Managing business political activities in the USA: bridging between theory and practice

The political arena in the USA is portrayed as a marketplace in which businesses and other groups compete to influence public policy decisions. Managers can view this political market as an opportunity to shape the rules of the game by which they operate but must realise that it is a very competitive arena. Drawing on concepts from business strategy advocacy activities like lobbying, making campaign contributions, and organising grassroots efforts are analysed in terms of opportunities for gaining competitive advantage. Results from case studies indicate that many businesses miss opportunities to build support among employees for political advocacy because few firms use bottom up approaches for political action committees or grass‐roots efforts. Suggestions for managers interested in improving the effectiveness of their business advocacy efforts are discussed. Copyright © 2001 Henry Stewart Publications     

Managing business political activities in the USA: bridging between theory and practice — another look

This paper provides a review and reflection of Gerry Keim's fine paper on managing US business political activities (BPA). It begins by setting the larger context in which BPA is both practised and studied. It critiques the concept of market‐based competition and extends it by suggesting that non‐market competition can take on a myriad of forms dependent on strategy and structural considerations, among other things. It also provides some sober reminders about the nature of difficulties encountered between academics and practitioners in bridging the gaps of understanding between these constituencies. It also looks at the nature of ‘buyers’ and ‘sellers’ in the public policy marketplace and expands upon the nature of the products being exchanged. Lastly, the paper reviews the nature of strategy and competitive advantage in the non‐market environment and recommends a practitioner focus on innovation and the acquiring of the resources needed for institutionalizing it in their public affairs and BPA efforts for achieving non‐market success. Copyright © 2001 Henry Stewart Publications     

商务英语中的跨文化交际因素影响初探

随着我国经济规模的不断发展、壮大。跨文化现象对于商业活动的影响变得越来越重要了。商务英语的学习过程中应当注意跨文化交际因素对于商务活动的影响。通过不同文化之间的沟通认同,实现交际的顺利进行。从而对商务英语教学,有着指导性的作用。     

The political monetary business cycle: Political reality and economic theory

This paper addresses the issue of expectations incorporated into political business cycle models. Rational agents anticipate Democratic efforts to stimulate the economy via monetary policy, discounting money supply from the calculations for determining output variance, so that output under Democrats is wholly unaffected by changes in the money supply. Rational agents appear to be naive about Republicans, incorporating money supply into the calculations for determining output variance, so that output under Republicans is significantly related to money supply.     

马克思交往理论与哈贝马斯交往理论比较分析

马克思的交往理论基于物质生产实践,注重的是人与自然的物质变换过程中的所形成的人与人之间的生产关系、经济关系、阶级关系、社会关系等,物质交换往往在全部交往行为中具有中心和基础地位。而哈贝马斯的交往理论以理解为目的,注重人与人在话语交流过程中所形成的主体间性,强调在思想上、精神上达成共识。处理好马克思主义交往理论与哈贝马斯交往理论的辩证关系,可以丰富我们对交往理论的认识,更好的指导实践,改善现实生活。     

Systems theory and policy practice: An exploration

Systems approaches in policy analysis have had a chequered history. Expectations that hard (quantitative) systems analysis would lead to better answers to policy problems have largely been disappointed. Yet systems theory has itself moved on, to embrace the concept of autopoiesis and a variety of soft systems methodologies. Collectively, these theories offer a way of analysing policy quite distinct from the institutionalist approaches which tend to dominate the theory and practice of policy-making. Rather than selecting instruments to fit a particular kind of policy problem (the conventional approach to policy design) systems analysis suggests that the nature of the problem cannot be understood separately from its solution. For policy problems characterised by complexity (such as those concerned with environmental management and regulation, and urban re-development) using systems concepts offers a way of rationalising aspects of existing practice and of suggesting directions for improvement.     

