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ObjectivesOur study investigates the extent to which uptake of a COVID-19 digital contact-tracing (DCT) app among the Dutch population is affected by its configurations, its societal effects, and government policies toward such an app.MethodsWe performed a discrete choice experiment among Dutch adults including 7 attributes, that is, who gets a notification, waiting time for testing, possibility for shops to refuse customers who have not installed the app, stopping condition for contact tracing, number of people unjustifiably quarantined, number of deaths prevented, and number of households with financial problems prevented. The data were analyzed by means of panel mixed logit models.ResultsThe prevention of deaths and financial problems of households had a very strong influence on the uptake of the app. Predicted app uptake rates ranged from 24% to 78% for the worst and best possible app for these societal effects. We found a strong positive relationship between people’s trust in government and people’s propensity to install the DCT app.ConclusionsThe uptake levels we find are much more volatile than the uptake levels predicted in comparable studies that did not include societal effects in their discrete choice experiments. Our finding that the societal effects are a major factor in the uptake of the DCT app results in a chicken-or-the-egg causality dilemma. That is, the societal effects of the app are severely influenced by the uptake of the app, but the uptake of the app is severely influenced by its societal effects.

Over the past two decades, social media have become a crucial and omnipresent cultural and economic phenomenon, which has seen platforms come and go and advance technologically. In this study, we explore the further development of social media regarding interactive technologies, platform development, relationships to news media, the activities of institutional and organizational users, and effects of social media on the individual and the society over the next five to ten years by conducting an international, two-stage Delphi study. Our results show that enhanced interaction on platforms, including virtual and augmented reality, somatosensory sense, and touch- and movement-based navigation are expected. AIs will interact with other social media users. Inactive user profiles will outnumber active ones. Platform providers will diversify into the WWW, e-commerce, edu-tech, fintechs, the automobile industry, and HR. They will change to a freemium business model and put more effort into combating cybercrime. Social media will become the predominant news distributor, but fake news will still be problematic. Firms will spend greater amounts of their budgets on social media advertising, and schools, politicians, and the medical sector will increase their social media engagement. Social media use will increasingly lead to individuals’ psychic issues. Society will benefit from economic growth and new jobs, increased political interest, democratic progress, and education due to social media. However, censorship and the energy consumption of platform operators might rise., Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaftliche Reihe, 131

During European Space Weather Week 15 two plenary sessions were held to review the status of operational space weather forecasting. The first session addressed the topic of working with space weather service providers now and in the future, the user perspective. The second session provided the service perspective, addressing experiences in forecasting development and operations. Presentations in both sessions provided an overview of international efforts on these topics, and panel discussion topics arising in the first session were used as a basis for panel discussion in the second session. Discussion topics included experiences during the September 2017 space weather events, cross domain impacts, timeliness of notifications, and provision of effective user education. Users highlighted that a 'severe' space weather event did not necessarily lead to severe impacts for each individual user across the different sectors. Service providers were generally confident that timely and reliable information could be provided during severe and extreme events, although stressed that more research and funding were required in this relatively new field of operational space weather forecasting, to ensure continuation of capabilities and further development of services, in particular improved forecasting targeting user needs. Here a summary of the sessions is provided followed by a commentary on the current state-of-the-art and potential next steps towards improvement of services., Accepted for publication in the Journal of Space Weather and Space Climate (JSWSC). 15 pages

