Strands Of Literature Research Articles

Robust Local Governance Responses in the Context of Turbulence: The Case of Collaborative and Co‐Created COVID‐19 Pandemic Responses in Two Local Authority Areas in England

ABSTRACTThe COVID‐19 pandemic required local and national governments to respond urgently and rapidly to new and unprecedented challenges. According to an influential strand of literature within public administration, public agencies must exhibit robust governance strategies to tackle the unpredictability, instability and complexity of a turbulent event such as the COVID‐19. In the face of turbulence, robust governance is characterised by adaptability, agility and innovation and co‐creating with partners and communities, while governance systems must evolve so that they perform more effectively in the future. This paper examines how two local authorities in England responded to the pandemic. We draw upon a novel qualitative dataset obtained through privileged access to senior council staff, elected members and council partners. Both ‘Metaltown’ (North West) and ‘Milltown’ (West Midlands) were poised, at the outset of the pandemic, to be badly hit by COVID‐19 due to their population characteristics, relative deprivation and occupational structures, and the areas did experience some of the highest numbers of infection rates and coronavirus‐related deaths. The two local responses both entailed multi‐agency action with the local authority working alongside partners in the police, emergency services, health, education, transport and housing sectors, with private enterprise and with community groups to manage the challenges. Although we observed robust governance strategies, this occurred in the absence of any deliberate policy design at the national level. Instead, the responses were locally determined, fit for purpose and adaptive in response to challenges that emerged on the ground. The findings suggest a need to modify the robust governance framework to better account for contextually specific circumstances. This has implications for how local and national governments respond to current and future challenges, such as the ongoing cost‐of‐living and climate crises.

The scale question as an urban question: The making of homo urbanicus amid state entrepreneurialism

This research bridges two influential strands of literature on urban China—state entrepreneurialism and homo urbanicus (城市人). By revisiting how China’s post-reform urban transformation has unfolded and connecting it to current development strategies, this research provides a fresh perspective on the country’s urbanization processes and their implications for future governance. The analysis proposes an alternative periodization of three phases: anti-migration urbanism, anti-settlement urbanism, and anti-civitas urbanism. Beyond understanding urbanization as a crisis-driven, state-rescaling phenomenon pivoting around the blending of state and market forces, this research repositions the concept of homo urbanicus, or the urban citizen, as central to understanding the urban question in China’s governance strategies. The study urges scholars to reconsider urbanization not only as a structural transformation but as a transformative redefinition of citizenship critical to understanding China’s ongoing drive to “people-centered urbanzation”.

Local Patriots: Dewar’s Scotch Whisky, Prosociality, Politics, and Place—1846–1930

Drawing from the literature strands of philanthropy, business, and history, this work explores the business, prosocial, and political activities of a prominent family in the Scotch whisky industry, with specific emphasis on two brothers’ philanthropy and its impact on a place—the city of Perth, Scotland. In our analysis, we tell the story of the second-generation owners of Dewar’s Scotch whisky company, brothers John Alexander and Tommy Dewar, and their journey of prosocial place-based service and giving. Consistent throughout are the themes of global success, family, local and national networks, and regional embeddedness, alongside the role of formal and informal giving. We offer an analysis of the prosocial activities that represent unexplored dimensions of business success, placing them in both spatial and temporal contexts. Within this is the story of a multigenerational family business’s international growth and success.

Transport sustainability – a bibliometric, systematic methodological review and future research opportunities

Purpose Over the past decade, achieving sustainability in the transport sector has become a significant concern for governments and stakeholders. In this context, this study aims to comprehensively analyse the existing literature to document contributions and methodological deficiencies and pave the way for future research. Design/methodology/approach The authors used thematic, bibliometric and methodological systematic reviews of 39 articles across 30 sources from 112 authors between 2005 and 2023. Findings Using the Biblioshiny, the bibliometric analysis unveils the top prolific authors, contributing sources, most productive countries, top-cited papers and evolving keywords in advancing transport sustainability literature streams. The analyses revealed two strands of literature (those from the composite perspective and the triple-bottom-line perspective). The authors further consolidated indicators to measure the three pillars of transport sustainability comprehensively. Originality/value This paper uses a holistic approach to provide a state-of-the-art understanding of transport sustainability useful for the net zero or sustainable transport agenda. This paper is among the few attempts to consolidate indicators to measure transport sustainability from the triple bottom line perspective, whilst also offering exciting directions for future studies and inspiring hope for a more sustainable transport sector.

