Strategic Public Research Articles

A General Equilibrium Model of Bilateral Trade with Strategic Public Investment in Commercial Infrastructure

We explore how public investment in commercial infrastructure affects the composition of trade between countries. To this end, we develop a model of bilateral trade in which two countries produce, consume, and trade a continuum of goods. Goods are produced by a single homogeneous factor, labor, the productivity of which depends on the quality of the country’s commercial infrastructure, broadly conceived to encompass transportation, communication, and power transmission networks; regulatory and legal institutions; and basic research and educational systems. Countries may improve the quality of their commercial infrastructures through increased public investment. However, returns on these investments are constrained by fixed “natural” endowments, with the better-endowed country enjoying greater labor productivity for a given level of public investment. We begin by analyzing optimal investment in public infrastructure in one country when public investment by the trading partner is fixed. We find that, ceteris paribus, greater public investment in commercial infrastructure raises general labor productivity, leading to gains in workers’ real income. We then analyze a non-cooperative game in which both countries strategically vary public investment in commercial infrastructure. We find that, in a Nash game, the better-endowed country optimally spends more on infrastructure and produces the goods requiring the greatest labor productivity. However, in a Stackelberg game, the results are ambiguous. An empirical analysis based on recent international trade data supports our theoretical finding that investment in public infrastructure is positively related to the export of “high-end” goods.

Lewis Carroll, Art Director: Recovering the Design and Production Rationales for Victorian Editions of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Lewis Carroll, Art DirectorRecovering the Design and Production Rationales for Victorian Editions of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Amanda Lastoria (bio) Lewis Carroll created not only the Alice texts, but the Alice books.1 He was both author and art director. Carroll art directed the first edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland ([1865] 1866), and he went on to segment the Victorian children's literature market by strategically repackaging the story in a further three distinct editions. Design and production values include the cover design, typography, paper, binding and so on that constitute the look and feel of the book. These values are some—if not the only—unique selling points of books that are published in multiple editions.2 Alice is a 154-year-old material girl; she is dressed in countless guises, from interactive board books for toddlers to paperback graphic novels for teens to hardback novels for adults. Abridgements and adaptations have contributed to Alice's diverse audience, but the most powerful changes are due to the title's material re-representations, or art directions. Alice has evolved from Macmillan's golden Victorian blocked on cloth to Harper's inky goth girl printed on satin paper.3 Carroll conceived the title as a fairy tale, but some latter-day publications are better described as scary tales. This transformation is due, in part, to illustrations. Alice is possibly "the most widely illustrated novel in existence".4 The extraordinary variety of Alice illustrations is surpassed only by the breadth of editions in which they are published; John Tenniel's illustrations from the first publication, for example, have been republished in hundreds of editions, from mass-market paperbacks to collectible hardbacks. Accordingly, Alice is today located in such diverse publishing retail categories as "Children's Fairy & Folk Tales," "Science Fiction & Fantasy" and "Classic Literature."5 Carroll was the first to segment and sell Alice, trading on unique art directions. How did the early Alices—those published under Carroll's direction—differentiate themselves from each other? [End Page 196] This article recovers the rationales for the design and production choices that Carroll made, as art director, for the single-volume English-language Alice editions that Macmillan published in London between 1865 (year of first publication) and 1897 (year prior to Carroll's death in January 1898): • the red-cloth Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (AAIW) ([1865] 1866) (Figures 1a, 1b and 1c); • Alice's Adventures Under Ground (AAUG) (1886) (Figures 2a and 2b); • the People's Edition of AAIW (1887) (Figures 3a and 3b) and the People's Edition omnibus that combines AAIW with its sequel, Through the Looking-Glass, in one volume (1888); • The Nursery "Alice" (1890) (Figures 4a and 4b). The story remains essentially unchanged across these four editions: the first and third editions have the same body text6; the second edition is a facsimile of a draft of the AAIW manuscript; the fourth edition is a retelling of the text of the first and third editions. The similarity of these books' editorial content throws into relief their varied design and production values. The sequel to AAIW, Through the Looking-Glass (TTLG), is only peripherally included in this article—when discussing its publication in an omnibus volume with AAIW. Although TTLG is often conflated with AAIW in scholarship and popular imagination, and Carroll art directed them both, each title tells a unique story and has its own publishing history. It is AAIW that started Carroll's "career" as an art director, and it is AAIW that Carroll repackaged in many editions for many audiences. This article interrogates the ways in which Carroll's art direction contributed to his creative vision and strategic publication of a single title: Alice. "Art director" is an anachronistic title for a Victorian—it came into use in the early 1900s and continues to be used today7—but it frames a critical understanding of the lead that Carroll took in the visual and material realizations of his texts. There is a wealth of published research on Carroll and his books, but the overwhelming majority focuses on his biography and/or Alice's text.8 This article expands the horizons of...

