Rational Market Research Articles

Universalizing the particulars: neoliberalizing English language teaching (ELT) through outcome-based education (OBE)

Abstract Universities, once regarded as places for producing organic intellectuals and critical thinkers, now are targets of neoliberalism, where managerialist discourses and lexis are dominant in various forms. Students and teachers are transformed into entrepreneurs, consumers and customers through such discourse and lexis. As a neoliberal variant used in education today, outcome-based education (OBE) – focus of the present study – can be viewed as one such discursive attempt on the part of the universities with an aim to perpetuate neoliberal market rationality. Through in-depth semi-structured interviews with teachers at engineering universities in Pakistan, this study examines OBE-driven ELT pedagogy using Gramsci’s hegemony as a theoretical framework. We aimed to understand how OBE-based ELT tends to transform teachers’ subjectivities into neoliberal ‘selves’, the way it impacts pedagogy and learning of the English language, and how these subjectivities are resisted. It appears that OBE-based ELT circulates market logics in the ELT pedagogy and learning by viewing English language as a skill/commodity. Student learning and teachers’ pedagogical performance indicators are based on achievement of specific outcomes. Some teachers, however, argue that OBE-led ELT deprives them of their pedagogical experiences, freedom, and conceptualizations appropriate for their pedagogical approach. We therefore advocate de-centering and deconstructing neoliberal logics in pedagogy and suggest pedagogy of becoming, critical/dialogic language pedagogy and translanguaging as possible alternatives.

Pay for digitalization: The relationship between digital transformation and payment disparity

AbstractUsing a sample of China's A‐share listed firms from 2016 to 2021, this study empirically examines the influence of digital transformation on the pay gap within firms. Based on the optimal salary contract theory, we posit that digital transformation widens within‐firm pay gap. Conversely, based on the managerial power theory, we posit the competing hypothesis that digital transformation is negatively correlated with the pay gap. Our findings support the optimal salary contract theory, suggesting that digital transformation is positively related to the pay gap, as evidenced by an increase in executive compensation rather than a decrease in the pay of rank‐and‐file employees. These findings are robust to various checks, including alternative measurements, quantile regression model, Heckman selection model, and IV‐2SLS method. Further tests reveal that the positive relationship between digital transformation and the pay gap is more pronounced in labor‐intensive enterprises and those with lower risk‐taking abilities. This study argues that a widening internal pay gap in the digital era is a rational market choice, as evidenced by the positive impact of the within‐firm pay gap resulting from digital transformation on firms' performance. This study extends our understanding of the impact of digital transformation and enriches the literature on compensation contract design.

Industrial Chain Leader System for green governance: Evidence from a Chinese resource‐based city

AbstractThe Chain Leader System (CLS) is a novel concept of industrial development proposed by the Chinese local government. Initially, it was aimed at chain extension, supplementation, and advancement to address the impact of external uncertainties. However, there has been debate about whether political power from CLS will lead to inefficiencies in green governance. This study aims to formalize industrial CLS for green governance. A survey was conducted to assess public acceptance and the validity of CLS in a resource‐based city. The results indicate that CLS, when aligned with green governance goals, effectively corresponds with market rationality and public value. It is evident that CLS represents a collective effort toward effective governance rather than simply extending industrial chains or enhancing resilience. The efficiency of green governance within CLS is influenced by the factors including communication platform, enterprises' carbon sinks and green clustering, citizens' adoption of green transportation, and communication among different stakeholders. This study provides valuable insights for the governments seeking to establish an efficient CLS that aligns with both market principles and well‐functioning government.

