Walter L. Balk (Marist College, USA)
Donald J. Calista (Marist College, USA)
When Government Organizations Fall Under the Spell of the Business Model: Some Ideational and Practical Limitations
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Americans have long aspired to bring more freedom and prosperity throughout the world while improving conditions at home. I will argue that the influence upon government decisions and operations by business thinking and objectives is working against these ends. This is not only because corporate objectives can be at cross purposes with the public good or that some corporate leaders influence government decision makers in questionable ways. More fundamentally business methods and achievement paradigms are increasingly too simple, inappropriate and inflexible for government to adapt to our present needs and future challenges.
This paper begins with a discussion of the acceleration of revolutionary changes since the middle of the last century and how these have contributed to widespread concerns such as terrorism and deterioration of the earth's environment. Consideration is then given to our history of inappropriately putting government responsibilities under the influence of the private sector. Connections are made between business hubris and the growing incapacities of US citizens to engage in democratic discourse and action .A recent study of the nature of government administration decision making demonstrates many limitations in applying business reasoning to government problems. Concluding suggestions are directed at ways for researchers and teachers to increase the understanding of the penetration of government institutions by those of business.
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Boniface Michael (Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, USA)
E-mail: bmichael@vsnl.com
Durkheim's Social Order and 21st Century Decision Making
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Traditional command and control hierarchies are being replaced by networked organizational structures. Decision making within the traditional structures means innovative compliance to directives from above (Lawrence & Lorsch, 1967). Alternatively, in the networked structures, decision making means innovative creation of directives at the very point of origin where it is needed.
The certainty of the past has been replaced by ambiguous situations in which decision making requires knowledge of what is known explicitly, and more importantly making sense and leveraging what is implicitly learnt. Such sense making in a sophisticated world means a greater level of inter-dependence between individuals and hierarchies. Besides conflict, this interdependence is characterized by kaleidoscopic opinions of similar unstructured situations. (Eisenhardt, Kahwajy & Bourgeois, 1997).
How do organizational processes translate divergent perspectives at the organization and the individual level into effective decisions?
One answer may lie in Durkheim's notion of organic solidarity and social order. Organizational processes will be based in an individuating and sociating tension (Rothenbuler, 1993). These tensions will translate these diverse perspectives into a form of organic solidarity derived reciprocity for decision making.
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Sophie Boutillier, Blandine Laperche, Dimitri Uzunidis (Laboratoire Redéploiement Industriel et Innovation, France
E-mail Address : labrii@univ-littoral.fr
Technological Innovation or Social Exclusion The "organic paradigm" of Creation of New Enterprises: The French Case
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After the second world war, during the period of constant growth of the 1950-70s, the size of enterprises grew and employment increased. However, the economic crisis of the 1970-1990s and the technological progresses of this period (automatization, informatization of industrial processes) questioned this model of development. A larger part of the population - including skilled and unskilled workers - faced unemployment. Furthermore, the market reached saturated point, especially in standard industrial products (cars, electric products, etc.) and imposed the production of new goods to create new markets, and thus, a new demand.
In this context, Public intervention has become determining and, in almost all industrial countries, the creation of new enterprises has been considered as a response to the difficulties of the Society and of the Economy. Against Keynesian principals, the main issue of today's economists (endogenous growth) is to boost the supply, and no more the demand.
However, although public policies are determining, they are not sufficient to provoke an increase in the number of created enterprises. In this paper, we study the four key factors for creating new enterprises (in high tech sectors as well as in the sectors of the social economy) : public intervention, the social capital of the entrepreneur (social origin, family, education, professional experience, etc.), the state of scientific and technological progress and the market's structure (size of enterprises, level of the creditworthy demand, etc.).We therefore propose the idea of an "organic paradigm" for creating new enterprises and apply it to the French case.
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Virginie Briand (University Paris X - Nanterre, FRANCE)
E-mail: virginie.briand@jm.u-psud.fr
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Sen's framework makes it possible to analyse the determinants of action. Nevertheless it does not take into account time. Capabilities are given once and for all. Sen does not study the interactions between "being" and "doing".
Our purpose is to show that "knowledge" determines the transition from what it is possible to do to what is really done. Knowledge does not only help to reduce uncertainty, it represents the base from which agents make decisions and act (or do not act).
Even though actors have "rights", if they do not know how to use them nor do they know the scope of their rights, they will be enabled to mobilize and use them. Knowledge works as a lever.
