Regional Institutional Contexts Research Articles

“The Cluj Catechization Trial (1958).” The Story of a Regional Orthodox Educational Project in Stalinist Romania

The removal of religious education from the school curriculum by the Communist regime, through the educational reform of 1948, forced the Romanian Orthodox Church, like the other denominations, to reposition itself. Thus, in the new, unfavorable, context of the 1950s, when the regime tried to limit the Church’s institutional autonomy and reduce its social impact, the Romanian Orthodox Church attempted to initiate catechetical activities at the parish level to compensate for the pupils’ lack of religious education. The general context of the relationship between the State and the Church, with a focus on the institutional mechanisms and instruments of the regime of control over the educational activity of the Orthodox Church, will be approached in the first part of the article, which aims to outline the political‑ecclesial context in which the “Cluj catechization trial” of 1958 took place, while the second part of the research will focus on the development of the events surrounding the 1958 catechization. The Cluj catechization action, initiated by Bishop Teofil Herineanu, aimed to revive the religious education of the faithful, both students and adults. For this purpose, the bishop called upon the priests Galaction Munteanu, administrative vicar, and Ioan Bunea, professor at the Theological Seminary. They drew up a catechetical program which, after being sent to the archpriestships of the diocese, triggered the brutal intervention of the Securitate. A trial ensued, and clerics Ioan Bunea and Galaction Munteanu (the latter, deceased in the Aiud Prison) fell victims; the trial took place in the larger context of the Bucharest regime’s reaction towards the danger of the expansion of the 1956 Hungarian revolution. Using multiple sources: archives (CNSAS, the Department of Cults, the Cluj Archdiocese Archives), oral history (interviews with the descendants of the clergy involved) and memoirs, the article aims to radiograph the topic of religious education in Communist Romania in the 1950s, capturing the regional institutional context, its mechanisms and ecclesiastical practices, the educational objectives of the Church, the reaction of the political and repressive authorities (the Department of Cults, the Securitate) and last, but not least, the (post)carceral destinies of the clergy involved.

The institutional context, entrepreneurship decisions, and venture types: evidence from Mexico

Purpose The research aims to applying Baumol’s framework to address some research gaps in the literature. This paper aims to analyze how institutional variations at the subnational level impact entrepreneurship decisions and the path toward productive or unproductive entrepreneurship in an institutionally underdeveloped country. The results offer potentially new theoretical insights and practical implications for developing or emergent countries. Design/methodology/approach The research applies Baumol’s framework to Mexico’s context. The research collects data compounded by individual- and state-level variables from diverse sources for the 32 Mexican states. The individual level and some controls were obtained from sources of regular frequency, but the institutional variables were derived from surveys of irregular frequency, nonsynchronic and mostly nonoverlapping, which required aligning and centered them around 2016 and 2019 to match with the individual variables. The authors apply multilevel nonlinear mixed-effects probit regression to test nine hypotheses regarding the impact of institutional variables on entrepreneurial decisions and the path toward productive or unproductive entrepreneurship. Findings Improved formal institutions across the Mexican states reduce the entrepreneurship probability, implying interactions with other variables and indirect effects; encourage the selection of productive entrepreneurship, e.g. formal ventures; and discourage self-employment. Consequently, those institutions do not encourage entrepreneurship selection as an occupation but entrepreneurial quality, i.e. the selection of productive-formal entrepreneurship and larger ventures. Deficient informal institutions increase the entrepreneurship and formal entrepreneurship probabilities, implying the interactions with other variables and indirect effects and supporting the corruption “greases the wheels” hypothesis, consequently encouraging productive ventures. New evidence of the positive relationship between criminality and entrepreneurship types in Mexico is reported. Research limitations/implications Our findings indicate important impacts of the individual-level variables on the entrepreneurship decisions and that most of those decisions are potentially necessity driven and a minority are driven by opportunity, given their relationship with the macroeconomic controls and the institutional variables. The authors report mixed results on the relationship between institutions and entrepreneurship partially consistent with the literature; some results contribute additional evidence on controversial hypotheses or imply the existence of indirect effects. Overall, the results suggest that institutions impact the individual decisions to venture and the type of venture consequently affecting the amount and quality of entrepreneurship across states. Originality/value The research addresses some of the literature gaps by providing empirical evidence on a middle-income country and how diverging regional institutional contexts, including formal and informal institutions, impact the individual’s entrepreneurship decisions within an institutionally underdeveloped country. The paper contributes new knowledge and insights into entrepreneurship in emerging or developing countries with implications for Baumol’s framework in this context and adds to the debated hypothesis on the relationship between some institutions, e.g. corruption and criminality and entrepreneurship.

