and cybersecurity. This article attempts to review the opportunities, scope and risks for the implementation of financial innovation in India.

The role and interplay of institutions in water governance in the Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia

Background Institutions can play a key role in coordinating how natural resources are effectively managed and used without over-exploitation. Institutions are laws, policies, and organizational arrangements that permit, forbid or regulate human action. This study aimed to look into the roles of formal and informal institutions, and their interactions in water resources governance in the Central Rift Valley (CRV), Ethiopia. Methods Key informant interviews, focus group discussions, and secondary data sources were employed to collect relevant data. Results The result of the study indicated that the influence of informal institutions on formal institutions or vice versa was insignificant, and unable to change the actions of water users in the CRV. Other limitations observed in water resources governance in the CRV include a lack of actors’ clear roles and responsibilities, absence of meaningful decentralization, limited engagement of key actors in policy development, lack of synergy between the institutions, and absence of enforcement mechanisms. Conclusion Considering the local contexts and community’s traditional knowledge of water governance in water-related policy, rules, and regulations, and enhancing the capacity of local-level institutions, strong interplay among all institutions involved in water governance, and meaningful actors’ engagement were recommended to advance the role of institutions in water resources governance in the CRV and in the country.

Co-creation and societal impact: Toward a generic framework for research impact assessment

Academia focuses on the interplay of Higher Education Institutions and external stakeholders. In this context, academia is concerned with the societal impact and impact created in interactions with external stakeholders; the latter is often referred to as impact co-creation. There is agreement that the related processes leading to an impact are complex and multi-dimensional. However, academics disagree on how the ultimate, wider impact of research should be measured. This study seeks to conceptualize societal impact through the lens of value co-creation, arguing that societal impact is best conceptualized as the uptake of research. Based on this, we developed a generic research impact assessment framework to facilitate evaluations and enable cross-sector learning. This study contributes to academia by providing an overarching understanding of impact creation, including wider research impact, and offers the perspective that any research project involving stakeholders to a certain extent, also entails co-production.

Infrastructuring repatriation: The Philippine sending state and the return of migrant workers caught in disruptions

AbstractRecent crises signal a timely consideration of how sending state regimes can be understood in their complexity beyond the dominant themes of labour brokerage and export in existing literature. This article calls for an expanded analysis of sending states by attending to their understudied role in disruption‐induced returns, particularly in repatriation. Examining the case of the Philippines, it argues that the interplay of actors, institutions and policies in the sending country not only systematically deploys Filipino migrant workers, but also configures a repatriation infrastructure that mediates their return during crises and distress situations. Based on qualitative interviews with over 30 repatriation actors, the study analyses how regulatory, collaborative and adaptive interactions within the infrastructure facilitate migrant returns but also trigger critical challenges and complications. The discussion shows how repatriation figures in the workings of the sending state, shaped by a dynamic assemblage of power relations with shifting operations in migration governance.

The past, present, and future of child growth monitoring: A review and primer for clinical genetics.

Child growth measurements are critical vital signs to track, with every individual child growth curve potentially revealing a story about a child's health and well-being. Simply put, every baby born requires basic building blocks to grow and thrive: proper nutrition, love and care, and medical health. To ensure that every child who is missing one of these vital aspects is identified, growth is traditionally measured at birth and each well-child visit. While the blue and pink growth curves appear omnipresent in pediatric clinics, it is surprising to realize that their use only became standard of care in 1977 when the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) adopted the growth curve as a clinical tool for health. Behind this practice lies a socioeconomically, culturally, and politically complex interplay of individuals and institutions around the world. In this review, we highlight the often forgotten past, current state of practice, and future potential of this powerful clinical tool: the growth reference chart, with a particular focus on clinical genetics practice. The goal of this article is to understand ongoing work in the field of anthropometry (the scientific study of human measurements) and its direct impact on modern pediatric and genetic patient care.

