Showing papers in "International Journal of Social Economics in 2005"

Enhancing a competitive intelligence culture in South Africa

Abstract: Purpose – For competitive intelligence (CI) to evolve into a successful business discipline in a company, a culture of competitiveness should prevail. The extent to which CI is practiced in South Africa and the CI culture that exists in South Africa have remained a mystery until the late 1990s. It is the aim of this paper to assess the development of the CI culture since the late 1990s in South Africa and to make recommendations to enhance this culture.Design/methodology/approach – For the empirical evidence, the results of two previous research projects were used. Questionnaires were used in these projects. The questions covered all areas of the intelligence cycle: planning and focus, collection, analysis, communication, process and structure, awareness and culture and attitudes towards CI. Data of the sample population to perform a sample selection was gathered from three sources, namely Reed Inc., the Kompass Southern African and the membership lists of the respective Export Councils. In both the proje...

Corporate social responsibility and the bottom line

Abstract: Purpose – To clarify the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and profits.Design/methodology/approach – Explicates CSR against the background of a larger thesis (Coase) about the role of firms in a market economy.Findings – There are three different senses of CSR: negative – what not to do (illegal); positive – innovative products and services; and supplementary. There is a clear hierarchy or prioritization here: negative > positive > supplementary.Practical implications – There are four areas in which supplementary obligations contribute directly to the bottom line: the environment, marketing, recruitment, and international.Originality/value – This paper overcomes false dualisms between CSR and profits, avoids hidden political agendas, and offers persuasive arguments for firms to engage in relevant CSR activity.

Closing the Gender Gap in Bangladesh: Inequality in Education, Employment and Earnings

Abstract: Purpose – To provide and assess trends on the status of women in Bangladesh in terms of key macro level indicators namely, women's labour force participation, educational attainments and earnings vis‐a‐vis men.Design/methodology/approach – The trends in women's workforce participation, educational attainments and earnings compared with those of men are evaluated on the basis of descriptive statistics. Correlation and regression techniques are used to examine the relationship between women's education and workforce participation, and to predict the equalisation of female‐male educational attainment.Findings – The study finds evidence of growing commercialisation of women's work in Bangladesh. Although most women in the workforce are self‐employed or employed in low‐skill jobs, their participation in high skill and entrepreneurial jobs as well as policy‐making bodies is on the rise. While gender wage differentials have been considerably reduced in many industries, in general, women tend to be paid less than...

The speed of adjustment and the sequencing of economic reforms

Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to review the issues involved in determining the appropriate speed of adjustment and the sequencing of economic reforms, and to develop a checklist of key guidelines for policymakers as a basis for their decision‐making process.Design/methodology/approach – The paper develops a conceptual framework based on a survey of the theoretical and empirical literature, and the practical experience of the authors in this area.Findings – The analysis in the paper shows that the optimal speed and sequence of reforms is country‐specific. But key policy considerations can help guide policymakers in the design of their reform strategy.Practical implications – The arguments favoring a shock approach or a gradual approach are not absolute. Each country has to choose the proper speed of adjustment and sequencing of reforms by examining country‐specific factors. A thorough case‐by‐case analysis is needed before a decision on the appropriate timing and sequencing of reforms can be made.O...

A paradigm of Islamic money and banking

Abstract: Purpose – Theological perspectives in ethics, values and their functional application in the real world are vividly covered by the theory and practice of Islamic banking in recent times. This paper seeks to formalize the theological paradigm of the unity of God (Tawhid) and to make the groundwork of unity of knowledge in the context of the money, finance and real economy linkages.Design/methodology/approach – The paper combines narrative with argument and analysis.Findings – On the basis of this the structure of the balance sheet of Islamic banks with no interest rate as an ethical condition of Islamic financing is delineated. This topic is followed by a discussion on the experience of Islamic banks in recent times in the area of mobilizing resources and gaining profitability, popularity and stability by the Islamic financing methods and the direct mobilizing of financial resources into the real economy. In this way, the Islamic banks are shown to attain the much‐needed complementary relations between soc...

Transparency: a two‐way mirror?

