Strategic Axes Research Articles

And Yet the Black Sea Can Be an Essential Geostrategic Pivot in the Solution of Euro-Asiatic Endogenous Conflictuality

One of the geopolitical and geostrategic synthesis key areas on the strategic axis Black Sea - Baltic Sea reluctance re-opened following the Ukrainian crisis is the more or less extensive Black Sea region. The historical, political, economic and civilian arguments, as well as the new challenges of the regional security environment, but also cross-border and global, leave the great powers on both sides of the strategic axis Black Sea - Baltic and riparian countries a chance that we consider not only an alternative to...war, otherness, but also a way of transforming divergences into confluences and confluence in unity, prosperity and security. Even though the complicated and tense realities at this point seem not to encourage such a prospect, we believe that the Black Sea area can become − and indeed become − an East-West welding space, a true geopolitical and geostrategic, economic, social synapse and inter-civilization, which will put an end to the strategic flaw effect here in bitter weather. In the following, we will present this point of view.

Organizational philosophy as a vehicle of action in the competitive development of SMEs

The purpose of the study was to analyze organizational philosophy as a vehicle for action in the competitive development of SMEs. Based on a post-positivist paradigm with a hermeneutic phenomenological approach of qualitative design. The information was obtained by means of observation participants and the semi-structured interview to the informants of the four SMEs selected in Colombia. As for the results, were derived the concepts of the managers with respect to the organizational philosophy of SMEs, contemplates the mission, vision, policy strategy, short and long-term goals, also has as main objective to meet a set of rules and regulations to achieve an effective production and projection. It was evident the importance of knowing the strategic elements to develop a culture oriented to the development of SMEs, which is rooted in the principles, corporate values, which must always be considered when developing an activity. After analyzing the impact of the organizational philosophy as a vehicle for action, they argue as final reflections that differentiation is one of the most important axes, so that if all people know the strategic axes will surely have many more chances of having a competitive advantage. With respect to the recommendations, the theoretical orientations had their foundation in the organizational philosophy, which constitutes one of the primordial elements for the correct and successful development of an organization, since it produces a distinction, opinion and competitiveness in the field in which it performs, where it also wants to achieve a position.

La Educación como vía de empoderamiento laboral y social de la juventud universitaria en México

La educación es el eje estratégico para activar la transformación económica y cultural de las naciones, promover la calidad de vida de la sociedad y la vinculación de las personas con el mundo del trabajo. Invertir individual y socialmente en educación, genera beneficios de rentabilidad macrosocial, microsocial y personal. De este modo, el futuro personal y colectivo, está ligado al proceso educativo y a la formación de personas críticas, que puedan intervenir en la mejora de su realidad social (Díaz Domínguez y Alemán, 2008). La educación, y en especial la superior, prepara a la ciudadanía para la vida, generando altas expectativas individuales y colectivas, para construir un mejor entorno social (Soto y Torres, 2016). Con un nivel educativo óptimo, la juventud contribuye a la economía nacional y a reducir la brecha de desigualdad social (OCDE/CEPAL/ CAF, 2016). Desde esta perspectiva, las Instituciones de Educación Superior (IES), tienen el compromiso con la sociedad de reforzar el binomio calidad-pertinencia. Todo ello para que la juventud mexicana cuente con el perfil profesional que exigen los retos y expectativas de la realidad social. Frente a este panorama, el planteamiento es: ¿La formación universitaria contribuye al empoderamiento laboral y social de la juventud mexicana? Para este estudio se han considerado cuatro centros de la Universidad de Guadalajara, de diferentes regiones del Estado de Jalisco, México. Con este trabajo se busca analizar la fiabilidad y validez de la evaluación realizada, con un instrumento orientado a analizar el entorno laboral y social del alumnado que egresa de la Universidad de Guadalajara. Se han elaborado análisis de consistencia interna (alpha de Cronbach) y factoriales (validez estructural). Los resultados destacan los factores más relevantes en relación al desarrollo de competencias durante su trayectoria formativa y, al mismo tiempo, avalan el uso del instrumento para evaluar líneas estratégicas orientadas a fortalecer los currícula académicos, de los centros universitarios objeto de estudio. Las conclusiones muestran cómo la formación universitaria recibida faculta a la población egresada para el empoderamiento social y, en menor medida, para el laboral y económico.

