Showing papers on "Embeddedness published in 1998"

Introduction: The Embeddedness of Economic Markets in Economics:

Abstract: Even as the market seems triumphant everywhere and its laws progressively and ineluctably impose themselves worldwide, we cannot fail to be struck by the lasting topicality of the following wellknown quotation from D. North: 'It is a peculiar fact that the literature on economics ... contains so little discussion of the central institution that underlies neoclassical economics-the market' (North, 1977).) How can this surprising shortcoming be explained? How can this self-proclaimed failure of economic theory be accounted for? By distinguishing the thing from the concept which refers to it, the marketplace from the market, the English language suggests a possible answer. While the market denotes the abstract mechanisms whereby supply and demand confront each other and adjust themselves in search of a compromise, the marketplace is far closer to ordinary experience and refers to the place in which exchange occurs. This distinction is, moreover, merely a particular case of a more general opposition, which the English language, once again, has the merit of conveying accurately: that between economics and economy, between theoretical and practical activity, in short, between economics as a discipline and economy as a thing. If economic theory knows so little about the marketplace, is it not simply because in striving to abstract and generalize it has ended up becoming detached from its object? Thus, the weakness of market theory may well be explained by its lack of interest in the marketplace. To remedy this shortcoming, economics would need only to return to its object, the economy, from which it never should have strayed in the first place. The matter, however, is not so simple. The danger of abstraction and unrealism which is supposed to threaten every academic discipline-and which time and again has been exposed and stigmatized,

Relationships and Unethical Behavior: A Social Network Perspective

Abstract: Recent models of unethical behavior have begun to examine the combination of characteristics of individuals, issues, and organizations. We extend this examination by addressing a largely ignored perspective that focuses on the relationships among actors. Drawing on social network analysis, we generate propositions concerning types of relationships (strength, multiplexity, asymmetry, and status) and the structure of relationships (structural holes, centrality, and density). We also consider the combination of the type and structure of relationships and how this embeddedness perspective relates to social contagion and conspiracies.

Market or Community Failure? Critical Perspectives on Common Property Research

Abstract: The best known revisionist perspective on the so-called "tragedy of the commons" underscores important conceptual and hence policy errors and has been important in contributing to understanding of conditions in which collective action for common benefits, with respect to common pool resources, can take place. Characterizing this perspective as a "thin" or abstract, generalizing explanatory model, with strengths and weaknesses thereby, we discuss a "thicker" or more ethnographic perspective that emphasizes the importance of specifying property rights and their embeddedness within discrete and changing historical moments, social and political relations. We argue that this perspective leads to a focus on "community failure" rather than "market failure" as the presumed cause of environmental problems, and hence, to questions about how markets, states, and other external and internal factors affect the capacities of communities and user-groups to respond adequately to environmental change.

Internationalisation Processes, Networking and Local Embeddedness in Technology-Intensive Small Firms

Abstract: The paper argues that technology-intensive small firms often need to internationalise their activities, and especially sales, at a very early stage of their development because of the limited and global nature of the technological market niche which they have been set up to exploit. From a survey of 100 such firms in the Cambridge and Oxford regions, it demonstrates that many technology-based smaller firms are engaged in a range of international networks and internationalisation processes, including internationalisation of markets, research collaboration, labour recruitment, ownership and facilities location. Technology-intensive firms reporting high levels of internationalisation also differ significantly from those which are more nationally-oriented, for example in terms of size, age, research intensity, university links, and innovativeness. There are also differences with respect to recent growth rates. Finally, the paper demonstrates that far from substituting international for local networks, technology-intensive firms which have achieved high levels of internationalisation in fact also exhibit above-average levels of local networking with respect to research collaboration and intra-industry links. Internationalisation therefore appears to be grounded or embedded in successful local networking and research and technology collaboration.

