Ongoing Institutional Changes Research Articles

Parliamentary questions, institutional change, and legislative oversight in a non‐Western context

AbstractThis study examines how the Federal National Council (FNC), the parliament of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), transformed from a consultative body to a legislative institution through gradual and incremental changes. It argues that the increasing number of parliamentary questions led to legal, procedural, and behavioral changes in the FNC, influenced by external (government support and public pressure) and internal (rationality, competence, incrementalism, and system development) factors. The success of this transformation is attributed to its gradual nature. Anticipating continued momentum, the study outlines future prospects shaped by the UAE government's commitment to FNC empowerment, heightened public expectations, and the influx of educated and experienced individuals into parliamentary roles. This ongoing institutional change reflects a responsive adaptation to evolving governance demands in the UAE. The study contributes to the theory of institutions and the understanding of legislative oversight in newly liberalized political systems.Related ArticlesAntwi‐Boateng, Osman, and Noura Hamad Salim Al Jaberi. 2022. “The Post‐Oil Strategy of the UAE: An Examination of Diversification Strategies and Challenges.” Politics & Policy 50(2): 380–407. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12457.Jouini, Nizar, and Manel Ben Akal. 2022. “Political Consensus, Economic Reforms, and Democratic Transitions in the Middle East: Evidence from Voting on Tunisian Reform Bills.” Politics & Policy 50(4): 851–71. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12489.Sarquís, David J. 2012. “Democratization after the Arab Spring: The Case of Egypt's Political Transition.” Politics & Policy 40(5): 871–903. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747‐1346.2012.00381.x.

Institutional responses to the challenges of the Russian agro-industrial complex

The work is devoted to the complex issues of the influence of the theoretical prerequisites of institutional and neo-institutional economic theory on the sustainable development of the agricultural sector. The purpose of the work is to substantiate the scientific theoretical foundations of institutional and neo–institutional economic theories as the basis for regulating the agricultural sector. The methodological basis of the study is an integrated approach, which examines the challenges facing the Russian agro-industrial complex and possible institutional solutions to emerging barriers. The conceptual foundations of the institutional movement at the first stage of its development and their relation to state regulation are shown. The main provisions of the theory of dirigisme and new industrial society are shown. The scientific foundations of the neo-institutional school of economic theory are formulated. It is shown that the main institutions require maximum attention from the state to ensure their functioning, sustainable long-term development of the economic system, and the social well-being of the country’s citizens. The main functions of the state, its boundaries and effectiveness conditions in the new institutional theory are defined. The main institutional mechanisms for improving institutions in the Russian agricultural sector to ensure long-term sustainable economic growth are identified: market institutions; national institutes of economic development; state institutions of economic growth in the agricultural sector; institutes for reducing volatility. The presented model allows, unlike traditional approaches, to be based on the historical development of the institutional environment, which allows to assess the justification for changing institutions in agriculture; allows to assess the compatibility of ongoing institutional changes with the established institutional environment.

A Multi-Level Model of Institutional Innovation and Knowledge Creation Capabilities: Insights From the Development of Taiwan's Nation Health Insurance.

This study proposes a multi-level model of institutional innovation in the healthcare sector-in other words, field-level institutional change pressures that start as network-level institutional innovation by hospitals and government for their organizational performance, with an emphasis on the effect of organizational-level construct-knowledge creation capabilities. A case study using in-depth interviews and a historical inquiry approach has been used to qualitatively analyze our cases during the development of Taiwan's National Health Insurance (NHI). Our results propose a multi-level explanation of institutional innovation by showing how field-level institutional change pressures can stimulate the government's institutional innovation at the network level. Moreover, knowledge creation capabilities may positively influence the government hospitals' ongoing institutional change pressures induced institutional innovation activity for their performance at the organizational level in an institutional setting. This study contributes to health organization management researchers and administrators by developing explanations of institutional innovation and creating a much-needed multi-level insight into hospital behavior in the highly institutionalized healthcare sector.