El Emprendimiento Comunitario Como Resultado De La Vinculación Social Universitaria Para El Fortalecimiento De Proyectos Productivos

The university is an institution with a social commitment that trains professionals in different fields. In addition to the substantive functions, referred to higher education as teaching, research and dissemination of culture, bonding arises as an increasingly important activity, which is fundamental because it is associated with strengthening the productive and social sectors. Under this premise, the Universidad Juárez Autónoma de Tabasco in Mexico has a strategic axis focused on linking to development in which different programs operate, including those of social inclusion for the benefit of communities in the region. As a consequence, the present investigation of qualitative and exploratory scope is developed under the case study design, with the objective of explaining how community entrepreneurship can be consolidated from the academy fostering social bonding; documenting an institutional project that was favorable both for the institution through social ties with Tabasco communities, and for a group of small producers of the entity. The community project was developed through an alliance between students, research professors and entrepreneurship experts. The results showed that the link is an effective instrument to strengthen the relevance of the university, to meet social needs, support government agencies to make their programs more efficient and effective, as well as feedback the training processes of the university itself, for the benefit of different communities of the state of Tabasco in Mexico.

Encuentros y desencuentros entre salud comunitaria y sistema sanitario español. Informe SESPAS 2018

In this article, we describe the different stages of the rise and decline of Primary Health Care and, in particular, its community approach; we do so by providing a historical journey of the relationship between the Spanish National Health System and community health, outlining the connections and disconnections with Public Health as well as the influence of dominant political ideologies.We defend a community reorientation of health services, considering community health as an essential part of Primary Health Care, and in accordance with the Alma Ata strategy and the principles of the Ottawa Charter. The Primary Health System is taken up as the strategic axis of the National Health System, given its capacity for an integral approach to health-disease processes, and the possibility it poses for reducing inequalities and confronting social determinants as well as overcoming inequities in health, with the participation of the population and in coordination with other sectors.The challenges of the immediate future, as well as the consequences of the economic crisis, the cuts, and the weakening of the Welfare State, make evident the need to promote participatory processes that involve all the social actors and, above all, the citizenship -considered not as a recipient and’user’ or consumer, but as an active and collaborative subject. These participatory processes aim at creating a new collective culture regarding the sustainability and universality of existing public health resources.

Cultural actions and youths in M’Boi Mirim region: debating public policies and local vulnerabilities

This article aims to describe and analyse cultural actions carried out by young people (18-29 years old) living in M’Boi Mirim. This region integrates a district council in the south zone in the municipality of Sao Paulo that has approximately 600.000 inhabitants and different kinds of material, social and institutional vulnerabilities. In order to achieve our goal, we have participated in cultural activities, observed and registered the ways by which young people organized these events, interviewed and talked with people linked to these actions in formal or informal facilities. As a result, we came to know cultural actions that denounce, reflect, contest and respond to local challenges. We concluded that these actions show the potential of culture as a strategic axis for the confrontation of local vulnerabilities due to young people mobilization, articulation and empowerment and its possibility to strengthening the relations between cultural actions and public policies.

Resilience and green economies for the future of architecture and the built environment

Over the past decade, the concept of resilience has been strategically and inextricably linked to the main aims of the Green Economy and ‘process circularity’ as applied to the field of the built environment and buildings, starting with the international policy documents published by UNEP in 2008 and by the OECD in 2010. This debate has only just been outlined and there is still plenty of research to be done, but the potential contribution of Technological Design in Architecture seems key. This paper critically analyses the principles, the method- and design-based approaches and the structural strategic measures that can improve the resilience of the built environment, as requested by the European Commission, and considers the prospects for its development in this country, both at a national institutional level and at a local level, primarily gravitating around the strategic working axes that have been outlined – and continue to be pursued – by the States General of the Green Economy.

L’utilisation des données de recherche-action par un médecin de district au Mali

The development of action research is one of the major strategic axes of the Mali sectoral health and population policy. Action research is designed to improve priority health interventions in the light of acquired knowledge. This policy allows offers district doctors to develop research subjects related to population health promotion interventions. In this context, the author conducted action research activities concerning the community funding of emergency transport expenses, and caesarean section in remote rural health centres. However, this research had to overcome difficulties in terms of insufficient time, information, training for literature searches, supervision of the production of valid information and sponsors.The development of close relations with research support institutions and organizations and the development of networking can help to increase the interest of district doctors. These actions will be used to structure ongoing research initiatives and can guide the necessary changes to achieve the objectives of research programmes and improvement of the population's state of health.