Competitive strategy, development zone policy and firm growth: Empirical evidence from China.

Competitive strategy plays an important role in achieving superior profits, but there is still much to be explored in terms of the effect on firm growth. This study focuses on exploring the relationship between competitive strategy and firm growth in emerging economies. We focus on how the development zone policies moderate this relationship. This study uses a two-way fixed-effect model to analyze data for 527 manufacturing firms listed in China's Shanghai and Shenzhen A-shares from 2012-2021. Our empirical analysis showed that there is a significant positive relationship between low-cost strategy and firm growth and a significant negative relationship between differentiation strategy and firm growth. Compared with national development zones, firms in provincial development zones choose low-cost strategies that are more conducive to growth. Compared with provincial development zones, firms in national development zones choose differentiation strategies that are more conducive to growth. These findings contribute to understanding the mechanisms by which competitive strategy affects firm growth in different regional institutional contexts in emerging economies. The results of the study also have reference value for the government to optimize the development zone policies.

The Quality of Regional Institutional Context and Museum Service Provision: Evidence from Italy

This study evaluates whether and how the services provided by Italian museums are influenced by the quality of the institutional context at the regional level. Institutional quality is measured by a range of indicators largely employed in the literature, such as the Institutional Quality Index (IQI), the European Quality of Government Index (EQI), and their components. Resorting to spatial autoregressive models, the presence of spatial dependence in museum service provision is also investigated. The analysis shows that the common institutional context is significant, especially for public museums, and it explains part of the spatial correlation among museums within regions.

A tale of sky and desert: Translation and imaginaries in transnational windows of institutional opportunity

Institutional change in regional economies is affected by multiscalar developments such as alignment with the EU and its markets. In countries in the EU’s Eastern and Southern neighborhood, processes of alignment and mutual market liberalization shape the supranational conditions for regional development but do so in variegated ways. Policy alignment consists of changes in the supranational institutional context that are translated into diverse changes in the regional institutional context. Building on literature on institutional entrepreneurship, cultural political economy, and actor-network theory, the paper argues that EU alignment opens a transnational window of institutional opportunity for agents to shape regional development through the translation of institutional change both between different spatial scales and between different components of institutional contexts. In this contested process, institutional entrepreneurs draw on imaginaries, narratives, and visions, and actively shape them. The empirical case of tourism in Israel's Southern Negev illustrates the impact of the country's integration into the EU’s external aviation policy on the tourism sector as well as the strategies of institutional entrepreneurs to use this transnational window of institutional opportunity to promote diverse patterns of institutional change based on multiple imaginaries.

Challenges and opportunities for universities in building adaptive capacities for sustainability: lessons from Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean

ABSTRACT Capacity building is defined as a process by which stakeholders increase their knowledge, skills and resources in order to improve their ability to adapt in a fast-changing world. Universities play a key role in the promotion of sustainability and implementation of the 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through capacity building. However, universities in developing countries face significant challenges in the implementation of capacity building programmes for sustainability given the lack of procedures that facilitate the systematic integration of multiple stakeholderś epistemologies, methodologies and objectives. In this paper, we present a capacity building approach as a problem-focused process that follows a multi-domain/multi-stakeholder scheme, and provides alignment with the functions and responsibilities of different sectors of society. The approach involves the use of a decision-support tool for sustainability that enables stakeholders to actively participate in decision-making processes. We illustrate the implementation of the capacity building approach through two case studies and show how general and specific capacities tailored to the different stakeholders can be developed. Our approach to capacity building accentuates the role of universities in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean as research and innovation hubs that could help design and implement flexible, transparent and robust strategies towards achievement of sustainability in the region. Key policy insights Capacity building to address the sustainable development goals should aim to develop sets of interlinked capacities for sustainability across stakeholder groups. Capacity building should take into account the regional institutional contexts in which universities in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean are embedded. Effective implementation of capacity building must be tailored to the different roles and functions of the actors involved. Thematic, technical, evaluative and procedural domains provide a comprehensive framework to build capacities, which can be continuously adapted according to the functions and responsibilities of the actors. Capacity building approaches to address climate change vulnerability require decision-support tools to inform policy-making.

