Opening the black box of link formation: Social factors underlying the structure of the web

Links play a twofold role on the web: they open the channels through which users access information, and they determine the centrality of sites and their visibility. This paper adds two factors to the analysis of links that aim to draw a parallel between the web and other offline interorganisational networks: the resources that the organisations publishing online are able to mobilise, and the status or public recognition of those organisations. Exponential random graph models (ERGMs) are used to analyse a sample of the web of about one thousand sites, showing that both the economic resources of the producers of the sites (a proxy to their wider pool of resources) and their presence in traditional news media (a proxy to their status) significantly increase their probability of receiving more links, and therefore, their centrality. This adds a sociologically relevant dimension to the analysis of the web that has been disregarded so far but that is crucial to understand the way it distributes visibility.     

The preponderant causes of the USA banking crisis 2007–08

Scientific research on the banking crisis 2007–08 has answered many important questions according to generally accepted methodological standards. However, there remains at least one outstanding question that has not been answered with methodological accuracy: What caused the severe USA banking crisis 2007–08? To address this question the paper uses a counterfactual definition of ‘cause,’ distinguishes between separable and non-separable causes, and employs a well-posed methodology for the causation analysis of singular events. In addition, first causes and preponderant causes are distinguished. The main result of this paper is that the preponderant causes of the banking crisis 2007–08 were securitization and ignorance.     

United Airlines’ and American Airlines’ online crisis communication following the September 11 terrorist attacks

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, provided a challenging series of events for the crisis communication efforts of American Airlines and United Airlines. Based on crisis communication theory and organizational use of the Web, this study examined how the two companies used their Web sites during the first three weeks after the incidents as one means of conveying information following the attacks.Theoretically, analysis of incident-related segments of the two sites showed that the airlines evidenced key elements of crisis response. They provided instructing communication by giving facts, stating how their publics should take action, and providing information regarding how the problem was being corrected. Additionally, they offered adjusting communication through a series of condolence messages and links to relief organizations before emphasizing normal operations.From an online perspective, this study revealed that the Web enabled both companies to provide an immediate response to the attacks. The Web also allowed United and American to offer frequent updates about the incidents to their publics and to communicate their crisis response process to various publics simultaneously.     

Ethical crises in the international political economy

The Icelandic banking crisis provides a useful example of how the global economic downturn transformed into a domestic crisis and then transformed again into an international conflict. Rather than a strict economic analysis, discussion around the economic causes and potential cures surrounding the Icelandic banking crisis have been framed in terms of ethics. The analysis shows that ethical paradigms based on consequences, in line with Kant's hypothetical imperative, do not align well with categorical imperatives based on duty when considering international political conflicts. It is unclear that any accounting would have the potential to achieve reconciliation.     

Information vetting as a key component in social-mediated crisis communication: An exploratory study to examine the initial conceptualization

In order to understand publics’ crisis information consumption in an increasingly competitive and conflicting media environment, this study addresses how and why individuals vet information (or not) in social-mediated crisis situations. Built upon the social-mediated crisis communication (SMCC) model as well as grounded in the elaboration likelihood model and the meta-cognition theory, this study proposes an initial conceptual framework of crisis information vetting. An exploratory study, including four focus groups and 13 in-depth interviews, was conducted to investigate: 1) indicators of information vetting behavior according to participants’ self-reported experiences; and 2) what motivate and what prohibit participants from engaging themselves emotionally and cognitively in the process of crisis information vetting. Our qualitative data provide evidences for a two-step process of crisis information vetting, namely, primary vetting and secondary vetting. The 14 sub-constructs and 48 vetting behavior indicators rendered may serve in future scale development and further conceptual model refinement of the new crisis information vetting construct. By connecting publics’ crisis information consumption with their crisis information transmission in social-mediated crisis communication, this study also extends and enriches the SMCC model.     

CHANGING BUSINESS MODELS IN INTERNATIONAL BANK FUNDING

This paper investigates the foreign funding mix of globally active banks. Using BIS international banking statistics for a panel of 12 advanced economies, we detect a structural break in international bank funding at the onset of the great financial crisis. In their postbreak business model, banks rely less on cross‐border liabilities and, instead, tap funds from outside their jurisdictions by making more active use of their subsidiaries and branches, as well as interoffice accounts within the same banking group. (JEL C32, F65, G21)     

Is the medium the message? Perceptions of and reactions to crisis communication via twitter, blogs and traditional media

Value changes and the rapid emergence of media innovations (internet, social web) in society lead to an institutionalization of crisis communication, in which especially new media play a crucial role. The key contributions of the paper include deepening and refocusing the theoretical foundations of crisis communication by experimentally analyzing the effects of traditional and social-media strategies on the recipients’ perceptions of reputation; and by analyzing the effects or crisis responses on the recipients’ secondary crisis communications (e.g., sharing information and leaving a message) and reactions (e.g., willingness to boycott). The results indicated that the medium matters more than the message. For all three dependent measures - reputation, secondary crisis communication and reactions - main effects of medium occurred, whereas the message had only a significant main effect on secondary crisis reactions.     