Regional modelling with flood-duration-frequency approach in the middle Cheliff watershed

AbstractThis study describes a statistical approach of watercourses hydrological regimes in flood, taking into account the latter duration d and return period T. The choice of Middle Cheliff watershed as study area is linked to disasters strong return period in the western region of Algeria. The Midlle Cheliff catchment basin, located in northwest Algeria, has particularly experienced severe floods over the last years. In view of the recurrence of these unusual events, the estimation and the predetermination of floods extreme quantiles are a strategic axis for prevention against floods in this region. The a curves are first of all locally determined, directly from a statistical analysis of flow continuously exceeded during a duration d (QCXd) on different durations from available data of the study region. Then, these curves are compared to those obtained by application of different regional models VFS (Vandenesse, Florac and Soyans) in which two indices of the watershed characteristic flood are taken into account, a descriptive duration of the flood dynamics (D) and the instantaneous maximal annual flow of 10 year return period (QIXA10). The final choice of the model is based on verification of certain criteria, such as: Nash and the root mean squared error (RMSE). The closest regional models to the local ones are Florac’s for low duration and return periods, and Vandenesse’s for large return periods, for different durations. These results could be used to build regional Q-d-F curves on ungauged or partially gauged Algerian basins.

Recovering troubled cities through public spaces and libraries

The Caracas Metropolitan Strategic Plan 2020 (CMSP2020) is an instance of urban and environmental planning that seeks to construct a collective ‘city pact’ for Caracas, currently among the most troubled and violent cities in Latin America. Its main idea is to recover the city through the rescue of its public spaces, by centering on six strategic axes for transforming Caracas: accessibility and mobility; public safety, public spaces and housing improvement; environmental sustainability; productivity and entrepreneurship; governability; and the development of a constructive and responsible citizenship. This model, partly inspired by Medellin’s Library Parks, may be useful for other large cities in the region that suffer similar socio-political fractures, as well as accessibility, mobility, environmental, productive, governance and safety issues.

Programas institucionales, dispositivos de acompañamiento.

The purpose of this article is to describe a research experience of institutional character, carried out at the National University Lomas de Zamora (Argentina), specifically at the Faculty of Economic Sciences. This project originated with the detection of an important number of students leaving the graduate course, situation which was registered as continuous and permanent along the years. Different strategic axes and a set of actions based on formative quality criteria were designed and planned at the beginning and during the first years of the career, implementing the Articulation Program with Middle Education, in order to integrate the cultures of secondary and higher education including the Program for the Retention of Students, which was in charge of the immediate promotion of actions of effective implementation to reduce student dropout during the first years of university. Both programs contributed to the levelling or introductory courses, which aimed at providing information about the university system and at the same time to reinforce previous knowledge essential for starting the graduate studies. The design of a path through institutional programs allowed to work on the integral development of the student as a learning area and to focus on the issue with specific actions that included effective orientation and information processes even before the beginning of university life and during its first years.

El Plan de Desarrollo Municipal como herramienta de gestión pública de Siuna, Costa Caribe Norte de Nicaragua

Este estudio en la Alcaldía de Siuna, Región Autónoma Costa Caribe Norte de Nicaragua, se analizó el Plan de Desarrollo Municipal de la gestión pública. Se identificaron los criterios para la distribución del presupuesto, los factores que influyen en la ejecución del plan de desarrollo, la incidencia de la participación ciudadana en la gestión y una propuesta de formación académica para la planificación y gestión municipal. El tipo de estudio fue descriptivo cualitativo y corte transversal. El enfoque desde el interaccionismo simbólico, utilizándose la entrevista estructurada, grupo focal y revisión documental; se han recopilado y analizado los datos proporcionados por los sujetos de estudio. Se partió de preguntas directrices, lo que consistió en estructurar un sistema de categorías para el análisis. Los hallazgos revelaron que el Plan de Desarrollo Municipal como herramienta metodológica la define el nuevo Sistema de Planificación de Desarrollo Humano, un proceso incluyente, participativo y democrático, sustentado jurídicamente, principalmente en la Ley de Municipios. Mediante una ordenanza, el gobierno municipal constituye el Comité de Planeación Municipal y con la participación activa de los actores locales se definen los ejes estratégicos en base a las necesidades y demandas de la población. En el Plan de Desarrollo Municipal se establecen criterios para las asignaciones presupuestales tales como población bene ciada, cobertura territorial, sectores menos favorecidos y filiación política electoral. Además, se presentan factores que influyen en su ejecución como la capacidad técnica, la disponibilidad de recursos, la polarización política, los cambios climáticos y la articulación institucional.

