Role Of External Stakeholders Research Articles

Enhancing Cooperation for Interconnected Regional Security: Central Asian Countries and Afghanistan

Objectives: This article aims to delve into the evolving dynamics of cooperation between Central Asian countries and Afghanistan, particularly within the context of interconnected regional security challenges. The strategic significance of Central Asia as a crossroads of major geopolitical and economic interests sets the stage for understanding the transformations in this region, especially following the withdrawal of international forces from Afghanistan.
 
 Methods: To achieve the stated objectives, the article employs a multifaceted approach. It begins by examining the historical context of Central Asia's relationship with Afghanistan, tracing the developments to the post-withdrawal era. The analysis encompasses shared security concerns, potential spillover effects of instability, and the rise of extremism. The research emphasizes the significance of regional cooperation as a viable mechanism to address common threats and foster stability.
 
 Results: The findings of this study shed light on the key drivers and impediments to cooperation in the Central Asian region. Historical rivalries, border disputes, and divergent interests among regional actors are thoroughly analyzed. The existing cooperative frameworks, such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), are scrutinized, and the role of external stakeholders, including major powers and international organizations, is examined in supporting and facilitating regional cooperation.
 
 Conclusion: In conclusion, the article synthesizes the analysis by outlining potential areas of cooperation between Central Asian countries and Afghanistan. It highlights crucial areas such as border security, intelligence sharing, counter-terrorism efforts, trade, economic cooperation, and infrastructure development. Emphasizing the need for trust-building measures, diplomatic dialogue, and mutual understanding, the conclusion underscores the importance of these elements for the successful implementation of cooperative initiatives. Overall, this article makes a significant contribution to the scholarly discourse on regional security in Central Asia and Afghanistan, providing a foundation for further research and policy discussions aimed at fostering a sustainable and resilient security architecture in the region.

Local Governance: Concepts and Roles of the Contemporary Society in Somalia

This article presents a comprehensive examination of the historical and contemporary dynamics of governance in Somalia. It begins with a review of the country's socio-political landscape, highlighting the impact of the civil war, the emergence of clan-based territories, and the rise of non-state actors. The article then traces the evolution of Somali governance from independence to the present day, emphasizing the transition from a centralized authority to a federal system. The role of external stakeholders in Somalia's reconciliation and recovery process is thoroughly analyzed, drawing attention to the complex influences of international and regional actors. A key focus of the article is the formation of the third tier of government in Somalia, the district council, under the Wadajir framework. The challenges faced by this newly established entity, including clan-based conflicts and a fragile revenue system, are discussed in detail. At the same time, the potential of the district council in fostering improved local government actions, encouraging community engagement in development and ensuring fairer resource distribution is underscored. The article concludes with a forward-looking discussion on the prospects of inclusive governance and local empowerment in Somalia's future. This comprehensive analysis serves as a valuable resource for scholars, policymakers, and practitioners interested in Somali politics and governance

Conflict of interests of stakeholders in corporate management under modern conditions

Aim. The work aimed to describe the impact of modern conditions of social development, primarily digitalization trends and the COVID-19 pandemic, on the essence of stakeholder conflicts of interest in corporate management, as well as the consequences arising from this.Tasks. The work was performed to define the term “stakeholder”, classify key stakeholders in the context of the impact of a conflict of interest on corporate management.Methods. The author used general methods of scientific knowledge, identified trends in digitalization and the COVID-19 pandemic under conditions of change in the content of stakeholder conflicts of interest in corporate management.Results. The process of increase in the role of external stakeholders in the reality of contemporary times, as well as the prerequisites for the emergence of a conflict of interests of stakeholders and ways to resolve them in modern conditions, were characterized. The ways to manage the conflict of interests of the corporation stakeholders and the impact of such conflicts on the efficiency of corporate management were analyzed.Conclusions. It has been established that the stronger the coronavirus pandemic impact on conducting business, the more often corporate conflicts take place, the more cases of conflict of interest of corporation stakeholders occur, and, as a result, the choice of ways to resolve them is predetermined. In addition, the active transition to digitalization strengthens the role and influence of external stakeholders, especially regulatory authorities and the public, on corporate management in general and in the context of conflict situations in particular.