Our communication relies on data collected in Ivory Coast between 1998 and 2000. Our work aims to analyze the determinants of food insecurity. We will show through those data that households whose cognitive environment scope is the smallest are also the one with the highest food insecurity level. Then, we will explain why, in the case of developing countries and in reference to knowledge theory, knowledge is the energy of action. From a theoretical point of view, to take into account knowledge is all the more so necessary since it allows the reintroduction of time through the notion of learning process.
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Gianluca Carnabuci (University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
E-mail: g.carnabuci@uva.nl
Assessing the Role of Specialization and Cross-Fertilization in the Process of Knowledge Advancement: a Social Network Approach
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Specialization and cross-fertilization are commonly regarded as driving factors of knowledge advancement. Their relationship, however, has remained theoretically and empirically ambiguous. The goal of this paper is to shed light on this relationship.
To this end, I propose a network conception of the process of knowledge advancement, and I employ social network methods to disentangle analytically and to model empirically fine-grained mechanisms of specialization and cross-fertilization.
To test the effects of these mechanisms, I use data describing the process of advancement of all US-based patented technological knowledge between 1975 and 1999. The results corroborate the hypotheses, which elucidates the intertwined role of specialization and cross-fertilization, shows that their effects are more complex than is commonly assumed, and validates the network approach to analyzing knowledge advancement processes.
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Lutz Engelhardt (WZB, Germany)
E-mail:
Entrepreneurial Business Models in the German Software Industry: Companies, Venture Capital, and Stock Market Based Growth Strategies on the 'Neuer Markt'
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Young, radically innovative, growth oriented, and publicly listed high-tech companies in Silicon Valley together with venture capital financiers gave birth to the concept of the Entrepreneurial Business Model' (EBM). This concept has become central to the debate about the innovative capacity of nations in information technology and its promotion became an important policy objective in Germany during the 1990s. This paper addresses the question of whether German software companies on the former 'Neuer Markt' of the Frankfurt stock exchange were able to successfully implement business models similar to that of the typical entrepreneurial company in the United States. The paper focuses on the performance of software companies and venture capital investments on the 'Neuer Markt'. A number of findings emerge from this effort. First, successful German software companies implement traditional business models. The most successful German software companies specialize in IT- and software services. Such firms do not specialize in standardized software products which require little service and customization. Second, German venture capital for the most part was not able to establish successful entrepreneurial companies on the Silicon Valley model. Nor were they able to create a successful German variant of venture capital involvement in more traditional companies.
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George M. Frankfurter (USA)Professor Emeritus
E-mail: pitypalaty@cox.net
The Theory of Fair Markets (TFM)
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In this paper I offer the Theory of Fair Markets (TFM) as an alternative to the ubiquitous CAPM/EMH that has been ruling unabated academiaâ€TMs financial economics for the last four decades. According to the TFM what counts is whether society is better off with a market system which is carefully monitored and corrected by a democratically elected government and social, labor, and other laws that serve as its infrastructure than with the notion of laissez faire. Admittedly, the theory is in its infancy and as such it is subject to both evolutionary changes/modification and exploratory empirical research. Without a doubt, it is also subject to criticism. Nevertheless, I contend that the EMH should be scrutinized and abandoned, because it is a reality-retardant theory, falsely promising Pareto optimality.
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Douglas Galbi (FCC, USA)
E-mail: Douglas.Galbi@fcc.gov
Revolutionary Ideas for Radio Regulation
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Radio technology is the key to rapid broadband development that reaches even geographically remote areas of the world. To get needed, radical changes in radio regulation, much more attention should be directed toward central issues of constitutional law. Historical experience and centuries of conversation about fundamental political choices has created knowledge that can revolutionize radio regulation. Bringing this knowledge to life in the field of radio regulation involves asking three questions. First, what is a good separation and balance of powers in radio regulation? Second, how should radio regulation be geographically configured? Third, how should radio regulation understand and respect personal freedom and equality? Asking these questions does not call forth a pre-determined answer, nor is discussion of them within the competence of only a small group of radio technology experts. Asking these questions points to the truths and the process that offers the best hope for revolutionizing radio regulation and creating a better life for everyone.
