Search

Copyright of Croatian & Comparative Public Administration is the property of Institut za Javnu Upravu and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Purpose – Public services will face major challenges over the next decade; severe financial pressures and cuts; growing demand; raising public and user expectations; decentralisation and community empowerment; opportunities to deploy new technology; and global competition. This will result in a changing relationship between citizen and services users with the state and service providers. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the challenges and opportunities in contemporary public sector leadership which face executive leaders. Design/methodology/approach – The paper considers what public service leaders will need to do; how they will need to behave; and the competencies and styles of leadership that will be required. It is a commentary and thought piece based on the author's wide experience, conversations with leaders from all sectors in the UK and his advisory and research projects. Findings – There will be a paradigm shift in the relationship between the business, public, social and third sectors and this will require more effective collaboration between the sectors. The result of these far-reaching changes is the need for a strong, outcome focused and collaborative leadership across all sectors, and specifically in the public sector. Leadership will be critical. Originality/value – This article provides challenge and advice for leaders in the public sector and in the business, social and third sectors who work with the public sector and are responsible for public service delivery. It should enable leaders and potential leaders to consider how they can develop and practise collaborative leadership personally and within their organisations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to investigate the impact of fiscal decentralization on the size of regional governments in Spain, by controlling for economies of scale, interregional heterogeneity and institutional framework. We study it over 1985 to 2004 using a panel dataset of seventeen spanish regions. The results can be easily summarized. Firstly, it supports the classic public goods theory of a trade-off-between the economic benefits of size and the costs of heterogeneity. Secondly, it doesn't reject the 'Leviathan' hypothesis and neither does the 'common pool' hypothesis. Thirdly, by contrast, the paper partly rejects the 'Wallis'' hypothesis. It argues that government size is mediated by financial resources obtained through intergovernmental grants, consistent with welfare economics and positive economic policies. We conclude that later advances in the decentralisation process must be compatible with the goal of reducing fiscal imbalances that emanate from the vertical structure of fiscal power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – This paper aims to analyze the opportunities and challenges of public policy governance in industrialized democracies in the context of a globally integrated economy on the one hand and institutional decentralization on the other. The implications of these transitions suggest the need for horizontal collaboration and coordination between policy stakeholders (domestic and international) as well as among agencies across various levels of government. The case of regional economic development policy governance in Canada over the past two decades illustrates some of the complexities of public, private and community partnerships in policy governance as the country seeks to maintain and enlarge its niche in the global economy. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected through content analysis of policy and program documents relating to regional economic development in Canada, as well as in-depth interviews of about 15 public officials directly involved in the administration of the policy. Findings – The comparative analysis of regional economic development policy governance in two Canadian provinces over the past two decades illustrates some of the complexities of public, private and community partnerships in policy governance as the country seeks to maintain and enlarge its niche in the global economy. Originality/value – The paper is based on an original research undertaken by the author and raises critical questions about the changing context of public management in an age of increasing globalization of economies and societies. It also addresses the distinct challenges of managing multi-level systems in the face of the added complexities brought about by global integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews and synthesizes the published literature on decentralization of renewable resources and development interventions to identify four key lessons for future adaptation planning at the national level. After presenting an analysis of why studies of decentralization reforms are relevant to adaptation planning, the paper examines priority adaptation projects identified by 47 Least Developed Countries in their National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPAs). Our research analyzes the range of institutional instruments and relationships visible in contemporary decentralization reforms. The four major lessons for adaptation planning concern the need for national adaptation planners to: (1) attend systematically to local institutions relevant to adaptation and increase local capacity through transfers of information, financial, and technical resources; (2) empower communities and local governments by increasing local autonomy so as to decentralize adaptation planning and implementation; (3) create mechanisms for information sharing among decision makers across sectors and levels of decision making; and (4) improve accountability of local decision makers to their constituents. WIREs Clim Change 2012, 3:565-579. doi: 10.1002/wcc.193 For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on recognizing the implications of costly communication for optimal organizational design. Delegation is commonly observed in organizations and accepted by organizational theorists as valuable. By contrast, previous work in optimal organizational design had shown the weak superiority of communication-based centralization mechanisms, i.e., revelation mechanisms, over direct delegation mechanisms. Such comparisons, however, had been based only on the benefits or gross performance of the two forms of organization and did not recognize the costs of making or receiving communications, as evidenced by the existence of limited channels of communication and the limited ability of humans to process information. Recognizing that incorporation of these costs would move preferences away from communication-based centralized organizations and toward delegation mechanisms, management researchers Nahum D. Melumad and Stefan Reichelstein chose to investigate the conditions under which any positive such cost would guarantee a strict preference.

