Management identities in transition: a case study from further education

Since the mid‐1980s. Further Education has experienced deep transformations as the result of market driven reforms and the emergence of ‘new managerialism’ in the sector. The changes affected its governance, purpose, organisation and culture, and had deep influence on the relations and identities in the workplace. This paper explores the response of managers in selected Colleges of FE in England, and their discursive construction of new work identities. It is argued that in mediating the reforms, managers adopt a range of responses and position themselves differentially to the discourses of ‘managerialism’ and the ‘market’. From enthusiastically adopting entrepreneurial management, to resisting, or quietly re‐constructing vocabularies and practices to fit traditional models of professional practice, the managers in this study illustrate the contested nature of implementing reforms in the public sector, and the complex interplay between agency and institutional practice.     

Supermarkets in Low‐income Mediterranean Countries: Impacts on Horticulture Systems

In the past decade, supermarkets have spread rapidly in the low‐income Mediterranean countries. Focusing on a case of advanced supermarket diffusion (Turkey) and of incipient diffusion (Morocco), this article examines this development and its impact on the fresh fruits and vegetable sector, emphasising the level of backward integration by the retailers into the supply chain and the type of retailer‐supplier governance structure. Both countries' food sectors resemble those of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) transition countries in their shift from a mixed traditional/staterun/owned retail system to a liberalised system. Moreover, Turkey is also on the road to joining the European Union, and is classed in policy discussions with the CEE candidates.     

(Visual) Disability – from exclusive perspectives to inclusive differences

By introducing the concept ‘inclusive differences’ of disability this paper suggests that disability is the outcome of historically specific, embodied human and non‐human configurations fabricated within the conduct of everyday life. Inclusive differences question the attempt given by exclusive perspectives that try to divide analytically, conceptually or politically ‘disability’ a priori into an individual (natural) bodily impairment or a purely socio‐cultural attributed disability. Applying the concept of inclusive differences, neither the domain of ‘nature’ nor ‘society’ can function as a disability’s self‐explanatory force. Rather, inclusive differences highlight the connection between human and non‐human relations that make up the different enabling and/or disabling scenarios of societal realities. Drawing on the practices of blind people in a visual culture this paper discusses related specificities of inclusive differences.     

Global networks and the reorganization of production in the clothing industry of post‐socialist Ukraine

In this article we examine how processes of globalization and the nature of emerging inter‐firm relationships influence the organization of production in a post‐socialist region, using the case of the clothing industry in Transcarpathia, Western Ukraine. We combine insights from two perspectives, the global commodity chain approach and the new regionalism. The focus on both institutional setting and interfirm relationships is essential in regions undergoing rapid change. In the article we also use Burt's concept of structural holes and the idea of a competence‐difficulty gap to examine the nature of relationships within networks of firms, arguing that global integration can be viewed as a bridging process. The evidence comes from surveys and fieldwork conducted between 1997 and 2004, providing a longitudinal analysis of the same firms. Among other findings, we show that the difficulty of doing business locally may make relationships more stable. With respect to industrial structure, international subcontracting and joint‐venture arrangements enable technological modernization in assembly and parts of preassembly, but also result in the demise of high‐value added competences.     

Networks,firms and upgrading within the blue‐jeans industry: evidence from Turkey

Abstract Since the late 1980s, industry characteristics, country‐specific contingencies and international conditions have come together and turned Turkey into a major exporter of jeans. It now has a 6.5 per cent share of the world's market. In this article, I explore this transformation and point out that it has created, especially in the 1990s, significant upgrading opportunities for Turkish firms. A large number of Turkish manufacturing firms are now full‐package contractors for a diversified list of brand‐name jeans. Some of these manufacturers are also experimenting with functional upgrading by developing their own brands and selling them abroad. Local firms, despite their subordinate position in the value chain, can go beyond low value‐added manufacturing and encroach on the core competencies of lead firms.     