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Devrim Goktepe (Lund University, Sweden)
E-mail: devrim.goktepe@innovation.lth.se
Understanding of University-Industry Relations: A Comparative Study of Organizational and Institutional Practices of Lund University, Sweden
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How to get the universities to better contribute to innovation process has become an important issue in the international agenda also in Sweden. Transferring the results of university research to industry may take several forms and thus can be achieved in different ways. i.e. patenting, licensing, spin-off firms, etc. However the transformation of academic research results into industry is not an effortless or simple linear process that flows directly from academy to industry. Therefore the purpose of this research is to identify the characteristics and forms of the university and industry relations and thus the research aims to examine the role of organizational and institutional structures of universities and industries in this process. For this purpose an empirical study of the Lund Institute of Technology (LTH) and the Medical Faculty (MF) of Lund University is conducted. The primary unit of analysis is (i) the university-industry relations. In order to uncover these relations, (ii) the institutional and organizational structures of LTH and MF; (iii) the institutional and organizational structures of the surrounding industry (firms); and finally the employees both academics and the industrial employees are utilized as the units of analysis.
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Gernot Grabher (University of Bonn, Germany)
E-mail: grabher@giub.uni-bonn.de
Hanging Out, Staying In, Logging On: Learning in Project Ecologies
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This paper contrasts two opposing logics of project-based learning. It juxtaposes cumulative learning in the Munich software ecology with originality-driven learning in the London advertising ecology. The paper explores learning in (1) the core team, (2) the firm, (3) the epistemic community, and (4) the awareness space around which both ecologies unfold. (1) The different professions of the team members epitomise specific work ethos' which cause cognitive distance to other team members. Whereas learning in software is geared towards reducing cognitive distance, creativity in advertising originates from maintaining it. (2) Firms acquire particular project capabilities by sedimenting knowledge into tools and culture. In software, knowledge is also accumulated into 'modules' that are recombined in subsequent projects. (3) The actual locus of knowledge creation is the epistemic community that also involves clients and suppliers. The different learning regimes here play out as the opposing imperatives to 'never' and to 'always change a winning team'. (4) More ambient learning occurs through networking in the awareness space that effaces the distinction between professional and personal realm. While 'network communality' signifies lasting and intense ties, 'network sociality' denotes intense and ephemeral relations, and 'network connectivity' indicates transient and weak networks.
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Bradford B. Hepler (University of Maryland, College Park, USA)
E-mail: bhepler@socy.umd.edu
Confusion Over the Nature of the New Economy?
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In the late 1990s, discussion about the development of a New Economy started due to the recent technological advances in information technology; particularly, the diffusion of the personal computer, development of the World Wide Web, and development of new software. As in the past, the introduction of new technology led to claims of a New Economy. However, many authors pointed to a large number of other factors in claiming there was a New Economy. For example, globalization, deregulation, economic restructuring, finance, service economy, and increasing competition were commonly mentioned as factors in attempting to describe this New Economy. My goal is to attempt to make sense of these varied descriptions of a New Economy. I will examine each of these major factors in turn and then describe a model of the New Economy showing where the factors should fit in the model. My position is that globalization, deregulation, economic restructuring, service economy, and finance were key factors in shaping the New Economy and existed prior to the 1990s. Thus, as with past New Economies, the introduction of new technology and the subsequent diffusion of this new technology is the main factor for claiming there is a New Economy.
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Bradford B. Hepler, Gretchen B. Jordan (University of Maryland, College Park, USA)
E-mail: bhepler@socy.umd.edu
Identifying Important Factors in the Research Environment for R&D Workers
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Despite tremendous interest in attracting and retaining high-quality R&D workers, there still remains little empirical support to suggest precisely how this can be achieved. In a recent study of three research environment surveys encompassing over 2,200 R&D workers at three large R&D laboratories, Jordan (2003) identified a number of key factors that R&D workers found important for research environment and suggested strategies that managers can take to create such an environment. Because the surveys gathered responses on a broad range of variables encompassing the research environment, from physical surroundings to managerial practices, the data offers a rich source to examine the work environment of R&D workers. In this paper, I will build on Jordan's analysis by applying multiple regression models to her data to more fully understand the dynamics behind workers' perception of research environment. Additionally, I will extend the analysis by examining the results of a followup research environment survey conducted in 2003 at one of the three laboratories from the earlier study. The use of the 2003 survey results not only offers additional empirical data, but also allows for a comparative analysis of the survey instrument.