In post-reform China, the spatial forms of cities are defined by two combined forces-a downward decentralization of responsibility for economic development, and an upward centralization of power to larger urban cores. This process of administrative rescaling is creating an "entrepreneurial urban space" in the city cores and "commercialized towns and villages" in the city margins (McGee et al. 2007). As a result of the rescaling, a form of contested space has emerged, mostly in cities and their immediate margins, where local civil society is constantly resisting or adapting to the Chinese urban expansion manifested through territorial reorganization and boundary redefinition. Cities' inner margins (suburbs) have in particular seen the most dramatic increases in population and manufacturing due to migration, housing development, and industrial relocation. This paper seeks to provide a close dissection of the process of rescaling and the production of these contested urban spaces through a spatial lens. In adopting a comparative and case study approach, this paper analyzes census data from three large city-regions in China: Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou to explore two questions: (1) whether this rescaling is creating segmentation, displacement, or polarization in residence and work spaces; and (2) at which scales (district or community) these spatial outcomes are unfolding. The paper concludes that inequalities are increasingly concentrated in the inner margins, where an entrepreneurial city core meets the self-initiated urban expansion of the towns in the outer margins, and farmers, displaced urbanites, rural migrants, and foreign workers aggregate and compete for space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In April 2011 the Cuban government announced a suite of national reforms with deeper socioeconomic ramifications than the limited liberalizations it permitted in the 1990s. Although unprecedented in revolutionary Cuba, the proposed changes draw on previous efforts to manage decentralization, employment and the informal sector. The paper examines two case studies of prior experimentation with liberalization since 2000 in the municipality of Old Havana and the neighbouring district, Barrio Chino (Chinatown). We argue that the 2011 reforms are informed by specific lessons and insights from these two experiences and also by general development principles advocated by China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose |!|#8211; The purpose of this paper is to examine how corporate headquarters control business units, the governing of which has emerged as a vital issue as business portfolios have grown increasingly complex due to diversification, globalization, and corporate group expansion via spinoffs and mergers and acquisitions. Design/methodology/approach |!|#8211; This study utilized questionnaire survey data from 251 firms listed on the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The authors approached the issue of business unit governance by measuring the degree of decentralization and the intensity of monitoring, and compared the governance of internal business units with that of subsidiaries, and analyzed the impact of corporate governance characteristics on business unit governance. Findings |!|#8211; Comparing in-house business units and subsidiaries, the authors found a significant difference in their governance. The degree of decentralization toward subsidiaries was higher for strategic and personnel decision-making. However, the complementarity of decentralization and monitoring was not observed for subsidiaries, whereas it was for in-house business units. Subsidiary monitoring corresponding to decentralization was inadequate. Examining the relationship between corporate governance and business unit governance, the paper found that firms with reformed boards of directors and under a greater degree of pressure from capital markets monitored their business units more strictly. Originality/value |!|#8211; The paper shows how the business portfolios and governance arrangements of Japanese firms have changed since the 1990s, and analyzes business unit governance based on valuable data obtained from a questionnaire survey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Norway, home-based care forms part of the universal welfare model in that services are offered to and used by all groups of citizens. An infrastructure of in-home services has evolved within a multi-level government characterised by a combination of local autonomy and strong integration between central and local levels. In the mid-1980s and early 1990s, home care was typically organised in teams characterised by collegiality and flexible organisation. Over the past two decades, this framework has been challenged by new modes of governance introduced under the banner of transparency and accountability. This paper focuses on how this new trend in governance has been justified and put into practice. Against the backdrop of the institutional history of home care, the paper demonstrates how accountability arrangements became entangled with ongoing effort of local authorities to control costs. Drawing on existing case studies conducted at different points in time, the paper reveals how these arrangements have reshaped home care organisations in a way that also contributes to splitting up and curtailing responsibilities. It is argued that steps taken to make home care services more transparent and reliable have made them less sensitive to the particular needs of individual service recipients. Although no firm conclusion can be drawn from a limited number of case studies, the paper concludes by arguing that accountability arrangements in home care have enhanced the predictability and reliability of service delivery. However, as off-loading responsibilities may be disempowering for those who do not have additional coping resources, institutional changes may also serve to undermine the enabling role of home care services. These findings suggest a need to address the dilemma inherent in the rationing of home care services and to rethink how a contextual and situated approach to care can be better balanced