Transnational lives,transnational marriages: a review of the evidence from migrant communities in Europe

Abstract Whom do migrants marry? This question has become a popular topic of research, and existing studies identify a common trend: most of the non‐European, non‐Christian migrants in Europe marry someone from their country of origin. The motivations for such practices are to be found in the characteristics of transnational spaces and in the social structures that emerge in such spaces. Based on a review of research from several European countries, three such constellations are discussed: first, the obligations to kin, especially when migration regulations become more restrictive, and marriage becomes the last route by which to migrate to Europe. Second, new forms of global inequality, between the metropolitan centre and countries of the global periphery, give migrants in Europe improved status and standing in their society of origin and therefore excellent opportunities on the marriage market there. Third, gender relations have started to shift in both host society and migrant families. Men and women alike are trying to rebalance power relations within marriage and to shift them in their favour. In this process marriage to a partner from the country of family origin may promise strategic benefits. The article ends with suggestions for future research.     

Blockchains,trust and action nets: extending the pathologies of financial globalization

Blockchains combine digital encryption and time stamping technologies to enable digital exchange to occur in manners celebrated by proponents as ‘trust‐free’. Yet, an increasing range of scholars argue that actual applications of the peer‐to‐peer technology shifts, rather than eliminates, trust. In this article, we draw on organizational theory to argue that efforts to remove trust reorganize the action nets that underpin payment systems in manners that extend rather than eliminate longstanding pathologies afflicting financial globalization. Our analysis supports and extends the critiques that blockchain applications are far from ‘trust‐free’. By tracing how efforts to reconfigure the socio‐technical composition of the humans and objects that underpin payment systems, we illustrate how blockchain applications shift the location and character of the technical vulnerabilities that create market instabilities and concentration, as well as elite‐led governance.     

Reconfiguring ‘post‐socialist’ regions: cross‐border networks and regional competition in the Slovak and Ukrainian clothing industry

The global garment industry is currently being reshaped in dramatic ways through processes of trade liberalization, delocalization and interfirm and interregional competition. There has been much speculation about the increasing importance of factor (especially labour) costs in fuelling further rounds of de‐localization of garment production towards low‐cost production locations, such as China and India. However, the extent to which these processes mean the end to garment production in higher factor‐cost locations, including those neighbouring the major clothing markets of the USA and the EU, is open to question. In this article we interrogate the interregional shifts in garment sourcing taking place in Europe and its surrounding regions. While factor costs (including labour) are important determinants of the geography of sourcing, a range of other costs (logistical and policy costs) are important in structuring the geographies of global and regional production. Firms in the Slovak Republic are responding to increasing competitive pressures and we assess how trans‐border sourcing, subcontracting and FDI are being integrated into strategies to sustain European production networks. We highlight the emergence of cross‐border production relocation to Ukraine as one specific strategy. We examine the product specificity of these changes and the ways in which they are embedded within already existing production networks, forms of cross‐border contracting and central European trade regimes. In other words, we explore some of the forces that shape the somewhat tentative continuation of garment production for export to EU markets in central Europe despite the ‘spectre of China’.     

Gender‐Related Opportunities and Turnover: The Case of Medical Sector Employees

This study examined the relationships between gender, objective and perceived work‐related opportunities, and turnover behavior. This was achieved using an interdisciplinary approach that combined the macro‐level perspective on opportunities in internal and external labor markets, with the micro‐level perspective of individual perceptions of opportunities. The results revealed that the opportunities–turnover linkage is gender‐specific rather than gender‐neutral. Women's turnover behavior was affected by their ‘perception’ of employment opportunities in the organizational and local labor markets. By contrast, men's turnover behavior was affected by ‘objective’, organizational and local labor market conditions. These findings indicate that the objective opportunities of the work market may be compatible with men’s, but not women’s, work needs and hence question existing assumptions of a ‘gender‐neutral’ effect of opportunities on turnover decisions.     

