Strategies Of Actors Research Articles

Unpacking the competitive relations among Chinese business actors in Africa

ABSTRACT Chinese outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) in Africa has attracted much discussion on the competitive relations between Chinese companies and their foreign or local counterparts. There is however limited research examining the increasingly competitive relationships among Chinese business actors themselves and the complex implications of their activities for African economic development. Existing studies often either treat Chinese actors as a homogeneous entity pursuing a collective, state-directed agenda or emphasize the collaborative networks among Chinese business groups during their transnational entrepreneurial expansion. This paper aims to fill this gap by investigating the nature and consequences of intra-Chinese competition in Africa. It draws upon a critical reading of multidisciplinary literature in international businesses, management studies and economic geography, an extensive review of empirical cases across Africa, as well as field research in Ethiopia and Nigeria. Findings shed light on the competitive interests, logics, and strategies of Chinese overseas actors in construction, telecommunications, manufacturing, and retail sectors, and identify the challenges associated with managing intra-Chinese competition and fostering positive economic impacts in Africa.

Interactive Election Campaigns on Social Media? Flow of Political Information Among Journalists and Politicians as an Element of the Communication Strategy of Political Actors

ABSTRACT This study examined politicians’ communication strategies with journalists in Poland within the context of the flow of information on social media (Facebook and Twitter). The main questions posed in the article concerned which entities used which patterns of information flow, and whether during election campaigns, politicians communicated with journalists on social media by reacting to the latter’s published posts. The study focused on pre-electoral periods of two consecutive parliamentary elections in Poland conducted in 2015 and 2019. The results showed that politicians rarely reacted to journalists’ Twitter posts. If they did, they most often used reactive communication. Additionally, political actors from opposition parties more intensely used information flow patterns with a higher level of interactivity in 2019 than in 2015.

Disentangling Forced Migration Governance: Actors and Drivers Along the Displacement Continuum

In this paper, we study the question of who and what drives forced migration governance in origin, host, and transit states, drawing on empirical material from the contemporary Syrian and Libyan, and the historical Algerian displacement situations. These three cases are examples for different forced migration governance approaches, ranging from open-supportive (Algeria), to restrictive-selective (Syria) and laissez-faire (Libya). We identify three key drivers of forced migration governance to explain variation in governance outcome: domestic, geopolitical, and international-normative drivers. We understand forced migration governance as a state-making strategy for different state and non-state actors in origin, transit, and host countries. We argue that while forced migration governance is negotiated around humanitarian principles in which international organizations and civil society play a crucial role, the international-normative driver remains strongly bound to domestic and geopolitical logics. Political and economic interests are key factors of forced migration governance in host countries, especially if they align with political interests and state-making strategies of state and non-state actors in origin countries.

A midsummer's night dream: political communication during the Italian 2022 electoral campaign

By adopting a political communication perspective, this article describes the Italian electoral campaign of 2022. First, we reconstruct the coalition formation phase and discuss the issues at the center of the electoral campaign. Second, we describe the communicative macro-frames at the heart of the political strategies of Italian political actors and how these macro-frames are declined to campaign on more specific issues. Third, we delve into the hybrid communication strategies of Italian politicians. To do so, we integrate the analysis of legacy media, showing their enduring centrality, and that of social media. In conclusion, we remark that the 2022 election was marked by many novelties, such as the unusual national summer campaign, the massive use of Instagram, and the introduction of Tik Tok in the parties’ communication strategies. At the same time, elements of continuity were present, such as leaders’ reliance on traditional media and the high political instability forcing the Italian political system to intense and hurried electoral campaigns.