Toward a role-theoretic conception of embeddedness

Abstract: Attempting to formalize Granovetter's embeddedness argument, rational choice theorists have viewed social relationships as repeated games. This article argues that role theory would provide a better metatheoretical perspective on embeddedness. A preliminary sketch of role theory suggests a promising theoretical methodology. To illustrate, I construct a repeated‐game model in which the players are not individuals but roles (a profit‐maximizing “businessperson” and nonstrategic “friend”); the businessperson role acts strategically in light of a metatule that governs intrapersonal role switching.

The Forbidden Modern: Civilization and Veiling

Abstract: The Forbidden Modern: Civilization and Veiling, by Nilufer Gole. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1996. 140 pages. Notes to p. 159. Bibl. to p. 167. Index to p. 173. $42.50 cloth; $15.95 paper. The Forbidden Modern was originally published in Turkish in 1991 as Modern Mahrem (Metis Publishers). It is a valuable addition to the studies of the veiling of women within contemporary "Islamist" movements. Nilufer Gole joins the ranks of such writers as Fadwa El-Guindi and Sherifa Zuhur writing on Egypt, and Fatima Mernissi and Germaine Tillion writing more generally on the Islamic world, in trying to understand a phenomenon that is widely misunderstood and that is the subject of much debate both within the Middle East and beyond. Gole also seeks to view veiled women as social actors in their own right, not merely as agents for Islamist movements. Gole writes primarily for academics, but she recognizes the relevance of her work for other audiences, including: the mass media, both regional and global; dichotomous groups of secularists and Islamists in Muslim societies, especially in Turkey; and policy makers both within the Middle East and in the West. She should be applauded for moving beyond the stance taken by many secularist Turkish intellectuals who wrote in the past. She exemplifies a growing and transforming recognition among Turkish social scientists of the importance of Islam as a topic of research. Her project began with a historical event, the "post-1983 Islamist veiling movement of university students" in Turkey (p. 2). She eschews approaches that use "external" factors such as economic deprivation and social alienation to provide either theological or political explanations of veiling. She favors instead an approach that incorporates interpretations by the Islamist actors themselves, namely, the women who choose to don the veil. Thus, she utilizes a theoretical approach that "originates from the question of 'meaning' rather than from a relationship of 'causality' " (p. 87). Gole begins with a stimulating introduction outlining the theoretical issues that inform her approach: "This book explores the significance of the veiling movement in Turkey through a multilayered analysis of power relations ranging from . . private gender relations to . . . [the] encounter between civilizations" (p. 1). As a study of the "embeddedness of gender" in Islamism and modernism (p. 1), the book also illustrates the power of gender studies to illuminate large social and political realities. In the following two chapters, Gole's historical analysis illuminates the "civilization project" that occupied first the Ottoman and then the Republican Turkish elite from at least the Tanzimat reform period (1839-1876). …

The network embeddedness of new, technology-based firms: Developing a systemic evolution model

Abstract: The present paper focuses on the interactive relationship between new, technology-based firms and their network environment. The paper analyzes the mechanisms through which new, technology-based firms become immersed in innovation and manufacturing networks. The concept of embeddedness is developed and used to depict such mechanisms. A systemic evolution model of new, technology-based firms is proposed. The model depicts the evolution of new, technology-based firms in manufacturing and innovation networks. The model emphasizes the catalyzing role of new, technology-based firms in national systems of innovation. Network embeddedness is empirically explored in five case studies of Finnish new, technology-based firms. The systemic evolution model serves as an interpretative scheme for the case studies. The analysis of the organic relationship between new, technology-based firms and their systemic environment also serves to reveal the implications of embeddedness for new, technology-based firms.

