Strategic Engagement Research Articles

Perceptions of factors influencing the introduction and adoption of electronic immunization registries in Tanzania and Zambia: a mixed\xa0methods study

BackgroundAs technology has become cheaper and more accessible, health programs are adopting digital health interventions (DHI) to improve the provision of and demand for health services. These interventions are complex and require strong coordination and support across different health system levels and government departments, and they need significant capacities in technology and information to be properly implemented. Electronic immunization registries (EIRs) are types of DHI used to capture, store, access, and share individual-level, longitudinal health information in digitized records. The BID Initiative worked in partnership with the governments of Tanzania and Zambia to introduce an EIR at the sub-national level in both countries within 5 years as part of a multi-component complex intervention package focusing on data use capacity-building.MethodsWe aimed to gather and describe learnings from the BID experience by conducting a framework-based mixed methods study to describe perceptions of factors that influenced scale-up of the EIR. Data were collected through key informant interviews, a desk review, EIRs, and health management information systems. We described how implementation of the EIRs fulfilled domains described in our conceptual framework and used cases to illustrate the relationships and relative influence of domains for scale-up and adoption of the EIR.ResultsWe found that there was no single factor that seemed to influence the introduction or sustained adoption of the EIR as many of the factors were interrelated. For EIR introduction, strong strategic engagement among partners was important, while EIR adoption was influenced by adequate staffing at facilities, training, use of data for supervision, internet and electricity connectivity, and community sensitization.ConclusionsOrganizations deploying DHIs in the future should consider how best to adapt their intervention to the existing ecosystem, including human resources and organizational capacity, as well as the changing technological landscape during planning and implementation.

Schumpeterian Entry: Innovation, Exporting, and Growth Aspirations of Entrepreneurs

We posit that entrepreneurs who engage in strategic activities will have high growth aspirations. Our proposed mechanism is that strategic engagements, specifically product innovation, process innovation and internationalization, open entrepreneurial ventures to learning, and thereby greater growth opportunities. Furthermore, these learning effects are reinforced in research-intensive industrial environments. We apply multilevel random slope estimation for individuals from 74 countries, 2001–2015, to derive results consistent with our hypotheses. The findings are robust to potential reverse causality between strategic behavior and growth aspirations, and to selection bias resulting from strategic engagements being only observed for actual entrepreneurs.

Relationship Between Corporate Social Responsibility Practice and its Effects on the Botton Line

The study comparatively evaluates the relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility and Profitability in the fuel and gas sectors in Ghana. The descriptive survey design and quantitative methods was adopted to find a relationship between innovations in strategic stakeholder engagement with corporate profitability or bottom-line, with the mediating role of strategic stakeholder engagement leading to a firm’s bottom-line. An analysis of strategic stakeholder engagement and bottom-line of selected fuel and gas companies in the Kumasi Metropolitan, Asokore Mampong, Oforikrom and Ejisu Municipalities was provided.A five point closed ended Likert Scale self-administrable structured questionnaire and researcher guide to aid participants answer relevant questions was used to confirm that innovations in strategic stakeholder engagement fueled increases in corporate bottom-line of selected companies. The four major steps of analysing data collected from Atkinson’s (2002) categories of quantitative data analysis was used, following which the primary data/information gathered and coded was analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences to guarantee validity and reliability of the various investigations conducted. The hierarchical multiple regression of the Baron and Kenny’s (1986) procedure was also adopted to analyse for study the mediating effect of innovation on the relationship between strategic stakeholder engagement and corporate bottom-line.The study opines the involvement of key stakeholder participation in the siting and general operations of fuel and gas companies given the divergent viewpoints of operators and stakeholders (O’Riordan, 2017). A discovery of a statistically significant positive influence of perceptions of CSR towards customers on an organization’s image in general intensifies the suggestion that mangers of fuel and gas sectors take special interest in innovative ways of engaging strategic stakeholders due to its influence and ripple mediating effect on corporate bottom-line to improve the performance of the business or induces increases in profit.