When God Calls: Temporality in Southern Baptist Calls to Missions

Researchers studying religious experience have identified callings as a particularly salient context in which believers describe God’s presence. They have noted standard elements that make up call narratives, along with variation in how recipients articulate both the vertical call, God’s intervention in the believer’s life, and the horizontal call, the community’s response. However, how these standard elements are combined to produce culturally resonant narratives remains underexplored. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with Southern Baptist missionaries, the paper describes how arbiters evaluate calls. In (de)legitimating prospective missionaries’ vocational claims, local pastors and administrative staff prospectively anticipate missionaries’ success and tether the call to missionaries’ prior experience. Turning to how missionaries construct call narratives, I identify two distinct modes of narrating one’s calling. I further argue that call narratives’ temporal organization offers a lens through which to explain variation in how missionaries characterize both the horizontal and vertical call. Missionaries marshal their experiences of God’s intervention and of social influence either to accentuate the connectedness of their call to previous experience or to articulate a disjuncture. The findings extend previous research on religious experience by suggesting that temporal claims-making is a key strategy for actors to legitimate private or otherwise unverifiable experience.

Vulnerability and coping strategies within wild meat trade networks during the COVID-19 pandemic

Measures adopted to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and economic shocks caused by the pandemic have affected food networks globally, including wild meat trade networks that support the livelihoods and food security of millions of people around the world. In this article, we examine how COVID-related shocks have affected the vulnerability and coping strategies of different actors along wild meat trade networks. Informed by 1,876 questionnaires carried out with wild meat hunters, traders, vendors, and consumers in Cameroon, Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and Guyana, the article presents qualitative evidence as to how COVID-19 impacted different segments of society involved in wild meat trade networks. Our findings largely align with McNamara et al. (2020) and Kamogne Tagne et al.’s (2022) causal model hypothesising how the impacts of the pandemic could lead to a change in local incentives for wild meat hunting in sub-Saharan African countries. Like McNamara et al. (2020) and Kamogne Tagne et al. (2022), we find that the pandemic reduced wild meat availability for wild meat actors in urban areas while increasing reliance on wild meat for subsistence purposes in rural areas. However, we find some impact pathways to be more relevant than others, and also incorporate additional impact pathways into the existing causal model. Based on our findings, we argue that wild meat serves as an important safety net in response to shocks for some actors in wild meat trade networks. We conclude by advocating for policies and development interventions that seek to improve the safety and sustainability of wild meat trade networks and protect access to wild meat as an environmental coping strategy during times of crisis.

Socioeconomic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on artisanal fishing in Senegal: Adaptation strategies of actors in the fishing ports of Dakar and Mbour

By considering the economic and social contribution of Senegalese artisanal fisheries to the national economy, this study firstly provides elements of analysis of the disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic in the fishing sector. Secondly, it lifts the veil on the adaptation strategies of the actors concerned. The field surveys reveal that the response measures of the authorities have affected the production, distribution, and marketing chains of fisheries products. The results show a remarkable decrease in landings. The landings of pelagic fish species in Ouakam, Hann, Soumbédioune, and Mbour fishing ports have decreased by −10.11%, −61.25%, −9.75%, and −18.98% proportionately. The same downward trend for demersal fish species was observed, except in Ouakam fishing port. The landing increased slightly to 29.28%. Also, significant income losses have been reported, particularly by fish traders, following the closure of the air borders and the decrease in the selling prices of species formerly destined for export. Thus, faced with this problem, the artisanal fishermen have developed site-specific strategies to continue their activities, which have slowed down. However, this pandemic has paralyzed artisanal fisheries activities, demonstrating the need for this study to strengthen the economic resilience of the sector.

Illusions of Empire: The Civil War and Reconstruction in the US-Mexico Borderlands

Illusions of Empire: The Civil War and Reconstruction in the US-Mexico Borderlands

Hybrid Wars in the Macroeconomic Supersystem of the XXI Century

We do care about what the foreseeable future will be… The recent period has clearly shown that expectations of W estern experts regarding the planned collapse of Russian and Chinese economies have not materialized. The ar ticle analyzes the main pressure tools and strategies of the main global politics actors on peripheral countries in order to solve the accumulated problems associated with increased debts and the need for fur ther trade expansion. Aggregated forecast scenarios for the situation development in relation to the GDP growth/fall of the leading countries of the world are structured . The authors’ calculations proved that, despite the risks and threats of fur ther sanctions escalation and other restrictions, the implemented macroeconomic policy of Russia and China ensures preser vation of their key socio-economic indicators, providing national sovereignty.

