Assessing and Appraising the Effects of Policy for Wicked Issues: Including Unforeseen Achievements in the Evaluation of the District Policy for Deprived Areas in The Netherlands

Urban regeneration is often acknowledged as a wicked policy issue that produces unanticipated outcomes. Most methods for policy evaluation treat those effects as flaws of planning or neglect them. We argue that wickedness is an inherent aspect of many policy issues and that it should be integrated in efforts to assess and appraise the effects of policy. We use a case of urban regeneration projects in The Netherlands to study how the unanticipated and unforeseen consequences of policy were accounted—or neglected—in the evaluation methods. Also, we present an alternative approach that takes into account the “by-effects” of policy.     

The governance of self-organization: Which governance strategy do policy officials and citizens prefer?

Policy Sciences - This article compares views of policy officials and members of community-based collectives on the ideal role of government in processes of community self-organization. By using Q...     

Informal socialization in public organizations: Exploring the impact of informal socialization on enforcement behaviour of Dutch veterinary inspectors

Organizations try to socialize employees' behaviour through formal practices such as training programmes and selection procedures. This article focuses on how times of informal socialization, outside the organization's direct sphere of influence, impact the behaviour of employees. The research is based on data from 67 semi‐structured interviews with Dutch veterinary inspectors in a cross‐sectional and a longitudinal panel. Their work is characterized by intensive and at times adverse contact with inspectees, yet limited interaction with their colleagues. The results show that informal socialization has an important impact on the organizational socialization of inspectors, and provides further insights into the dynamic interplay between formal socialization practices and informal socialization. In addition, the research provides empirical evidence for the role of emotional processes in organizational socialization.     

Co-producing safety in the local community: A Q-methodology study on the incentives of Belgian and Dutch members of neighbourhood watch schemes

This study aims to explain citizens’ engagement in co-production activities in the domain of community safety. We use a multiple case study design by looking at neighbourhood watch schemes in Belgium and the Netherlands. We applied Q-methodology to map the opinions of citizens about their co-productive efforts, and to cluster these opinions into co-producers’ profiles. Discussing differences and similarities in profiles enables a more generalised understanding of the reasons why people co-produce. We conclude with some policy-relevant points about incentivation when local governments want to achieve an increase in citizen co-production.     

Industry and ownership structure

The paper examines the relationship between main industry and corporate ownership structures using a unique database covering the 100 largest companies in each of 12 European countries. The predictive power of economic ownership theory is tested and generally supported. We find evidence that industry affiliation has a significant effect on ownership structure after controlling for national differences. The industry effect is found to be related to differences in firm size, industry growth, earnings volatility, capital, and research intensity.     

Determining Factors of the Effectiveness of IP-based Spin-offs: Comparing the Netherlands and the US

In this paper we describe and analyse IP-based spin-offs as a relatively new phenomenon for transferring knowledge from science to industry. We argue that the effectiveness of this mechanism is subject to a complex array of institutional factors. These factors entail national, sectoral, regional and managerial institutions. Based on an indicative comparison between the Netherlands and the United States we find that is especially the combination of national and sectoral institutions that condition whether an IP-based spin-off is established in the first place, whereas regional and managerial institutions condition its subsequent chances of success. We finish by formulating some notions for public policy.     

Business Ethics as Corporate Governance

The paper analyses ethical business codes as governance mechanisms, i.e. institutions which facilitate coordination of economic behaviour. Ethical business codes are compared to other social institutions (market solutions, government intervention, the prevailing social ethic), and their efficiency is evaluated in terms of transaction costs. A normative rationale for ethical codes is found when other institutions fail to achieve socially optimal outcomes, in particular when the firm has access to unique information. Some economic incentives are identified which induce firms to commit to socially optimal ethical codes but it is argued that economic forces will not in general be sufficient for optimality.     

Warwick Conference on Humanitarianism

This article reports on the Warwick Conference on Humanitarianism, where practitioners and academics shared their experiences of the problems and limitations of humanitarianism, and how they dealt with them.     

Parental attitudes following exposure to child abuse prevention campaign materials: a randomized trial

The purpose of this study was to evaluate child abuse prevention campaign materials. Using a randomized posttest design, 600 parents from an online research panel were recruited and surveyed. Multiple regression results indicate that exposure to the campaign materials had a significant relationship with four of the five domains (effects of child maltreatment, the appropriateness of harsh parenting, the physical dangers and needs unique to childhood, and the power to prevent child maltreatment). These results have implications for the child abuse prevention practitioners who seek to design and distribute effective campaign materials.     

Welfare-State Expansion and Conflicts in the Nordic Countries: The Case of Occupational Health Care

The development of occupational health Services in the Nordic countries varied considerably in terms of coverage, content and conflicts during the period 1980–90. The focus is on differences in conflicts resulting from state intervention into the sphere of private employers analysed from three perspectives: policy ambitions, institutional arrangements and employer reaction. The main finding is that the high level of conflict in Norway is related to higher state ambitions, more fragmented institutions and more direct economic costs to the employers than those found in the other Nordic countries. The higher policy ambitions and resulting adversary processes in providing occupational health Services seem to be fundamentally rooted in specific egalitarian values inherent in the Norwegian welfare state in general and the trade union movement in particular.