Green, Alternative or Business as Usual? Critical Geographies of Sustainable Finance

AbstractIn recent years, a growing number of contributions on green finance have emerged, not only within economic geography but also increasingly from disciplines beyond it. With this Special Issue, we aim to engage with the ongoing debate around green and sustainable finance and its challenges, including concerns over greenwashing. Our extended editorial provides structure to this complex discussion by identifying four primary strands of literature that frame the field. Two of these strands adopt a more critical stance, combining analytical approaches and rigorous assessments that question the impact and ‘authenticity’ of green and sustainable finance schemes, approaches and policies. Most of the contributions and empirical case studies featured here align with these critical perspectives, which are introduced in greater depth in the second part of this editorial.

Christian Nationalism, Civic Republicanism, and Radical Secularism in Contemporary American Politics over Time

Over the past decade, a burgeoning strand of scholarly and journalistic literature has emerged that emphasizes the role of Christian nationalism within contemporary American politics. Unfortunately, this scholarly literature has mushroomed so quickly that relatively little attention has been given to its conceptual underpinnings and how Christian nationalism may be related to, or different from, other conceptualizations of the role of religion in public life. This article outlines different conceptualizations of Christian nationalism that have been advanced, analyzes how different coding schemes of its present measurement yields different assessments of its presence within American politics, and differentiates between and among different types of approaches to the role of religion in American public life. Using data drawn from Baylor national surveys on religion conducted in 2007, 2017, and 2021, this article examines three distinct groups within American politics—namely, Christian nationalists, civic republicans, and radical secularists—and how the relative size and characteristics of such groups have changed within American society over time.

Beacons not burdens: Business groups and corporate social performance around the world

AbstractResearch SummaryPrior studies on business groups (BGs) have predominantly focused on the impact of group affiliation on financial performance. In contrast, we argue that BG affiliates will outperform standalone firms in terms of corporate social performance (CSP) and that this effect will be positively moderated by the strength of formal and informal institutions. Moreover, we examine also differences among BGs and hypothesize that diversification and hierarchy of the group will negatively affect the CSP of affiliates. Employing a panel of 4368 firms from 43 countries between 2003 and 2016 and a propensity score matching approach in our regressions, we find robust support for these predictions. Our findings advance two distinct strands of literature on BGs and, respectively, corporate social responsibility.Managerial SummaryBG are a common organizational structure in many countries. Despite this, we still do not know much about them beyond their financial performance. In this study, we focus on examining the impact of BG affiliation on non‐financial performance (i.e., CSP) in the light of growing societal grand challenges. Using an international dataset of several thousands of firms, we find out that BG affiliates exhibit superior CSP results compared to non‐affiliated firms. These positive effects of affiliation are increased in environments with strong formal and informal institutions but reduced within groups that are more diversified and hierarchical. Our findings showcase the importance of BGs in tackling some of today's grand challenges and provide support for more nuanced approaches to study BGs across countries.

Data as a Contested Commodity

Abstract Data are undoubtedly a contested commodity. On the one hand, data commodification is largely under way including through the operation of law. This is notably visible with the new EU data policy (Data Strategy notably followed by the Data Act, the Data Governance Act) that aims to establish data markets in keeping with European values. On the other hand, this phenomenon is heavily contested based on a wide range of different arguments, which have not been subjected to a systematic clustering. Data commodification is often understood simplistically as a binary and monolithic phenomenon whereby data would be either ‘commodified’ or not. This leads to misunderstandings of this phenomenon and of the ways in which it manifests. For example, many conceptual misunderstandings surround the relationship between ‘data access’ or ‘data sharing’ and data commodification and markets. This paper clarifies the phenomenon of data commodification, by approaching it as a spectrum with degrees following M. J. Radin (Contested Commodities, 1996). Following Radin, the paper clusters the different data governance arguments – or even paradigms – found in the literature along a data commodification spectrum. A specific attention is paid to the importance of market discourses in commodification dynamics, especially on the law. The paper offers a novel systematic synthesis of the data governance normative arguments, including data commons, data trusts, data sharing, data intermediation, against the background of the data commodification phenomenon. This synthesis brings conceptual clarity and allows to bring together different strands of the data literature (especially welfare economics, law and economics, commons, critical data studies, infrastructure studies) comprehensively, while they have until now remained siloed. Data governance normative arguments would greatly benefit from taking into account (conceptual and/or normative) arguments found in other strands of the literature. The paper can also be used to evaluate how data governance arguments or legislations relate to data commodification and take into account the specificities of data, thus enabling for more systematic analysis. The paper finds that data is actually a very contested commodity: The very conceptualization of data as a commodity is ontologically contestable. The framework in which situations are conceptualized – whether as data market ones or not – can indeed play a powerful but often invisible discursive role on commodification dynamics. Finally, the very identification and regulation of ‘data’ alone necessarily brings about certain commodification affordances.