De‐risking at the Limit? State‐owned Enterprises and the Politics of Financialized Infrastructure Development in Indonesia

ABSTRACTThe need for emerging economies to develop infrastructure in order to drive catch‐up growth has become a common refrain in policy circuits. The dominant norm promulgated and disseminated by global development institutions to countries facing infrastructure deficits is the public–private partnership (PPP) model of project finance, a market‐based model that seeks to transform infrastructure into a financial asset. Institutionalizing this model requires the deepening of market rationality in governance and the establishment of markets for infrastructure projects and infrastructure debt, underpinned by regulatory and institutional changes aimed at de‐risking global investments. However, this model is neither overriding nor monolithic. It is contested, modified and augmented by alternative state‐led models, rationalities and practices, animated by developmental politics. The article examines the embeddedness of the PPP model in Indonesia, where it is selectively appropriated by politicians and bureaucrats in line with state development objectives by mobilizing state‐owned enterprises (SOEs) as developers, insurers and financiers of infrastructure projects. Beyond establishing the conditions for market exchange and de‐risking capital, the state, through SOEs, is an active market participant, competing and partnering with private sector actors, while advancing state‐led alternatives where the market‐based model fails to address development needs. This case highlights the potential for developmental politics to shape the broad use of capital in the face of disciplinary pressure from global finance.

Brand Satisfaction, Brand Trust and Brand Loyalty : The Mediating Role of Brand Performance and The Moderating Role of Market Rationally in Culinary Industry

This research aims to determine whether brand performance predictions have a direct influence on brand loyalty, brand satisfaction and brand trust have a direct influence on brand loyalty, brand satisfaction and brand trust have a direct influence on brand performance and rational market have a direct influence on brand loyalty and market rationally in moderating brand satisfaction and brand trust directly on brand loyalty and brand performance predictions in mediating brand satisfaction and brand trust indirectly on brand loyalty at CV. Wijaya Kembar. The population and sample of 150 customers who bought brand products Wijaya Kembar in March 2024 are used in this quantitative study. This study employed a questionnaire for data collection, and SmartPLS3 was used for analysis. The results showed that market rationality cannot moderate the influence of brand satisfaction and brand trust directly on brand loyalty; market rationality has no direct and negative influence on brand loyalty; brand performance cannot mediate the influence of brand satisfaction and brand trust indirectly and negatively on brand loyalty; brand trust does not have a direct or positive effect on brand loyalty and brand performance; and brand trust does not have a direct or positive effect on brand loyalty but has a direct and positive effect on brand performance variable. at CV. Wijaya Kembar.

Is Milei a populist? People and market in the new radical right in Argentina

ABSTRACT The electoral rise of Milei, that brought him up to the presidency of Argentina in 2023, has run in parallel with discussions about his use of populist ideas. Overall, Milei is characterised by his emphasis on economic issues, with an extreme pro-market position based on the Austrian school, but he also stands out for a strong anti-establishment discourse. While observers may consider these appeals as populist, a categorisation based on just this feature could be premature given the multidimensional nature of populism. This article tests the importance of populism in the discourse of Milei displaying an empirical strategy based on the holistic grading of key political discourses. Main results indicate that Milei’s discourse is partially populist because it lacks a people-centred vision, even one anchored in market rationality. We expect these results will facilitate comparisons of the Argentinian case with other Latin-American cases in which populism and neoliberalism seem to be mutually reinforcing.

How the absorptive capacity could transform data into better decisions: a multilevel perspective to deal with the difference between firm sizes