This survey explores how citizens of eight European countries (France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Spain, The Netherlands, and the United Kingdom) feel about the technological transformations that are unfolding in their cities and workplaces and how they think their governments should deal with them. Its findings confirm a shared intuition among researchers: the fourth industrial revolution is producing a growing sense of insecurity and uncertainty among our fellow citizens. Over two thirds of Europeans of all ages believe that, if not appropriately controlled, new technologies will cause more harm than good to society in the coming decade. This belief is, in turn, leading to a growing resistance to innovation and to a general demand for more regulation. The vast majority of Europeans surveyed expect their governments to set new laws and taxes to limit automation and prevent job displacement, even if that means stopping technological progress. These results are consistent across countries, age groups, genders and ideological tendencies. Perhaps unexpectedly, Europeans are not only worried about the challenges they will face on the job market, but also about what this will mean for their social lives: over two thirds of Europeans find it concerning that people will spend more time socializing online than in person in the future. Our data also suggests that people not only worry about the incoming technological transition, but also feel that the institutions tasked with making this process manageable are failing. Most of the people surveyed feel that the educational system is not training them to tackle the challenges brought about by new technologies. This is particularly true for older university graduates who find themselves rudderless in a fast changing job market. Moreover, they also feel that the companies they work for are not adapting correctly to the new scenario and are likely to disappear in the next ten years. The growing disillusionment with the political class is reflected, in turn, in the number of individuals who would rather have an AI make policy decisions than politicians. The loss of trust in political elites that this reveals is consistent with a multitude of other surveys and opinion polls conducted in recent years, and highlights the paradox in which we live: people are disillusioned with governments, yet at the same time ask them to tackle the societal and economic negative effects that emerging technologies might have.

Over the last 10–20 years there has been an ever-increasing international awareness of risks to modern society from adverse and potentially harmful – and in extreme cases even disastrous – space weather events. Many individual countries and even international organisations like the United Nations (UN) have begun to increase their activities in preparing for and mitigating effects of adverse space weather. As in the rest of the world there is also in Europe an urgent need for coordination of Space Weather efforts in individual countries as well as in and among European organisations such as the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Union (EU). This coordination should not only improve our ability to meet space weather risks, but also enable Europe to contribute to on-going global space weather efforts. While space weather is a global threat, which needs a global response, it also requires tailored regional and trans-regional responses that require coordination at all levels. Commissioned by the European Space Science Committee (ESSC) of the European Science Foundation, the authors – together with ex-officio advice from ESA and the EU – have over two years assessed European activities in the realm of space weather and formulated a set of recommendations to ESA, the EU and their respective member states, about how to prepare Europe for the increasing impact of adverse space weather effects on man-made infrastructure and our society as a whole. We have also analysed parallel international activities worldwide, and we give advice how Europe could incorporate its future activities into a global scheme.

Transdisciplinary sustainability research aims to mitigate or to solve complex societal problems and advance the production of scientific knowledge. Reflexive approaches to transdisciplinary research processes are outlined to systematically strengthen the potential for societal effectiveness. So far, it is rare to find empirically based analyses of the links between the quality of the research process and the methods applied on the one hand and the effects achieved on the other. This paper thus addresses the issue of heightening the societal effects of transdisciplinary sustainability research. The objective is to explore ways of consciously promoting societal effectiveness in transdisciplinary research. We argue that these possibilities evolve at the intersection between the general project framework and an adaptive shaping of transdisciplinary research processes. A reflexive approach of this kind proactively considers the dynamics of interests and concerns, roles and responsibilities, the collaboration culture within a project, and the connectivity to the context of action addressed. Its deployment presupposes an appreciation of the basic conditions, i.e. the historical development of the respective problem, the heterogeneity of actors involved, the general environment and, finally, the funding conditions.

Sustainability transitions as processes of fundamental change in societal systems are open-ended, nonlinear and uncertain. Respective research and governance approaches, e.g., transition management, propose a reflexive way of governing, aiming for a number of societal effects to help facilitating a transition. Effects include empowerment, social learning and social capital development. Jointly mentioned effects shall allow for reflexivity and innovation in developing socially robust and contextualized solutions to sustainability challenges that work in practice. But, understanding the mentioned societal effects and their interplay in more depth is necessary to design and assess transition management processes. While such understanding and related assessment framework is under development in the transition management literature, transdisciplinary sustainability research can provide a rich body of tools and experiences. Building on a review of the literature, this article develops an evaluation framework focusing on social learning, empowerment and social capital as important and hitherto under-conceptualised aspects of the sustainability transition literature. This framework is used to empirically investigate the effects of two specific transition management processes at the local scale. In doing so, the article provides a conceptual and empirical understanding of how social learning, empowerment and social capital contribute to a transition towards sustainability. The three effects are shown to be interrelated, mutually supportive and bridging different scale levels from individuals to groups, niches and beyond. Results highlight possibilities to facilitate and assess societal effects, addressing sustainability as their inherent quality.