Financing low-income housing in South Africa: Borrower experiences and perceptions of banks

South Africa is facing a low-income housing crisis, with the current backlog estimated at over three million units. An obstacle in the provision of low-income housing is the difficulty encountered by commercial banks to extend loans in this market despite supporting initiatives by Government. A lack of knowledge on the borrowing behaviour, preferences and experiences of low-income households in accessing housing finance from the commercial banking sector in South Africa hampers an understanding of the reasons for these problems. This paper's contribution is to provide information on the experiences and perceptions of low-income borrowers in the housing market of South Africa, specifically in their dealings with commercial banks. Results from a survey of 653 households across five provinces of the country are provided. In the survey, a structured questionnaire was used to obtain information on the experiences and perceptions of low-income households about their access to credit and housing finance, their experience of banks, the successes in credit approval, their judgements on the suitability of banks’ home-loan products, as well as preferences with regard to prices and interest rates.     

Regulatory Problems of Commercial Banks in the Context of the European Sovereign Crisis

This study aims to find whether regulatory measurement of banking risks proposed by the Basel Committee provide a framework that allows an adequate reflection of these risks in banks’ capital requirements. The analysis is carried through the prism of financial crisis that started in 2007 and current sovereign crisis in some European countries. In the study we investigated the problems attached to Standardized Approach and risk measurement of a financial instrument based on the rating of issuer. As a result we revealed contradiction in the current regulation, according to which risk free assets provide a better return than riskier assets. We found evidences of the gaps attached to Standardized Approach, which in current sovereign crisis can become problematic not only for commercial banks, but also for the issuers of financial instruments in which commercial banks have investments. Finally, we offered a different method of risk measurement that, we argue, provides a better measurement of banking risks as such.     

The Disconnection In Online Politics: the youth political web sphere and US election sites, 2002-2004

In recent years, candidates and other political actors have dramatically increased their presence and activities online. Although the notion of these activities reaching beyond a limited set of early-adopters is relatively new, younger citizens have long been at the forefront of new developments on the web and continue to make up a substantial proportion of those seeking political information online. Given longstanding concern over levels of civic and political engagement among young people, questions concerning what young people seeking information and opportunities for political involvement online might find there are particularly relevant. In particular, we explore political websites that are directly targeted at younger voters (e.g. Rock the Vote and similar sites), websites produced by candidates and political parties, and possible linkages between these two web spheres. Based on content and hyperlink analyses spanning the 2002 and 2004 US election cycles, we find a complex evolution of the online political information environment offered to youth. Although the youth engagement web sphere experienced dramatic growth during this time period, our data also identify a reluctance of many mainstream political actors to speak directly to young people through the web, and a surprising underdevelopment of linkages between youth politics websites and the wider web of political information online. We conclude by considering the implications of these patterns for future research on the role of new media in processes of political communication and engagement.     

How Fortune 500 companies used the Web for philanthropic and crisis communication following Hurricane Katrina

This study examined how Fortune 500 companies used their Web sites to provide philanthropic and crisis communication response following Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Results showed that companies tended to use traditional means of communication versus new media tactics to disseminate information related to the disaster. Companies with holdings in Louisiana and Mississippi tended to use slightly more types of information than companies without a substantive presence in those two states.     

Banking on Identity: Constructing a Canadian Banking Identity One Branch at a Time

This paper seeks to explore the role that the Canadian branch banking structure has played in producing a national Canadian economic space as well as nationally oriented conservative Canadian banking subjects. Explosive growth in the scope of Canadian bank branch networks between 1880 and 1930, both in terms of number of branches and their geographic range, forced banks to re‐evaluate their management practices. To manage an increasingly unwieldy structure, banks worked to centralize control and homogenize operations and the bankers themselves. Through centralization, bank head offices developed more robust branch reporting tools, which allowed them collect and repurpose disparate data into new national level information and knowledge. Working as centres of calculation, bank head offices used this new information to integrate a nationalist outlook throughout the network, deploying disciplinary technologies and techniques, in an effort to detach bankers from a local or regional orientation. This paper shows that, rather than merely a tool for efficient allocation of capital, the branching structure is a productive socio‐technical structure, which helped to construct the very nature of the national space it sought to manage.     

Integrating Internet-Based Distance Guidance With Services Provided in Career Centers

The Internet has evolved so rapidly that there is little information on integrating Internet-based distance guidance opportunities with resources and services provided by existing career centers. In this article, the author describes career centers and then explores the need for career centers in the information age, the types of Internet web sites, the functions of an integrated web site in promoting cost- effectiveness, options for integrating user needs, the role of instructional design in web site development, cost-effectiveness and staff collaboration, web master responsibilities, Internet web site implementation, staff training, and ethical issues. This article is based on a paper presented at a seminar titled, “Guidance in Open Learning Environments in the Finnish Polytechnics” at Espoo-Vantaa Polytechnic, Vantaa, Finland, 1998.     