PurposeThis study aims to investigate organizational learning, represented by the absorptive capacity, as a condition for the firm to learn about marketing data and make more informed decisions. The authors also aimed to understand how the behavior of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) businesses differ in this scenario through a multilevel perspective.Design/methodology/approachPlacing absorptive capacity as a mediator of the relationship between business analytics and rational marketing decisions, the authors analyzed data from 224 Brazilian retail companies using structural equation modeling estimated with partial least squares. To test the cross-level moderation effect, the authors also performed a multilevel analysis in RStudio.FindingsThe authors found a partial mediation of the absorptive capacity in the relation between business analytics and rational marketing decisions. The authors also discovered that, in the MSMEs firms’ group, even if smaller companies find it more difficult to use data, those that do may reap more benefits than larger ones. This is due to the influence of size in how firms handle information.Research limitations/implicationsThe sample size, despite having shown to be consistent and valid, is considered small for a multilevel study. This suggests that our multilevel results should be viewed as suggestive, rather than conclusive, and subjected to further validation.Practical implicationsRather than solely positioning business analytics as a tool for decision support, the authors’ analysis highlights the importance for firms to develop the absorptive capacity to enable ongoing acquisition, exploration and management of knowledge.Social implicationsMSMEs are of economic and social importance to most countries, especially developing ones. This research aimed to improve understanding of how this group of firms could transform knowledge into better decisions. The authors also highlight micro and small firms’ difficulties with the use of marketing data so that they can have more effective practices.Originality/valueThe research contributes to the understanding of organizational mechanisms to absorb and learn from the vast amount of current marketing information. Recognizing the relevance of MSMEs, a preliminary multilevel analysis was also conducted to comprehend differences within this group.

CRISPR futures: Rethinking the politics of genome editing

New genome editing techniques such as CRISPR-Cas9 aspire to automate and standardize laboratory practices of genetic engineering at the molecular scale. They have been promoted as a ‘revolutionary’ means of production, which will revitalize industry, transform agribusiness and adapt it to changing climatic conditions. To realize this vision, a fundamental regulatory shift is now being enacted by multiple national governments around the world from Argentina to Canada, Brazil, Australia, South Africa, the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, China and the European Union. As corporate science is directly in the service of private entities guided by a strict market rationality, while public research is increasingly pushed to prioritize immediate ‘industrial applications’ and the achievement of measurable ‘socio-economic impact’, genomic interventions are mostly geared towards expanding, accelerating and securing the accumulation of capital on a global scale. Structural market demands are embodied in gene-edited bodies produced for commercialization. While the emerging international regulatory regime for gene-edited organisms has been largely shaped by discussions focused on technical questions of health and safety, this tendency indicates the necessity of a wider democratic debate that would include the socio-economic, ethical and ecological concerns recently stressed by indigenous and peasant movements around the world. How will these new GM bodies transform the way people live and work in agricultural lands, industrial facilities, barnyards and slaughterhouses, in biotech labs and medical clinics? How will they affect lived ecologies? What types of multi-species worlds are being constructed through bioengineering practices, by whom and according to what political visions?

The impact of social exclusion on impulsive buying behaviour of consumers on online platforms: Samples from China

Social exclusion is a common phenomenon in modern social life that has significant negative effects on those who were excluded. The excluded may adopt strategic impulsive consumption behaviors in order to gain a sense of belonging and repair social relations, and the rapid development of online shopping platforms has intensified the occurrence of impulsive purchasing behaviors. Therefore, the internal mechanism between the two needs to be clarified. This study utilised SPSS 26.0, Mplus8.0 and HLM6.08 to analyse the data from 417 questionnaires, focused on exploring the internal mechanism between social exclusion and impulsive buying behaviour, and yielded the following conclusions. (1) Social exclusion is positively correlated with impulsive purchasing behaviour. (2) Relative deprivation plays a mediating role between social exclusion and impulsive buying behaviour. (3) The need to belong plays an intermediary role between social exclusion and impulsive buying behaviour. (4) Self-control plays a moderating role between social exclusion and impulsive buying behaviour. These conclusions could provide a basis for enterprises to formulate rational marketing strategies and create consumer demand.