The international dynamics of counter-peace

Peace processes and international order are interdependent: while the latter provides the normative framework for the former, peacemaking tools and their underlying ideology also maintain international order. They indicate its viability and legitimacy partly by meeting local claims as well as though the maintenance of geopolitical balances. In the emerging multipolar order, the international peace architecture (IPA), dominated by the liberal international order (LIO), is contested through counter-peace processes. These processes contest the nature of the state, state-society relations and increasingly international order itself. This paper investigates the tactics and strategies of regional actors and great powers, where they engage in peace and order related activities or interventions. Given the weakness and inconsistency of the IPA and the LIO, such contestation leads to challenges to international order itself, often at the expense of the claims of social movements and civil society networks.

“Biomass from somewhere?” Governing the spatial mismatch of Viennese biomass consumption and its impact on biodiversity

Vienna’s biomass demand is large and nearly all biomass consumed in the city is produced in the regional and global hinterland. This raises the question, how the socioecological conditions at specific places somewhere in the world are impacted by urban consumption and how negative impacts can be addressed and mitigated by urban actors. Here we focus on the city’s biodiversity footprint and argue that the spatial mismatch between the social-ecological impacts of biomass production and consumption and its impact on biodiversity on the one hand, and the governance instruments available at a city level mentioned by the interviewed experts on the other hand, must be considered when looking for bottom-up governance strategies of urban actors. We combine food regime theory, the analysis of biomass flows and a multiscalar governance approach to analyze “biomass from somewhere” in three important sectors of biomass use in Vienna – food, energy and construction timber. We find that consumption in Vienna requires 3.1 Mio. t of primary biomass per year (2010–2013), of which 59 % are for food, 28 % for material (only 1.3 % for construction) and 13 % for energy; roughly half of this biomass was sourced from Austria, the rest from other countries, mainly in Europe. While governance instruments at the city level are quite effective with respect to urban ecosystems and conservation within the city, they are insufficient to tackle biodiversity loss in the global hinterland. Important leverage points at the city scale are public procurement and the promotion of consumption patterns with lower land and primary biomass demand. An important prerequisite is unambiguous information and labelling concerning the biodiversity impacts of biomass products which is complicated by the fact that indirect land use effects need to be considered. Currently, none of the governance measures investigated includes extensive biodiversity criteria. We conclude that to effectively address the spatial mismatch, a different mode of production – regulated at higher scales and including mandatory measures – and a different mode of consumption as well as a reduction of consumption and production is required.

Technological trajectories as an outcome of the structure-agency interplay at the national level: Insights from emerging varieties of AI

Development studies have paid less attention to the role of technological innovations and we are yet to understand how, and more importantly why, technological trajectories differ across countries. This gap becomes sharper as emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) are becoming increasingly important in addressing many world development challenges. Drawing on insights from institutional work literature, this paper develops a structure-agency interplay framework to unravel the various trajectories of emerging technologies at the national level and examines the development and diffusion of AI in Canada and China. The findings show that Canada’s stable institutional environment, reinforced through institutional work by various actors, generated a national AI trajectory driven by technology development through a strong focus on scientific research and ethics, with slower organic commercialisation of AI. In China, a dynamic and loose institutional structure characterised by lax regulations, low entry barriers, and high openness to novelties has resulted in a market-driven AI trajectory focused on technology commercialisation, with domestic digital giants and the government as dominant players. National-level dynamics in formal institutions, informal institutions, technologies, and actor strategies determine heterogeneous approaches to technology development and diffusion, giving rise to varieties of technological trajectories. The levels of institutionalisation exert different forces and create different spaces for institutional work across different geographical contexts.

The opioid industry document archive: New directions in research on corporate political strategy.