Regulatory Chill and Domestic Law: Mining in the Santurbán Páramo

AbstractA persisting question about investment treaties is whether they lead to regulatory chill – the reluctance to regulate on environmental and social issues due to fear of investment claims. The literature on this topic has been predominantly focussed on how the state responds to international pressures, and little has been written about what happens within the state itself. This article aims to fill that gap by analysing the interplay of domestic laws and institutions in the context of potential investment claims, based on the case study of mining in the Santurbán páramo region in Colombia. The article shows that even though Colombia had created laws and institutions that internalized international investment law, it did not bring about regulatory chill in the case of Santurbán; this is due to the role of domestic constitutional law and the Constitutional Court. This case study also adds to the understanding of how the Liberal International Order is shifting from international to domestic governance, by showing how domestic laws and institutions can have diverging priorities when determining how the risk of investment claims is dealt with.

Институциональный и ценностный подходы к анализу модернизации: потребность синтеза

Scholars studying modernization processes often engage in debates between those who follow institutional paradigms and those who emphasize values, with each camp strongly advocating for its approach. However, the complex interplay of modernization changes, involving technology, institutions, and sociocultural aspects, points to the natural connection between these approaches. This article intends to explore moder­nization issues through the works of prominent advocates from both perspectives. By analyzing texts written by the leading figures in both paradigms, the author shows that their research consistently converges on one key area: the sociocultural dimension of social development. The article highlights that the success of social deve­lopment relies on aligning technology, institutions, and culture, often referred to as society’s techno-humanita­rian balance. This balance, crucial for stability, harmonizes technological progress with cultural and psycholo­gical control. Special attention is paid to the issues of value configurations in society, which is not a uniform entity but a combination of various value groups. The ability to construct an institutional environment that meets modernization needs depends on the power balance within these groups. It is particularly important to highlight the problem of value group configurations within elites, as they have the most significant impact on the evolution of the society’s institutional structure. In institutional development, this holds particular significance: on the one hand, elites must seek consensus within society to prevent rejection or distortion of the introduced institutions. On the other hand, despite all the compromises they have to make in this process, elites must adhere to a shared path of modernization that matches evolving technological needs. Society members should have a high level of education not only in instrumental skills but also in the humanities, which will ensure strategic stability in socio-economic development.

Institutions and the politics of agency in COVID-19 response: Federalism, executive power, and public health policy in Brazil, India, and the U.S.

AbstractThe COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 was one of the rare events that shocked almost every world government simultaneously, thus creating an unusual opportunity to understand how political institutions shape policy decisions. There have been many analyses of what governments did. We focus instead on what they could do, focusing on the institutional politics of agency – how institutions empower rather than how they constrain, and how they affect public policy decisions. We examine public health measures in the first wave (March-September 2020) in Brazil, India, and the U.S. to understand how the interplay of institutions in a complex federal context shaped COVID-19 policy-responses. We find similar patterns of concentrated federal executive agency with limited constraints. In each case, when federal leadership failed public health policy responses, federated, subnational states were left to compensate for these inefficiencies without necessary resources.

Strategizing actors and agents in the functioning of informal property Rights: The tragicomedy of the extralegal housing market in China

This paper engages with the ongoing theoretical enquiry into the actual functioning and diverse practices of informal property rights. Departing from the prevailing neoliberal perspective and the credibility thesis, this paper develops a framework of institutional analysis to understand the functioning and regional variation of informal property rights. It takes the institutions-as-equilibria perspective and situates both structural and endogenous institutional variables in actors’ strategic choices. We test our conceptual framework through a multisite empirical study of extralegal and untitled housing in China. Building on game theory, archival research, and fieldwork, we compare the key variables contributing to the divergent fortunes of extralegal and untitled housing property rights in three Chinese cities: prospering in Shenzhen, selectively interfered with in Beijing, and eliminated in Sanya. The functioning of informal property rights is found to be contingent upon diverse strategic interactions of local governments and key local stakeholders. Our paper highlights the formation of local actors’ behavioral beliefs and their adjustment through a nonlinear feedback mechanism. It suggests the necessity and significance of integrating structural and endogenous institutional variables, elaborating on the interplay of formal and informal institutions, and applying the microeconomic and dynamic perspectives to better understand the functioning and diverse practices of informal property rights in the developing world.