Cultural variations in management practice: an exploration of the management trainer's dilemma

This article is a contribution to the debate on cross-cultural transfer of management practice. It describes the difficulties experienced in introducing ‘western’ management theory in a Pakistan government training centre; considers the social and cultural context and the local management style; analyses the differences in six key areas of management and discusses their implications for management trainers; and proposes a ‘middle way’ to ensure that management material is culturally acceptable and practically appropriate. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The incongruity of theory and practice

He has authored or edited over twenty books on urban planning, primarily in the areas of housing, land use, and municipal finance. His latest book, Planning Theory in the 1990s,will be published in spring 1989.     

Privatization of public-sector services in theory and practice

The last ten years have seen a marked increase in the analysis and implementation of private-sector alternatives to the production of public-sector services. The impetus for privatization has two sources: (1) opposition to further growth of the public sector, and (2) the belief that the private sector would be a more efficient producer. Yet as privatization moves beyond the acquisition of intermediate goods and services (payroll processing and housekeeping services, for example) to more complex public outputs (such as education, social security, public safety, the postal system, for example), it is subject to increasing challenge on both efficiency and equity grounds. Nonetheless, private alternatives to public production are finding increased acceptance.     

马克思主义社会交往理论的当代价值

随着新科技革命、知识经济和工业文明的飞速发展,全球正进入了一个高度交往的社会。交往乃是马克思一生关注的中心课题,交往理论是马克思社会哲学思想的一个重要内容,交往是历史唯物主义的基本范畴,是社会有机系统的主要粘合剂,是社会进步的重要机制,是历史向世界历史转变的主要推进器,是在新的全球化背景下构建和谐社会的基本前提。解读马克思的交往思想,深入研究马克思交往理论的哲学蕴涵,探讨马克思交往理论在当代的价值,有助于我们对马克思交往理论有一完整的认识,也有益于对唯物史观的深入了解。     

The evaluation of climate policy: theory and emerging practice in Europe

Climate policy is a relatively young and dynamic area of public policy making. However, its development has attracted far more attention than the results it delivers in practice, which of course are the concern of policy evaluators. This article attempts to provide the first systematic cataloging of the emerging patterns of policy evaluation undertaken in different parts of the European Union. Theories of policy evaluation suggest that these evaluation practices should acknowledge the inherent complexity of climate policy making, be reflexive by questioning official policy goals, and be participatory. A meta-analysis of 259 climate policy evaluations suggests that current practice engages with some but not all of these issues. This article concludes by analyzing the implications of this finding for those in the academic and practitioner community who are keen to understand the extent to which climate policy evaluation is delivering on its promises.     

E-victimization and e-predation theory as the dominant aggressive communication: the case of cyber bullying

ABSTRACT

The paper will focus on the identification of several key criteria in e-discourses via the constitution of e-images of the Anonymous arising from e-medias (Facebook, twitter, Snapchat, WeChat, etc.) with a specific focus on youngsters and their (ab)uses of these communication channels to facilitate digital predation, and so to lead to e-victimization. I will explain the specifics of e-victimization discourse taking into consideration its triadic dimension. I will then be able to conceptualize a dominant e-communication and the e-victimization theory around central ideas of dynamics of violence, gender discrimination and power abuse leading to a semio-sphere with a deep focus on anonymity, exposure, frequency, and insecurity as indicators of collective e-delinquency and proneness to e-victimization.     

The debt wish: Rent seeking by business groups and the structure of corporate borrowing in India

Business groups play an important role in emerging economies. The transactions cost perspective, which has dominated our understanding of such groups, argues that the emergence of business groups is a natural response to market failures in developing countries. In this paper, we propose an alternate theoretical perspective – the rent-seeking view – that takes these groups as engaging in coordinated lobbying for the capture of rents created by governments. We develop and implement an empirical strategy to test for the rent-seeking view drawing from the property rights theory of corporate finance. We find strong empirical support for the rent-seeking view using a large cross-sectional data-set of firms in India.