Depopulation in the Central Apennines in the Twentieth Century: An Empirical Investigation

AbstractWe propose an empirical investigation of the population dynamics between 1931 and 2011 in a mountain area in Italy. The main novelty of our work is the usage of sub-municipal data, which makes it possible to disentangle several drivers of the overall depopulation trend. All these factors had been considered previously by separate strands of literature, but never jointly, as we do. One of our most interesting results is that different factors operate in different historical periods. Therefore, we use a flexible strategy by which we divide the sample in four different 20-year spans and adopt a different statistical model for each. Another notable result is that an appropriate quantitative description of the phenomenon must take into account the disappearance of inhabited centres separately from their size in terms on inhabitants. Consequently, the concept of local community is crucial for a systematic understanding of population change and “place-sensitive” policies in remote mountain areas.

OIL VOLATILITY-OF-VOLATILITY AND TAIL RISK OF COMMODITIES

We examine the information content of oil volatility-of-volatility (VOV), constructed from the past 1-month OVX (implied volatility in crude oil market), on the expected tail risk of commodities. Specifically, we find oil VOV predicts 1-step-ahead tail risks of Energy, Precious Metals, Agriculture, Livestock sectors and the Aggregate Commodity sector (GSCI) for both in-sample and out-of-sample. Our results indicate the important role of crude oil in overall commodity markets by incorporating forward-looking information of OVX. Our findings are robust and complement the strand of literature about the leading role of crude oil in commodity markets.

Infrastructuring arrival and homemaking in COVID‐19 times: Experiences of newcomer Chinese students in Dutch cities

AbstractThis paper examines the experiences of newcomer Chinese students in Dutch cities during the COVID‐19 pandemic, building on three strands of literature on (i) arrival infrastructure, (ii) homemaking and (iii) the nature of conflating digital and offline spaces. Based on qualitative research findings from two research projects, the paper illustrates resilience among the students in infrastructuring their arrival and making a new home in an unfamiliar city that was rather inaccessible due to recurrent social distancing restrictions and incidents of ‘Corona racism’. Narratives of the research participants offer insights into their arrival experiences and homemaking practices in key interlinked life spaces, namely academic, residential and socialising spaces as well as spaces of interactions with the broader (unwelcoming) society. In addition to students' agency, our findings demonstrate the importance of (transnational) communal care and the role of the digital in students' arrival experiences and homemaking practices.

The effects of FinTech adoption on bank loan spreads

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the impact of traditional banks’ financial technology (FinTech) adoption on corporate loan spreads and lending practices.Design/methodology/approachThis study examines the impact of FinTech adoption by banks on corporate loan spreads and lending practices. By analyzing data from bank 10-K filings, we develop a novel metric to assess FinTech adoption at the individual bank level. Our analysis reveals a significant positive correlation between increased FinTech adoption and higher corporate loan spreads, particularly for loans that are relatively informationally opaque. This causality is further validated through a quasi-natural experiment. Additionally, we identify trends toward loans with smaller sizes and longer maturities in banks with advanced FinTech integration.FindingsUsing a sample of corporate loans issued from 1993 to 2020, this paper documents a significant positive relationship between a bank’s increased FinTech adoption and higher loan spreads. This correlation is especially noticeable for loans that are informationally opaque. Moreover, the paper reveals trends toward smaller loan sizes and longer maturities with advanced FinTech integration in banks. Overall, these findings indicate FinTech enhances efficiency in processing hard information and holds the potential to enhance financial inclusion.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to two significant strands of finance literature. First, it highlights how banks with advanced FinTech integration gain advantages through enhanced processing of hard information. Furthermore, it underscores the role of FinTech in promoting financial inclusion, particularly for those borrowers facing informational opacity.