STRATEGIES FOR CORPORATE VOLUNTEER PROGRAMS

The objective of this research is to study the strategies to implement Corporate Volunteer programs effectively based on the motivations that guide employees to participate in this type of programs. The lack of knowledge about the most effective policies and strategies may be behind the low participation quotas that companies have in their Corporate Volunteering Programs. We carried out a qualitative empirical study in Spain to define a model that incorporates these policies and strategic axes, starting from the motivations and determinants of employee participation in Corporate Volunteer programs.

Critical Reflections Concerning the Concept of Participation in Social Intervention and Research

In processes oriented towards social change and transformation, the specification of different concepts and levels of participation is an important intellectual and epistemic challenge. Critical questioning of participation in social intervention and research is fundamental for structuring a common understanding and a grammar for intervention, which supports, in theory, the construction of a type of architecture of participation, that is, a conceptual network that sets the parameters for the evaluation of participation. The concept of participation, used so frequently in a populist way, can adapt as easily to objectives of regulation, as to social transformation, and can be subordinate to such divergent paradigms of social intervention such as task-centered interventions, the building of opportunities for development and the processes which aim to improve personal and social decision-making. One of the major goals of participation is to increase the power of individuals and collective decision-making. Beyond this individual and micro-level dimension, it reveals processes of co-construction of social alternatives and structures of opportunity on the meso level (the community) and the macro level (the political instance). Thus, participation in the present day constitutes a strategic axis for social intervention and research. It is necessary to reflect about it. How to operationalize participation? How important is the way it tackles and develops participation in research and transformative social intervention?

Neo-Ottomanism versus Neo-Eurasianism? Nationalism and Symbolic Geography in Postimperial Turkey and Russia

This essay investigates the ideational aspect of contemporary Turkey's identity politics and international conduct and compares these to Russia's. Over the past decade, several analysts have speculated that Russia and Turkey could form a strategic axis based on the shared vision of “Eurasia” and that there is similarity between Moscow's and Ankara's strategic outlooks: Russian neo-Eurasianism and Turkey's Kemalist Eurasianism. Yet the outlook that defines Ankara's understanding of Turkish national interest is not so much a permutation of Eurasianist ideas as it is a homegrown postimperial (and post-Kemalist) strategic vision, also known as neo-Ottomanism. Despite their philosophical affinity, neo-Eurasianism and neo-Ottomanism contain significant potential for confrontation.

Different stakeholders’ perspectives for a surgical case assignment problem: Deterministic and robust approaches

Adequate access to health care is one of the main strategic axes considered in the Portuguese National Health Plan. This plan seeks to ensure the best performance and adequacy of care maximizing the use of resources, quality, equity and access. This work results from a close collaboration with a large and publicly funded Portuguese hospital. The aim is to propose a systematic approach to help the surgical planner in the scheduling of elective surgeries, in order to optimize the use of the available surgical resources, and improve equity and access to operated and waiting patients. The decisions to be taken by this surgical case assignment problem are twofold: select patients to be scheduled in the planning horizon from a large waiting list for surgery; and assign a day, an operating room, and a time block to the selected patients. Three versions are modeled in (mixed) integer linear programming: from the administration’s intention up to the surgeons’ current practice, and a halfway reflecting a negotiation with the surgeons. A robust approach is proposed to tackle the uncertain surgeries’ duration without the need to assume a given distribution for these random parameters and allowing to control the level of conservatism in the solutions. Practical and real-sized problems from the hospital are solved providing very good optimization gaps within a short time limit, both for the deterministic and robust approaches. The schedules obtained are analyzed regarding quality and robustness, and are also compared with the surgical schedules performed by the hospital.

Strategies: A Model of University Management

The central purpose of the research was to design a strategic management model university for the self-assessment of the careers of the three area marketing, starting from an analysis of the eight best models applied in Europe and America, is contrasted the major components to determine the essential aspects of academic excellence which form part of the proposed model. The strategic axes of Management University proposed after the mentioned analysis there are six: Management University, teaching, student progress, support, research and University Social transcendence, distributed information in 12 areas, 28 features, 111 standards of quality, 188 indicators and 937 evidences, validated by qualified informants issued by 28 opinions and documentary information.