Confidence, Connection & Collaboration: Creating a Scalable Bias Reduction Improvement Coaching Train-the-Trainer Program to Mitigate Implicit Bias across a Medical Center

Problem: Academic medical centers need to mitigate the negative effects of implicit bias with approaches that are empirically-based, scalable, sustainable, and specific to departmental needs. Guided by Kotter’s Model of Change to create and sustain cultural change, we developed the Bias Reduction Improvement Coaching Program (BRIC), a two-year, train-the-trainer implicit bias coaching program designed to meet the increasing demand for bias training across a university medical center. Intervention: BRIC trained a cohort of faculty and staff as coaches during four quarterly training sessions in Year 1 that covered 1) the science of bias, 2) bias in selection and hiring, 3) bias in mentoring, and 4) bias in promotion, retention, and workplace culture. In Year 2, coaches attended two booster sessions and delivered at least two presentations. BRIC raises awareness of bias mitigation strategies in a scalable way by uniquely building capacity through department-level champions, providing programming that addresses the ‘local context,’ and setting a foundation for sustained institutional change. Context: In a U.S. academic medical center, 27 faculty and staff from 24 departments were trained as inaugural BRIC coaches. We assessed outcomes at multiple levels: BRIC coach outcomes (feedback on the training sessions; coach knowledge, attitudes, and skills), departmental-level outcomes (program attendee feedback, knowledge, and intentions) and institutional outcomes (activities to sustain change). Impact: After Year 1, coaches reported high satisfaction with BRIC and a statistically significant increase in self-efficacy in their abilities to recognize, mitigate, and teach about implicit bias. In Year 2, attendees at BRIC coach presentations reported an increase in bias mitigation knowledge, and the majority committed to taking follow-up action (e.g., taking an Implicit Association Test). Coaches also launched activities for sustaining change at the broader university and beyond. Lessons Learned: The BRIC Program indicates a high level of interest in receiving bias mitigation training, both among individuals who applied to be BRIC coaches and among presentation attendees. BRIC’s initial success supports future expansion. The model appears scalable and sustainable; future efforts will formalize the emerging community of practice around bias mitigation and measure elements of on-going institutional culture change.

Imbalance in estimates of the cost of the youth in the labor market of employers and job seekers as a factor of unsustainable socio-economic development

The authors’ research is devoted to the study of career expectations of young professionals entering the labor market in terms of the cost of their labor. The heads of enterprises and scientists are faced with the acute question of how to learn to understand the behavior of new actors in the labor market in order to effectively use their potential. The situation on the labor market in Russia remains unstable and variable. There is no balance between supply and demand for certain professions, in labor cost estimation, so it is difficult for a young specialist to find a job in their specialty. From the position of sustainable socio-economic development, management decisions should balance the needs of the future and the present in the labor market, which corresponds to the use of investments (investments in labor capital), in view of technological progress and ongoing institutional changes. The materials of the empirical base of the study are the results of monitoring resumes of applicants on the labor market in a number of labor-surplus and well-provided regions by gender and certain age groups, salary expectations depending on education, as well as by working conditions (salary) from employers indicated in vacancies according to the Scientific Research Center data in the field of career guidance and labor psychology.

Институциональные трансформации наемного труда: теоретико-методологические императивы

Transformation in modern Russia is associated with new opportunities and risks of wage labor, entailing a transition from traditional organizational and legal methods and conditions for the use of labor to atypical ones. The explanation of the ongoing institutional changes in wage labor is associated with the emergence of not just new paradigms of economic knowledge, but a new terminological apparatus. The purpose of this article is to develop the conceptual foundations of institutional transformations of wage labor, which are set by the multiplicative effect of its conversion and deconversion. The methodology of the research is based on a theoretical analysis of bibliographic sources about modern macroeconomic challenges for wage labor. The hypothesis of the study is that the capitalization of labor is inevitably accompanied by the capitalization of labor, and to a greater extent than the capitalization of jobs. Based on the synergetic approach, the article examines the basics of the concept of transformation of wage labor, the essential characteristics and trends of its conversion and deconversion in Russia. The scientific novelty consists in clarifying and substantiating the theoretical imperatives of conversion and reconversion of wage labor in the Russian Federation. The study of the multiplicative effect of conversion and reconversion of the sphere of labor becomes an independent scientific problem in the development of theoretical and applied foundations of economic policy of the state, region, and organization.

TRENDS AND RESULTS OF AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT IN VIETNAM

At present Vietnam, according to key economic and socially significant indicators, can be confidently attributed to dynamically developing states. Such achievements are a consequence of the sustainable development strategy consistently implemented by the public administration sector. The global modernization of the national economy of the country has brought significant results that can definitely be attributed to the experience of best practices. In general terms, characterizing the main features of the Vietnamese economy, one should single out the predominant share of agriculture, export orientation, including agricultural products, the intensity of GDP growth, the flexibility of authorities in regulating macroeconomic processes, etc. Given the agrarian orientation of the Vietnamese economy, the chosen course with an emphasis on agricultural industrialization and modernization contributed to the achievement of socially significant results in this industry. In this study, a detailed analysis of the main trends in the development of agriculture is carried out, an interpretation of the results is presented, problem areas are identified that do not allow taking a leading position among the countries of Southeast Asia in the export of agricultural products. The main directions of the agrarian policy implemented by the government of Vietnam are systematized, which are aimed at strengthening the competitive position of the state in the context of ongoing permanent institutional changes.

