Role Of Technical Expertise Research Articles

Attitudes towards natural wines among Spanish winemakers: Relationship with environmental awareness

There is an important movement in the wine industry towards the production of alternative and more sustainable wines. Natural wine (NW) is a controversial category of alternative wines, which needs to be further explored. Given the role of technical experts as opinion leaders, the present work aims to explore the attitudes of Spanish winemakers towards NW and their relationship with their overall environmental awareness. Therefore, 307 Spanish winemakers completed a questionnaire to evaluate: (1) their attitudes towards NW by scoring their agreement with 31 statements, (2) their ecological awareness by evaluating 11 items, (3) their frequency of consumption and interest towards NW, and (4) their sociodemographic profile and general information about wine production. PCA with varimax rotation calculated on 28 of the 31 statements related to their attitudes showed six independent dimensions. Further hierarchical cluster analysis calculated with the six dimensions showed five clusters of wine experts with different attitudes towards NW. Results show that there is a major negative attitude towards the flavour of NW, their ageing capacity and their quality-price ratio, but a positive one in terms of economic impact for the wine industry. Aspects related to the role of NW in tradition, social identity, ecology, health, artisanal production and economic feasibility mark differential attitudes. Interestingly, the dimension related to winemakerś attitude towards tradition, social identity, and ecology of NW was positively correlated with their overall ecological awareness and thus their life style. This paper sheds light in the understanding of the behaviour of Spanish winemakers regarding ecological transition and provides tools for policymaking regarding NW certification.

International expansion of retailers: the role of technical expertise, alliances and allocation of resources in economic crises

Economic downturns are often viewed as threats to prosperity and the challenges they can pose for international retailers are well documented. However, the potential opportunities of economic downturns are less well understood. In this paper, we ask whether or how these environments might actually afford occasions for strategic market adjustment, in the form of international expansion to new markets. Specifically, drawing on resource-based theory and game theory, we consider how a firm's financial performance during international expansion in a downturn may be predicted by its engagement in three modes of knowledge transfer. We consider knowledge transfer enabled by: 1) long-term investment in technical expertise; 2) formation of alliances in the local target market; 3) focused allocation of firm resources. Based on cases from the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, the 2007 US recession and the 2009 European Sovereign Debt Crisis, we developed propositions to guide future research on international expansion during economic downturns.

International expansion of retailers: the role of technical expertise, alliances and allocation of resources in economic crises

Economic downturns are often viewed as threats to prosperity and the challenges they can pose for international retailers are well documented. However, the potential opportunities of economic downturns are less well understood. In this paper, we ask whether or how these environments might actually afford occasions for strategic market adjustment, in the form of international expansion to new markets. Specifically, drawing on resource-based theory and game theory, we consider how a firm's financial performance during international expansion in a downturn may be predicted by its engagement in three modes of knowledge transfer. We consider knowledge transfer enabled by: 1) long-term investment in technical expertise; 2) formation of alliances in the local target market; 3) focused allocation of firm resources. Based on cases from the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, the 2007 US recession and the 2009 European Sovereign Debt Crisis, we developed propositions to guide future research on international expansion during economic downturns.

Diagnostics of enterprise selection criteria in the public e-procurement system

The integrated complex system with subsystems of e-logistics, e-document flow, budgeting, payments and invoices of the subjects of procurement of goods, works, services for public funds, taking into account the criterion of «price» and non-price criteria for selecting the winner, is improved in the article. The classification of non-price criteria for selecting the winner of procurement, which are dictated by the European Union law, namely of: technical, resource and competency, safety and quality, reputation and image, and basic. Recommendations are proposed to improve the procedure for selecting enterprises related to security features and the quality of the tender proposal, strengthening the role of technical experts in tender committees, listing of public documents and deadlines for pre-threshold procurement. An essential part of the economic and mathematical model of diagnostics of selection criteria for public e-procurement enterprises is developed on the basis of determining the balance of interests of the supplier and the customer, the customer price correction coefficient, taking into account the proposed classification of non-price selection criteria, the price coefficient of the subject of e-procurement of the supplier, taking into account business processes leading to economic and social effects, and input settings «information-time opportunities/threats of resources», the covariance between the values of costs for providing an optimum level of non-price criteria for selecting the winner of procurement performance and indicators of participation in public e-procurement.

The Role of a Technological Approach in the Contemporary Psychiatry (in Polish)

The emergence of new technologies has had a significant impact on the development of modern psychiatry. Brain scanning, biochemical analysis, the search for genetic markers, and the development of psychopharmacology have had a great influence on the way we understand the nature of mental disorders and the role and place of mental health specialists. The article aims at presenting the consequences of a technical approach in psychiatry, giving examples of such an approach and proposing a critical attitude to this approach and the role of technical expertise in psychiatry.

Industrialized Delicacies: The Rise of the Umbrian Truffle Business

This article deals with the emergence of the Umbrian truffle business in the period between 1860 and 1918, paying special attention to the Franco-Umbrian connection in truffle affairs. The central question is how and why the French truffle sector, which during the whole nineteenth century completely dominated the global truffle market, could cede its hegemonic position to a handful of Umbrian companies. Thematically, the focus is on the role of technical expertise in this commercial exchange, especially on the mutual transfer of packaging techniques. It is argued that the advances made by Umbrian companies in food preservation were closely linked with local industrial activity and that this technological knowledge turned out to be one of the key factors in the rise of Umbrian truffle commerce. From a cultural point of view, this article also illustrates the role of truffles in the gastronomic rivalry between France and Italy.