Abstract: Purpose – Transparency is assumed to improve markets' efficiency, to enhance better corporate governance and finally, to ensure moralisation of business life. The paper aims to the realities that prevailing discourses on transparency dissimulate.Design/methodology/approach – First, a genealogical method is used to explore the theoretical roots, which underpin claims for a greater transparency (reduction of information asymmetry in academic discourses). Second, the analogies between mainstream theories on corporate governance (which legitimate the demand for transparency) and the Panopticon, the famous architecture conceived by Bentham are pinpointed. Finally, the reflections developed by philosophers such as Ricoeur and Henriot on ethics are exploited to explain why transparency is unable to produce the expected effects.Findings – First, discourses on transparency often conceal reinsurance manœuvres and power struggles. Second, transparency appears as a modernised manifestation of panopticism: a common ba...

A model of human behaviour for sustainability

Abstract: Purpose – The paper aims to explicate the systematic creation of social and ecological scarcities within an absolutely monetised economy and derives the necessity to change the “rules of the game” for doing business towards sustainability. Therefore, a model of human behaviour is developed to explain, on the one hand, sustainability‐hostile behaviour and to contribute to sustainability‐supporting behaviour and “rules of the game” in dynamic interactions, on the other hand.Design/methodology/approach – A model of human behaviour is developed, integrating socio‐scientific insights as well as socio‐biological and evolutionary‐psychological findings. The emergence of human behaviour is conceptualised as an interactive process using the theory of nested control loops including constructivist impulses.Findings – Human behaviour is regarded as the result of three constituting components: cultural shaping (cultural artefacts, education, socialization, enculturation), genetic predisposition (pattern recognition ba...

Sustainable development and environmental accounting: the challenge to the economics and accounting profession

Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of natural resources accounting in sustainable development. Natural resource accounting is important because the welfare of a nation measured in terms of gross domestic product (GDP) has several weaknesses.Design/methodology/approach – This paper achieves this objective by identifying the present status, the constraints and the challenges for the economics and accounting professions.Findings – The main weakness of GDP as a measure of development is that it does not take into account damages to environmental resources. However, the improvement of the concept to include environmental resource use is made difficult because of the difficulties of measuring environmental damage. The challenge to the economics and accounting profession is to ensure interdisciplinary collaboration, development of a framework to explicitly include the environment, development of credible valuation procedures for the environment, and inclusion of the various ethical positi...

A cross country analysis of outward foreign direct investment patterns

Abstract: Purpose – To evaluate the relevance of the source country idiosyncratic factors in determining the firm's foreign direct investment (FDI) propensity and consequently the country's outward FDI position.Design/methodology/approach – A sample containing all countries with positive outward FDI flows for the whole period between 1976 and 1999 is selected. The sample consists of 25 countries and is divided in three groups, namely advanced countries, middle‐income countries and developing countries. An econometric model is estimated for each country group aiming to determine the variables affecting outward FDI position.Findings – Market structure differentiation and openness are the only variables affecting outward FDI in all country groups. Marginal efficiency of capital is the significant variable in advanced and middle‐income countries. All other variables, namely technology, human capital and exchange rate affect outward FDI position of advanced countries.Research limitations/implications – The list of FDI e...

Exposure to pesticides, ill‐health and averting behaviour: costs and determining the relationships

Abstract: Purpose – Farmers' exposure to pesticides is high in developing countries. As a result many farmers suffer from ill‐health, both short and long term. Deaths are not uncommon. Seeks to address this issue.Design/methodology/approach – Field survey data from Sri Lanka are used to estimate farmers' expenditure on defensive behaviour (DE) and to determine factors that influence DE. The avertive behaviour approach is used to estimate the costs. Tobit regression analysis is used to determine factors that influence DE.Findings – Field survey data show that farmers' expenditures on DE are low. This is inversely related to high incidence of ill health among farmers using pesticides.Originality/value – The results of this study are useful, not only for Sri Lanka, but also for many countries in South Asia, Africa and Latin America in reducing the current high levels of direct exposure to pesticides among farmers and farm workers using hand sprayers. Farmers' exposure to pesticides is a major occupational health hazar...

Economic growth and income inequality: the case of the US

Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of income inequality on economic growth in the US.Design/methodology/approach – This paper applies the endogenous growth model including human capital and technological progress. The generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (GARCH) technique is applied to estimate regression parameters. The number of patents granted is chosen to measure technological progress. Percentage of people 25 years old and over who have completed 4 years of college or more is selected to measure human capital.Findings – The findings show that a higher Gini index hurts economic growth. Economic growth has a positive relationship with the growth in civilian employment, investment spending, technological progress, and human capital. When three other indicators of income inequality are considered, similar conclusions can be reached.Research limitations/implications – A major implication is that a deterioration of inequality would be harmful to economic growt...