Confident, capable and world changing: teenagers and digital citizenship

ABSTRACTAround the world policymakers are exploring the kinds of skills and competencies that teenagers need to have to contribute to society as digital citizens. Based on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child framework, and informed by critical analysis of discourses around digital citizenship, this paper explores the competencies already demonstrated by many adolescents and addresses the priorities identified by policymakers. It compares the top-down adult policymakers’ blueprints for digital citizenship with the performances of citizenship by many young people, who mobilise digital resources to communicate with powerful others as a means of progressing their aims. Drawing upon examples of small-scale teenage activism, and linking these to some of the big questions of the age: climate change, gender equity and social justice, the paper moves beyond discussions of tech-addiction and online passivity to investigate adolescents’ strategic engagement in digital spaces to achieve a more equitable future.

Engagement With Impact: Enhancing the Student Learning Experience During Year One of a Functional Library Model

In summer 2017, the University of Birmingham reconfigured from a subject librarian model of academic library support to a functional or task-based model, including the creation of a dedicated Engagement Team. Using case studies from the new team, an internal survey of staff across the University alongside a survey of librarians from other institutions, the article highlights the many perspectives on the debate: the Library management impetus for consistency and strategic engagement, academic perspectives on how well the Engagement Team works for them, and views of Library staff. The case studies demonstrate the team’s contribution to the institutional teaching and learning agenda, particularly around academic skills enhancements, creating connections with staff and students, and through improved processes of collection development. This article adds to the relatively small body of literature on the impact and value of a functional model configuration that includes a dedicated Engagement Team.

Supporting the integration of evidence into federal educational policy and reform efforts: A navigational framework for educational researchers

There is an ongoing debate about how best to infuse “evidence” into school evaluation and reform efforts, and what role education researchers can play in this effort. A lot of support has been garnered for evidence-based reform or policies that place a premium on practices that have been proven effective using rigorous research methods; most often randomized controlled trials (RCTs). This article discusses challenges with these approaches in the policy space, and presents an alternative framework for educational researchers; one that requires a deeper and more strategic engagement in the policymaking process. It highlights that inherent in the federal process are important windows of opportunity for educational researchers to make their work count. The article considers the unique way in which time, intermediary partners, and communication influence the development of federal educational policy, and what the implications are for educational research.

Report of the 2018-2019 Strategic Engagement Standing Committee

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY. Strategic engagement is critical to the success of colleges and schools of pharmacy in expanding pharmacy and public health practice, meeting programmatic needs, and fulfilling institutional missions. The AACP 2019-2020 Strategic Engagement Committee was charged with exploring faculty leadership and development as they relate to strategic engagement, considering challenges and barriers to faculty participation and identifying successes in faculty engagement and opportunities for professional development. The committee reviewed literature and examples regarding strategic engagement across academic pharmacy, with strategic engagement understood as being part of the service mission of academic institutions. The committee found faculty service is often not rewarded or recognized equally to efforts in research and education, including in promotion and tenure. The perceived low value often accorded to strategic engagement efforts, coupled with lack of time and low priority for the work, are barriers to faculty participation in strategic engagement. Service missions thrive when supported by institutional culture, faculty and alumni role models and administration priorities. The committee also found that there is no defined path to leadership in most national organizations, a limited number of leadership positions and a lack of awareness regarding these positions. However, strategic engagement with organizations can open doors and increase visibility for faculty, leading to enhanced opportunities and improved scholarship. Engagement efforts can be particularly successful when aligned with faculty interests and school and departmental priorities. Based on the committee's work, the following recommendations are provided to AACP for consideration.Recommendation #1 - AACP should create a pathway or exemplar stories of members who have become leaders within the Academy including institutional and volunteer leadership roles.Recommendation #2 - AACP should provide an organizational chart to outline the reporting structures, as well as the policy development process to help members understand how AACP works and points of entry for involvement.Recommendation #3 - AACP should develop an initiative to "groom" faculty for leadership roles including providing tools/training programs for emerging leaders within the Academy.Recommendation #4 - AACP should consider creating a community for targeted groups of faculty, eg, tenured/tenure-track and non-tenure track to address leadership development and engagement based on member interest.Recommendation #5 - AACP should establish a "service mentors" program to match current and past leaders with members interested in enhancing their involvement in the association.