Factors Facilitating the Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals in Regional and Local Planning—Experiences from Norway

Successful implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) depends on regional and local authorities’ ability to implement the goals in their respective contexts. Through a survey and interviews with informants in Norwegian municipalities and county councils, this paper explores and offers new empirical insight into (1) which factors can be identified as facilitating the implementation of the SDGs in Norwegian local and regional planning; (2) how the facilitating factors are conditioned by the different local and regional institutional contexts; and (3) how these factors from the Norwegian context correspond or differ from those in the international literature. We find that the existing Planning and Building Act is considered a suitable framework for the implementation of the SDGs in the Norwegian context, and that the SDGs are high on the national and regional governmental agendas. However, work remains in integrating the SDGs into underlying governmental activities. They must be incorporated into action plans and planning tools, which will require involvement, collaboration and development work across sectors and authority levels, and the development of guidelines for how this can be done. Allocating enough resources for this work will be crucial, and smaller municipalities may need other types and degrees of support than larger ones.

Small business and poverty: evidence from post-Soviet cities

ABSTRACT The relationship between small business and poverty is inadequately substantiated, despite being an important economic and social nexus. We test the direct impact of small business on poverty, and of poverty on small business. Using panel data across 115 post-Soviet cities in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Russia and Ukraine, we examine early (1995–2002) and later (2003–08) transition periods. The findings show small business can reduce urban poverty during transition, and that higher poverty in cities impedes small business. We also find that changes in regional institutional context, knowledge and locational characteristics can facilitate or hamper both small business and poverty.

Building human capacities for HIA

Abstract Health Impact Assessment (HIA) requires capacity building in technical, operational and strategic domains at individual and organisational levels. HIA capacity building frameworks also need to adapt to different types of HIA approaches and organisational, institutional and cultural contexts. To build capacity in these domains, many institutions around the world develop and provide training programs and technical support fit-for-purpose HIA in their respective local and regional institutional contexts. For example, in Australia, the Centre for Primary Health Care and Equity (CPHCE) has conducted Learning by Doing (LbD) programs in HIA since 2002 which aims at acquiring knowledge and skills through active involvement with practical, real-world experience. These training programs have supported building capacity to undertake HIAs in more than 30 countries and involved more than 2,000 participants. In South Korea, the Korea Institute of Health and Social Affairs (KIHASA) has provided technical and financial support for central and local governments to conduct HIAs since 2008. A total of 27 HIAs were conducted in diverse policy areas including urban planning, housing, transportation, education, welfare, and health services. In this session, we review the competencies for HIA in the multilevel domains and compare international HIA capacity building programs against these domains to discuss strengths, limitations, challenges and future directions.

The triple helix system and regional entrepreneurship in China

ABSTRACT The paper examines the influence of the Triple Helix system of university-industry-government collaboration on regional entrepreneurship in China. Utilizing proprietary survey data collected from industrial firms, academic institutions, and government agencies in five representative Chinese regions, the paper finds that interactions within the three spheres of the Triple Helix system in terms of trilateral collaboration, network relationship, and complementary synergies all have positive influences on regional entrepreneurship in China by shaping local entrepreneurial environment and fostering entrepreneurship activities. The paper also reveals significant regional differences in the functioning of the Triple Helix system. Specifically, the roles of trilateral collaboration and network relationship are more salient in developing regions, while complementary synergies are more effective in developed regions. This study contributes to the burgeoning literature on national and regional innovation systems by emphasizing the multifaceted effect of university-industry-government collaboration on promoting regional entrepreneurship. It also highlights the role of regional institutional context in affecting innovation and entrepreneurship processes.