International audience; The research results support the majority of the predictions made by Price’s model, including the correlational relationships of satisfaction between various organizational/managerial practices and the attitudinal expectations (stay-quit) of individuals. Satisfaction in call centers is largely a function of three major factors: autonomy at work, stress and pay level. These fundamental facts, common to France and Japan, are consistent with the conclusions of much past research. Call center activities, standardized by the same technologies and similar operation procedures, partly impose the same burdens on the management wherever they are implemented: time constraint, mental fatigue, pressure on labor costs, etc. These pressures produce in turn the same type of attitudinal reactions from front-line agents in both countries. Globally, the basic logics of Price’s model are confirmed.However, there are, between France and Japan, many differences in human resource management strategies as well as in the cognitive and psychological perceptions of the call center agents hidden behind this universal trend. The international comparative study allowed us to show simultaneously the fundamental logics of human reactions vis-à-vis basic stimuli, and an array of human perceptions/attitudes necessarily conditioned by the societal or contextual factors of each society.Satisfaction depends partially on the real pay level, but also on the different ways in which wages are distributed and perceived, according to the socio-organizational position of each individual, both in France and in Japan. The distributive justice incorporated in the employment contract is by nature heavily “context-dependent”. Moreover, such exchange is not only organized between the employer and the employee within a particular organization, but also embedded in a societal space that transcends it. In other words, it also depends on the societal context which gives social meanings to it. The other remarkable differences existing between the two countries are linked to socio-demographic factors. Even with similar characteristics, call center agents have different expectations as to the employment or wage conditions, and ultimately their future career plans. These attitudinal reactions are a consequence of HRM strategy in each country, but are, more fundamentally, conditioned by a societal logic which produces social groups in an original way. In this regard, the family structure and the gender division of work are of prime importance in generating such differences, as this sector is dominated by the female population. Thus, they are at the same time the products of and the “resources” used by the call centers’ business strategy. Call centers try to build productive efficiency, by offering them different types of psychological contracts.; Les résultats de la recherche appuient la majorité des prédictions faites par le modèle de Price, y compris les relations corrélées de satisfaction entre diverses pratiques organisationnelles / managériales et les attentes comportementales (rester-partir) des individus. La satisfaction dans les centres d'appels est en grande partie fonction de trois facteurs majeurs: l'autonomie au travail, le stress et le niveau de rémunération. Ces faits fondamentaux, communs à la France et au Japon, sont cohérents avec les conclusions de nombreuses recherches antérieures. Les activités des centres d'appels, standardisées par les mêmes technologies et des procédures d'exploitation similaires, imposent en partie les mêmes charges à la direction partout où elles sont mises en œuvre: contrainte de temps, fatigue mentale, pression sur les coûts de main-d'œuvre, etc. Ces pressions produisent à leur tour le même type d'attitude, de réactions des agents dans les deux pays. Globalement, les logiques de base du modèle de Price sont confirmées.Cependant, il existe, entre la France et le Japon, de nombreuses différences dans les stratégies de gestion des ressources humaines ainsi que dans les perceptions cognitives et psychologiques des agents des centres d'appels cachées derrière cette tendance universelle. L'étude comparative internationale nous a permis de montrer à la fois les logiques fondamentales des réactions humaines vis-à-vis des stimuli de base, et un éventail de perceptions / attitudes humaines nécessairement conditionnées par les facteurs sociétaux ou contextuels de chaque société.La satisfaction dépend en partie du niveau réel des salaires, mais aussi des différentes manières dont les salaires sont répartis et perçus, en fonction de la position socio-organisationnelle de chaque individu, tant en France qu'au Japon. La justice distributive incorporée dans le contrat de travail est par nature fortement «dépendante du contexte». De plus, un tel échange n'est pas seulement organisé entre l'employeur et le salarié au sein d'une organisation particulière, mais aussi ancré dans un espace sociétal qui la transcende. En d'autres termes, cela dépend aussi du contexte sociétal qui lui donne une signification sociale. Les autres différences remarquables existant entre les deux pays sont liées à des facteurs sociodémographiques. Même avec des caractéristiques similaires, les agents des centres d'appels ont des attentes différentes en ce qui concerne les conditions d'emploi ou de salaire et, finalement, leurs projets de carrière futurs. Ces réactions d'attitude sont une conséquence de la stratégie de GRH dans chaque pays, mais sont, plus fondamentalement, conditionnées par une logique sociétale qui produit des groupes sociaux de manière originale. À cet égard, la structure familiale et la division du travail entre les sexes sont d'une importance primordiale pour générer de telles différences, car ce secteur est dominé par la population féminine. Ainsi, ils sont à la fois les produits et les «ressources» utilisées par la stratégie des centres d’appels. Les centres d'appels tentent de renforcer l'efficacité productive, en leur proposant divers types de contrats psychologiques.