Strategic Framing and Social Media Engagement: Analyzing Memes Posted by the German Identitarian Movement on Facebook

While officially classified as a right-wing movement, the German Identitarian Movement (GIM) claims to be neither left nor right wing but rather identitarian. The social movement stands for what they call “ethno-pluralism,” communicated online without intermediate gatekeepers, in supposedly socially acceptable messages. Without a clear classification to a political wing, some Internet users encountering information created by the GIM could have difficulties assessing what this movement really stands for and what identitarian means. That is why this study examined strategic frames in a full sample of memes ( N = 511) posted by the movement on their Facebook page, because memes (here: image macros) have been the GIM’s main form of communication on Facebook. This study identified six strategic frames that represent a plurality of different social issues; some of them call for immediate action. Hence, the movement’s strategic framing goes far beyond emphasizing “ethno-pluralism.” The findings elucidate the overall communication strategies of the movement and show that the frames represent characteristics and semantics of the New Right. These frames also triggered different levels of social media engagement.

Alliance Strategic and Organizational Form, Managerial and Market Engangement to Improve Performance

The purpose of this study examines whether the strategic alliance affects the organizational form, managerial strategy, market engagement, and performance and how these variables interact in order to become a mutually beneficial partnership. The study took place in Indonesia, especially in Java, to the parties related to the strategic alliance between PT Transportasi Jakarta and bus operators in investment and management of Busway in DKI Jakarta. The study took place is in Indonesia especially Java Island and not only in DKI Jakarta. Findings in this study is have significant and positive effect on organizational form, in other hands, the strategic alliance has a non-signifncant effect to performance, managerial strategy, and market engangement. The novelty in this study is the market engagement variable examined by looking at the relationship between the strategic alliance and market engagement, managerial strategy and market engagement, and market engagement and performance.

The nexus between international trade, food systems, malnutrition and climate change

Trade agreements are a major determinant of the operation of food systems. Here, we examine how different aspects of trade can constrain or enable governments’ ability to implement food system-level actions aimed at enhancing nutrition and mitigating climate change. Concerning technical aspects, we focus on the potential impact of trade agreements on three major strategies for transforming food systems—namely the removal of market barriers for agricultural commodities, the protection of regulatory policy space and the revision of subsidies. Concerning non-technical aspects, we review the evidence on the political economy of trade to show that coherence between trade-policy goals and public-interest goals, such as nutrition and climate change, involves actors’ interests, ideas, and formal and informal institutional processes at various levels. With international agreements to liberalize trade and investment being binding, and recommendations to address malnutrition and climate change being non-binding, there is potential for trade to hinder efforts against malnutrition and climate change. Tempering this will require a deeper understanding of the complex trade–food system––nutrition–climate nexus and a new regulatory framework consistent with such complexity, as well as strategic stakeholder engagement. Trade agreements can constrain or enable governments’ ability to implement food system-level actions aimed at improving nutrition and mitigating climate change. The technical and political aspects of trade agreements that interact with food systems are reviewed here, and the coherence between trade policy goals and public interest goals, such as nutrition and climate change, is discussed.

Anatomy of the Republic of Korea’s Niche Strategic Engagement in the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS): ROK’s Tailor-Made Strategy and its Security Policy Implication

Republic of Korea’s engagement in Southeast Asia could be generally understood as its Official Development Aid (ODA) strategy in most academic interpretation. Nonetheless, this article examines not only Korea’s traditional ODA approach toward Southeast Asia but also Korea’s uniquely tailor-made strategy toward Indo-China Peninsula in particular as well as what is to be done. In other words, this article intends to take further step beyond ODA interpretation of this particular subject over this region. This study specifically provides with multi-dimensional analysis of Republic of Korea’s involvement in Mekong River Sub-region as well as its regional and global security policy implication. The main thesis of this study is that Korea had no choice but to pursue Niche diplomacy toward the region because Korea did not possess full capacity enough to compete against Japan or China. In this sense, Korea’s own development experience is very unique and perhaps the only experience that no other country in the world has possessed. This article contends that Korea’s knowledge based capacity building projects toward Greater Mekong Sub-region such as KSP, CIAT, special Master’s degree training projects, local capacity building process, and etc. will continue to increase and diversify in terms of scale and contents. Again, based upon Knowledge based capacity building projects, Korea is in the process of producing a wide range of its unique tailor- made ODA programs for each member states of GMS. Unlike Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Korea also tends to put more emphasis on creating exclusive Master’s degree Training Program which is centered on trainees of ODA Recipient countries. In this regard, Korea’s approach is aiming at strengthening discrimination by introducing a systemic evaluation system for training projects. This program will also turn out linchpin of ROK’s new strategy toward Mekong River area.