against the requirement of due process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trustworthy applications in fully decentralized systems require a trust anchor. However, in p2p systems there does not exist a central trust anchor. This paper describes how a distributed anchor can be implemented efficiently in such and environment. Different alternatives have been proposed in the literature; most of them suggesting distributing the trust anchor by using a quorum decision, assuming that a random quorum would ensure trustworthiness. However, there are major issues, e.g., can it be assumed that a quorum was actually randomly chosen? how can it be verified, that a signature was created by a truly random quorum? In this paper a solution for this is presented through the token-based accounting scheme using specific mechanisms that ensure a distributed trust anchor in p2p systems and its evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate public sector reform (PSR) initiatives in Kazakhstan, and how such reform efforts have helped the government to be more responsive to the needs and demands of the citizens. Design/methodology/approach – The paper examined four key PSR initiatives: decentralization, Civil Service reform, e-governance, and civil society in improving governance in post-Soviet Kazakhstan. Findings – In light of Kazakhstan government's efforts to reform the public sector, the study finds that substantial progress has been made in improving its service delivery systems and enhancing good governance. Research limitations/implications – The study is an investigation of four out of several PSR initiatives aimed at improving good governance. Originality/value – The study provides insights into how aspects of PSR can be fundamentally useful in promoting good governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses about the supply chains which consist of several tiers each with one or more firms. It states that in case of decentralized multi-tier supply chain the flow of materials occur through a system across the multiple independent firms before reaching the end consumer. It further informs that supply chain coordination requires modification of firm incentives which can be accomplished by contractual arrangements between the parties in the supply chain.

Virtual Organizations (VOs) are dynamic collections of individuals, institutions, and resources. VOs are widely accepted in grid and other distributed computing environments. Previous VO research produces several separate tools to provide part of the functionality including user registration, user mapping, authentication, authorization, and VO management. However, none of the work covers all the functionality or focuses on non-functional properties. This paper formally defines virtual organization in terms of three functional requirements and four non-functional properties. The functional requirements are user management, resource management, and VO management. The non-functional properties are decentralization, flexibility, simplicity, and efficiency. The problem is formulated as designing a VO architecture to satisfy the functional requirements and achieve the non-functional properties at the same time. This paper presents a layered architecture with GNode abstraction to construct Agora, an implementation of VOs. In Agora architecture, all the entities including users, resources, and agoras are abstracted as GNodes. A naming layer is constructed to manage these GNodes. At the top, there is a logic layer implementing all Agora functionality based on GNode and managing the physical layer resources. The Agora architecture has been implemented in the Vega Grid Operating System. Agora is deployed in the China National Grid and other grid platforms with more than 27 sites and 19 applications. The evaluations through real applications, high performance computing VO scenarios, and micro benchmarks show that the Agora architecture provides complete VO functionality, while achieving decentralization, flexibility, simplicity, and efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyze the allocation of objects in a network of caches that collaborate to service requests from customers. A thorough analysis of this problem in centralized and decentralized setups, both of which occur in practice, is essential for understanding the benefits of collaboration. A key insight offered by this paper is that an efficient implementation of cooperative cache management is possible because, in the centralized scenario, the object allocation resulting in the best social welfare can be found easily as a solution to a transportation problem. For the decentralized scenario involving selfish caches, it is shown that pure equilibria exist and that the cache network always reaches a pure equilibrium in a finite number of steps, starting from any point in the strategy space. An auction mechanism is developed to derive prices that motivate the caches to hold objects in a manner such that the optimal social welfare is attained. In the special case of symmetric caches, simple algorithms are devised to find the optimal social welfare allocation, the best pure equilibrium, and the prices for sharing objects. The results obtained in this paper should be valuable in developing and evaluating cache-management policies. Resource-sharing problems with a similar cost structure exist in a variety of other domains, and the insights gained here are expected to extend to those scenarios as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of IUG Journal of Sharia & Law Studies is the property of Islamic University of Gaza and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The need to adopt management in the field of education is based on the idea that the school is a social body that repeats the structure and functioning of a community. The transfer and assimilation of the management concept in the educational field must simultaneously take into account the capitalization of the notions of efficiency, global system, methodology, management of human behaviors. Educational management cannot be understood without a leadership practice accumulated within the education system, at all levels. Educational management must be carried out effectively at the level of all decision-makers. They must have the appropriate management experience, knowledge and skills. In the unusual conditions we live in, educational management must function on the basis of new principles, adapted to the current context in which education takes place. The aim of the paper is to highlight the need to adapt management to the