Sideline and lifeline: The cultural economy of maple syrup production

Abstract: Why do people engage in economically minor resource production activities? This field study of Vermont and Quebec maple syrup producers and their households and enterprises examines the diversion of motivations and concerns m contemporary maple syrup production. Farmers, former farmers, and non-farmers all produce maple syrup. The concept of embeddedness provides a framework for understanding how producers understand their involvement with maple syrup, by highlighting the social and cultural context of economic action. An embeddedness perspective emphasizes how other work activities, household relations, the surrounding community, and the resource environment shape the possibilities for and understandings of minor resource production activities. Maple syrup generally only supplemented the household income of the 76 producers interviewed. Producers articulated a cultural economy of syrup production centered on its contribution to overall livelihood, cultural identity, and lifestyle. Reasons included managing risks, making seasonal use of land and labor resources, developing a retirement income, demonstrating a rural, agrarian identity, and strengthening family and community ties. Implications for policy include the place of minor resource production activities in securing rural livelihoods and providing cultural anchors in rural regions experiencing demographic and economic change.

European companies between globalization and localization: a comparison of internationalization strategies of British and German MNCs

Abstract: This paper assesses the extent of which British and German multinational companies have moved on a continuum between nationally embedded MNCs and globally oriented TNCs. Degree of national embeddedness and implantation into national economic and policy networks is held to influence the internationalization strategy of companies - the degree of FDI undertaken, the kind of competitive advantage they seek to derive from it and the way in which they combine nationally based and globally focused activities. It is shown that the different national business systems of Britain and Germany influence the responses of MNCs in their management of the tensions between pressures for globalization and established, nationally shaped business strategies and patterns of activities. In both cases, however, exaggerated claims about globalization of company activities and assets are shown to be misguided. But the paper also recognizes that some more globalized structures and strategies have begun to emerge in the second half ...

Learning from Renewal Projects: Content, Context and Embeddedness

Abstract: During the last decade there has been an increasing awareness of the importance of “embeddedness” as an important dimension in analysing projects. While traditional project management theory presupposes that projects are clearly defined and separable from the context in which they are implemented, the notion of embeddedness implies that contextual factors affect the project organisation throughout the whole project. In the most embedded kind of projects, renewal projects, most actions are in fact taken with the learning context in mind rather than the project contents.

Embedded Patterns of International Alliance Formation

Abstract: Using a combination of institutional, systems contingency and ecological theory, this paper argues and empirically demonstrates that key founding characteristics of international alliances are embedded (interactively related) in one another. Specifically, the technical area of the alliance activity, the intended direction of product/knowledge flows among sponsors, and the administrative form of the alliances are shown to be interactively related. Further, the concept of embeddedness was combined with Transaction Cost Economics (TCE) and technological views to show two founding patterns. One pattern called Hybridization was consistent with technological explanations while the second called Dominance was suggested by TCE approaches. The new interactive relationships were identified in two large samples involving US, Japanese and European firms during a period from 1970 to 1989.

The changing role of border zones in the transforming economies of East-Central Europe: The case of Poland

Abstract: The geopolitical and socio-economic changes in East-Central Europe that started at the beginning of the 1990s has brought about a fundamental change in the status of frontier areas in this region. The paper examines the new transborder relationships as well as the conditions, forms and dynamics of integration processes on the example of Poland. It discusses some stimuli and barriers to cross-border co-operation, including the creation of new transborder institutional embeddedness (e.g. Euroregions). On the other hand, the paper stresses the role of the informal economy in the current development of border zones in East-Central Europe.

Global Risks and Social Inequality: Critical Remarks on the Risk-Society Hypothesis