Creating Public Service Excellence applying Learning Organisation Methods: The role of Strategic Leadership

Effectiveness and efficiency in South Africa is high on government's agenda. The main objective of this research was to determine the role of a strategic leader in creating a learning organisation for public sector effectiveness. The sample was based on interviews and focus group discussions with strategic leaders that represent five major central government institutions (N=168). The results showed that leaders need to display a high level of consciousness of their effect on the organisation and employees. Leaders also provide the necessary guidance and motivation towards and effective and efficient learning organisation. Finally the results showed that leaders need to be able to adapt to rapid changing environments to apply organisational learning effectively in public service institution. This paper concludes with an integrated framework relating Strategic Leadership, Organisational Learning and Public Sector Effectiveness.

Strategic Publics in Public Diplomacy: A Typology and a Heuristic Device for Multiple Publics

Summary How do governments select their public diplomacy targets? Officials can shake hands with important allies’ presidents, they can honour writers from far-away states, or they can visit slums to meet victims of violence. This article proposes a conceptual typology of strategic publics based on two dimensions: the strategic importance of the represented polity; and the individual’s power position. The variables are parallel to universal psychological dimensions of social cognition — that is, warmth and competence — and they are combined with diplomatic theories revolving around the primacy of representation. Six ideal types of strategic publics are defined and exemplified. The typology integrates governmental and non-governmental, foreign and domestic, and elite and non-elite publics. In addition, the article proposes a three-level heuristic device that facilitates the analysis of cases with multiple publics. The proposed analytical tools seek to stimulate future efforts to refine conceptualizations of strategic publics.

Strategic Public Relations in Post-Gaddaffi Libya for Non-Profit Organizations: A Focus on the Rebuilding Efforts of Bokra and Attawasul

This article focuses on understanding the strategic role Public Relations (PR) plays in positioning NGOs and helping them achieve their set out objectives in Libya- Post-Civil war era. The researchers analyzed two Non-Profit Organizations (NGOs) that operate in Libya - Bokra and Attawasul. NGOs like any other organization have publics they need to communicate and appeal to and as such it goes without saying that they channel their communication messages in such a way that their message is clear and resonates soundly with their intended audiences. This is even more pertinent in a country like Libya. Public Relations ensures that organizations are favorably looked upon by their publics by communicating in the right way. This study was premised on the Social Marketing Theory and dealt with understanding Public Relations and how it is used by NGOs in Libya. Based on the findings of this study, it was determined that Public Relations especially through social media, indeed plays a significant role in the process of getting donors and volunteers for NGOs in Libya. To arrive at this conclusion, questionnaires were distributed to staff and volunteers of the organizations under study and interviews were also conducted with top management staff of both organizations.

Aktivitas Public Relations Pengelola Situs Pariwisata Tanjung Lesung Untuk Meningkatkan Jumlah Wisatawan

The tourism sector is one of the sectors to increase the economy of the state. Banten is one of the province in Indonesia that has the potential to develop the tourism sector since Banten has Tanjung Lesung as Special Economic Zone. PT Banten West Java Tourism Development (BWJTD) as a developer of Tanjung Lesung has to manage various strategies to increase the number of tourists. This study explained the public relation strategies of PT BWJTD to increase the number of tourists to Tanjung Lesung. It used a model of strategic planning for public relations from Ronald D. Smith for analysis, known as The Nine Steps of Strategic Public Relations. The model includes research formative, strategy, tactics, and evaluation. The data were collected using in-depth interviews with three key informants, observation on tactics, and documentation related to Tanjung Lesung. Based on the findings, it can be concluded that the public relation strategies used by PT BWJTD are the proactive strategies.