current situation, by promoting a clear and coherent policy and strategy, in accordance with the general aims of education and the goals of each organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Española de Derecho Constitucional is the property of Centro de Estudios Politicos y Constitucionales and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The administrative reform launched in 2010 ("Kallikratis" programme) in Greece stands out as a major decentralization initiative. Notably, amalgamations at the local level were set at the forefront of the reform. This paper aims at shedding light on the issue of decentralizing governance by examining the implications of the "Kallikratis" reform programme on local authorities in terms of their domestic financial mobilization. Drawing empirical evidence from their implementation in European structural programmes, it is argued that the decentralization effort had an asymmetrical impact on local institutions, favouring principally the small-sized local authorities vis-à-vis the bigger in population local bodies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY This paper investigates the determinants of public‐sector efficiency, in particular the role of fiscal decentralization and fiscal rules. For 23 European countries over the period from 1995 to 2015, we construct a measure of public‐sector performance consisting of nine distinct indices for each area of public policy, such as administration, health education, economic performance, security and infrastructure. We use several efficiency techniques, e.g., free disposal hull and order‐m, and investigate input‐and output‐oriented efficiency in the public sector. We analyse in depth the impact of fiscal decentralization and fiscal rules on public‐sector efficiency. We conclude that, whereas decentralization fosters efficiency, fiscal rules have no effect. Moreover, fiscal rules, when combined with decentralization, may harm efficiency, which is consistent with the ratchet effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Community engagement is increasingly seen as key to improving healthcare systems and to increasing communities' involvement in the shaping of their own communities. This paper describes how 'community engagement' (CE) is understood and being operationalised in the Dutch healthcare system by investigating the CE approaches being implemented in six different regions and by examining engaged citizens' and professionals' experiences of those CE approaches.Methods: For this realist study, interviews and focus groups were held with citizens (16) and professionals (42) involved in CE approaches in the six regions. Additionally, CE-related activities were observed to supplement interview data.Results: This study shows that citizens and professionals defined and experienced CE differently and that they differed in who they felt had ownership of CE. The CE approaches implemented in community-led initiatives and organisationally-led initiatives varied accordingly. Furthermore, both citizens and professionals were searching for meaningful ways for citizens to have more control over healthcare in their own communities.Conclusion: CE can be improved by, first of all, developing a shared and overarching vision of what CE should look like, establishing clear roles and remits for organisations and communities, and taking active measures to ensure CE is more inclusive and representative of harder-to-reach groups. At the same time, to help ensure such shared visions do not further entrench power imbalances between citizens and professionals, professionals require training in successful CE approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a wide-reaching institutional reform, China's fiscal decentralization was launched in the early 1980s to encourage provincial economic growth by granting more financial autonomy to provincial governments. In this paper, the impact of fiscal decentralization on China's environmental quality is investigated both theoretically and empirically. A neoclassical model is developed based on the primary characteristics of China's fiscal decentralization. Using provincial panel data for the period 1995-2015, a two-equation regression model is employed to empirically verify the three propositions of the theoretical model: (1) there exists an inverted-U shaped relationship between fiscal decentralization and GDP per capita; (2) fiscal decentralization is positively related to GDP per capita at the steady state; (3) there is an inverted-U shaped Environmental Kuznets Curve relationship between pollution emissions and economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines how the "politics of belonging" that is expressed through claims of autochthony, relates to citizenship. Claims of autochthony, or claims to have settled a given place first, have become increasingly common in Africa, but they clash with efforts to introduce notions of national citizenship under the democratization and decentralization reforms that have been adopted across the continent in the last three decades. This paper analyses this tension through the empirical case of autochthony claims that emerged in the context of the creation of a "municipal forest" under the forest decentralization reform in Burkina Faso, which draws on community-based governance. It argues that in this case, autochthony is a claim for the rights to have rights, for citizenship, that takes shape within a wider politics of framing what "the community" is, and what it is good for on the ground. It draws on the work of Tania Li's work on indigeneity to illuminate the role of some of the contradictions underlying this framing – namely the lack of actual devolution and the reification of "the customary" – that help understand why autochthony becomes a powerful positioning to claim the right to have rights. So, while autochthony first appears as a breakdown of (national) community, because it clashes with the juridico-legal ideal of citizenship, if we look at the politics of decentralizing forest management in practice, it rather seems to be an integral part of claiming the rights to have rights within a globalised "community-based" form of rule. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are many examples of collaborative action research being used to promote school change. Reflecting on evidence gathered as a result of collaborative inquiry led by a teacher in a primary school in Cyprus over a 3-year period, this paper examines what is involved in using such an approach within a centralised education system. In so doing, it exposes the social and political challenges involved, whilst at the same time throwing light on possibilities for overcoming these problems in order to facilitate school-led change. In this context, frequent staff changes presented particular barriers, and recent increases in migration into the country were seen to add further challenges, whilst at the same time opening up new possibilities for stimulating innovations through collaborative action research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Internet of Things (IoT) has recently emerged as an innovative technology capable of empowering various areas such as healthcare, agriculture, smart cities, smart homes and supply chain with real-time and state-of-the-art sensing capabilities. Due to the underlying potential of this technology, it already saw exponential growth in a wide variety of use-cases in multiple application domains. As researchers around the globe continue to investigate its aptitudes, a collective agreement is that to get the best out of this technology and to harness its full potential, IoT needs to sit upon a flexible network architecture with strong support for security, privacy and trust. On the other hand, blockchain (BC) technology has recently come into prominence as a breakthrough technology with the potential to deliver some valuable properties such as resiliency, support for integrity, anonymity, decentralization and autonomous control. Several BC platforms are proposed that may be suitable for different use-cases, including IoT applications. In such, the possibility to integrate the IoT and BC technology is seen as a potential solution to address some crucial issues. However, to achieve this, there must be a clear understanding of the requirements of different IoT applications and the suitability of a BC platform for a particular application satisfying its underlying requirements. This paper aims to achieve this goal by describing an evaluation framework which can be utilized to select a suitable BC platform for a given IoT application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Colombia Internacional is the property of Universidad de los Andes and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper summarizes the arguments and counterarguments within the scientific discussion on the influence of fiscal decentralization measures on the management of innovative country development. The main purpose of the research is to test the hypothesis that expenditure and revenue decentralizations have a positive impact on the management of innovative country development. Testing the hypothesis considers realization of panel data regression analysis, and consists of several stages, such as: 1) elimination of control variables multicollinearity based on the correlation analysis; 2) identification of the regression model specification (fixed or random effects model) with the help of Hausman test; 3) realization of the regression analysis and characteristic of its results (confirmation or rejection of the hypothesis). It also should be noted that country sample consists of 12 unitary European countries (Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, and Ukraine). Time horizon - 2008-2018. Global Innovation Index is a measure of innovative country development. At the same time, the ratio of local budget revenue to consolidated budget revenue, the rate of domestic budget expenditure to consolidated budget expenditure, the proportion of local budget tax revenue to gross local budget revenue are measures of fiscal decentralization in the research. There are also selected a set of control variables that often used in economic growth models and reflect macroeconomic perspectives of country development. However, the practical realization of the stages, as mentioned above, allow identifying that fixed effect specification of the model is more appropriate in all three cases (for three different measures of fiscal decentralization). Panel data regression analysis allows confirming the hypothesis on the positive impact of revenue fiscal decentralization and the negative impact of expenditure decentralization on innovative country development. In turn, there is no statistically significant cohesion between ratio of local budget tax revenue to gross local budget revenue and Global Innovation Index. These findings in terms of fiscal decentralization reform might be considered in order to ensure a balance between power (expenditures) redistribution from central to sub-central governments and local budget financial capacity. While in terms of innovative country development, it should be considered that the lack of local budget financial resources to cover all redistributed from central government level powers makes it impossible to invest in the development of innovation. However, the increase of local government financial capacity creates opportunities not just for essential functions financing but also advanced features investment such as innovative development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is intended to show the importance of spatial accounting, the practicality of mapping and illustration. To this end, biomass potential that can be grown on arable lands and the resulting indicators were studied on the example of the Tabi járás (Tabi district) of Hungary. The processed data was projected onto maps for mapping the absolute potential, but also specific indicators such as values per hectare or per capita. The results are plotted in equal intervals and along with natural fractures classification of the data. The results thus obtained emphasize the heterogeneity caused by spatial unevenness. Taking such information into account can improve the efficiency of state interventions, investments, developments and the decentralization of other decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to give practical meaning to ‘capacity building’ through (a) identifying a suite of practical measures, such as mentoring or best practice guidelines, that have been shown to or are considered to build human, social, institutional, and economic capital; (b) placing these measures within a broader systems framework; and (c) exploring stakeholder feedback on specific measures to inform framework implementation. The 29 measures described provide actors, whether government or nongovernment, with a suite of practical investment choices for building capacity. These measures are then clustered into eight groups according to their primary purpose and placed within a systems framework. The framework provides a tool for actors with responsibilities for or an