The impact of China’s Belt and Road Initiative on the Western Balkan Region: An erosion of EU conditionality?

The EU integration process contributes to influence the ongoing institutional changes in the Western Balkans. At the same time, the incremental inflow of Chinese capital in the region that followed the launch of the Belt and Road Initiative is progressively reshaping power relations there. This article sheds light on the interaction between these two processes, discussing whether the increasing inflow of resources may gradually erode EU conditionality and hinder the overall integration process. To do so, the authors draw on an extensive review of academic and policy documents and on selected expert interviews, upon which they compare the actions of the EU and China in the region.

POSSIBILITIES OF CHANGING THE FORM OF OWNERSHIP (AT THE MUNICIPAL LEVEL)

The possibility of legally regulating the relationship between the municipality and the owners of land plots (legal entities and individuals) and made recommendations to local authorities to resolve existing problems. The purpose of the study is to identify the essence of public administration of municipal property. The theoretical and methodological relevance of this work is that economists do not consider the issue of publicity in property management as a priority in modern realities. The work speaks of the need at the regional level to maintain an accounting and management policy for the management of state property in the context of digitalization. To study the problem, the author applied a comprehensive and methodological approach. It is concluded that ongoing institutional changes are currently taking place with very rapid changes. The article considers the prospects for the implementation of a grandiose project for the municipality of Perm. To increase the value of state property and its effective use, at the regional levels it is necessary to introduce digital processes to control state real estate (property and land) and its management (sale, lease) online. The conclusions proposed by the author can be included by the administration of the city of Perm in the perspective plan of socio-economic development until 2030.

Historical developments in Dutch gas systems: Unravelling safety concerns in gas provision

This paper identifies safety concerns that arise from ongoing technical and institutional changes in the Dutch gas sector. The Netherlands has a well-developed gas infrastructure that primarily transports natural gas, although its constituting features are undergoing major changes. We identify three historical developments, and show how (1) ongoing effects of liberalization; (2) earthquakes in the Groningen-area; and (3) commitment to climate goals affect safety. Between trends of ongoing decentralization and a growing variety of gas producers, the most urgent concerns relate to the operation of low- and medium pressure distribution grids. Natural gas is losing its prominent role, leaving system operators faced with trade-offs induced by a declining share of customers. At the same time, responsibilities for new gas technologies are allocated over a growing number of actors. In illustrating how safety practices have evolved in line with incremental technological and institutional developments over the last half century, this article elaborates how sudden changes in constitutional features of infrastructural systems might jeopardize system safety.

Scenario planning for climate change adaptation for natural resource management: Insights from the Australian East Coast Cluster

Natural resources and inherent ecosystem services have long been under pressure from unsustainable exploitation further exacerbated by climate change impacts. Managing natural resources in the Australian context is also a complex task because it involves a raft of stakeholders subjected to ongoing institutional changes and reductions in funding for programme implementation. This paper explores the use of scenario planning as a suitable tool to deal with the uncertainty and complexity inherent to natural resource management. Specifically, it reports on the development and application of explorative scenarios (multiple plausible futures) involving six natural resource management organisations and their communities of practice operating along the East Coast of Australia. Scenarios were developed based on two key drivers of change, namely: maturing approach to natural resource management; and community driven climate change action, to test the robustness and flexibility of a suite of existing strategies, policies and targets. Findings indicate that explorative scenarios were useful in the identification of strategies that may result in perverse or negative impacts under different futures; guide selection of different approaches in response to unexpected events; encourage a forward-looking approach rather than relying on past experiences only; create flexible, robust strategies that are better able to deal with shocks and surprises; provide participating policy owners with an opportunity to consider future contexts for their policies to play out in; and, ascertain a range of possible pathways to achieve a vision or goals depending on changed circumstances.

Spatial dependence and regional income convergence in India (1981–2010)

In the 1990s, India undertook large scale market-based reforms. This was expected to bring about convergence in growth rates across different states. However, the bulk of empirical literature on India suggests that there has been increased divergence in the post reforms period. We re-examine the convergence debate of India’s economic growth and question the validity of existing estimates of convergence rates, most of which are based on either cross-section analysis or non-spatial panel data analysis. We provide the first estimates of convergence rates in India from spatial panel data models. Our analysis reveals a significant influence of neighbouring states’ growth on per capita income of Indian states. The impact of initial income on growth is much smaller than earlier anticipated once we control for spatial dependence. This suggests that many of the earlier estimates of convergence rates and the impact of initial income on growth may be inaccurate and biased. Our results confirm that the “β” convergence coefficient is positive and significant suggesting income divergence. In addition, we find evidence of spatial dependence among the states in India. Apart from the state’s own initial income, what matters is how rich or poor its neighbours are. This occurs even though the neighbours may have different growth drivers and lack a set of common public policies. This has implications for growth policy-making in India, especially due to the ongoing institutional changes underway in the country.