El papel de las políticas públicas en la resiliencia regional: un análisis exploratorio del caso del País Vasco

La resiliencia regional, entendida como la capacidad de las regiones para resistir, adaptarse y crear nuevas trayectorias en la región a raíz de una crisis económica o de otros factores externos, es uno de los temas que se han explorado ampliamente en los últimos años en la literatura de geografía económica. Los últimos avances en la materia otorgan al fenómeno de la resiliencia un carácter multidimensional y exploran el papel de las instituciones y las personas como factores claves del concepto. Las políticas públicas, como parte del entramado institucional de las regiones, condicionan y modifican esta capacidad de cambio. El artículo se centra, precisamente, en explorar la relación entre las políticas de innovación y la resiliencia regional. Para ello, se analiza desde una perspectiva histórica el caso del País Vasco, una antigua región industrial, que ha sido capaz de resistir, recuperarse y renovarse después de diferentes crisis económicas.

Change your identity and fit in: an empirical examination of ownership structure change, firm performance and local knowledge spillovers in China

ABSTRACTThis paper evaluates the effectiveness of China’s reform of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) by exploring if reformed SOEs have genuinely changed their identity and fitted in. Using a firm-level data set, we show that reformed SOEs have learned more from non-SOEs about how to promote economic performance. Empirical results also confirm that the effectiveness of the SOE reform is contingent on regional institutional contexts. Finally, this research contributes to the existing literature by bringing firm’s financial performance to the forefront, and pointing out that knowledge spillovers derived from non-SOEs have impacts on the financial performance of reformed SOEs.

Learning from yourself or learning from neighbours: knowledge spillovers, institutional context and firm upgrading

ABSTRACTUsing a firm–product-level data set on China’s exports during the period 2000–11, we compare the impacts of intra- and inter-firm knowledge spillovers on the emergence of new, more sophisticated products at the firm level. Empirical results indicate that firm diversification is dependent on both intra- and inter-firm knowledge spillovers, though the effect of the former is much greater. More importantly, intra-firm knowledge spillovers are one key source of firm upgrading. In contrast, inter-firm knowledge spillovers even have some negative impacts on firm upgrading in the Chinese context, though it contributes to firm diversification. We further analyze how the roles of intra- and inter-firm knowledge spillovers in firm upgrading are contingent on regional institutional context.

The takeover selection decisions of multinational enterprises: empirical evidence from European target firms

This article studies the selection patterns of takeover decisions taken by multinational enterprises (MNEs) by analysing the characteristics of acquisition targets. Drawing on the evolutionary economic geography and the international business literatures, our conceptual framework emphasises key micro-level factors influencing cross-border takeovers, such as the global search of MNEs for novel firm-specific knowledge, their cost-reduction behaviour and the heterogeneity of routines among potential target firms. The mediating role of the technological and the regional institutional contexts of target firms is also considered. Using data on a large sample of European target firms for 1997–2013, our results support a process of selection whereby MNEs acquire underperforming firms that developed valuable organisational and cognitive routines, as a strategy to access novel knowledge bases while reducing the cost of purchasing foreign assets.