International audience; The research results support the majority of the predictions made by Price’s model, including the correlational relationships of satisfaction between various organizational/managerial practices and the attitudinal expectations (stay-quit) of individuals. Satisfaction in call centers is largely a function of three major factors: autonomy at work, stress and pay level. These fundamental facts, common to France and Japan, are consistent with the conclusions of much past research. Call center activities, standardized by the same technologies and similar operation procedures, partly impose the same burdens on the management wherever they are implemented: time constraint, mental fatigue, pressure on labor costs, etc. These pressures produce in turn the same type of attitudinal reactions from front-line agents in both countries. Globally, the basic logics of Price’s model are confirmed.However, there are, between France and Japan, many differences in human resource management strategies as well as in the cognitive and psychological perceptions of the call center agents hidden behind this universal trend. The international comparative study allowed us to show simultaneously the fundamental logics of human reactions vis-à-vis basic stimuli, and an array of human perceptions/attitudes necessarily conditioned by the societal or contextual factors of each society.Satisfaction depends partially on the real pay level, but also on the different ways in which wages are distributed and perceived, according to the socio-organizational position of each individual, both in France and in Japan. The distributive justice incorporated in the employment contract is by nature heavily “context-dependent”. Moreover, such exchange is not only organized between the employer and the employee within a particular organization, but also embedded in a societal space that transcends it. In other words, it also depends on the societal context which gives social meanings to it. The other remarkable differences existing between the two countries are linked to socio-demographic factors. Even with similar characteristics, call center agents have different expectations as to the employment or wage conditions, and ultimately their future career plans. These attitudinal reactions are a consequence of HRM strategy in each country, but are, more fundamentally, conditioned by a societal logic which produces social groups in an original way. In this regard, the family structure and the gender division of work are of prime importance in generating such differences, as this sector is dominated by the female population. Thus, they are at the same time the products of and the “resources” used by the call centers’ business strategy. Call centers try to build productive efficiency, by offering them different types of psychological contracts.; Les résultats de la recherche appuient la majorité des prédictions faites par le modèle de Price, y compris les relations corrélées de satisfaction entre diverses pratiques organisationnelles / managériales et les attentes comportementales (rester-partir) des individus. La satisfaction dans les centres d'appels est en grande partie fonction de trois facteurs majeurs: l'autonomie au travail, le stress et le niveau de rémunération. Ces faits fondamentaux, communs à la France et au Japon, sont cohérents avec les conclusions de nombreuses recherches antérieures. Les activités des centres d'appels, standardisées par les mêmes technologies et des procédures d'exploitation similaires, imposent en partie les mêmes charges à la direction partout où elles sont mises en œuvre: contrainte de temps, fatigue mentale, pression sur les coûts de main-d'œuvre, etc. Ces pressions produisent à leur tour le même type d'attitude, de réactions des agents dans les deux pays. Globalement, les logiques de base du modèle de Price sont confirmées.Cependant, il existe, entre la France et le Japon, de nombreuses différences dans les stratégies de gestion des ressources humaines ainsi que dans les perceptions cognitives et psychologiques des agents des centres d'appels cachées derrière cette tendance universelle. L'étude comparative internationale nous a permis de montrer à la fois les logiques fondamentales des réactions humaines vis-à-vis des stimuli de base, et un éventail de perceptions / attitudes humaines nécessairement conditionnées par les facteurs sociétaux ou contextuels de chaque société.La satisfaction dépend en partie du niveau réel des salaires, mais aussi des différentes manières dont les salaires sont répartis et perçus, en fonction de la position socio-organisationnelle de chaque individu, tant en France qu'au Japon. La justice distributive incorporée dans le contrat de travail est par nature fortement «dépendante du contexte». De plus, un tel échange n'est pas seulement organisé entre l'employeur et le salarié au sein d'une organisation particulière, mais aussi ancré dans un espace sociétal qui la transcende. En d'autres termes, cela dépend aussi du contexte sociétal qui lui donne une signification sociale. Les autres différences remarquables existant entre les deux pays sont liées à des facteurs sociodémographiques. Même avec des caractéristiques similaires, les agents des centres d'appels ont des attentes différentes en ce qui concerne les conditions d'emploi ou de salaire et, finalement, leurs projets de carrière futurs. Ces réactions d'attitude sont une conséquence de la stratégie de GRH dans chaque pays, mais sont, plus fondamentalement, conditionnées par une logique sociétale qui produit des groupes sociaux de manière originale. À cet égard, la structure familiale et la division du travail entre les sexes sont d'une importance primordiale pour générer de telles différences, car ce secteur est dominé par la population féminine. Ainsi, ils sont à la fois les produits et les «ressources» utilisées par la stratégie des centres d’appels. Les centres d'appels tentent de renforcer l'efficacité productive, en leur proposant divers types de contrats psychologiques.