Family size economics and child gender preference: a case study in the Nyeri district of Kenya.

Abstract: Kenyan women have more children, especially in rural areas, than in most developing nations. This is widely believed to be an impediment to Kenya’s economic development. Thus, factors influencing family size in the Kenyan context are important for its future. A brief review of economic theories of fertility leads to the conclusion that both economics and social/cultural factors must be considered simultaneously when examining factors that determine the number of children in a family. The need to do this is borne out in Kenya’s situation by utilising responses from a random sample of rural households in the Nyeri district of Kenya. Economic and social/cultural factors intertwine to influence family sizes in this district. After providing a summary of the main statistical results from the survey, we use multiple regression analysis to explore the influences of a woman’s age, level of education, whether she has outside employment, whether the family keeps livestock, whether she expresses a preference for more boys than girls, whether the family uses only family labour (including child labour) and the size of the farm, which is used as a proxy for family income. It was found that preference for male children has an important positive influence on family size in this district. Women were found to have greater preference for male children than their male counterparts possibly because of their fear of being disinherited if they do not produce an heir for their husbands. Preference for sons was also found in allocation of human capital resources at the household level in that the female respondents were found to have lower levels of education than their male counterparts. Various long-term policies are outlined that may help to reduce the number of offspring of women in Kenya.

Brain drains and brain gains: causes, consequences, policy

Abstract: Purpose – Highly‐skilled knowledge workers make location decisions in response to many determinants. This paper seeks to focus on life‐time earnings and the desire to pursue a personal research program – a life‐long pursuit of interesting puzzles.Design/methodology/approach – A conceptual discussion and approach are taken.Findings – The paper argues that access to personally interesting research problems and institutional support structures which allow them to be pursued should be considered alongside pure earnings factors in understanding why researchers and scientists move internationally – and why they may stay put when the economic incentives to move appear high. A nation's innovation policies can be important for influencing such workers' decisions and the impact of these policies shaped by migration flows. This little‐researched connection is explored in the final, policy‐oriented section.Originality/value – Provides insights on why, in a world of intensifying competition for scarce knowledge worker...

Code of ethics and employee governance

Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to add to the debate on governance and, second, to describe a value set theory of the firm.Design/methodology/approach – The methodology has centred on good governance amongst employees – management and workers alike.Findings – It is noted that committees are appointed in firms to ensure that good governance is practised across a range of issues to do with audit, remuneration and appointment. However, the debate on governance has largely overlooked the importance of good governance amongst all employees. It was found that governance at the employee level requires a code of ethics that is not just about right and wrong, but emphasises a contractual sense of duty to fellow employees as stakeholders in the firm. This defines the essence of obligation and duty within the stakeholder firm, the s‐firm.Practical implications/limitations – One practical implication of the paper is that the practice of good governance at the employee level should begin by aski...

On the theory of post-Communist economic transition to market

Abstract: Purpose – The paper investigates the utility of economic theory for post‐Communist economic transformation. It serves to explain the main reasons for market reform failure in different post‐Communist countries.Design/methodology/approach – A literature review suggests that after the collapse of the Communist system there was no economic theory of transition to market. Whenever one considers the transition of post‐Communist economies to a market system (which, in fact, is nothing but post‐Communist transition to capitalist economies), it has to be placed on record, as this kind of transition has no precedent in history.Findings – The main mistake of gradualists stems from their overlooking some very important conditions for successful transition: political guarantees and internal assets for reforms. And the success of shock therapy rests on the paradox, “the worse, the better”.Originality/value – There is as yet no special economic theory of post‐Communist transformation and it is just developing. This pap...

Socio‐economic factors determining adult literacy in developing countries

Abstract: Purpose – This study attempts to find the socio‐economic factors behind the differential achievement level in adult literacy in developing countries.Design/methodology/approach – Considers a number of theories. These include modernization theory, dependency/world systems theory, developmental state theory, new human ecology theory and convergence‐divergence theory as an explanation of the differential level of adult literacy rate.Findings – The findings reveal the importance of the initial level of adult literacy and the population growth. Similarly short‐term economic growth has a significant impact on the initial level of adult literacy, and the medium human development and low human development samplesOriginality/value – This attempt to find the factors behind adult literacy is of importance not only as a constituent indicator of the human development index, but also through its various contributions towards economic growth.