Joining networked society: integrating Academic Service-Learning into formal school

ABSTRACT The gap between students’ formal, school-based learning and informal, social learning has been widely acknowledged. To overcome this gap, academic service-learning (AS-L) pedagogy involves deliberate efforts to interconnect formal and informal learning by enhancing students’ transitions across multiple authentic settings and fostering their participation in various social roles. The aim of this study was to examine how AS-L is practiced among Finnish primary and secondary schools, what kind of stakeholder networks are involved, what the experienced outcomes are, and which factors enable the AS-L pedagogy to be embedded into the Finnish formal school context. The data consisted of semi-structured educator interviews describing nine cases of implementing AS-L practices in diverse Finnish school settings. Empirically driven, thematic data-analysis generated an overall description of the AS-L pedagogies examined. The findings confirm that AS-L pedagogy fulfiled the curricular aims, assisted in meeting the learning objectives and affirmed the fundamental role of external stakeholders in AS-L pedagogy. However, results also revealed challenges related to schools’ operational infrastructures, lesson frameworks, and teacher collaboration hindering the interdisciplinary implementation of AS-L pedagogy, preventing synergies with subject-specific learning contents, and limiting stakeholder networks. Innovative teacher activity, in turn, was identified as a success factor in applying AS-L pedagogy. The results indicate that interconnecting formal and informal learning requires schools’ systemic change, and furthermore, legitimising teacher’s transformative efforts fosters development and implementation of novel pedagogical practices.

Living Labs for Public Sector Innovation: insights from a European case study

Introduction The acknowledged move from traditional public administration (TPA), over to new public management (NPM), then to the current shift towards new public governance (NPG) has spurred an increased awareness on the role of external stakeholders in developing public services, and hence the way public sector innovation takes place (Hartley, 2005; Torfing, 2019).

The role of external stakeholders in ensuring the quality of educational services of Polotsk state university

In modern conditions, the task of integrating science, education and innovation activities is of great importance. The need for highly qualified and proactive employees leads to the natural integration of the University and employers, who are the main external stakeholders and consumers of educational services. The article discusses the main forms of interaction between Polotsk State University and the main enterprises and organizations of the region. The main results of comprehensive monitoring of employers ‘satisfaction with the quality of training specialists in the higher educational institution are presented. The assessment of consumer satisfaction with educational services in the framework of this monitoring was carried out on the basis of a competence campaign. This is primarily due to the fact that the quality of education is determined precisely by the competencies formed by the graduate, which allow applying the acquired knowledge, skills and abilities in solving specific professional tasks. The monitoring demonstrated a high level of development of a number of competencies, in particular the competence “ability to use information and communication technologies”, which highlights the fact that the educational programs of compulsory and additional education implemented at Polotsk State University provide the knowledge and practical skills necessary for using the latest ICT in professional activities. Employers have also identified the scarce skills of graduates, namely “Ability to take decisive action in case of uncertainty”, “Ability to anticipate a problem” and “Ability to use time effectively”. Based on the self-assessment of graduates, during their studies at Polotsk State University they have to a large extent developed the competences required for successful work in today’s economy. The success of Polotsk State University graduates is clear evidence of the high quality of their training.

Understanding vulnerability and resilience in Somalia.