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Reinhold Hofer (University of Economics and Business Administration, Austria)
E-mail: reinhold.hofer@isis.wu-wien.ac.at
The Experimental Method in Technology Policy
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During the past decades technology policy has achieved a prominent place in the economic policy area. Looking at this historical process one can see a phenomenon which could be classified as a creative process to build up an institutional setting for the application of an Experimental method in this field of policy making. Conceptualizing technology policy as a social process, producing specified interventions in the socio-economic development of societies based on some theoretical considerations, the developments show the institutional setting up for experimentation, which produce an interactive learning process in this respect to deal with the inherent uncertainties in this policy field. The thereby derived changes of organizational patterns represent and define possible influential forces in the relations between public policy makers and private agents.
So the following questions will be addressed here: (1) what are the relevant structural components and institutions; (2) why they are needed or what are their functions and (3) how they have been developed.
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Dr. Arun Kumar Jain (Indian Institute of Management, India)
E-mail: arunjain@iiml.ac.in
Becoming Knowledge Factories -- An Empirical Investigation of the Indian Universities Systems
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India is considered as one of the knowledge and services hubs of the world because of its high quality educational Institutions, and a highly competitive and aspiring student and youth population. But would the Indian University system be able to withstand the pressures of the modern economies that focus on highly mobile work force? What would be the leadership challenges for such an evolving system?
We conducted a countrywide survey to ascertain the views of the experts in the field of education. Creating a dossier of responses, we then invited the Vice-Chancellors of Central Universities, senior-most officers of University Grants Commission, and Ministry of Human Resources Development to a workshop on the above subject.
This paper highlights the interesting findings as to how the key participants feel they would be handling the challenges and providing leadership into the mid-21st Century. It also reports how the Indian University system would need to be restructured to remain relevant and competitive, now that other global Universities and Institutions are being permitted to set up shop in India.
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Tatyana V. Kozlova (European University at St. Peterburg, Russia)
E-mail: jade@eu.spb.ru; tate_jaded2003@yahoo.com
Social Embeddedness of Competition in St. Petersburg's IT-market
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IT-market in Russia was constructed like a very competitive market. And St.Peterburg is one of the centres of Russian IT-market.
Different types of competition are embedded in social networks of IT-professionals.
Small IT-firms can be described in terms of highly sharp competition and absence of social networks between interpreneurs.
Middle-size IT-firms have wide social networks, that are used in way to hire or recruit stuff, to learn competitive advantages and disadvantages of competitors, to ask advise or help. These networks are formed thank to the feature of construction of the market, when a lot of enterpreneurs and IT-professionals graduated the same universities, had the same hobbies, the same social experience.
Competition between middle-sized IT-firms have forms of cooperation. Developed social networks form the norms and rules of competition.
Big-sized IT-companies use their social networks mostly to stress their reputation and to find new IT-professionals. Social networks on this level are more formal than on other levels of market.
Thus, social networks can explain the norms and processes of competition in IT-market. We show it by the case of St.Peterburg' IT-market.
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Eun Jung Hyun (Seoul National University, Korea)
Soo Hee Lee (Birkbeck College, University of London, UK)
E-mail: s.lee@bbk.ac.uk
Social Conditions of Innovation and Competitiveness: the Korean Wireless Telecommunications Sector
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This paper analyses the dynamics of industry creation and the sources of competitive advantage in the case of Korean wireless telecommunications sector. This paper seeks to address the gap in the literature by highlighting the phenomenon of rapid technological catch-ups by latecomer nations or latecomer firms in technology-intensive industries. The analytical framework of the paper builds upon evolutionary and institutional perspectives on the relationship between technological development and economic change. Drawing on Lazonick's (2000) theory of innovative enterprise, our discussion focuses on the industrial, institutional and organizational conditions of innovation under which the successful performance of the CDMA-based Korean wireless telecommunications sector and its leading firm, Samsung Electronics, has been made possible. Furthermore, we explore the broader implications of national innovation systems for the emerging information society along the lines of Castells' works.
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Vincent-Antonin Lepinay (Columbia University, USA)
E-mail: val2003@columbia.edu
Finance and the Technologies of Condition. Sketch of a Theory of Granular-action
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Where are the actions in the new Economic Sociology? This field of sociology allegedly embraces economic actions as a topic, but the economic actions (whether producing, purchasing, investing or any other deployment of the economy) have been so quickly embedded and inscribed into structures or laid into networks that we simply lost sight of these activities. It is said there can not be isolated actions because the close framing on the actions-themselves is not justified : their meaning comes from their context. But this enlarged focus went far enough to empty the actions out of their qualities. Instead of this endless rush for the contexts, we develop a non-structural theory of actions which takes seriously their granular-like nature : in this paper, we make a case for a study of qualities of action, using the field of financial markets. The contention of this paper is that â€actions as such†have their own intricacies and their own timing which allows for non trivial conducts of action ; they also have their own morphology which has a bearing on the configuration of societies as such. We conclude our article with a discussion of the notions of irreversibility and time in economic sociology.