Globalization and Financial Instability: Challenges for Exchange Rate and Monetary Policy

Abstract: Purpose – The paper analyses the challenges of globalization for exchange rate and monetary policy.Design/methodology/approach – It first deals with the implications of globalization for the choice of an appropriate exchange rate regime. Then it discusses different strategic aspects of monetary policy in the light of globalization. Finally, it examines the effect of globalization on inflation and the implications of this for the focus on monetary policy.Findings – The main challenge of globalization for exchange rate policy refers to the choice of an appropriate exchange rate regime. Exchange rate policy is constrained by the financial instability tendency effect of globalization insofar as intermediate exchange rate regimes tend to be very unstable. However, globalization may also create the desire to change the focus of monetary policy. Globalization is sometimes argued to reduce inflationary pressures and therefore to “ease” the job of central banks. However, there are caveats with this conclusion or a...

Technology revolutions and social development: Prospects for a green technoeconomic paradigm in lower income countries

Abstract: Purpose – Aims to assess the potential for a broad “green” technoeconomic paradigm (TEP) to effectively achieve and sustain higher levels of welfare from economic and environmental sources in manylower income countries (LIC). A green TEP comprises a new socioeconomic system based upon a set of inter‐related technologies that increase human welfare, but focus upon saving material, energy and other environmental resources. TEPs have pervasive social and economic effects that include substantial productivity, trade competitiveness, and environmental quality advantages. The desirability of such economic change must incorporate the general approach of social economics and alternative notions of well‐being.Design/methodology/approach – The paper is largely discursive in nature and provides a systematic identification of the LIC conditions that are likely to promote, and benefit from, the pervasive adoption of material‐ and energy‐saving technologies. Some results of an exploratory cross‐country study of the emp...

Alternative paths to the transition process

Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to develop alternative paths to the transition process as a result of alternative models of transition.Design/methodology/approach – A political economy methodology to the transition process results in alternative transition models. As a result five alternative models of transition come into being.Findings – Transition models can be distinguished on the basis of economic analysis, speed and the political structure. Each model recommended a set of economic policies to facilitate the transition process. The adoption of gradualist processes of transition – except in the case of shock therapy – requires a sequence by which the reforms should be introduced.Originality/value – The paper contributes to the transition literature by developing a set of economic policies combined with a sequence path for each transition model.

Cultural lag: a relevant framework for social justice

Abstract: Purpose – This paper aims to show the interrelation and relevancy of the concept and theory of cultural lag to social justice. The conception of social justice, though wide in scope, is applied in this paper to the limited domain of equality of opportunity and fairness with respect to income distribution.Design/methodology/approach – The methodology of this paper is holistic and interdisciplinary, and interrelates the social and the economic in the overall dynamics of general culture evolution.Findings – The “inverted U‐curve hypothesis” of Simon Kuznets implies that a greater equality of income distribution would be forthcoming in an economy characterized by a mature phase of modern economic growth. Empirical evidence demonstrates that such a movement toward greater equality is subject to question. The American experience of the 1920s and the period from 1973 to the present offers evidence to question the U‐curve hypothesis. Contrary to expectations, during these periods income distribution became more u...

Farmer strategies and forest conservation: a case study from south‐western Madagascar

Abstract: Purpose – This paper seeks to evaluate different approaches to forest conservation in the areas outside the national parks of south‐western Madagascar.Design/methodology/approach – Data from a household survey in the area are employed to analyse farmer strategies towards conservation of local forest resources, and present conservation strategies are evaluated in this light.Findings – It is argued that the prospects for future forest conservation in the area are dim at best, and that any policy proposal intended to remedy this situation must as a first priority establish alternative livelihood opportunities for the local population in order to ensure a minimum of incentives for conservation on their behalf.Originality/value – The paper is of value to all those interested or involved with sustainability issues.

A socio‐economic framework of interpretation and analysis

Abstract: Purpose – Economics and sociology are two different theoretical disciplines dealing with one and the same subject. The aim of the paper is to integrate the two paradigms into one framework of interpretation and analysis.Design/methodology/approach – Economics is presented as a science that approaches human behaviour being subject to the omni‐present phenomenon of scarcity, assuming rationality and social independence of human actors. Sociology is presented as a science that interprets human behaviour as group behaviour. Groups are motivated to rank one another in terms of status. Integration must take place by relating the two analyses based on these paradigms.Findings – The basic economic framework is about the relationship between preferences and scarce resources, determining the structure of allocation of goods. The basic sociological framework is about the relationship between the distribution of socially valued goods and the culture that gives goods their social meaning. A socio‐economic framework is...