La grande distribution moderne a créé une quantité importante d’emplois de premier échelon, dont beaucoup sont à bas salaire, au Mexique comme aux États-Unis d’Amérique. Les structures et pratiques d’emploi du secteur composent des données importantes des processus qui créent et reproduisent les inégalités dans une économie. Grace à une étude internationale comparative, l’article explore le rôle des institutions et normes sociétales (liées et non-liées au travail) dans le domaine de la qualité des emplois. L’article compare les processus qui forment les emplois dans la grande distribution moderne de ces deux pays et s’appuie sur des études de terrain conduites durant les neuf dernières années. Les points de comparaison sont les trois dimensions de la qualité d’emploi : les heures de travail; les structures de rémunération; et la mobilité interne et externe. L’article montre que les institutions ont une empreinte visible sur les caractéristiques d’emploi dans la grande distribution. Les instances les plus simples consistent de cas où les institutions jouent directement sur l’emploi comme peut se voir avec les heures de travail. Cependant, les effets institutionnels indirects importent aussi, particulièrement ceux qui concernent les institutions de reproduction de la force de travail, telles que les systèmes de garde d’enfant ou les normes liées au rôle maternel dans l’éducation des enfants. Néanmoins, il reste encore une marge de manœuvre ample pour les choix et l’expérimentation de la part des managers de la grande distribution des deux pays. Modern retail chains generate large quantities of entry-level jobs, many of which are low-wage, in Mexico as in the United States. The sector’s employment patterns and practices make up an important strand among processes that generate and reproduce economy-wide inequality. Retail trade jobs also are emblematic of service work as a whole. With a cross-national comparative study, the paper explores the role of work-related and non-work related societal institutions and norms in affecting retail job quality. The paper compares the processes that shape modern retail jobs in the two countries relying upon sectorial field work conducted over the past nine years. Three dimensions of job quality are points of comparison: hours of work; compensation structure; and job mobility. The paper finds that national institutions have discernible imprints on the characteristics of retail jobs. The simplest instances are cases where institutions act directly on employment as occurs with hours of work outcomes. But indirect institutional effects are also important, particularly involving reproductive institutions such as child care systems and norms regarding mothers’ role in child rearing. Still, ample room for managerial discretion and experimentation is found in both countries’ retail sectors.