Bringing markets back into economics: On economy wide self - coordination by boundedly rational market agents

Markets, I argue, matter significantly for macroeconomic development. The reason for this strange statement is that policy practice in industrialized market economies is routinely governed by models that ignore the role of markets. Policy makers are therefore at risk of misunderstanding the economic situation and of mismanaging the economy.Some macroeconomic models with sufficient nonlinearities and a production lag, two pioneering articles by Day (1982,1983) demonstrated, exhibit phases of erratic fluctuations (or deterministic chaos). Shortly thereafter Eliasson (1983, 1984) observed the endogenous emergence of similar unpredictable irregularities in simulating a complex, agent based, market self-coordinated economy wide model implemented on Swedish data. The irregularities originated in a failure of markets to coordinate production, employment, and investment decisions as they were pushed excessively by policy to become more efficient. In this agent based model of an Experimentally Organized Economy, called MOSES, progress is governed by a dominant flow of successful business experiments conducted by firms, trailed by a flow of mistaken projects. The coordination of these flows by autonomous market agents was shown to be easily disturbed by external interferences, for instance unwitting policies. Markets, simulation experiments however also showed have great endogenous capacities to restore disturbed order. Large private investment mistakes at the agent level, experiments furthermore indicate, incur only minor social costs if production on the site is promptly terminated, and markets organized to efficiently reallocate resources. Bold private investments should therefore be encouraged, corrections of identified mistakes made without delay, and the efficiency of markets to reallocate resources paid attention to. I conclude that central policy in “Sweden like industrial economies” can only effectively be pursued by taking advantage of the endogenous capacity of functioning markets of effective self-coordination. Coordination failure being created by policy failure masquerading as market failure should be considered before market failure is blamed.

AUTHORITARIAN LIBERALISM, ORDOLIBERAL RATIONALITY AND THE EUROPEAN INTEGRATION PROJECT

Abstract. The author assesses the relevance and analytical significance of authoritarian liberalism and interprets it as one of the modern conceptual models of ordoliberalism and European integration. The basic concepts of authoritarian liberalism and ordoliberalism emphasise the political and ideological connection between the authoritarianism of the strong state and the economic liberalism of market rationality. As a flexible market-oriented form of authoritarian liberalism, ordoliberalism means a rational strategy for maintaining and promoting the European integration project towards which the market economy and the technocratic elite are moving to contain crises. Due to the presence of the values of political liberalism, pluralism and the rule of law, authoritarianism in this structure is not repressive or monocentric, but subject to democratic criticism in relation to the supranational regulation of European integration. Keywords: authoritarian liberalism, ordoliberalism, market capitalism, democracy, eurocrisis, European integration

The market mindset erodes social mindfulness

AbstractPrevious studies have mainly explored the impacts of social mindfulness on social behaviours (e.g., cooperation), little is known about crucial macro social environment factors that affect social mindfulness, like the market economy. With the development of the market economy, people typically acquire the self‐centred and rational market mindset which may suppress social mindfulness. Therefore, the current study aimed to examine the causal relationship between the market mindset and social mindfulness, as well as the psychological mechanism behind the effect. In Study 1, participants whose market mindset was activated by recalling market experiences showed lower social mindfulness than those whose non‐market mindset was activated by recalling other experiences. Studies 2 and 3 explored the mediation of perspective taking and state empathy behind the detrimental effect. It was found that the relationship between the market mindset and social mindfulness was mediated by perspective taking rather than by state empathy. Together, the present three studies expand the existing literature on the relationship between the market mindset and social mindfulness and remind policymakers to pay attention to the adverse effects of the market mindset on social mindfulness.

Are Financial Markets at all Times Rational?

This paper discusses various reasons why financial markets are sometimes irrational. Rationality implies a cold and calculating approach to choosing investments based on risk versus reward characteristics. A rational market would display a positive correlation between risk and return. However, human beings are subject to various behavioral idiosyncrasies that may be termed “irrational.” This paper will discuss irrational behaviors in the financial market with examples. In conclusion, this researcher finds that financial markets are prone to be affected by short run irrationality.