interest in capacity building to inform more holistic and strategic targeting of effort and investment. Stakeholder feedback gathered through surveys and workshops is subsequently reported to further inform implementation of specific measures within the framework’s eight groupings. The framework presented may be built upon through the identification and inclusion of further capacity building measures. The research is conducted within the context of decentralized governance arrangements for natural resource management (NRM), with specific focus on Australia’s recently formalized 56 NRM regions and their community-based governing boards as an informative arena of learning. Application of the framework is explored in the Australian setting through the identification and comparison of measures supported and most preferred by four major stakeholder groups, namely board members, regional NRM organization staff, policy/research interests, and Indigenous interests. The research also examines stakeholder perceptions of capacity issues, and whether these issues are likely to be addressed through implementing their preferred measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A bid price control method for coordinating a decentralised tourism supply chain is presented in this paper. The method is applied to a supply chain channel involving a hotel and a retailer of tourism services. Information is shared between the hotel and the retailer by incorporating the opportunity costs of inputs purchased by the retailer from the supplier into the retailer's linear programming model (LP). Proxies for the opportunity costs, which are based on the dual prices of the hotel's LP and the rack rates are utilised. The hotel and the retailer use the dual prices from their own LPs as bid prices for independently making acceptance and rejection decisions concerning bookings requested; any booking request that is accepted by the retailer, but not by the hotel, is rejected. Simulation is used to compare the revenue of the supplier from the coordinated supply channel with that when the supplier acts alone. It was found that the proposed method can yield improvements in revenue, but the results depend on the demand intensity and the method used for computing the opportunity costs of the hotel's resources. The greatest improvements in revenue were achieved at low demand intensities. At high demand intensities, there may not be any improvements in revenue and reductions in revenue are even possible. The major limitation of the study is that the scenario depicted is a simplification of what occurs in practice. The paper extends the revenue management methodology to coordinating inventory decisions among suppliers and retailers in the tourism industry. It also gives insights into the possibility of further improving the revenue of tourism supply chain partners through this type of cooperation.Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management (2008) 7, 266–280. doi:10.1057/rpm.2008.17 Published online 18 April 2008 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The participation of local stakeholders in governance of water resources is regarded as inalienable for ensuring efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability. To enhance gender balance in the water governance process, institutions are being designed and executed globally to elicit enhanced participation of women. This paper contends that in the context of local communities, the new institutional framework is divorced from the traditional social institutions that in turn operationalize their resource management systems. Based upon empirical evidence from rural Indian setting, the paper deciphers the paradoxes between the two sets of institutional paradigms and illustrates how these paradoxes at the 'interface' between the local community context and the development strategy lead to problems with effective women's participation. On the basis of the findings, it argues that the institutional paradigm for achieving equitable gender participation in local water governance does not represent a truly 'bottom-up' approach. It further raises the concern that if the institutional paradigm for participation is contradictory to local institutions, then how can the objectives of participation founded thereupon be seen as achievable? The paper proposes the need to design participatory paradigms that are more realistically rooted in community-based institutional frameworks so as to enhance effectiveness of the endeavors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper distinguishes two pathways in the various proposals for innovative reforms of public sector agricultural extension. The two 'pathways' involve the participatory trends toward democratization and farmer association and, in contrast, the push toward capitalistic commercial attitudes toward agriculture as business. The introduction reviews a range of issues surrounding current extension reforms. The body of the paper highlights the pathway tensions that exist between several extension reform measures. The first is between demand-led privatization measures and participatory extension. Privatization is then examined alongside the call for institutional pluralistic extension systems. Finally, the contemporary pressure to expand extension program purposes to include issues such as health, family planning and environmental protection is reviewed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the iconoclasticism of water as a plentiful resource and the near universalization of decentralizing institutions to manage it. The authors explore two agro-pastoral regions - Ambovombe District (Madagascar) and Tana River District (Kenya) - and consider institutional change, particularly the disengaging state, the lack of fiscal and administrative support throughout decentralization, community responses, and informal private markets. This paper concludes that decentralization holds the potential to increase accountability of the resource management process, improve governance and leadership accountability, and maximize the resource in a sustainable fashion. However, what we are seeing instead through the process of decentralization are the states exiting from the water governance process too rapidly and without concern for the culturally embedded social and economic norms, and the growing gap between new institutions and the needs, desires, and capacity of participants in the new systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Regional Science Policy & Practice is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Over