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Mita Marra (Italian National Research Council/Institute for the Study of Mediterranean Societies Italy)
E-mail: Mita.Marra@issm.cnr.it
A Knowledge Network Approach for Economic Change in the HEART of Naples
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Transforming public organizations to be more efficient, effective and responsive is the central goal of governments throughout the world. Actual modernization policies in public service are extensive and involve national and regional institutions, and local governments across cities of both industrialized and developing countries. Local governments increasingly seek to enact policies that build on existing pools of knowledge and localized networks to facilitate and reinvigorate the quality of services taking place within their own borders. Particularly, local governments struggle to maintain local communities as nodes in the global network of knowledge, ideas and people associated with what one might call "the creative class."
This paper analyzes the experience of the partnership between Naples's local government and the University of Naples to enhance economic development. The case study explores a vibrant city network where the local government collaborates with the university to identify and select business opportunities for small, entrepreneurial companies with structural weaknesses. Contract-based staff work to performance targets to respond to the community's needs to upgrade productive processes. This experience illustrates a localized network of public and private sector agents increasing the quality and density of economic and knowledge ties within a disadvantaged context.
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Michael J. Novak (U.S. Government, Internal Revenue Service, USA)
E-mail: Michael.J.Novak@irs.gov
Competency-Based Socio-Economic Development
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As the industrial base of countries is supplanted by the "knowledge economy," or "Post-Industrial Society," the concept of competency-based management has received increasing attention in the business management literature.
As the knowledge economy grows, intellectual capital becomes the key differentiating factor for organizations. To assure success, organizations must find ways of identifying, quantifying, measuring, assessing, and enhancing intellectual capital assets. One way is through competency-based management.
The paper will describe the concept of competencies as defined by leading scholars, will present examples of competency-based management as practiced in leading organizations, and will show the benefits of competency management. The paper will present an example of a construct that was developed to address competency-based development of individual employees, work groups, and organizations. Building on this micro-level approach, the paper will illustrate how the model can be tailored to meet socio-economic development needs through the intermediate level (urban planning), to the macro level (nation building).
For example, identified competency gaps could alter/determine immigration policies; lead to a National Sourcing model determining what competencies to develop, outsource, hire, etc.; and develop a National Training and Education Program that funds critical competency and discipline shortfalls.
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Jacqueline Ortiz (Yale University, USA)
E-mail: jacqueline.ortiz@yale.edu
Networks, Circuits and Hierarchies: The Argentine Global Barter Market, 1995-2003
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From 1995 to 2003, the Argentine Global Barter Networks (GBNs) functioned as the largest parallel currency market in the contemporary world, growing from a small group of activists in Buenos Aires to a 6,000-node (as neighborhood markets are called) network with over 2 million participants. In the course of their seven-year run, multi-reciprocal barter networks absorbed hundreds of thousands of 'newly poor' middle class Argentines. Moreover, they functioned as a shadow economy in which participants called "prosumers" not only exchanged consumables but also had access to a wide range of goods and services including home repair medical care through barter HMOs, classes and tutoring, personal care, and psychological therapy (all purchased with barter currency called the "crédito social" or social credit). In this paper I account for the development, function, expansion, and eventual implosion of the GBNs as "Zelizer circuits" or specialized networks that employ distinctive media, exchanges and boundaries. The Argentine case suggests that circuits face strong challenges in terms of social control. To solve this problem, hierarchies emerge that limit participatory decision making, impose illegitimate norms and lead to operational decisions that negatively affect the function of the network.
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Lyra Renato (Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
E-mail: renato.lyra@ig.com.br
Service Penetration Through New Technologies: the Mobile
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This paper presents an overview of the Brazilian mobile communications market and the decision made by its regulatory agency, Anatel, to introduce a new technological standard for mobile communications in the country, thus increasing the competition not only among service operators but also among equipment manufacturers. It also presents and overview of the political environment in Brazil and the efforts made by the equipment manufacturers to introduce this new technology competing to the existing ones, creating a
unique competitive arena for the mobile communications. We verify the results of this politics by analyzing the service cost for the end-users, comparing the penetration rate to the number of competing firms and the average income per capita (on a per state basis), and comparing the mobile market growth to the Brazilian growth. We find evidences that this politics has created a competitive environment and brought benefits to the population.