The political rationalities of governing deforestation in Colombia

Reducing emissions by deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) is a mechanism that aims to reduce global carbon emissions by protecting tropical forests. The practice of REDD+ implementation varies considerably in different contexts and studies have pointed its persistence despite concrete results. In this article, we focus on how rationalities of government intervene in the translation of REDD+ from the global level to national policy practice in Colombia. From our empirical analysis, we identify four distinct rationalities that intervene in the translation of REDD+: 1) a legal rationality that is derived from the securitization of nature and that aims to implement command-and-control measures in forest margins; 2) a spatial rationality that is rooted in the techno managerial aspects of the international negotiations and that has the ambition to order the forest and make it productive; 3) a market rationality that sees organized enterprises as a promising tool to control deforestation; and 4) an ethnic rationality that pushes to recognize rights and knowledge of ethnic minorities and emphasizes their role in stopping deforestation. The article concludes with discussing the intersection of these different rationalities and the overlapping visions of government that these embody to explain why REDD+ persists as a policy solution. Specifically, while some of these rationalities disenfranchise local actors, the engagement of Indigenous groups with the political rationalities provides an opportunity to leverage local power and authority.

Gendering EU security strategies: a feminist postcolonial approach to the EU as a (global) security actor

ABSTRACT This paper explores the relationship between the EU’s current re-imagining as a global security actor and its stance as a global promoter of progressive gender norms. For this purpose, we analyse how gender and race are constitutive of the meanings of security and Europe in major EU security strategies, and how this relates to the way gender (equality) is addressed as a policy issue. We find that, in the context of waning liberal world order and manifold internal and external crises, EU security actorness is constructed through narratives of masculinisation that entail feminisation of the EU’s own past as a “peace project” and “soft power”; Othering of non-EU spaces and subjects; colonial perspectives on the EU’s role in the world as “White Man’s burden” and the reconstruction of whiteness through notions of “neutral” masculinities associated with technocratic professionalism, superior knowledge production, and market rationality. This intersectional gendering of EU security limits the emancipatory potential of gender policy through the racialisation of Other women and the simultaneous invisibilisation of postcolonial structures of inequality. Our analysis provides the groundwork for addressing how and why the EUropean security project continues to reproduce intersectional power relations and insecurities, despite commitments to gender equality and non-discrimination.

Classification shifting using income-decreasing special items: measurement and valuation issues

Research suggests that the standard model used to detect opportunistic shifting of core expenses to special items is potentially biased. Such bias has been attributed to the use of accruals, including special item related accruals, as a control for the impact of performance on core earnings in this model. This paper provides an improved classification shifting model which both tests for such accruals-related bias and controls for other sources of error in the measurement of shifting. The paper also modifies conventional market rationality tests in accounting research to examine new dimensions of rationality in relation to measurement and valuation of shifting. The main empirical findings are as follows. First, the improved classification shifting model provides strong evidence of shifting and rejects the hypothesis that inclusion of accruals in the model causes bias. Second, estimates of shifted core expenses generated by the improved model exhibit forecasting properties of shifted earnings. Third, rationality test results are broadly consistent with rationality in relation to shifted core expenses but indicate possible partial (ir)rationality in relation to adjusted special items (i.e., special items excluding shifted core expenses). Further analysis of the latter findings, however, suggests they are more likely related to risk than irrationality. Overall, the paper contributes to improved measurement of shifting and highlights the importance of considering rational expectations when examining stock returns associated with shifting.

Spiritual Marketing in Increasing Sales Turnover of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises in Indonesia

The increasing diversity of modern humans has implications for changes in consumer behavior. Previously, consumers solely relied on logical considerations when selecting products or services, but now this framework has been shifted to encompass broader considerations. This trend forces a shift in the marketing paradigm; from rational marketing to emotional marketing, even continuing to spiritual marketing. This article seeks to examine the implementation of spiritual marketing to increase the sales turnover of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Indonesia, with a case study of “Komunitas Bubur Sedekah” in Setabelan Banjarsari, Surakarta. This case study applied Hermawan Kertajaya's spiritual marketing theory as a theoretical framework. Data were obtained through in-depth interviews, observation, and documentation. In-depth interviews were held with advisors, porridge sellers, almsgivers, and customers. Observations were conducted to capture data from the porridge business activities. Meanwhile, documentation was utilized to collect data from various social media platforms belonging to the community. The findings of the study indicate that “Bubur Sedekah” is a manifestation of spiritual marketing because it is grounded in ethical spiritual principles, such as theistic, humanistic, and contextual values that bring satisfaction to customers, thus resulting in regular donations. Consequently, the sales turnover of “Bubur Sedekah” has considerably increased, and the sustainability of their business is now assured.

