Between argument and coercion: Social coordination in rural environmental governance

Increasingly, partnerships and other cooperative forms of governance are common-place in addressing problems of environmental management in rural landscapes. These forms of governance are multi-dimensional in the policy instruments employed; the make-up of actors; and, the types of rationalities that actors use to debate the problem and proposed solutions. This paper pursues the question of how different modes of social action, represented in argumentative claims of participants, influence social coordination in these governance arenas. An empirical study is presented of agri-environmental governance in Australia where actors debate planning and policy initiatives to reduce diffuse water quality impacts from farms on the adjacent Great Barrier Reef. Forester’s conceptualisation of practical social action which locates communicative action in the ‘real world’ of interest-based planning contexts, is used as an analytical frame to identify: (i) the type of claims made by governments, farmer groups and other actors in argumentation; (ii) the claims association with communicative, strategic and instrumental modes of action; and, (iii) their consequence for social coordination in formation and maintenance of inclusive, legitimate and viable forms of governing. The study finds that the interconnected character of claims made by actors, and the ready switching between modes of action observed, point to a situated and dynamic expression of rationality within these contested and prolonged debates on how to legitimately and effectively govern rural environments.     

Metachoice for strategic analysis

A necessary precursor to strategic choice is the selection of a strategic choice evaluation method — metachoice. Unfortunately, managers are unlikely to find much guidance on how to conduct metachoice analysis in the strategy literature. In light of this problem, a template is presented based on two questions that must be addressed by those engaged in strategic analysis generally and metachoice specifically: (1) what are the organization's strategic goals? (2) how willing are they to monetize their predictions and valuations? Four resulting choice methods are presented and discussed: Discounted Cash Flow Analysis (including variants based on real options), Profitability Analysis, Modified Discounted Cash Flow Analysis and Multi-Goal Analysis.     

Johnson and Johnson phantom recall: A fall from grace or a re-visit of the ghost of the past

This paper addresses and evaluates the case of Johnson and Johnson's crisis management. In an attempt to analyze the case, the paper overviews Johnson and Johnson's Tylenol product tampering in the 1980s and its recent phantom recall of Children's Motrin. The assessment of the company's crisis management was done using the anticipatory model of crisis management (AMCM). Conclusions drawn from this assessment put Johnson and Johnson in a different spotlight than it had enjoyed during its earlier crisis management efforts. Implications for organizational crisis management efforts are also presented.     

Exploring the underpinnings of impaired strategic decision-making under stress

The present study sought to examine the underpinnings of impaired strategic decision-making under stress. In contrast to previous laboratory-based research, we conducted a quasi-experiment in a real life stress situation. Specifically, we used the beauty contest game and compared the performance of a group of participants who were exposed to a real-life stressor (waiting to attend an exam at a university class) with a control group of participants who were not exposed to stress (waiting to attend a regular lecture at a university class). Furthermore, about half of the participants were instructed to write down what they believed another participant had assumed the average number in the beauty contest game to be and which target number she (or he) had chosen accordingly. The results showed that stress impaired strategic reasoning in the beauty contest game. Importantly, even when only including participants who understood the rules of the game in the analyses, stress still increased the numbers chosen in the beauty contest. Furthermore, we found that participants in the stress condition were significantly less likely to base their chosen number on their belief about other players’ choices. Hence, stress not only impairs understanding of the math behind the beauty contest game but also the degree of strategizing per se.     

战略哲学论略

战略哲学即战略之道,战略的基本矛盾是自由和限制的矛盾,战略是竞争自由的方式,21世纪主导的战略范式是时间战略范式,“战略机遇期”中存在“战略黄金点,”“以弱胜强”“、以劣胜优”不成立,战略的根本问题是力量的自由和限制的问题,将发生战略革命,战略哲学将建立起来。     

“天安号事件”后中国东亚地缘战略的困境与出路

2010年3月的"天安号事件"后,中国东亚地缘战略陷入困境,如何突破这种困境成为学术界共同关注的问题。鉴于韩国经济对中国的高度依赖、中韩两国的文化认同、美日韩三边关系存在的不稳定因素以及美韩两国对朝鲜半岛未来走向定位的差异性等多维原因,我们可将韩国作为中国东亚地缘战略困境的突破口。在对韩战略上,我们应以"经济外溢"、平等协商、文化交流与合作以及增进两国的政治互信为途径,通过中韩关系的改善实现对"围堵链条"的突破,从而为中国走出东亚地缘战略的困境找到出路。     

论宏观调控体系中地方政府的角色

在建构与社会主义市场经济体制相适应的宏观调控体系时 ,地方政府的作用是不容忽视的。本文从社会角色理论出发 ,分析了地方政府在宏观调控体系中的角色集特征以及由此所导致的角色冲突 ,并探讨了地方政府在对本地区经济进行宏观调控时应遵循的角色规范。     

Register data in the evaluation and program planning of addiction treatment programs: Using Sweden as an example

Data from large-scale registers is often underutilized when evaluating addiction treatment programs. Since many programs collect register data regarding clients and interventions, there is a potential to make greater use of such records for program evaluation. The purpose of this article is to discuss the value of using large-scale registers in the evaluation and program planning of addiction treatment systems and programs. Sweden is used as an example of a country where register data is both available and is starting to be used in national evaluation and program planning efforts.The article focuses on possibilities, limitations and practicalities when using large-scale register data to conduct evaluations and program planning of addiction treatment programs. Main conclusions are that using register data for evaluation provides large amounts of data at low cost, limitations associated to the use of register data may be handled statistically, register data can answer important questions in planning of addiction treatment programs, and more accurate measures are needed to account for the diversity of client populations.     

Strategic networks of discovery and creation entrepreneurs

Current research favors diversity within strategic networks as a source of idea generation and opportunity pursuit. However, diversity may not always be advantageous. Drawing from literature on entrepreneurial opportunities, social network theory, and cognitive psychology, it is argued in this paper that the level of diversity in entrepreneurial strategic networks differs based on the nature of the entrepreneurial opportunity context—discovery or creation. Competing hypotheses are developed for the nature of strategic networks in the discovery and creation opportunity contexts. The results from our two studies (using PSED II dataset and data collected from women entrepreneurs in India) show that entrepreneurial strategic networks differ based on whether entrepreneurs are pursuing discovery or creation opportunities, i.e., entrepreneurs operating in ‘discovery’ contexts tend to use networks ties with individuals who are relatively similar to themselves, while entrepreneurs in ‘creation’ contexts tend to use network ties with individuals who are relatively different from themselves. Further, the results also show that the diversity in strategic networks is not unidirectional in discovery and/or creation contexts but varies depending on the specific matters for which the entrepreneur seeks advice. Discussion and future research directions outline the unique findings of this study and potential implications for theory development.     

Strategic public management for financial condition: Focus on fund balances of school districts

Scholars have emphasized the roles of strategic public management and the financial condition but little is known about the link between the two. Finding the missing link is the purpose of this study. By analyzing data from K-12 Texas school districts, this study investigates how top managers’ strategic efforts toward their superiors, subordinates, and external stakeholders affect the financial condition of school districts. The findings suggest that superintendents’ managing upward toward school boards increases fund balances, whereas managing downward toward school principals decreases fund balances. Apparently, the relationships between school boards, superintendents, and school principals contain different priorities and incentives that influence their behaviors in managing school district budgets.