In the recent years, Somalia witnessed a heightened frequency of droughts and conflicts. This article explores the experiences of Somalis during the 2011 and 2016 crises, examining the link between vulnerability and resilience, and the role played by international humanitarian responders in resilience building. The aim of this study is to provide information on how different population groups responded to and managed to survive recurrent shocks; the prevailing drivers of marginalisation and exclusion, and mechanisms through which these are maintained; and the role of external stakeholders. A review of literature was combined with field consultations in four study sites: Kismayo Urban, Kismayo Rural, Baidoa and Beledweyne, and complemented by consultations with the Somali diaspora community in Kampala, Uganda. Participatory research methods were used, including participant observation, focus group discussions, household dialogues, livelihood analysis, well-being analysis and gender analysis. The findings of the study revealed an inextricable link between vulnerability, conflict and disasters, with the major challenge facing the most vulnerable Somalis being uncertain about the future. Somali households adopted different coping strategies depending on their resource endowments, including the social and organisational coping strategies, divesting of non-essential domestic assets, and diversification of income generation and food production strategies. Thus, different population groups survived the shocks through social connectedness, which aligned with the effective use of remittances to create robust mechanisms for sharing risk. That notwithstanding, groups that had the backing of more powerful clans seemed to have the edge over those who did not.

Assessment of stakeholders’ contributions to livestock development in Delta State, Nigeria: Rural infrastructure intervention

Abstract The study assessed the contributions of stakeholders to livestock development through provision of infrastructure to rural areas of Delta State, Nigeria. The objectives were to describe the socio-economic characteristics of respondents, appraise the role of external stakeholders in livestock development, verify any existing relationship between livestock development and rural development indicators and identify the challenges faced by respondents. A purposive and simple random sampling techniques were used to select the three major towns and 180 respondents. Data were collected by questionnaire and subjected to descriptive and inferential statistics. Result obtained showed that majority of the respondents were males (68.3%) with higher national diplomat (HND)/First degree (33.3%) and have a mean age of 42 years. The first four highest external stakeholders were skills training and entrepreneurship programme (94%), youth agricultural entrepreneurs programme (90.6%), job creation agency (89.4%) and FADAMA (80.0%) that promoted livestock development. A significant relationship was observed based on infrastructural contributions to livestock development (p < 0.05) among the variables: market, water project, market and roads. Serious challenges included high cost of feed facilities (mean = 3.69) and insufficient power supply (mean = 3.49). The study concluded that the more available the rural infrastructure intervention, the more developed the livestock sector. The study recommended that stakeholders should make their extension agent available to livestock farmers.

Editorial policies and news discourse – how Al Jazeera’s implicit guidelines shape its coverage of middle east conflicts

The article examines Al Jazeera’s internal guidelines. It focuses attention on the broadcaster’s editorial policies and practices, how they are created, the way they shape news content, and whether they are documented or not. It attempts to shed light on the role of external stakeholders and regulatory devices with a say on the editorial line and subsequently the type of internal editorial policies and practices journalists are required to pursue. It presents a comparative study and analysis of the network’s two major and most influential channels, namely Al Jazeera Arabic and Al Jazeera English, the arguments in support of their editorial policies and practices, and the arguments opposing them. It scrutinizes how different forms of internal guidelines and regulatory frameworks affect the network’s discourse, ties with its financiers, and relations with the outside world. Finally and based on the findings obtained through interviews, and linguistic discourse analysis, the article outlines how internal guidelines come into being in the case of Al Jazeera and how they eventually influence the final product.

Engaging stakeholders in the process of sustainability integration in higher education institutions: a systematic review

Higher education institutions (HEIs) are facing increasing pressure embracing institutional change towards the adoption of sustainable development (SD). Responding to the growing demands, several articles have been published presenting integration of SD principles in higher education policies and practices. A review of such articles published during the decade of education for sustainable development is presented in this paper. The paper also studied stakeholder engagement in sustainability integration process in university curriculum, campus operations, research, outreach and reporting. The findings revealed that most of the published articles focus on courses and curriculum with little research in sustainability reporting, though deemed to be the most critical factor dealing with stakeholder interests. Moreover, the papers concentrated on internal stakeholders undermining the role of external stakeholders in higher education for sustainable development. The paper suggests a paradigm shift towards engaging each and every stakeholder in the integration process of sustainable development in HEIs. Furthermore, the research contributes to the existing literature on higher education for sustainable development (HESD) by mere structural changes and proposes a deliberate endeavour to focus stakeholders' intrinsic behavioural factors for expeditious and holistic implementation of sustainable development across HEIs.