Response to Graf

Sinja Graf’s generous reading of Marketing Global Justice is a source of immense gratitude.1 She highlights the best parts of the book and graciously sets aside its shortcomings. She expertly summarises my arguments on what marketised global justice is, how it came about, and how to resist it. Graf poses important questions under the headings of History and Resistance that are an honour to respond to. On the intervention that the book makes regarding the history of international criminal law (ICL)—as part of the history of marketised global justice—Graf poses three questions. I read these questions not only as asking for clarifications about the type of historical intervention Marketing Global Justice is making, but also as demanding a sharpening of the description of the relationship between marketised global justice and capitalism. First, Graf asks: Is there more than a temporal coincidence between neoliberal market rationality and marketised international criminal law? The short answer is: ‘yes’. Marketised international criminal law ‘encases’ the market in the sense that injustice is disassociated from (democatically determined) distributive justice. Marketised ICL is ‘put to work’ in the interests of capital. I return here to Quinn Slobodian’s memorable description of the ‘encasing’ of the market in Globalists because it so excellently describes the project of neoliberalism as one of institutions.2 What makes Slobodian’s book so immensely readable is of course the intellectual history behind these institutions. Describing familiar international institutions like the World Trade Organization (WTO) as emerging from peronal projects doggedly driven forward by certain individuals (including Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek, and Ernst Ulrich Petersmann) makes for compelling reading. Like international economic law—the institutionalisation of which Slobodian describes as beginning in the wake of the First World War—ICL too has been a discipline shaped by its institutions. The monopolising of power and resources in the establishment of the WTO and the monopolisation of power and resources in the establishment of the International Criminal Court (ICC) are set against the background of the same historical material conditions. They were both institutional projects preventing redistribution, and relatedly projects of keeping democracy from below at bay. Neoliberal market rationality is a part of ICL and, in the institutionalised form it has taken since the 1990s, vice versa. In other words, neoliberal market rationality and ICL are both part of the same material conditions of capitalism and its contradictions. Tracing the enabling of capital flows through the institutions of international economic law, finance, and investment law is perhaps more perspicuous; but the same conditions have also shaped ICL.

Editor's Spotlight/Take 5: The Price-Quality Mismatch: Are Negotiated Prices for Total Joint Arthroplasty Associated With Hospital Quality in a Large California Health System?

Editor's Spotlight/Take 5: The Price-Quality Mismatch: Are Negotiated Prices for Total Joint Arthroplasty Associated With Hospital Quality in a Large California Health System?

Outsourcing authoritarian governance: The privatization of mayors’ hotlines in China

How does privatization impact authoritarian governance on the frontline? This article examines the impact of outsourcing on the labour process involved in the operation of mayors’ hotlines. The mayor’s hotline system is a channel set up by Chinese municipal governments to address residents’ suggestions, appeals, inquiries, and complaints. While the expansion of mayors’ hotlines falls under the government in China, the operation of call centres has been outsourced to professional tele-corporations; thus, it is for-profit companies and their employees that represent the state in communications with the public. By examining both the practical and relational components of call operators’ labour process, this article looks at how an institution of responsive authoritarianism has been contracted out in China. It argues that the outsourcing creates a dual-pressure structure that shapes the frontline governance of this institution. The engagement of privatization in authoritarian domination leads to a conflict between market rationality and the inherited tradition of state intervention.