Public Administration: Institutions, Resource Transfer, Jobs

The study deals with institutional peculiarities of public administration and examines the way in which bureaucratic behaviour models influence the effectiveness of government decisions and the conduct of economic policy. The methodological basis of the study is bureaucratic theory and neoinstitutional economic theory. The author proves that the ongoing institutional changes in the form of government decisions affect resource transfers between various types of economic activity, in particular, a transfer of labour and capital between economic sectors. Moreover, the ratio between risk and profitability of various types of activity, undergoing constant and dynamic changes due to these corrections, determines the dynamics of the resource and the entire economic system. However, apart from the ratio between risk and profitability, the level of manufacturability is also relevant. We present a model of determining gross value added by the specified parameters which determines the transfer of capital and labour. The model evaluates the changes in gross value added of the manufacturing sector in a situation where there are shifts in the risk of doing business within the sector. The change in the risk ratio towards its decrease in processing and increase in the transactional and raw materials sector results in a significant rise in value added in the processing sphere. The overall level of the initial manufacturability predetermines the possibility of creating jobs; therefore, the task of increasing the number of high-performance jobs is determined precisely by this state. The estimation of the number of jobs in accordance with the method proposed by the Federal State Statistics Service camouflages the scope and the essence of the problem. Instead of using salary or value added when comparing with average values, in order to evaluate high-performance jobs we suggest considering the overall manufacturability of the economic system and the number of automated workplaces that allow enhancing productivity through higher “production manufacturability”.

Material and Symbolic Forces in the Evolution of Regulatory Institutions of Agrobiotechnology: A Case Study About Brazil

The wide and complex range of technologies produced and used in the contemporary societies has challenged the analysis from the different fields of social sciences. In this sense, in order to elaborate a study that aim at understanding the relationship between technological progress and the ongoing institutional changes that mark the capitalist societies, we believe it is necessary to adopt an interdisciplinary approach combining methodologies from Economics and Sociology fields. Therefore, this study proposes the development of an interdisciplinary dialogue between the economic sociology of Pierre Bourdieu and the evolutionary economics developed by authors such as Giovanni Dosi, Sidney Winter, Richard Nelson and Bhaven Sampat. In doing so, we intend to demonstrate that a theory guided by Marx’s historical materialism, as it is the case of evolutionary economics, can be enriched by a materialist theory of symbolic, such as that of Pierre Bourdieu. In searching the comprehension of the complementarity between material and symbolic forces, this study addresses the conflictual process surrounding the formulation of the regulatory institutions to the biotechnology sector in Brazil over the last two decades. More precisely, through a case study, we seek to demonstrate that the convergence of discourses and interests between prestigious scientific organizations and the multinational companies that control the agrobiotechnology industry has been relevant to allow this new technological paradigm to make progress. Finally, we raise some questions concerning this alliance between business and science and the conflicts that revolve around the rapid expansion of the genetically modified crops worldwide.

Niche action and system harmonization for institutional change: Prospects for demand-driven agricultural extension in Vietnam

Drawing upon institution, power, and network concepts, this article analyzes how different actors interact with institutions in institutional change processes at niche level. The analysis builds on action research which developed and reflected upon the Farmer Research and Extension Network – an innovative, demand-driven approach to agricultural extension in Vietnam's north-western uplands. The action-researcher identified commune extension workers as strategic actors in the system and, consequently, supported them in exploiting and widening their existing room for maneuver. Throughout the research process, new rules and roles were developed with local stakeholders and carefully introduced into the local extension system. Thereby, the action research process helped institutionalizing demand-oriented approaches to public service delivery, in a manner firmly rooted in everyday action and politics. The findings reveal the critical contribution at niche level that commune extension workers can make to on-going institutional change in a late socialist polity.