Getting buy-in: financial stakeholders’ commitment to strategic transformation

PurposeStrategic transformations are likely necessary for all organizations at some point in their existence, but the role of external stakeholders in committing resources to support transformations has been largely overlooked. This paper aims to begin to fill this gap by developing a theoretical model detailing which factors increase the likelihood that financial stakeholders will commit resources to strategic transformation.Design/methodology/approachNeo-institutional and stakeholder theories are applied to the strategic transformation phenomenon to develop six propositions regarding financial stakeholders’ resource commitment to strategic transformation.FindingsMoral legitimacy, pragmatic legitimacy and unfamiliarity with the firm directly affect the likelihood that financial stakeholders will commit resources to strategic transformation. Cognitive legitimacy or familiarity amplifies the positive effect of pragmatic legitimacy on resource commitment, and pragmatic legitimacy lessens the negative effect of unfamiliarity with the firm on resource commitment.Originality valueThis paper lays out a clear conceptual model of the antecedents of financial stakeholders’ resource commitment to strategic transformation, aiding practitioners in securing critical stakeholder support and filling an important gap in strategic transformation/stakeholder literature.

Policy Reforms, Trojan Horses, and Imaginary Friends: The Role of External Stakeholders in Internal Quality Assurance Systems

The governance of higher education has been changing across Europe, most notably in response to the reform agenda that has been pervading many higher education systems. This wave of reforms has given enhanced visibility to external stakeholders, which has been often received with contrasting views. Some regarded it as a factor that would undermine institutions’ mission, while others viewed it as a rhetorical change, which would hardly have an impact on institutional life. In this paper, we analyse the introduction of external stakeholders in governance and quality assessment processes by looking at the Portuguese experience, and more specifically at their contribution to the implementation of internal quality assurance systems. We use empirical data collected from four higher education institutions under the framework of the IBAR project, subsumed in the form of barriers to and good practices for the implementation of policies and procedures for quality assurance. The results suggest that although the presence of external stakeholders has become more visible, it is yet to be fully reflected in the way institutions are governed or the way in which they manage their internal quality assurance processes and mechanisms.

The mediating role of environmental innovation in the relationship between environmental management and firm performance in a multi-stakeholder environment

Nowadays, firms are increasingly challenged to bridge potentially conflicting economic interests of primary commercial stakeholders and sustainability demands from secondary non-commercial stakeholder groups. While a number of firms view investments in environmental management as disconnected from their value-creating activities, others have reported achieved cost efficiency and differentiation advantages. Prior research suggests that environmental innovation might be the missing link between environmental management and firm performance. However, the mediating effect of environmental innovation in the relationship between environmental management and a firm's performance had not been empirically tested so far. Our paper provides a contribution by conducting an empirical investigation into this possible mediating effect. Although the presumed mediating role of environmental innovation suggests that it is influenced by internal environmental management, environmental innovation literature is especially concerned with the role of external stakeholders in environmental innovation. This study investigates the role of the engagement of stakeholders such as supply chain partners, industry, and public authorities in environmental impact reduction. We hypothesise that environmental innovation positively mediates the relationship between environmental management and firm performance, and that the engagement of stakeholders has a positive impact on environmental innovation. The research model was tested with a variance-based structural equation model using data from 90 Dutch food and beverage firms. The results confirm the positive mediating effect of environmental process innovation on the relationship between environmental management and cost efficiency advantage. Environmental product innovation contributes to a differentiation advantage but it is not significantly influenced by environmental management. So we could not support a positive mediating effect of environmental product innovation on the relationship between environmental management and differentiation advantage. Instead, environmental collaboration with supply chain partners has a strong positive impact on environmental product innovation. It also positively influences environmental process innovation but this influence is much weaker than the influence of internal environmental management. Our findings can assist managers in their decision making regarding the implementation of environmental innovations and environmental collaboration with external parties. The study is also relevant to policy makers as a tool to assess the appropriateness of their policy.