Interplay of Resources and Institutions in Improving Organizational Resilience of Construction Projects: A Dynamic Perspective

The increasing number of destructive events, such as natural disasters and social public events, may result in project delays and impair project performance. Accordingly, building and enhancing the organizational resilience of construction projects is a priority for construction organizations. This study seeks to advance this literature by exploring the combination of conditions to enhance resilience from resource and institutional perspectives. Specifically, resource-based theory and institutional theory are used to identify factors that affect the organizational resilience of construction projects, and fifteen representative Chinese projects are selected. A conditional combination is explored to build organizational resilience from pre-crisis and post-crisis perspectives and make a comparative analysis. Results show that institutional factors dominate the construction of proactive organizational resilience, whereas resource factors play a major role in enhancing reactive organizational resilience. Organizational norms are the main guarantee for the crisis response of construction projects whether before or after a disaster. This study contributes to understanding the dynamic changes of organizational resilience in construction projects. The findings provide a basis for enhancing organizational resilience, focusing on crisis preparedness and recovery efforts to respond to frequent and unexpected challenges.

Education policy governance and the power of ideas in constructing the new European Education Area

Twenty ye ars after the Lisbon strategy, education policy in the European Union (EU) is at a critical juncture, with a new set of strategic goals endorsed for the 2021–2030 decade. This article examines the complex interplay of ideas, institutions and actors, in articulating education policy priorities in the new European Education Area (EEA). Drawing on documentary reviews and interviews with policy actors in the European Commission and the Council of the European Union, we trace the rise and fall of policy ideas in the new framework. The negotiations over the definition of EEA reveal new tensions between and within European institutions over specific policy ideas, with “lifelong learning” and “gender” as the most controversial ones. Continuing, longstanding tensions between the education and employment fields remain, and present a difficulty for the construction of a comprehensive and cohesive education policy program.

Corporate Social Irresponsibility in Host Countries: The Interplay of Home and Host Institutions

Corporate social irresponsibility (CSI) by multinational enterprises (MNEs) has been attracting increasing attention by policy makers as well as scholars. Building on institutional perspectives and the ‘distance’ research in the international business (IB) field, our study examines how the institutional characteristics of home and host countries, their interplay, as well as cross-national institutional distances affect MNEs’ CSI in host countries. We test our hypotheses using panel data of 1,087 listed firms based in 48 countries, with CSI incidents occurring in 150 host countries during 2007-2018. We find that both stronger home and host institutions are negatively associated with CSI occurring in the host markets, but the mitigating effect of host (home) institutions on CSI will be weaker when home (host) institutions are stronger. We further find that as institutional distance between home and host countries increases, MNEs’ involvement in CSI incidents in the host countries grows. We contribute to CSI research and ‘distance’ literatures by offering theoretical mechanisms and empirical evidence on whether and when MNEs respond to varied stakeholder and institutional pressures in their CSI engagements.

Deficits in implementing integrated water resources management in South Africa: The role of institutional interplay

Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) has been transferred from the Global North to the Global South. Decades after adopting IWRM in formal policies, countries in the Global South in particular are struggling to implement it in practice. We believe the interplay of formal and informal institutions to be a reason for the failed transfer, but institutional interplay is rarely considered when policies are transferred. Based on a case study of water governance in the uMngeni river basin in South Africa, we investigate how specific types of informal institutions affect the practical implementation of selected aspects of IWRM: subsidiarity, stakeholder involvement, and securing access to water and sanitation. We explore (1) informal institutions that supported previous formal legislation and are still actively reproduced, (2) bureaucratic cultures operationalised through governance modes, and (3) traditional governance as part of a dual governance system. We find that in most cases, a higher level of similarity between formal and informal institutions leads to the more frequent implementation of formal provisions, and hence converging interplay between institutions. Passed-down power structures, another aspect of informal institutions, proved particularly resistant to institutional change. We conclude that analysing the setting of informal institutions before making policy reforms would provide a more realistic assessment of the results to be expected. Understanding institutional interplay in policy transfer processes is hence essential to designing more effective policies and avoiding the pitfalls inherent to blueprint solutions.