China's ethnic minorities and the middle classes: an overview

Abstract: Purpose – The paper aims to discover the role of the middle classes in the development of the ethnic minorities of China, given the importance of the middle classes in international economic development in the modern age.Design/methodology/approach – The paper offers a definition of the “middle classes”, including both the economic and political aspects. It looks at these classes among the ethnic minorities of China through fieldwork and printed statistics and materials.Findings – The ethnic minorities were 8.41 per cent of the total population of China, according to the 2000 census. The paper finds that there are emerging middle classes among the ethnic minorities, especially some of them, including the Uygurs and Koreans of China. These middle classes are centres of entrepreneurship among the ethnic minorities, promoting development and modernization, but also intensifying inequalities. Their role is mainly economic, but also political; for example, there is some material on the Chinese Communist Party ...

Financial support systems: the student experience in England and France

Abstract: Purpose – To investigate how the financial status of students in England and France affects their experience of university life. Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire survey was carried out among undergraduates in two countries. There were 168 responses from students studying at a French university and 325 responses from students studying at an English university. Findings – The financial burden in France rests with parents, while in England students are largely responsible for their own funding. Indicators suggest that English students may be suffering from financial difficulties.Students continue the tradition of enjoying themselves and socialising, whatever their nationality and financial status. Research limitations/implications – The comparison made was not between institutions of equal status. The Institut de Formation Internationale in Rouen is part of a Grande Ecole group which is private, and may attract students from higher income families. The students at Manchester Metropolitan University Cheshire study in a rural locale (the towns of Crewe and Alsager in south Cheshire), which is unusual for a UK university and it may well be that a lower proportion of these undergraduates come from higher income families than the French students. Practical implications – While it would seem to be more equitable and economically efficient for individuals to pay directly for services they receive, rather than those services being funded by higher tax, this study highlights certain problems. The quality of the educational experience for English students may be reduced by their continuing to live at home with parents and carrying out low level work while studying. Originality/value – No other research appears to have been carried out in the UK or in France on this topic.

Social responsibility: the most important, and neglected, problem of all?

Abstract: Purpose – To draw attention to an important but neglected topic, and provide an analysis that will help others to go further into key elements of the theme of social responsibility.Design/methodology/approach – A review of themes previously encountered in a diverse literature.Findings – It is argued that many powerful forces within capitalist‐consumer society militate against social responsibility. In view of looming global justice and sustainability problems the lack of social responsibility points to gloomy prospects for humankind. Yet it is argued that the solution is theoretically simple and three essential themes for the discussion of positive action are considered.Practical implications – A number of important implications for education and social action are discussed.Originality/value – The topic seems to have been almost totally overlooked previously, although many works are tangentially related.

The impact of alternative styles of policy leadership on the direction of local government reform

Abstract: Purpose – Alongside public agencies and private firms, non‐profit organizations (NPOs) play a vital role in the delivery of human services in a number of advanced nations. The purpose of this paper is to advance a theory of leadership to try to explain how NPOs can overcome the various forms of voluntary sector failure described by Salamon.Design/methodology/approach – Examines the conditions under which leadership style is likely to prevail and the influence they are likely to have on the direction of local government reform.Findings – Advances a theory of leadership to better understand this problem and its implications for public policy.Originality/value – Adds to existing literature by demonstrating that leadership can ameliorate some kinds of voluntary sector failure.

Analysis of the potential and problems of new institutional economics for third world development

Abstract: Purpose – The aim of this paper is to provide a critical evaluation of the potential of new institutional economics (NIE) in third world development.Design/methodology/approach – The paper reviews various theories under NIE from both conceptual and empirical perspectives. It then reviews the various definitions of institutions and show that institutions are essential to overcome problems of information and uncertainty.Findings – The review finds that weak institutions can undermine development and hence governments in developing countries should strengthen their institutions to provide greater scope for efficient functioning of markets. Where the market does not work owing to high transactions costs, traditional institutions of collective action and group decision making can work and hence need to be recognised.Research limitations/implications – The major implications of the paper is that in developing countries, a clear understanding of various institutions such as user groups, inter‐linked credit marke...