Assessing Strategic Orientation and Mosques Performance

Mosque plays important roles as the religious organization among Muslims. Despite a sacred place, there are some other socio-economic roles are carried out by these institution such as the Islamic teaching and learning centre, waqf and zakat (alms) management and hearse management. Nevertheless, currently there are increasing number of economic activities executed by mosque leaders to serve the local Muslims community. This study assesses the relationship between strategic orientation initiatives and mosque’s economic performance. The data is gathered through a structured questionnaire that was distributed amongst the mosques management committee leaders in the State of Selangor. The outcomes of path model analysis highlighted two important findings. First, the strategic orientation does exist among mosques management committee leaders. Second, relationship between strategic orientation and mosques non-financial performance is significantly related. The empirical evidence provides important initial exploration on enhancement of strategic orientation theory in the context of religion based organization. Drawing from the findings, we promote strategic choice for future mosque’s strategic engagement with certain types of valuable community based economic activities.

Exploring public engagement and social acceptability of geothermal energy in the Philippines: A case study on the Makiling-Banahaw Geothermal Complex

The Makiling-Banahaw Geothermal Complex was one of the first two geothermal projects for exploration and development in the Philippines. The study aims to identify critical issues and supporting factors for geothermal energy projects in the Philippines by collecting and analyzing qualitative and quantitative data from various stakeholders of the Makiling-Banahaw Geothermal Complex. The case study reveals that stakeholders of barangays with geothermal facilities were agreeable to geothermal energy. Frequent periodic and strategic public engagement initiated by geothermal resource developers and local government can develop trust and improve integration of geothermal energy with the local communities.

Twenty Years of the Polyvinyl Chloride Sustainability Challenges

Intense campaigning pressure on the UK polyvinyl chloride (PVC) sector up to the late 1990s forced strategic engagement with sustainable development. Simplified outcomes from a detailed, consensus‐based analysis by science‐based NGO The Natural Step (TNS) took the form of five TNS sustainability challenges for PVC published in 2000. UK manufacturing companies initially used these challenges to direct strategic progress. The challenges have since been progressively taken up across European PVC value chains. The VinylPlus® program uses an updated version of the five challenges as a basis for voluntary commitments and transparent auditing of progress against published targets. Initial framing of the five TNS sustainability challenges for PVC was drafted consciously for generic relevance to other materials. Assessing the sustainability performance of some alternative materials to PVC against the five sustainability challenges reveals different sustainability performance in a range of potential applications. This highlights the danger inherent in automatic selection or deselection of materials in the absence of assessment of options on a “level playing field” of sustainability principles. The five TNS sustainability challenges for PVC remain valid today and into the longer‐term future as a basis for making stepwise, profitable progress toward the goal of sustainability for PVC and other materials. J. VINYL ADDIT. TECHNOL., 26:390–402, 2020. © 2019 Society of Plastics Engineers

Netta Syrett, Nobody’s Fault, and Female Decadence: The Story of a Wagnerite

Abstract Scholars have traditionally associated decadence with misogyny, and therefore it has typically been perceived as antithetical to feminism. Nobody’s Fault (1896), Netta Syrett’s first novel, complicates this perception through the way in which the self-assertive protagonist, Bridget Ruan, finds in the decadent music of Richard Wagner a liberating form of aesthetic experience. In this essay, I argue that encountering Wagner’s music marks Bridget’s immersion into a form of decadent culture that affirms her aesthetic longings and awakens her erotic desires. At the same time, the novel condemns an antifeminist form of decadence that is associated with elitist male artists who indulge in a superficial manipulation of language and treat women as art objects. The novel’s resistance to exclusionary forms of aesthetic experience is modelled in its straightforward narrative style and strategic engagement with familiar New Woman themes. This middlebrow narrative thus made Syrett’s intervention into debates about women and decadence accessible to a middle-class female audience. When we recognize that the history of decadence includes its appeal to feminist writers such as Syrett rather than an exclusively antifeminist legacy, we can begin to uncover a more nuanced history of feminism and decadence in England at the fin de siècle.