Disinvestment and Firm Performance- A Comparative Analysis of Strategic Sale vs. Public Offerings by Indian Pubic Sector Enterprises

Disinvestment and Firm Performance- A Comparative Analysis of Strategic Sale vs. Public Offerings by Indian Pubic Sector Enterprises

Disinvestment and Firm Performance- A Comparative Analysis of Strategic Sale vs. Public Offerings by Indian Pubic Sector Enterprises

Disinvestment and Firm Performance- A Comparative Analysis of Strategic Sale vs. Public Offerings by Indian Pubic Sector Enterprises

Battles to Bridges: US Strategic Communication and Public Diplomacy after 9/11

Battles to Bridges: US Strategic Communication and Public Diplomacy after 9/11

Key elements for the development of the institutional, operational and image components in a Strategic Public Transport System

Objectives: This research proposes guidelines for the conceptual design and pre-operational stage of the Strategic Public Transport Systems, which are part of the National Urban Transport Policy in Colombia and which focus on the transformation of transit. Methods/Statistical Analysis: The early stage of operation of the Strategic Public Transport Systems will be emphasized because there are no practical guidelines to date that help understand and implement this type of transport system for Colombian cities that have between 250,000 and 600,000 inhabitants approximately. Specifically, the research makes a diagnosis based on secondary information obtained from the conceptual and detailed design of Transport System of Pasto, in order to propose technical guidelines for three major components: operational, institutional and image. Findings: The main weakness of the institutional component is identified in the fact that the National Government has not defined mechanisms to monitor and control traditional transportation systems. However, a monitoring committee was set up for the implementation of the new PNTP. It should be invested in the planning pyramid of the framework of business transformation. The proposed guidelines should be understood as a series of actions, decisions and conditions that seek to increase efficiency in the implementation of SETP. Application/Improvements: This is a document recommended for Mayors, managers of \

Book Review: Introduction to Strategic Public Relations: Digital, Global and Socially Responsible Communication, by Janis Teruggi Page and Lawrence J. Parnell

Book Review: <i>Introduction to Strategic Public Relations: Digital, Global and Socially Responsible Communication</i>, by Janis Teruggi Page and Lawrence J. Parnell

Brazilian national defence policy and strategy reviewed as a unity

Abstract This article reviews Brazil's capstone directives for defence: the Politica Nacional de Defesa (National Defence Policy) and the Estrategia Nacional de Defesa (National Defence Strategy). It presents an overview of their contents and discusses how they might be read by polities or agencies through the lenses of Strategic Studies and Public Policy of Science, Technology, and Innovation.

Strategic Communication and Public Engagement: The UAE E-Brainstorming Session

In the context of the conference’s topic of ‘Strategic Communication and Public Engagement’ comes this case study, which illustrates the creative use of social media in crowdsourcing ideas from the public with the goal of formulating government policy in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Unlike the usual model of top-down policy formulation in many developing countries, the UAE government adopted an experiment entitled ‘The UAE Brainstorming Session’, which is the country’s first technology-based citizen engagement event that leveraged the highly popular social media platforms to elicit ideas and suggestions about public services. Specifically, two under-performing national sectors were targeted; public health and education. Citizens and residents were invited to identify the main issues in these two sectors and offer their suggestions to address them. The UAE Prime Minister personally tweeted inviting everyone to participate. The public response to this initiative was substantial, with 82,000 new ideas delivered by several social media channels. A ministerial committee then shortlisted the best ideas, suggestions, and these were subsequently discussed in a strategic cabinet retreat. The next step was government approval of several initiatives, which were subsequently implemented. Lessons learned from this case study can be beneficial to many countries that are considering similar technology-based initiatives that utilize popular and accessible social media as public policy tools and instruments of citizen engagement.Keywords: Strategic Communication; Citizen Engagement; Social Media; United Arab Emirates Government.

Wasted Words? The Limitations of U.S. Strategic Communication and Public Diplomacy

For America's foes in Afghanistan and the Middle East, triumph on the battlefield is less important than winning the battle of perceptions. In response, the United States has turned to Strategic Communication and Public Diplomacy (SC-PD) to engage key audiences in ways that advance U.S. interests and to win the political-ideological contest for domestic and international legitimacy. But are these strategies effective? While winning hearts and minds is politically important, SC-PD—even at its best—is much less effective than other well-crafted and mutually supportive policies and strategies. Moreover, there are structural obstacles that greatly limit the effectiveness of SC-PD.