The opioid crisis in the United States has resulted in more than 500,000 deaths since 1999, and recent estimates suggest that attributable deaths could reach 842,000 by 2032. While heroin and synthetic products such as fentanyl now account for the majority of opioid overdoses, the prescription opioid crisis that emerged in the mid-1990s was the primary antecedent to the current situation. Recent settlements in litigation against opioid producers, suppliers and retailers has resulted in the release of almost 2.5 million previously confidential internal documents that have been made publicly accessible via the online Opioid Industry Documents Archive, a collaboration between the University of California, San Francisco and Johns Hopkins University. These corporate records provide critical insights into the operations and strategies of manufacturers and other actors in the opioid supply chain. This article describes the provenance of the opioid documents and their potential value as a research resource. It then outlines methodological approaches to their analysis, drawing on comparisons in conducting research using the Truth Tobacco Industry Documents. The Opioid Industry Documents Archive is a new and important addition to existing industry document collections that enable scrutiny and analysis of the role of corporate actors in determining health outcomes. Beyond their immediate application to researching the corporate and regulatory foundations of the current opioid crisis, the opioid document collections will contribute to a greater understanding of the commercial determinants of public health by providing means to better locate the causes of public health crises, identify politically acceptable solutions to their resolution, and inform strategies for preventing future corporate-driven epidemics.

STRATEGI BERTAHAN DI ERA NEW NORMAL: UMKM KRUPUK HASIL OLAHAN LAUT DI SURABAYA

The Covid-19 pandemic has paralyzed various aspects of life, especially in economics. One of the most affected parties is the Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises or MSMEs scale business actors. This situation demands creative and problem-solving survival strategies to survive the economic crisis. This study examines survival strategies in dealing with the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic performed by MSMEs that produce processed seafood products in Sukolilo Baru, Bulak District, Surabaya. This study uses a qualitative approach in the form of a phenomenological study. The researcher determined the research informants purposively, in which data were collected using semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions. The data analysis technique was carried out thematically with an inductive model after being validated communicatively, argumentatively, and ecologically. The study results showed that the ability to survive in the new normal era manifests in themes, namely optimism, the ability to exercise self-control, belief in business abilities, and willingness to carry out self-transformation. The survival strategy of MSME actors manifests itself in two major themes, i.e., product and institutional strengthening and business digitalization.

A ‘Uniform’ for All States?

A ‘Uniform’ for All States?

Legal Struggles: A Social Theory Perspective on Strategic Litigation and Legal Mobilisation

Social movements, NGOs and other political actors often mobilise the law for social change. Strategic litigation and collective legal mobilisation can be key instruments to face current political challenges like the climate crisis, human rights violations against refugees or the exploitation of workers along global supply chains. Although these struggles are framed by a societal context and have impacts on the political and juridical fields, the literature about legal mobilisation still does not decidedly engage with a social-theory-based perspective on such struggles. By developing the concept of legal struggles, the article proposes a conceptual framework to analyse both the ambivalence and the emancipatory potential of progressive struggles in the juridical field. Critical Theory, Materialist Theory and the Theory of Social Fields by Pierre Bourdieu are combined to investigate the specific form of collective legal struggles carried out in this arena. We examine repertoires and strategies of collective actors as well as the emancipatory potential of these mobilisation strategies. Our conclusions point to the structural distinctions and selectivities which define the juridical field in capitalist societies and also the conditions of possibility of political struggles using the law.