Non-Linear Modes of Narrative in the Disruption of Time and Genre in Ambelin Kwaymullina’s <em>The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf</em>

Non-Linear Modes of Narrative in the Disruption of Time and Genre in Ambelin Kwaymullina’s <em>The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf</em>

The unaddressed threat of invasive animals in U.S. National Parks

Invasive species, both plants and animals, are a long-standing threat to the National Parks of the United States. For nearly two decades the National Park Service has implemented a service-wide invasive plant management program without a commensurate program focusing on invasive animals. While individual park units are struggling to sufficiently address the threat of invasive terrestrial and aquatic animal species, a system-wide effort could bring the resources and capacity needed to address a challenge of this magnitude. We present our key findings from a detailed review about invasive animal species and their management by the National Park Service. We assert that the global threat of invasive animals substantially undermines the National Park Service mission. Coordinated action could improve the ability for the National Park Service to meet the challenge, and partnering with neighboring agencies and invasive species networks outside of the National Park Service is essential for success. Public engagement, cooperation and support is also critical and can be accomplished through strategic engagement efforts. Finally, the National Park Service would benefit from the development of an invasive animal program that includes structured decision support, adaptive management and monitoring, the organizational structure to meet the highest needs, and capitalizing on the significant opportunities that exist through the appropriate use of emerging technologies.

Crossing the borderline in strategic corporate philanthropy: Dangote and the construction of cement roads in Nigeria

AbstractUsing the case of Nigeria's Dangote Group and an exploratory research technique, we critique CSR practices in a developing country context based on a three‐pillar model—traditional CSR, strategic CSR and strategic business engagements. Our paper makes a unique contribution by revealing how a company can transform its strategic CSR into strategic business engagements that permit it to circumvent public procurement laws and secure public contracts at non‐competitive terms. We show how, in weak institutional and regulatory contexts, strategic CSR could be turned to a tool for rent extraction and profit maximization. We advocate for regulatory measures that impose ex ante and ex post limits on the extent to which firms can go in integrating CSR into their normal business operations. Based on the outcomes from this important African case study, we illustrate and propose the strategic business engagement model as a new framework for analysing the social benefits of strategic CSR practices in developing countries.

The Growing Power Struggle in Indian Ocean Region: Security Road Map for Bangladesh

The Indian Ocean Region (IOR) is rising significantly as the center stage for world politics in the current century. Due to the geostrategic and economic importance, the region has created conflicts in strategic interest leading to power confrontation among regional and extra-regional powers resulting in security threats for small littorals like Bangladesh. Some of the threats are influential attachments of the powerful states in foreign, trade, economy and defense sectors, poor regional security architecture and an increase of non-traditional security threats. Analyzing the issues reveals that, Bangladesh can navigate these challenges by playing strategic hedging, pursuing multilateralism, recalibrating trade and economic engagements, and comprehensive drive by government agencies to deal with non-traditional security threats.

Citizen-led digital policing and democratic norms: The case of self-styled paedophile hunters

Citizen involvement in the provision of security is often presented as a win–win way to relieve pressure on police resources while building stronger, more responsible and democratically engaged communities. Governments in countries such as the United Kingdom and the Netherlands have adopted a ‘strategy of responsibilisation’ designed to encourage, enable and support citizens to take on tasks otherwise left for police. Yet, this strategy conspicuously ignores the growing number of citizen-led digital policing initiatives which operate independently without the encouragement or guidance of police. This article considers the implications of this trend for democratic norms in policing. It uses the phenomenon of self-styled paedophile hunters – which are now active in countries around the world – as a case study. The article makes comparisons between such initiatives and other, relatively well-theorised informal security providers, such as vigilante groups and civilian policing. It argues that, like vigilantes, citizen-led digital police often challenge democratic principles of transparency, accountability and the rule of law. Yet, like other civilian policing initiatives, they increase empowerment and participation, and rely for their success on the presence of strong and legitimate institutions of justice, to which they ultimately defer. These characteristics present a discreet set of opportunities and challenges for contemporary policing, which this article argues can only be addressed by strategic police engagement.