Facts, Values, and Democracy Worth Wanting: Strategic Public Deliberation in the Era of Trump

In this paper, I characterize the troubling emergence of “post-truth” politics, represented by the election of Donald Trump in the U.S. and similar developments in other national contexts, in terms of dual crises of epistemic and political legitimacy. I argue that the dichotomy between facts and values plays a key role in these crises, and that democratic deliberation represents a particularly promising opportunity to overcome this dichotomy and legitimate political discourse at a national scale. In order to make this case, I draw upon developments in the field of educational program evaluation and apply the insights gleaned to suggest possibilities for leveraging strategic public deliberation to ground and legitimate political discourse and discussion in the Trump era.

Technology Rhetoric: Incumbents’ Strategic Public Language During Discontinuous Change

We combine research on discontinuous technological change and impression management to explore how and why incumbents’ strategic public language affects the resistance of external constituents agai...

Dialogues with entrepreneurs in China: How start-up companies cultivate relationships with strategic publics

ABSTRACTThis qualitative study examined relationship cultivation and public relations practices in start-up companies in Mainland China. Findings from 28 in-depth interviews with entrepreneurs in China1 suggest that employees and customers are the most important strategic publics for start-ups, followed by investors, the media, and the government. Symmetrical relationship cultivation strategies suggested in previous literature apply to the start-up context in China with specific variations. New strategies such as vision and value communication, empowerment, authentic communication, and proactive reporting were identified for start-ups to build quality relationships with various strategic publics. Compared with large established corporations, start-ups have unique public relations purposes, needs, and scope of practice. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Strategic Public Shaming: Evidence from Chinese Antitrust

This article examines strategic public shaming, a novel form of regulatory tactic employed by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) during its enforcement of the Anti-Monopoly Law. Based on analysis of media coverage and interview findings, the study finds that the way the NDRC disclosed its investigation is highly strategic depending on the firm’s co-operative attitude toward the investigation. Event studies further show that the NDRC’s proactive disclosure resulted in significantly negative abnormal returns of the stock prices of firms subject to the disclosure. For instance, Biostime, an infant-formula manufacturer investigated in 2013, experienced -22% cumulative abnormal return in a three-day event window, resulting in a loss of market capitalization that is 27 times the ultimate antitrust fine it received. The NDRC’s strategic public shaming could therefore result in severe market sanction that deters firms from defying the agency.

PR Practitioners’ Use of Social Media: Validation of an Online Relationship Management Model Applying Structural Equation Modeling

The emergence of social media had shaped the relationships between public relations practitioners, organizations and publics. Social media provides numerous opportunities of maintaining mutual relationships between these entities, specifically because of its speed and interactive potentials. Hence, many organizations established social media sites and public relations practitioners utilized it in their workplace. However, most of the studies that examined the influence of social media in shaping organizations-public relationships were not carried out on a theoretical continuum. Hence, little is known on the influence of social media on public relations practice from developing countries’ perspective. The motivation of this study was to propose and validate a model which explains how public relations practitioners use social media for enhancing mutual relationships with their strategic publics. The significance of conducting this study is to bring to light the influence of social media in public relations practice from a country that has different demographic, economic and political settings from countries which most of the studies of this nature were carried out before. Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) was utilized as the theoretical guide of this study. Thus, the actual use of social media among PR practitioners was measured by a construct named, Perceived Mutual Relationship. Perceived Mutual Relationship was also measured from three dimensions which included: trust; commitment and satisfaction. Data were collected from 513 public relations practitioners in Nigeria through a systematic random sampling. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was employed for analysis of the model. The study used TAM to explain reasons why practitioners utilized social media for enhancing mutual relationships with their publics. Specifically, the validated model proved that use of social media for relationship management was explained by 73%. The validated model provides public relations researchers with a theoretical framework to investigate how social media could be utilized in promoting mutual relationships between public relations practitioners, their organizations and target publics.

Strategic Public Procurement: Facilitating Green, Inclusive and Innovative Growth

Strategic Public Procurement: Facilitating Green, Inclusive and Innovative Growth