PurposeThe central question in this article is: do recurring types of corporate lobbying strategies exist (in the same way as for generic strategies, for example)? The objective of this research is to define a typology of lobbying strategies implemented by French and UK firms, and then to discuss to what extent firms' political strategies are universal or country‐specific.Design/methodology/approachAn empirical study examined 679 lobbying campaigns (also known as “political action”) of French and UK firms. They were grouped into categories and described using statistical data analysis techniques (multiple correspondence analysis and classification).FindingsThe results highlight a pattern in the corporate lobbying phenomenon: five types of lobbying strategy (that can be described and illustrated) exist for French firms, and four for UK firms. Tentative explanations can be put forward: implementation of lobbying strategies appears to depend on the type of issues addressed (which could be universal), but also on the country's political environment (which could be country specific). The study shows the interdependent influence of organisational resources, economic structures and the political environment (laws and the role of the state) on firms' lobbying strategies. Thus, societal effects theory could be applied to firms' political strategies, which are global and local at the same time.Originality/valueLobbying public decision makers is an increasingly widespread managerial practice, but has so far attracted little research attention in Europe.

This study describes transport telematic services (TTSs) for road-based heavy goods vehicle (HGV) transport and suggests a method for assessing the societal value of different TTSs. For decision making related to the selection of services to promote by potential investors, for example, governmental organisations and service providers, quantified service value can simplify the decision process by enabling comparison between TTSs. Moreover, these values can serve as inputs to quantitative analysis of service architectural system designs. The authors suggest a method for assessing the societal values of TTSs using potential saving indicators (PSIs), estimated in the context of Swedish HGV freight transport. To illustrate the proposed method, 32 services are analysed, and their societal values were quantified and compared for the Swedish HGV market. Results based on estimated values of PSIs and potential percentage savings indicate the following HGV-based TTSs to be of high societal potential: transport resource optimisation, dynamic traffic information, navigation, road hindrance warning, theft alarm and recovery, accident warning information, intelligent speed adaptation, eCall, en-route driver information, transport order handling, road user charging and sensitive goods monitoring. Based on Mobil IT project. ISI number yet to be assigned

Lobbying public decision-makers is an increasingly widespread managerial practice, but has so far attracted little research attention in Europe. This article studies how it is put into practice as a strategy by French and UK firms. An empirical study examines 679 lobbying campaigns (also known as “political action”), that are grouped into categories and described using statistical data analysis techniques. The results highlight a pattern in the corporate lobbying phenomenon: five types of lobbying strategy (that can be described and illustrated) exist for French firms, and four for UK firms. The central theme of discussion is to what extent firms'political strategies are universal or country specific. Tentative explanations can be put forward: implementation of lobbying strategies appears to depend on the type of issues addressed (which could be universal), but also on the country's political environment (which could be country specific). The study shows the interdependent influence of human resources, economic structures and the political environment (laws and the role of the state) on firms' lobbying strategies.

Lobbying public decision-makers is an increasingly widespread managerial practice, but has so far attracted little research attention in Europe. This article studies how it is put into practice as a strategy by French and UK firms. An empirical study examines 679 lobbying campaigns (also known as “political action”), that are grouped into categories and described using statistical data analysis techniques. The results highlight a pattern in the corporate lobbying phenomenon: five types of lobbying strategy (that can be described and illustrated) exist for French firms, and four for UK firms. The central theme of discussion is to what extent firms'political strategies are universal or country specific. Tentative explanations can be put forward: implementation of lobbying strategies appears to depend on the type of issues addressed (which could be universal), but also on the country's political environment (which could be country specific). The study shows the interdependent influence of human resources, economic structures and the political environment (laws and the role of the state) on firms' lobbying strategies.