Physician Complicity in the Transformation of Pain Medicine from a “Profession” to a “Business”: Strategies for Reversing a Growing Trend

Since the inception of the special series on the Transformation of the “Profession” of Pain Medicine to the “Business” of Pain Medicine in this journal last year, the emphasis of the vast majority of its content [1–6] has been on the role of external stakeholders in compromising the quality of care received by pain sufferers. Implicated by these authors in the crisis in pain care have been various industries that profiteer from the misfortune of patients, as well as professional organizations that strive to seek the delicate balance between promoting improvement in the quality of care that patients receive with the needs of the industries whose financial support is so important to their existences. Indeed, it has been strongly argued that even the most virtuous physicians may not be able to provide high-quality treatment in an environment that is dominated by concerns that are purely profit-motivated and deny any fiduciary obligation to persons with pain [7]. Nevertheless, external stakeholders cannot be held solely responsible for the unfortunate state of pain medicine in the United States, as what is hopefully only a small minority of care providers practice in an unethical manner—thereby adversely influencing not only individual patients, but the field of pain medicine as a whole. Dobken recently opined that, “In sum, we physicians are portrayed as greedy, barren of moral purpose, and inherently shiftless”[8] (p. 82). Similarly, Relman suggested in JAMA that “… the current focus on moneymaking and the seductions of financial rewards have changed the climate of US medical practice at the expense of professional altruism and the moral commitment to patients”[9] (p. 2669). Managed …

Educating engineers for/in sustainable development? What we knew, what we learned, and what we should learn

In the past decade, several engineering universities, mainly in Europe, but also in Australia, North America, and Japan, have been addressing the issue of sustainable development. Engineering education in sustainable development has been discussed at many occasions. What questions have been addressed, what answers have been provided, and what are the main remaining topics for research into engineering education in sustainable development? What should engineers learn regarding sustainable development? How to trigger institutional change within engineering schools: top-down or bottom-up? How to trigger cultural change, how to win the hearts and souls of the faculty? Curriculum change: starting new programs or changing existing ones? The contribution of active learning and project based learning? The role of external stakeholders, external cooperation? How to measure sustainable development learning effects? Practice what you preach: how to green the campus, diminish resource consumption and sustainabilise procurement? How to teach normative content in an academic context? The paper, based mainly on the European literature on EESD of the last decade, discusses the answers that were provided and present an agenda for further research in EESD (This paper has mainly a European perspective. An overview of sustainable development engineering education in the U

An Integrative Framework for the Assimilation of Enterprise Resource Planning Systems: Phases, Antecedents, and Outcomes

Many organizations are in the process of assimilating Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. While traditional ERP systems integrated core business processes, the new generation ERP systems also have the potential to link suppliers, customers, and business partners, to integrate value chain activities. Despite this, the critical success factors for ERP assimilation identified in the past literature do not focus on external factors including the possible role of external stakeholders in ERP assimilation. If case studies are any indication of the outcomes in ERP investment, insights already suggest that many attempts have not delivered the expected benefits, have failed completely, or will have high probability of failure. In light of the new found scope of modern ERP systems and disappointing assimilation eports, this paper proposes an integrative framework that may enhance chances for successful assimilation of ERP in organizations. The framework identifies the phases, antecedents (technology and business, internal and external), and outcomes as they relate to ERP assimilation. The key contribution of the paper lies in synthesizing and extending ERP assimilation literature by addressing the role of critical external antecedents in different phases of the assimilation process. Implications of our framework are outlined to guide future practice and research.