Online grocery services evolution and trends: a bibliometric approach

PurposeOnline grocery service (OGS) has significantly grown in recent years, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic. This surge has attracted significant scholarly attention and resulted in many scientific articles in the last five years. Adopting a bibliometric review approach, this study attempts to comprehensively and systematically analyse the academic literature on OGS.Design/methodology/approachA Scopus search using pertinent keywords followed by PRISMA screening identified 384 relevant articles. Articles were analysed using VOSviewer and Biblioshiny, which employed citation and thematic analysis.FindingsThe study identifies the significantly impactful authors, articles, and journals. While the analysis reveals the evolution across four time-frames, it also highlights the clusters representing the literature strands. Six major themes are identified in the literature, and potential future research enquiries are suggested.Originality/valueAs the first study to include over 350 articles, it comprehensively represents the current state of the OGS literature, utilising performance and thematic analysis techniques. The article contributes significantly to the academic discourse surrounding OGS by synthesising and presenting diverse themes. Further, the future research questions provide a foundation for advancing the literature and guiding future scholarly work in the OGS domain.

Diversity and directionality: friends or foes in sustainability transitions?

Abstract Literature on mission-specific innovation systems (MIS) highlights the crucial role of directionality when achieving sustainability transitions, while diversity literature emphasizes the need to keep diverse directions open. Like directionality, diversity is created by innovation system actors to tackle the complex and uncertain nature of transitions. While these two literature strands are presented largely independent of one another, both are deemed necessary to achieve sociotechnical transitions. We thus aim to uncover how diversity and directionality unfold in parallel in a MIS. We conduct a qualitative single-case study of the Wageningen alternative protein ecosystem to provide insights into the types of sociotechnological trajectories actors pursue and how different selection environments shape the development of each solution. We observe a mission exhibiting a clear direction toward (meat) substitutes. Underlying this mission, diversity is visible. We propose that the interplay between diversity and directionality in a MIS can be best understood by distinguishing two different sociotechnical “levels” in which they play out: the levels of transition paths (“first-order” directionality) and search directions (“second-order” directionality). We therefore call for a more nuanced understanding of the role of diversity and directionality in transitions.

Does corporate sustainability performance matter for cash holdings? International evidence

PurposeWe examine the impact of corporate sustainability performance (CSP) on corporate cash holdings, focusing on the moderating impacts of industry’s concentration, financial constraints, and institutional environments.Design/methodology/approachThe empirical analysis is conducted on a sample of 31 countries from 2002 to 2018. We use the pooled OLS regressions controlling for fixed effects. We further address endogeneity issues using an instrumental variable approach, the Difference-in-Differences regression based on an exogenous shock, and the propensity score matching.FindingsWe find that firms with superior CSP hold more cash. This result is valid after a series of tests for robustness and endogeneity issues, suggesting a causal effect of CSP on corporate cash holdings. In the cross section, the positive impact of CSP on cash holdings is more pronounced for firms operating in highly concentrated industries, but attenuated for firms with financial constraints and for those operating in countries with better institutional environments. We further show that CSP affects cash holdings through the channel of financial distress risk.Practical implicationsIn making investment decisions, investors should not only examine corporate financial performance and sustainability profile, but also understand the related cash holding levels and financial distress costs. Corporate managers making decisions on levels of cash holdings should pay more attention to their sustainability behavior, especially for firms operating in concentrated industries and/or facing financial constraints. Governments and authorities can apply regulations to encourage firms to engage more in sustainable activities, as well as establish good institutional environments in the country.Originality/valueUsing a comprehensive international dataset, our paper contributes to two strands of literature: the economic impact of CSP and the driver of cash holdings. We further focus on the moderating role of industry concentration and firms’ financial constraints. Our international sample also allows us to exploit the effect of country-level informal institutions.

Portfolio optimization for sustainable investments

In mean-variance portfolio optimization, multi-index models often accelerate computation, reduce input requirements, facilitate understanding, and allow easy adjustment to changing conditions more effectively than full covariance matrix estimation in many situations. In this paper, we develop a multi-index model-based portfolio optimization approach that takes into account aspects of the environment, social responsibility and corporate governance (ESG). Investments in assets related to ESG have recently grown, attracting interest from both academic research and investment fund practice. Various literature strands in this area address the theoretical and empirical relation among return, risk and ESG. Our portfolio optimization approach is flexible enough to take these literature strands into account and does not require large-scale covariance matrix estimation. An extension of our approach even allows investors to empirically discriminate among the literature strands. A case study demonstrates the application of our portfolio optimization approach.

Are clusters and industrial districts really driving sustainability innovation?