The role of technical expertise in firm governance structure: evidence from chief financial officer contractual incentives

AbstractWe provide evidence that the presence of technical expertise in firm governance structure reduces reliance on contractual incentives to control the potential agency problem for executives whose responsibilities require specialized knowledge. Specifically, we find that firms with financial expertise in the form of a board finance committee, or a chief executive officer with a financial background, tend to use lower levels of incentive‐based compensation for their chief financial officers. Our findings suggest financial experts provide stronger oversight and/or direction with regard to firm financial policies and strategies, thereby allowing firms to reduce reliance on incentive compensation. Our study provides insight into the role of technical expertise and board committees in firm governance, and into the benefits of common functional expertise within top management teams. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Fairly Balanced

The United States Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) requires advisory committees to be “fairly balanced.” By examining legislative, judicial, and administrative interpretations of FACA's balance requirement, this article identifies a prevailing double standard: public officials assess committee members classified as experts in terms of their professional competence, while they assess those classified as representatives in terms of their political interests. Although the prevailing approach seeks to prevent the politicization of expert advice, it actually promotes it. Advisory committee balance is better understood, this article suggests, in terms of social and professional perspectives. This approach avoids both naively apolitical and destructively partisan conceptions of advisory committee balance. It also suggests a promising way to think about the role of technical expertise in public deliberation.

The Relation between Internal Monitoring and Equity Incentives for Chief Financial Officers

We provide evidence that the presence of technical expertise in a firm’s governance structure allows the firm to reduce reliance on contractual incentives to control the potential agency problem. Specifically, we find that firms with a board finance committee, or a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) who has a financial background, tend to use lower levels of incentive-based compensation for their Chief Financial Officers (CFOs). Our findings suggest financial experts provide stronger oversight and/or direction with regard to the firm’s financial policies and strategies, thereby allowing firms to reduce reliance on incentive compensation. Our study provides insight into the role of technical expertise and board committees in firm governance, and into the benefits of common functional expertise within top management teams.

The Role of Technical Expertise in Engineering and Writing Teachers’ Evaluations of Students’ Writing

This study examines the extent to which a teacher’s level of expertise in the subject of a technical paper affects the teacher’s reading and evaluation of it. Four engineering teachers and four writing teachers were asked to read aloud the same three student papers and to say aloud their thoughts as they read. The engineering teachers read papers on familiar and unfamiliar subjects. This method allowed direct comparison of the responses of (a) engineering teachers with relevant expertise in a paper’s subject, (b) engineering teachers without such expertise, and (c) writing teachers. The comparison indicates that technical expertise helps teachers evaluate validity and engage with the text but has a more ambiguous effect on evaluations of rhetorical appropriateness. The article also examines the teachers’ differing attitudes toward the importance of having technical expertise when evaluating and recommends approaches for teacher-training programs (in engineering and composition) based on the results.

The Marriage of Finance and Order: Changes in the Mexican Political Elite

Recent literature on Latin American political economy appears to echo work of the 1960s and 1970s emphasising technical expertise in government. Sikkink and Geddes, for example, suggest that the role of technical experts and professionalisation of the bureaucracy explain Brazil's relative economic successes in the 1960s.1Conaghan, Malloy and Abugattas focus on the role of technocrats in economic policy—making in the Central Andes.2Following seminal work by Camp and Smith, Hernández Rodríguez presents the latest data on the role of technocrats in the Mexican political elite.3To a large extent, this recent literature on technocrats in Latin America fails to address one of the main issues debated in the earlier literature: the political consequences of increasingly technocratic government. A second problem with recent work is that, when it does address causal issues, it tends to follow the functionalist logic of earlier literature. Using data on Mexican political elites, this article develops a new typology which carefully differentiates the new technobureaucratic elite from other elite groups. The aim is to shed new light on the debate over the implications of increasing technocratisation. Secondly, this study of the rise of a new elite emphasises the role of institutional changes within the government bureaucracy in addition to the state's functional response to changes in its politico—economic environment. This article begins with a brief discussion of earlier general — and Mexico—specific — literature on technocrats.Some analysts of technocracy in the 1960s and 1970s saw technocrats as apolitical specialists whose growing role in society heralded ‘an end to ideology’ and increased efficiency in government.4

The Kraken Wakes: corporate social responsibility and the political dynamics of the hazardous waste issue

Smith D., 1991. The Kraken Wakes: corporate social responsibility and the political dynamics of the hazardous waste issue. Industrial Crisis Quarterly, 5: 189-207. The issue of hazardous waste disposal has assumed international importance since the Karin B episode propelled it fully onto the global political agenda. This paper seeks to examine the transfers of such waste streams by reference to the issues of corporate responsibility and the role of technical expertise within environmental debates. The paper examines two cases, namely the Karin B / Nigeria waste dumping episode (1988) and the export of Canadian PCB waste to the UK (1989), in an attempt to assess the notions of equity in environmen tal conflicts. Within this context the role of technical expertise will be exam ined in an attempt to assess its impact within the framework of corporate re sponsibility for hazardous waste disposal.