Just One Click Away: The Politics of E‐Commerce Sales Tax Policy

E‐commerce has altered the relationship between consumers, businesses, and U.S. states. E‐retailers are not required to collect sales tax from their customers, thus depriving fiscally insecure states of tax revenue, and providing a competitive advantage for e‐retailers, like Amazon Inc., in their struggle for market share with brick‐and‐mortar stores, like Walmart. Attempts at e‐commerce sales tax policy by state legislators and brick‐and‐mortar lobbyists failed until 2008 when New York successfully passed legislation. A subsequent wave of legislation ensued, and between 2008 and 2012, e‐commerce sales tax legislation left committee in fourteen states, each experiencing various levels of success. Existing explanatory efforts have not fully accounted for the combinatorial effect of political–institutional structure and market contestation in U.S. state‐level policy creation, as well as the likelihood of multiple pathways to passage. Embracing this framework, I use fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) to uncover three sufficient pathways for successful passage of e‐commerce sales tax policy. Two paths highlight the confluence of large retailer pressure and a conductive political–institutional structure facing fiscal stress, while the third path reflects political–institutional forces. These findings corroborate, as well as build upon, our knowledge of fiscal sociology, policy domains, and corporate power in American politics.     

Social upgrading and cooperative corporate social responsibility in global value chains: the case of Fairphone in China

In this article, we explore how a lead firm's strategy for corporate social responsibility influences the social upgrading of a supplier in a global value chain. Based on a single case study approach, we investigate the interaction between Dutch smartphone producer Fairphone and its Chinese supplier Guohong. On the one hand, the case illustrates how a cooperative approach to corporate social responsibility can lead to progress in suppliers' social upgrading. In particular, we highlight the role of a so‐called workers' welfare fund as a mechanism not only for improving measurable labour standards but also for enabling rights. On the other hand, the case demonstrates how the limited production and technological capabilities of the suppliers, a competitive market environment and lead firms' limited strategic access to the supply chain might constrain the extent of social upgrading through a cooperative approach towards corporate social responsibility in a global value chain.     

Territorial bounds to virtual space: transnational online and offline networks of Iranian and Turkish–Kurdish immigrants in the Netherlands

Abstract In this article we question a central trope of transnationalism and new media – deterritorialization – and its application to border crossing Internet usage by Iranian and Turkish‐Kurdish migrants in the Netherlands. Their Internet usage indicates the extent to which territoriality channels these groups' online practice. We found Dutch‐Iranian sites reflected correspondingly sparse offline community networks and state boundaries moulded their transnational ties, while regionally specific transnational dynamics were evident in Turkish‐Kurdish website surfing. These cases indicate that transnationalism and new media need not broaden or dissolve geographical identity or connectivity, but may reinforce it. Finally, we address the relations of territoriality with generation (first and second) and network medium (web forums versus conventional sites). Whereas first‐generation migrants' life online often reveals extensions of offline networks, the online practice of the second generation frequently reflects these networks in subtler ways, forming partially sovereign online communities that pivot on hyphenated identities. However, the relations of generation and network medium differ for Turkish Kurds and Iranians in the Netherlands.     

(Re)politicizing global financial governance: what's ‘new’ about the ‘New International Financial Architecture’?

Abstract This article is a contribution to the (re)politicization of global financial governance currently underway in the interdisciplinary field of international political economy (IPE). Particular reference is made to the economistic and technicist discourse prevalent in the so‐called ‘New International Financial Architecture’ (NIFA) process. It is argued that a (re)politicized reading of global financial governance is enabled by a conceptualization of governance networks that combines the institutional focus of existing IPE research with a concern with the discursive dynamics of authority relations and that situates governance networks in the power relations, contestation, contradictions and reproduction of global finance. Claims to ‘newness’ regarding the NIFA process, made by both the ‘architects’ themselves and left unchallenged by the majority of IPE scholars, are also disputed. The NIFA process is shown to have continued the contested development of an exclusionary transnational neo‐liberal network of governance that first began to emerge in the mid‐1970s.     

Supplying lead firms,intangible assets and power in global value chains: Explaining governance in the fertilizer chain

Global suppliers of agricultural inputs such as seeds, fertilizers and agrochemicals exert increasing degrees of power in global value chains (GVCs). Although the GVC literature has explained how global buyers govern GVCs from the buying-end, the question of how global suppliers achieve governance from the supplying-end remains underexplored. We address this gap by combining a multidimensional typology of power with literature on intangible assets. We argue that intangible assets are crucial resources for global suppliers to morph otherwise ungovernable supply chains for undifferentiated input commodities into more sophisticated and governable GVCs. We illustrate our argument with the case of the global fertilizer supplier, YARA International. YARA's intangible asset investments were instrumental in governing the value chain integration of Tanzanian smallholder farmers. They allowed YARA to exert more than bargaining power (demonstrative, institutional and constitutive power) and to effectively position itself as supplying lead firm in Tanzania's agro-industrial GVC.     