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to explore and conducts a critical literature review to answer a fundamental question in the industrial district literature: are clusters and industrial (clusters/IDs) driving sustainability innovation? By intersecting different yet related strands of literature, the authors take stock of what the authors know about sustainability innovation in clusters/IDs.Design/methodology/approachThis paper reviews the literature for conceptualizing sustainability innovation in clusters/districts.FindingsInsights point out that the sustainability innovation process (development and diffusion) in clusters/IDs and their firms couples into mainstream cluster/IDs framework; clusters/IDs enable sustainability innovation through usual mechanisms, fostering collective change toward sustainability innovation, vis-à-vis other settings and strengthening firm sustainability innovation and performance. Sustainability innovation in clusters/IDs requires coupling different multi-scalar institutional systems effectively, and the cooperation of local organizations and policymakers for co-designing dedicated policies. Collective actions are important and firm heterogeneity needs to be considered in the clusters/IDs framework.Originality/valueThis study is original because it provides state-of-the-art on sustainability innovation in clusters/districts, enabling the topic to advance in this direction.

Hybrid organisations embedded in resource-poor contexts: linking organisational capabilities and individual capabilities – a slippery ground?

PurposeThis paper aims to contribute to research on hybrid organisations operating within the information and communication technology for development paradigm to foster socio-economic inclusion through the capacity building of marginalised individual youth to enable their entry and participation in the formal labour market.Design/methodology/approachUsing a qualitative research design, the authors investigated impact sourcing service providers and their beneficiaries to unpack how hybrid organisations fulfil their social mission and to provide a nuanced understanding of their needed capabilities. Data triangulation through document analysis, participant observation and semi-structured interviews were conducted for the empirical findings’ robustness and in-depth analysis.FindingsThis paper illuminates how hybrids strived to build beneficiaries' capabilities through empirically grounded approaches of “standardised” and “individualised” skills development, which were strongly connected to the perceived capabilities among the beneficiaries. Organisations that practiced the “individualised” approach imparted technical knowledge and, depending on individual needs, relevant social skills. Critically, the empirical findings call into question the effectiveness of the scalability model, as the results showed that the creation of standardised, low-skilled and low-paid jobs contradicts the idealised self-help status that employment advocates. In addition, the findings underline the central role of constant experimentation, resilience and organisational learning in revamping capabilities of hybrid organisations. Remarkably, compared to organisations committed to the “standardised” technical competency path, the results underscored the difficulties that organisations taking an “individualised" approach face in developing organisational capabilities for their financial sustainability. Further, organisations engaged in standardised” skills development were found to readapt their business model to the economic value and kept the wording of dual mission as a narrative.Originality/valueThe paper makes a conceptual and empirical contribution bringing together two separately developed literature strands – the organisational capability approach and – the individual capability approach, to enhance a more profound understanding of how both capabilities are connected to each other in the dual-mission orientation of hybrids embedded in resource-poor environments, global value chains, Global South, hybrid organisations, organisational and individual capability building.

Governance and the relationship between corruption and FDI in Africa: a threshold regression analysis

ABSTRACT Research on the institutional environment, corruption, and FDI highlights an important facilitating relationship between these factors. The effect of corruption on FDI vis-à-vis the grabbing hand vs. the helping hand hypotheses has been previously examined with suggestions that both hypotheses can co-exist under the assumption that the FDI-corruption relationship depends on the level of institutions. This study revisits this relationship for 34 African countries over the 2005 to 2019 period using the dynamic panel threshold model, which allows for an endogenous threshold variable. Previous studies that have examined this relationship using a threshold regression approach are either not based exclusively on African countries (where the implication of this relationship is more salient) or use a threshold regression that assumes exogeneity of the threshold variable. This study examines the facilitating nature of governance measures – political stability, government effectiveness, rule of law and regulatory quality – on the corruption-FDI relationship. The results indicate significant threshold effects and shows that while the grabbing hand hypothesis is consistent with the data irrespective of the institutional proxy used, the helping hand hypothesis is sensitive to the choice of governance. These results agree with the strand of literature that supports a weak helping hand hypothesis.

The phenomenon of brand hate: a systematic literature review

ABSTRACT Research on the positive emotions that consumers develop toward brands is well-established in the marketing literature. Studies on the negative consumer emotions toward brands have been relatively new but growing. In this paper, we report findings from a systematic literature review on one of these emotions, brand hate. We identify the antecedents and possible consequences of brand hate, comment on the literature strands that have come to define brand hate to date, and the methodologies that have been used to examine brand hate relationships. We offer a conceptual model that views brand hate as a mediational influence on brand hate antecedents and outcomes. We comment on the theoretical foundations’ researchers have used as conceptual anchors in their studies and offer promising questions for future research on brand hate issues.