Multi-level governance and adaptive capacity in West Africa

In most regions in West Africa, livelihoods depend heavily on forest ecosystem goods and services, often in interplay with agricultural and livestock production systems. Numerous drivers of change are creating a range of fundamental economic, ecological, social and political challenges for the governance of forest commons. Climate change and its impacts on countries' and regions' development add a new dimension to an already challenging situation. Governance systems are challenged to set a frame for formulating, financing and implementing adaptation strategies at multiple layers, often in a context of ongoing institutional changes such as decentralisation. A deeper understanding of actors, institutions and networks is needed to overcome barriers in socio-ecological systems to adaptation and enable or enhance adaptive capacity. In this paper, we explore the relationship between governance and adaptive capacity, and characterise and assess the effects of a set of variables and indicators related to two core variables: Institutional flexibility, and individual and organisational understandings and perceptions. We present a comparative analysis with multiple methods based on a number of case studies undertaken at different levels in Burkina Faso and Mali. One of the key findings indicates the importance and influence of discourses and narratives, and how they affect adaptive capacity at different levels. Revealing the ideological character of discourses can help to enable adaptive capacity, as it would break the influence of the actors that employ these narratives to pursuit their own interests.

From government to governance for biodiversity: the perspective of central and Eastern European transition countries

AbstractThis paper addresses the problems of institutional changes in governance and the framing of biodiversity conservation policy at the level of the enlarged European Union. The current development of European Union governance has become more complex and multilevel, partially usurping competences from the central state and relying on networks of interconnected actors rather than on a hierarchy dominated and defined by the state. This shift is particularly challenging for biodiversity governance in new member states, where current decision making is still affected by post‐socialist relations and massive ongoing institutional changes, often resulting in inefficient institutional designs and over‐exploitation of natural resources. The paper offers a cross‐country analysis of five Central and Eastern European countries, characterized by different socialist regimes and different transition processes from hierarchical to democratic and market governance. The theoretical basis of the paper is institutional rebuilding in Central and Eastern Europe in the context of the emerging multilevel environmental governance of the EU. The data were collected from desk study research and interviews. The results show that some elements of multilevel governance existed in these countries prior to the transition, but that EU integration empowered lower levels of self‐government. The mismatch between the old hierarchical institutions developed under socialism and the new decentralized institutions introduced during the transformation process still persists and is visible. The emergence of multilevel governance with multiple actors' participation is prone to create tensions, but evidence from the countries studied indicates that this is not necessarily a disadvantage. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

Globalization and institutional competitiveness

AbstractOnly dead institutions do not change and only rarely do institutions change by themselves. To maintain performing institutions takes institutional entrepreneurs who are willing to take risks and who possess the capacity and the talent to innovate. A regulation discourse, in contrast to a marketization discourse, would not picture the relationship between globalization and institutional change as a deterministic one. Rather, it would expect that all kinds of actors play a large number of different roles in the course of ongoing institutional change. The result of such complex institutional change, at the level of welfare states, multinational businesses, public administration, and training systems, to mention just a few of the empirical areas covered in this special issue, cannot be fully understood by applying an overly rigid, static, and dualistic approach to modern capitalist economies. The concept of institutional competitiveness, on the contrary, allows for institutional entrepreneurship and institutional hybrids constituting pulsating polities.

The Puzzle of China's Township–Village Enterprises The Paradox of Local Corporatism in a Dual-Track Economic Transition

This paper seeks to reconcile and synthesize the diverse views about the township–village enterprises (TVEs) and local corporatism in the context of ongoing institutional changes in China as a transition economy. Specifically, I attempt to integrate the economic, political, cultural, and social explanations for TVEs, especially the two competing views of market competition and political corruption. I focus on the puzzle of TVE efficiency as well as the paradox of local corporatism as a government–business partnership with both a positive function of public alliance for wealth creation and a negative function of private collusion for wealth transfer. I argue that the key to both the puzzle of TVEs and the paradox of local corporatism lies in China's dual-track reform paradigm (i.e. a market-for-mass track and a state-for-élite track). Lastly, I discuss the critical implications for theory building and policymaking regarding economic transition in general.

The Social Construction of Events: A Study of Institutional Change in the Photographic Field

Institutional theorists have recently been moving towards a notion that non-isomorphic institutional change is precipitated by significant events or ‘jolts’. In this paper, we argue that in doing so theorists have tended to move away from the social constructivist roots of institutional theory towards an understanding which implies the emergence of new organizational forms or practices in response to functional imperatives. In this context, we examine the ongoing institutional change from photography to digital imaging. Our analysis suggests that attributing institutional change to a single event or ‘jolt’ leads to a flawed understanding of institutional change processes. We demonstrate that, rather than causing institutional change, events are a part of the change process, and only become significant as actors bring them to our notice and ‘theorize’ around them (Greenwood et al. 2002). This social construction process determines the scope, significance and relevance of events, leading to the development of new artifacts and the enrolment of new stakeholders in the field. Situating events within the theorization process, rather than outside it, underlines the importance of focusing on social construction processes in accounts of institutional change.