Tinjauan Hukum Islam Terhadap Jasa Endorser di Media Sosial

In the marketing strategy, Endorsement is one of the strategies of business actors to introduce goods or service products to consumers through the intermediary of actresses, youtubers, or selebrgram, especially on Instagram or youtube social media. And celebrities have accounts on social media, especially Instagram and their youtobe accounts have many followers, and make an impact on many parties seeing the uploads of these actresses, youtobers and selebgrams. In this transaction using a service rental system that is paid and has a grace period. The freedom of business actors in using endorsement services has many impacts, both positive and negative impacts. This shows that the endorsement strategy is an ijarah contract that uses a written contract in terms of freedom, the endorsement strategy has several negatve impacts. And this endorsement strategy includes 3 parties, namely business actors who use endorsement services, actresses, youtubers and celebrities who receive endorsement services, and finally consumers who buy the products after seeing products that have been introduced through endorsement services. But there are also many endorsements of goods or services that are not in accordance with the shari’a which can damage the ijarah contract, and cause the contract to be invalid or defective because it does not meet the requirements and pillars of ijarah conract. Then, discrepancies were found regarding buying and selling between business actors and consumers, resulting in fraud gue to online transaction that cannot meet face to face and it is difficult to know whether these business actors are truly trustworthy or can harm consumers. Then regarding Islamic business ethics between actresses, youtobers, and celebrities against brand account followers who become consumers for business actors on social media, several discrepancies were also found regarding the concept of Islamic business ethics and the principles of Islamic business ethics

Church Building as a Secular Endeavour: Three Cases from Eastern Germany

Political secularism can be defined as a kind of political philosophy that sees the secular state as setting the terms of encounter between the secular and the religious. However, religion and religious organisations are not necessarily seen as oppositional to the secular state; there can be myriad forms of coexistence between secular and religious authorities. The argument forwarded in this article is based on ethnographic research focussing on the presence and social significance of religious materiality in the region considered to be one of the most secularised worldwide—the north-eastern part of contemporary Germany. I investigate the strategies of actors socially recognised as either religious or secular towards each other, looking at how secular actors assign a place to religious symbols, materiality, theological concepts, organisations, and communities; on the other hand I investigate strategies that religious actors adopt in a context of political secularism. Even if political secularism presupposes supremacy of the secular state over religious actors and the right of the former to make legally binding decisions concerning the latter, those religious actors are not passive—they react to secular initiatives and they try to carve for themselves a space in a public sphere, while at the same time the secular or rather nonreligious actors mobilize religious elements for a variety of reasons.

Policy Network On Extreme Poverty Alleviation Program: A Study of the Implementation of Extreme Poverty Alleviation Program in Bandung Regency, West Java Province

The purpose of this study is to analyze the Policy Network on extreme poverty alleviation through a cultural approach, besides that it is hoped that the results of the analysis can also complement Frans Van Waarden's theoretical explanation of the policy network, especially on the actor dimension with an approach that pays attention to aspects of culture (culture) and values ​​(values) that are developed in society, so that it is more effective in alleviating extreme poverty. In this study, researchers used a qualitative approach with the case study method and primary and secondary based data sources. The informant determination technique is purposive sampling and snowball sampling. Data collection techniques in this study required a number of data from the field. The main research instrument is the researcher himself. Data analysis techniques consist of three streams of activities that occur simultaneously, namely: data reduction, data presentation, and conclusion/verification. Data analysis activities are carried out simultaneously with data collection activities, namely through triangulation. Research results show that there are 7 (seven) dimensions that determine the policy network in implementing extreme poverty eradication programs in Bandung Regency, namely: 1) Actors, 2) Function, 3) Structure, 4) Institutionalization, 5) Rules of Conduct, 6) Power Relations, and 7) Actor Strategy.

Corporate governance regulation in regulatory space of a developing country: actors, strategies and outcomes

PurposeThis study seeks to deepen the understanding of the political process underlying the establishment and evolution of corporate governance (CG) regulations in a developing country.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on regulatory space concept (Hancher and Moran, 1989) and Oliver's (1991) typology of strategic responses, the authors identify which actor participated in and benefitted from the establishment of a new transnational CG regulation in Pakistan. Data were collected through interviews and from the published secondary sources.FindingsThe findings highlighted regulations are being influenced and shaped up by the political process of negotiation, bargaining, manipulation and domination between powerful and resourceful actors in a given regulatory space. National regulators and regulatees can be indeed fervent opponents to the transnational regulations when it comes to protecting their well-rooted national interests.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the accounting literature by illustrating political processes through which internationally recognised CG practices are resisted, negotiated and implemented in the developing countries. The regulator must pay attention that the outcome of the regulatory change process is the result of carefully crafted and conscious strategies of actors in the regulatory space.