the last few decades, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have gained considerable influence in global politics. However, the economic literature concerning these organizations has failed to analyze this trend, and simply assumed that NGOs react to change rather than initiate it. In this paper, I propose an economic formalization of the impact of NGOs on governmental structure in aid-recipient countries, using decentralization as an indicator for governmental organization. In this cross-country analysis, the results suggest that there is a small, but positive correlation between NGO activity and levels of decentralization. This correlation persists when NGO presence is instrumented for by the log of the total number of people affected by natural disasters, a variable that acts as a control for potential endogeneity between the decentralization and aid presence variables. This relationship indicates the early stages of a trend in which NGO presence correlates positively with decentralization, contributing to new directions in the research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two main elements characterize a country as federal and the development of its federal system. The first one is directly connected to competences and how regions may or may not have powers over public policies. The second one focuses on the fiscal arena, and how regions generate their own income and share it with the central government. This paper describes from a historical point of view the different phases that the Spanish federal process has followed since its beginning in 1978 up to the last reform in 2016. These phases are related to the composition of both the regional and the national governments. It is therefore is important to investigate the connection between changes in these compositions and how they may have affected the phases of decentralization. Employing the new institutionalism paradigm and seeking for critical junctures in the different moments, we show how national governments are more important in shaping this process than regional ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Question (1669-6581) is the property of Universidad Nacional de La Plata and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Indonesia's oil palm expansion during the last two decades has resulted in widespread environmental and health damages through land clearing by fire and peat conversion, but it has also contributed to rural poverty alleviation. In this paper, we examine the role that decentralization has played in the process of Indonesia's oil palm development, particularly among independent smallholder producers. We use primary survey information, along with government documents and statistics, to analyze the institutional dynamics underpinning the sector's impacts on economic development and the environment. Our analysis focuses on revenue-sharing agreements between district and central governments, district splitting, land title authority, and accountability at individual levels of government. We then assess the role of Indonesia's Village Law of 2014 in promoting rural development and land clearing by fire. We conclude that both environmental conditionality and positive financial incentives are needed within the Village Law to enhance rural development while minimizing environmental damages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This commentary paper explores the meaning and significance of high-performance work systems (HPWSs), an important topic in the debate around how to build a 'high-skill' or 'high-road' economy. Work reforms to increase the involvement of production or front-line service workers are at the heart of these systems, which are therefore more aptly called 'high-involvement work systems' (HIWSs). While emphasising that the specific practices in such systems need to be customised to industry and occupational conditions, this paper outlines the core features of HIWSs, including the wider managerial and governance processes in which they are embedded. The paper goes on to explain how the literature in the HPWS area is making a valuable contribution to our understanding of the role of intervening management and employee variables in the performance of any kind of HR system. This underlines the value to any company concerned about its HR performance of looking at the chain of links that runs from management intentions through management practices and employee responses to organisational outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is common knowledge that the Australian wine industry has enjoyed remarkable success over the past three decades in terms of production and export growth, innovation and reputation for consistent quality. The centralisation of resources and infrastructure, as well as the nationally-oriented funding and R&D agendas, are usually cited as providing the foundation for this success. Yet in more recent years it is this same nationally-focused centralisation that is increasingly at odds with a rapidly changing international wine landscape and therefore, the organisational and innovation requirements of the firms that must respond to these changes. This paper explores these issues within the theoretical context of what it has termed domain inertia—an industry-level dislocation between organisation and firm imperatives. Arguing that neither traditional organisational nor innovation-based change theories deal with the complexities of industry-level inertia, the paper attempts to move beyond orthodox theoretical parameters. In so doing, it adopts a somewhat unique theory that places organisational and innovation inertia within a widening domain of discordant industry-level imperatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to develop a typology of human resource supply chain (HRSC) models that enable comparison of different models for making more informed strategic HR outsourcing decisions. Design/methodology/approach - In the paper interviews and company documents were used to construct multiple comparative case studies. Findings - The paper finds that five generic HRSC models were identified in two broad categories - two in-sourcing models (local contracting and FIR centralizing) and three outsourcing models (purchasing FIR, non-staffing FIR, and staffing HR). Additional findings relate to the redistribution of power and competencies for managing HR within and between organizations. Research limitations/implications - The paper shows that future research should account for different HRSC models to address various dependent variables, especially