The World is Outraged": Legitimacy in the Making of the ASEAN Human Rights Body

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) established its first human rights body in 2009: the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR). Given the traditional interpretations of ASEAN norms such as sovereignty, non-interference, equality and independence, this was a curious development. In particular, the norms of sovereignty and in the internal affairs of one another have been central to the code of conduct among ASEAN member states since the organization was established in 1967, and are reiterated in ASEAN agreements and declarations. (1) The non-interference norm means that domestic governance issues, including member states' human rights records, traditionally have been off the table in official ASEAN dialogue. It also means that member governments have refrained from publicly criticizing each other's actions. Moreover, only five of the ten member states have national human rights bodies (with varying mandates and degrees of independence from their respective governments). (2) Why, then, did ASEAN create a regional human rights body? The references to human rights and the creation of a human rights body raise the question of whether traditional interpretations of ASEAN norms are under challenge. The case study also raises a more fundamental question: why and how do norms emerge and evolve among states in a regional institutional context? This puzzle has implications for the study of regional organizations. ASEAN is a particularly interesting case in this regard because of its environment of contestation. Norms are dynamic and evolve over time, and there may be tensions between norms in a regional institutional environment. Moreover, member states have diverse understandings of ASEAN norms. This article takes a consciously Constructivist approach in its recognition of ideational factors and sociological dynamics in international relations. This article traces the negotiations leading to the adoption of the ASEAN Charter, focusing on the processes through which ten member states with significantly diverse identities, interests and practices accepted references to human rights as principles and purposes of ASEAN, and agreed to create a human rights body. After a period of debate, negotiation and drafting from January to November 2007, ASEAN member states agreed to make a normative about human rights in the Charter. In this article, a statement represents rhetorical adoption of a norm in an official text, even if that norm has not been internalized. In contrast, the term is used to denote the common understanding of a norm: a standard of appropriate behaviour for actors with a given identity. (3) The article traces the processes through which ideas are initially proposed and advanced, and eventually emerge in agreed-upon text. As such, it provides a case study of the emergence and evolution of norms in a regional institutional context. This article argues that regional norms are shaped by competing perceptions of legitimacy. Legitimacy refers here to the social judgements of an entity as appropriate, proper or desirable, within a particular institutional environment. Member states' interpretations of the legitimacy of ASEAN and its norms as perceived by those outside the region--external regional legitimacy--were crucial in shaping the decision to establish a regional human rights body. In particular, the international outrage over the Myanmar regime's crackdown on protesting monks in September 2007 brought ASEAN's legitimacy concerns into sharp relief. ASEAN officials were concerned about the impact of this event, and of Myanmar's membership generally, on ASEAN's reputation and credibility. They believed that creating a human rights body was an important mechanism to improve the legitimacy of ASEAN and its norms, as perceived by extra-regional actors. Thus, member states--even those who generally resist increased interference in internal affairs, and those with poor human rights records--accepted the need to adopt references in the Charter to provide a role for ASEAN vis-a-vis human rights. …

The Albanian Ethnoterritorial Separatist Movement: Local Conflict, Regional Crisis

Militant transborder identity movements are common agents of regional crises in the post-Cold War world. In their sustained pursuit of identity-centered political objectives these movements incite violent transborder mobilization. This article examines the actors and circumstances of regionalized crises using as an example the Albanian transborder ethnoterritorial separatist movement and its role in the 2001 Macedonian crisis. I argue that, where opportunities are ripe, two factors contribute to the outbreak of regional crisis. The key short-term “endogenous factor” is common ethnic identity, whereas the major long-term “exogenous factor” consists of leaders’ cost/benefit calculations made in view of the local and regional institutional context.

Upgrading, uneven development, and jobs in the North American apparel industry

AbstractIn this article we examine the developmental consequences of globalization at multiple scales, using a commodity chains framework to investigate the case of the North American apparel industry. In the first section we outline the apparel commodity chain and offer a brief typology of its lead firms. In the second section we discuss the concept of industrial upgrading and describe several main export roles in the global apparel industry. In the third section we focus on the regional dynamics resulting from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). We contrast the Mexican experience with that of countries in the Caribbean Basin to show the impact of distinct trade policies on export‐oriented development. We argue that NAFTA is creating upgrading opportunities for some Mexican firms to move from the low value‐added export‐oriented assembly (or maquila) model to full‐package production. In the fourth section we explore the unevenness of upgrading dynamics through a comparison of two blue jeans manufacturing clusters in the United States and Mexico: El Paso and Torreon. Our conclusions about upgrading and uneven development in the North American apparel industry emphasize the importance of local, national and regional institutional contexts in shaping inter‐firm networks and their development impact.