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Martin Schuerz (Austrian National Bank, Austria)
E-mail: Martin.Schuerz@oenb.co.at
Paradoxes of the U.S. Financial System
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Varieties of Capitalism (VOC) literature considers the U.S. financial system as a coherent part of a market oriented system. We investigate on the basis of the recent Survey of Consumer Finance (SCF) the utilization of the U.S. financial system by the the poor (mainly unbanked households).
The main financial governance mechanism for the poor is education. Its aim is to bring the poor in financial mainstream. The culture for the poor is about economic values. However, financial literacy programs do not show the desired changing financial behaviour sometimes these programs do not even increase the knowledge. And financial governance mechanisms oscillate in the American financial system between empowerment and disciplining. Our results indicate that financial governance mechanisms for the poor do not work in the way VOC proponents argue they should.
Coherency and incoherency of governance mechanisms have to be thought together as paradoxes. We show how incentives and ethical values for the poor form a paradoxical pattern in the U.S. financial system. Paradoxes is a key term of the critical theory approach (Axel Honneth 2003) that provides a theoretical alternative to VOC approaches. Furthermore, we argue that acceptance of inequality provides the link between these paradoxes.
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Dr Timothy J. Sinclair (University of Warwick, United Kingdom)
E-mail: timothy.sinclair@warwick.ac.uk
Rating Agencies - The New Masters of Capital?
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In the expanding literature on global change, scholars have increasingly emphasized the importance of access to, and control over, key forms of knowledge in determining the way power is constituted. As authority over global political, social, and economic activity becomes more diffused among a variety of public and private actors, information becomes crucial for exercising power, and the potential sources of change proliferate, these knowledge networks become crucial arbiters of the making of policy on the
global level. In addition to controlling the provision and interpretation of information, these transnational networks play a crucial role in establishing, diffusing, and enforcing norms of acceptable policy content and institutional structure regarding states and non-state actors.
The papers in this panel examine one such knowledge network-credit rating agencies-and evaluate the role of these firms in shaping the governance of global political and economic life. The aim is to further our empirical and conceptual analysis of these increasingly important agents of private power in the public domain.
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Stuart Umpleby (George Washington University, USA)
E-mail: umpleby@gwu.edu
How Expanding the Philosophy of Science Can Promote Acceptance of Socio-Economics
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The classical philosophy of science assumed that observations are independent of the characteristics of the observer. The field of cybernetics has suggested that a dimension be added to the philosophy of science - amount of attention paid to the observer. More recently the experience of economic advice to the post-communist countries yielded vivid examples of how recommendations based on economic theories developed in the West produced surprising results when applied outside the West. This experience suggests that an additional dimension should be added to the philosophy of science at least when dealing with social systems - amount of attention paid to the society in which a theory is applied.
This paper will review the arguments for making these two additions to the philosophy of science and will discuss the implications. For example, adding these two dimensions to the philosophy of science implies a change from a photograph metaphor for science to a communication metaphor. Furthermore, rather than science being outside the phenomenon observed, the new view suggests a "dialogue" between ideas and society.
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Zsuzsanna Vargha (Columbia University, USA)
E-mail: zv2003@columbia.edu
"We're Not There Yet": The West According to Hungarian Advertising Professionals
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My paper explores how the image of the "West" is constructed by Hungarian advertising professionals. The "West" occupies a special place in East European social imagination - national and regional identities have long been defined in relation to its varying image. The Hungarian advertising scene is an excellent site to investigate this relationship. As the production of knowledge about consumption, advertising draws on Western ideals and conveys ideas about the Hungarian nation and society. As an institution, advertising contributes to the creation of "capitalists" and "consumers" in an emerging market economy. In this young profession, the West is constituted at the intersection of three forces: profession, market, and postcommunism. As professionals these people struggle for a privileged class position, as service providers they do business in a globalized economy, and as citizens they are immersed in the project of becoming Western. I will discuss how the image of the West is tightly linked to where advertising professionals come from, what they do and where they hope they are heading. I will present the preliminary results of my research based on interviews conducted in 2002 at major Hungarian advertising agencies with workers of different levels and histories.
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