distribution of power and FIR competencies in managing HR supply chains and contribution to firm performance. Future studies on strategic alliances can benefit from building on the HRSC models in building different types of partnerships. Practical implications - In this paper it is found that managers have a means for comparison of different HRSC models to make more fully informed strategic outsourcing decisions and to develop related HR competencies related to each one of the generic models. Originality/value - This paper clarifies critical differences in five different generic HRSC models that must be accounted for in research on strategic HR and outsourcing. Without understanding the differences in HRSCs, managers often unwittingly relinquish power and control over critical HR functions to other organizational units or vendor organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of the paper is to show that HRM is not the sole responsibility of HR departments, but also of other agents inside and outside the organisation, such as top and line managers, and external HRM service providers. This paper seeks to examine how organisations distribute HRM activities and responsibilities among these agents. The study attempts to classify organisations according to agent distribution and to explore whether a number of internal and external context characteristics affect this distribution. Design/methodology/approach - The survey in the paper shows the methodology chosen in order to collect and analyse factual data about the participation of different agents in HRM activities and the characteristics of the organisations and their context. The questionnaire obtained a valid sample of 231 Spanish companies. A multiple correspondence analysis approach was taken in order to cluster the organisations. Findings - The analysis of the data in this paper clearly produced seven groups, each involving organisations that allocated responsibilities to the various agents in a similar fashion. However, no common contextual characteristics were found among the companies in each of the seven categories. Research limitations/implications - The main limitations in the paper are related to the length of the questionnaire, the adequacy of the respondents related to the unit of observation; and the relative newness of the techniques used. Originality/value - The main contribution of the paper consists of the incorporation of existing partial areas of study in the field of HRM (roles of the HR department, devolution to line management, and outsourcing of the HR function) into an integrated study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- This paper aims to identify and compare the nature of decentralization that has emerged in three important Asian societies after a decade of their involvement in the decentralization movement. Design/methodology/approach -- Data from the first cycle of the program for international student assessment were analyzed to investigate educational decentralization in three Asian societies: Hong Kong, Japan, and Korea. Cluster analysis was used to reveal the nature and extent of decentralization of the schooling systems in the three societies. Findings -- The results revealed four models of decentralization: highly centralized, school-driven, teacher-driven, and highly decentralized. Whilst the school-driven model was dominant in Hong Kong, indicating that the school itself is largely responsible for making school-related decisions, the centralized model was dominant in both Japan and Korea, indicating that authorities outside the school are largely responsible for making school-related decisions. Research limitations/implications -- The study is based on cross-sectional design and focuses mainly on secondary schooling systems in the three Asian societies. Originality/value -- OECD/PISA constitutes one of the most comprehensive and rigorous international databases about different aspects of educational systems. It provides a unique opportunity to assess the distribution of decision-making responsibilities between the different stakeholders in different education systems. This enables for the first time a country-wide comparison on issues of decentralization of various decision areas in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Environment & Urbanization is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper considers multinational enterprises (MNEs) as differentiated global corporate networks where subsidiaries have unique resources and are able to act with considerable autonomy. Within the broad context of transnational management research and the specific sub-topic of subsidiary management, the concept of autonomy is usually approached through the extent of (de) centralization and formalization of decision making. In this paper, we shall argue that in the management of headquarters (HQs)-subsidiary relationships, decentralization and autonomy cannot be used interchangeably. The formal and legitimate authority to take decisions represents those dimensions of autonomy which are assigned to the subsidiaries by the HQs. Other variants of autonomy can be traced to the development of the subsidiaries' own capacities (earned autonomy), and their interconnectiveness with both corporate (internal) and host-country's (external) networks (acquired autonomy). doi:10.1300/ J482v11n04_04 [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper contributes to the established literature on fiscal consolidations by investigating the distinct behaviour of central and sub-central tiers of government during general government consolidation attempts. In the light of different degrees of decentralisation across OECD countries, and the different responsibilities devolved to sub-central tiers, we believe that this approach offers an illuminating insight into the analysis of fiscal consolidations and their success. We show that the involvement of the sub-central tiers of government is crucial to achieving cuts in expenditure, particularly in relation to the overall size of the government wage bill. In addition, central governments appear to exert a strong influence on the expenditure of sub-central tiers through their grant allocations, and control of these allocations appears to have a considerable impact upon the overall success of consolidation attempts. Finally, we demonstrate that there is a skewness in cuts towards sub-central capital expenditure both when central governments cut grant allocations and when sub-central governments engage in lone consolidation attempts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]