Global networks of money and information at the crossroads: Correspondent banking and SWIFT

This article explores how transaction information is a fundamental element enabling and fostering global flows of money. Financial systems, constructed around account-based money, require infrastructure, which is separated into two parts: messaging and settlement, performed via trusted agents. This separation has allowed the geographical expansion of banking, and to this day constitutes a key architecture of increasingly global networks of money. Focusing on the correspondent banking system and the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, this article demonstrates the workings of this infrastructure in cross-border payments and in enacting economic sanctions. This sociotechnical infrastructure is a crucial yet overlooked area of global banking, which makes global economic and financial activity possible in the first place. Importantly, by analysing the organizational architecture of the global payments system and including the actors and agencies within it, we elucidate the (changing) relationships between data/information, geographies and power, contributing to the formation of a literature that conceptualizes financial infrastructure.     

'E-health': the internet and the transformation of patients into consumers and producers of health knowledge

This article analyses the use and production of health information on the Internet. The paper will show that users of health services have also become significant providers of health information and advice. This analysis is based on two studies. The first involved a qualitative study of households that used home computers to find health information on the Internet. The second piece of research involved the examination of home pages that contained accounts of ill health and an e-mailed questionnaire to home page authors. Drawing upon this research the consumption of health information is examined and related to how users make discussions about their health. This is followed by an analysis of the provision of health information on home pages. It is shown that these include web sites that provide simple accounts of an individual illness as well as sites that advocate a particular approach to health or offer services and products. The interweaving of personal experience with advice is considered and linked to debates about the quality of health information on the Internet and the reconfiguration of 'expertise'.     

„Da gibt es Sachen,die macht man einfach nicht“ – Deutungsmuster von Banken im Kontext von Nachhaltigkeit und Krise

Banks in Germany are experiencing a profound legitimacy crisis. In the wake of financial and economic crises, failures, and bailouts, as well as new oversight and stricter regulations, banks have lost the reputation and trust they once had. The present article uses an analysis of interpretative patterns to examine how banks seek to legitimize themselves in times of crisis, with reference to sustainability as a guiding principle of society. Following the concept of social legitimacy by new institutionalism in sociology, and based on discursive interviews with 18 representatives of German banks, we reconstructed three interpretative patterns: a) the differentiation from “bad” banks, which abandons profit-maximizing business models and promotes the moral superiority of sustainable banking, b) responsibility for society, which promotes the role and responsibility of banks as socially relevant actors that spur social change, and c) “right” return, whereby banks seek an appropriate relationship between their value orientation and a return on investments. Although a return on investment is economically necessary and confers legitimacy, it may not be understood as an end in itself. Banks discredited during the crisis can refocus on a banking model which promises social legitimacy by referring to sustainability.     

Premature menopause and self-concept disjunctions. A case for crisis management

1. Surgically or chemically induced premature menopause is a life transition characterized by a situational crisis superimposed on a developmental crisis. 2. After surgically or chemically induced premature menopause, women's self-concept shifts and evolves through an interactive or relational process. 3. Nurses can use crisis management to increase women's understanding of the physiological and psychological dimensions of premature menopause, facilitate their links with community support systems, and strengthen their existing social networks. 4. Effective crisis intervention approaches include structuring, verbalizing, clarifying, normalizing, and supporting.     

Between global and glocal: content analysis of the Chinese Web Sites of the 100 top global brands

This study examined the Chinese web sites of the 100 top global brands. It revealed that 58 of the 100 top global brands sponsored a Chinese web site. Refuting the argument that globalization is a homogeneous process, this study found that a glocal strategy, as opposed to a standardized global strategy, was being practiced in cyberspace by many of the companies with top brands. These companies glocalized their Chinese web pages by integrating local cultural characteristics into their brands’ strategies, thus presenting themselves as being socially accommodating to the local market. This study confirmed that glocalization is an outcome of the interaction between globalization and localization.     

Crisis response and crisis timing strategies,two sides of the same coin

This study investigates the moderating impact of the timing of crisis disclosure on the effect of crisis response strategies on organizational post-crisis reputation. It proposes that self-disclosing a crisis allows organizations to avoid explicitly taking or rejecting responsibility by means of a crisis response strategy. A 2 (crisis timing strategy: ex-ante vs. ex-post) × 2 (crisis response strategy: response strategy vs. objective information only) between-subjects factorial design was conducted among 137 participants. The results show that organizations that do not steal thunder better use a reputation restoring crisis response strategy than just providing stakeholders objective information about what happened. In addition, the results demonstrate that if an organization steals thunder, it is not necessary to offer reputation restoring crisis response strategies such as an apology. These findings stress the importance of timing to disclose crisis information in addition to the content of crisis communication strategies.