Total Quality Management in Contracted EAPs

Total Quality Management (TQM) is being implemented in many work organizations throughout the United States in an attempt to compete in a world market. Very few corporations possess the capacity in terms of resources, facilities and expertise to develop, and manufacture a product from inception to market without the use of outside resources. In many instances it is not economically desirable. As a result companies come to rely on a vast array of suppliers with the specific technology needed. Corporations committed to total quality management want suppliers who share the commitment. Employee assistance program vendors are one of these suppliers and as such have to meet the demands of client companies in the TQM arena. This article addresses one EAP vending firm's efforts towards implementing a TQM initiative within its own organization as a strategy to maintain a competitve market position as a supplier of EAP and behavioral health care services. Externally, the result has been to create a product differentiation when competing against other vendors. Internally it has resulted in the enhancement of a more cohesive and productive organization.     

ON FRUITFUL AND FUTILE TESTS OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SEARCH AND PRICE DISPERSION

We exploit cross‐sectional and temporal differences in search intensity in order to examine the relationship between search costs and price dispersion using a hand‐collected panel data set from Jerusalem's Shuk Mahane Yehuda outdoor market. We present empirical evidence that price dispersion increases with the cost of search using several different measures of price dispersion; however, our interpretation of this finding is sensitive to the search proxy in question. We also address several acute difficulties facing empiricists seeking to test theoretical price‐dispersion models in which consumers are heterogeneous in their search behavior. (JEL L11, L13)     

WHY DO ENERGY PRICES MATTER? THE ROLE OF INTERINDUSTRY LINKAGES IN U.S. MANUFACTURING

There is considerable empirical evidence that energy prices had a large effect on the U.S. economy between World War II and the 1980s. This paper argues that linkages between manufacturing industries amplify the effect of an energy price shock and help explain the large effect. In particular, energy-intensive industries are important input suppliers to other industries. When the price of energy increases, energy-intensive industries contract, raising materials prices for other industries. Because of the reduction in materials supply, the downstream industries also contract, which I refer to as the supply effect. Using data from the Census of Manufactures, I find that the supply effect accounted for about one half of the sensitivity of value added to the price of energy. I use plant-level census data to show that the supply effect caused similar changes in value added per plant as in value added per industry. A price increase caused a small, although statistically significant, decrease in entry and had no effect on exit. Finally, the supply effect reduced plant-level labor demand . ( JEL E32, Q43)     

Manufacturer suggested retail prices,loss aversion and competition

We study a model of vertical relations with imperfect retail competition in which a fraction of the consumers display reference-dependent demand with respect to the manufacturer’s suggested retail price. We demonstrate that in equilibrium the suggestion will either be undercut or complied with by the retailers, but never surpassed: undercutting occurs if competition is fierce, the impact from consumers affected by reference-dependent preferences is significant, and high price suggestions are credible; compliance occurs otherwise. We provide comparisons, and discuss implications, for consumer surplus for the scenarios with suggested retail prices, without vertical restraints and with resale price maintenance.     

Giving,Saving, Spending: What Would Children Do with £1 Million?

This article explores children's responses to a single question: ‘If someone gave you £1 million today, what would you do with it?’ Although such an exploration might seem trivial, we argue that their responses provide important insights into children's values and priorities. One‐third intend to spend it all, one quarter to save it. But the largest group claim that they would give all or some of the money away. Their responses highlight the divergent ways in which children use money to foster particular forms of social relations and social standing. Against the prevalent discourse of consumer society, the dominant theme of giving may indicate that the individualism of neoliberalism is less pervasive than is often feared, but also suggest that further research is needed into the social contexts and processes which encourage children to be ‘givers’, ‘savers’ or ‘spenders’.