Fifteen years of the National Health Agency (ANS): strategic axis analysis of the institutional articulation and improvement from the experts’ perspective

This article analyzes the extent to which the National Health Agency - ANS has achieved the strategic goals established in its creation with a focus on improvement and institutional articulation. The methodology was qualitative built using the Delphi technique, we analyzed and evaluated the perception of 12 experts about relationships with stakeholders, information transparency and regulatory capacity improvement. The results show that the ANS has benefited society with greater operators control, service quality, standardization of minimum coverage and maximum price increases. However, it also revealed that ANS lacks: i) flexibility to analyze and judge complaints and fine health plans, ii) efficiency in processes, iii) balance of stakeholders’ interests and, iv) improved communication with society to achieve a more objective and transparent regulation.

Eco-innovation strategic model. A multiple-case study from a highly eco-innovative European region

Eco-innovation has been analysed from a variety of perspectives in different disciplines. However, there is a shortage of studies at a microeconomic level, especially from a management and strategic perspective. A gap has been identified in the literature for comprehensive, in-depth qualitative analyses of the dynamics of eco-innovation which take into account different firms and sectors (particularly service industry, where there is a lack of studies), in order to contribute to theory-building, considering simultaneously different levels of analysis (macro, meso and micro) and different types of agents who collaborate in the eco-innovation process. The key aim of this paper is therefore to create a strategic model of eco-innovation in order to identify and understand how and why eco-innovations are developed. A theoretical and empirical approach is provided by examining a set of eco-innovative cases from organisations in an advanced European region. To this end, a multiple-case study has been designed taking into account those gaps identified by the literature.An analytical model adapted from classical SWOT analysis has been used as a tool to obtain information on the eco-innovation process for the purposes of standardising the collection of evidence from the cases studied. A diagnosis of external and internal factors aligned with the organisation's philosophy and culture allows the strategic axes of eco-innovation to be established. The critical factors tend to be: environmental concern and regulation; knowledge and technological development, networking, and collaboration (external); and knowledge, resources and skills (internal).The strategic model contains some valuable features (it is integrating, holistic and dynamic) and provides additional knowledge of the eco-innovation process in a specific context, a regional ecosystem that plays a significant role in generating and disseminating eco-innovation. It also shows that the regional eco-innovation ecosystem appears to react by reaching outside its own confines and interacting with others to form a community of ecosystems.This model can be used to understand the particularities of eco-innovation in other regions, industrial sectors or even ecosystems. The main result of this paper, therefore, is the development of a transferable model of sustainable and innovative solutions in a specific regional context.

PROGRAMA BOLSA FAMÍLIA: PERFIL, AÇÕES INTERSETORIAIS E PERCEPÇÃO DOS GESTORES DE SERVIÇOS, EM UM ESTUDO DE CASO NOS MORROS DE SANTOS

The Bolsa Familia Program – PBF is an example of action that requires intersectorial efforts and contributes to implementation of the the Brazilian government National System of Food and Nutrition Security (SISAN, in the Portuguese abbreviation). Beneficiary families are in the most vulnerable situation, as they have to face the complexity of this condition. In this sense, the intersectorial approach is the political strategy that has been used by the main public policies in Brazil. This is a Case Study in hills in the municipality of Santos, which has aimed to characterize the profile of PBF beneficiaries, mapping and reflecting on the intersectorial actions implemented or under construction and to gather information on the perception by service managers about the program. Therefore, questionnaire and semi-structured interviews were used to collect data. The profile has been defined by descriptive analysis and interviews were analyzed by content analysis. Five key informants of social, health and education services of hills in Santos were interviewed. The profile of the beneficiaries was in line with the program objectives, but there is no access of services to unified data. The actions have been restricted to sectored monitoring of PBF’s conditionalities. Managers’ perceptions about the program is that it fulfills its objectives, although it is not yet seen as a right. In this scenario, it is suggested that municipal investment should occur in different sectors, while rethinking policy actions and considering intersectoriality as an strategic axis. Having a unified information system would facilitate the work and the effectiveness of these actions, including promoting SAN, thus contributing directly to the implementation and consolidation of SISAN in the city. DOI: 10.12957/demetra.2016.21374