Abstract: The "risk-society hypothesis" consists of two related parts. In its first part, the hypothesis views modern societies as being in a transition from "class societies" to "risk societies." In its second part, it states that modern societies undergo a process of "individualization." Essentially, Ulrich Beck and others elaborate both parts of the hypothesis with respect to industrial societies in general and to German society in particular. Critics argue that the hypothesis misjudges the relation between societal risk distribution, conflict, and social inequality. It fails to understand the main reasons for risk-related conflicts in society when it supposes that the basic conflicts characterizing risk societies are different from the basic conflicts in class societies. It fails mainly because it ignores the possibility of causal attributions and risk perceptions directly related to antagonistic (class) positions. As far as the postulated individualization process is concerned, the risk society hypothesis represents a peculiar mixture of supposedly right and wrong assumptions. The hypothesis seems quite right in assuming changing modes of social integration: Not so much traditional ties as market and competitive mechanisms determine social life, often advancing to its most private corners. The hypothesis fails, however, in its structural implications. In particular, the view that the postulated trends question the "hierarchy model of social inequality" is neither theoretically convincing nor empirically tenable. Instead, neither exposition to global risks nor individualization is likely to make society more egalitarian. Furthermore, instead of assuming that risk-societies overcome class conflicts, the paper envisions the emergence of a new risk-related cleavage in society. Introduction: The Risk-Society Hypothesis (1) The "risk-society hypothesis" (Beck, 1992) views modern societies as being in a transition from "class societies" to "risk societies." To Beck, class societies are "scarcity societies" concerned with "the distribution of socially produced wealth and related conflicts" (op.cit, p. 20). He states that "sooner or later in the continuity of modernization the social positions and conflicts of a `wealth-distributing' society begin to be joined by those of a `risk-distributing' society," and clarifies that "by risks" is meant "above all radioactivity, which completely evades human perceptive abilities, but also toxins and pollutants in the air, the water and foodstuffs, together with the accompanying short- and long-term effects on plants, animals and people" (op.cit, p. 22). Essentially, the risk-society hypothesis implies a set of three related propositions, namely a globalization and conflict proposition concerning the relationship between social inequality ("the logic of wealth distribution") and risk ("risk distribution"), and a proposition concerning the "individualization of social inequality." (a) Globalization Proposition The globalization proposition states that the hazards in risk societies are modernization risks with an "inherent tendency toward globalization." Though it is conceded that "the history of risk distribution shows that, like wealth, risks adhere to the class pattern, only inversely," that there exist "broad overlapping areas between class and risk society" to the extent that one is tempted to conclude "risks seem to strengthen, not to abolish, the class society." Although "the possibilties and abilities to deal with risks, avoid them or compensate for them are probably unequally divided among the various occupational and educational strata," Beck explicitly rejects the conclusion "that through these reflective and well financed dealings with risks the old social inequalities are strenghtened on a new level." Instead, "that does not strike at the heart of the distributional logic of risks" (op.cit, p. 35f.). …

Organization-Community Embeddedness: The Social Impact of Enterprise Restructuring in the Post-Communist Czech Republic

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to examine the impactof the enterprise restructuring process, which hastypified the experience of post-communist industry, onlocal communities. It is argued that restructuring has had differential impacts on communities,and one key factor in making this judgment is the natureof the enterprise community relationship inherited fromthe former state socialist regime. Conceptually, this relationship can be understood in terms ofthe social and institutional embeddedness of theenterprise in its local community. The paper draws uponresearch into three large former state enterprises in the now Czech Republic in order to examinethe effects of different degrees of embeddedness on theimpact of restructuring decisions to reduce enterpriseoverstaffing, and to unburden the enterprise of its social and welfare assets andactivities.

Programme Impact Assessment in Micro‐Finance: The Need for Analysis of Real Markets

Abstract: summary Impact assessment in micro‐finance has focused on the impact of services on users and the ability of the organisation delivering those services to sustain its operations into the future. However, a focus on building organisations capable of long‐term provision assumes that they will have a positive impact on the efficiency of the financial market. This is an assumption which impact assessment should also test but which has so far been neglected. Moreover, the search for a framework within which to undertake such an assessment must incorporate the complex array of social and political, as well as economic, relationships which financial markets embody. A fourfold analytical approach is proposed which can incorporate gender relations and which focuses on state involvement, market organisation, market structure and social embeddedness.

Ruhr Firms between Dynamic Change and Structural Persistence – Globalization, the ‘German Model’ and Regional Place-Dependence

Abstract: This paper1 investigates recent restructuring strategies of medium-sized firms in the Ruhr area, and assesses the role of institutional, organizational and socio-economic factors in shaping their strategic responses to economic change. By pointing out the extent to which embeddedness in different political-economic contexts constrains the expansion of organizational space, it is argued that medium-sized firms respond by falling back on routinized, predominantly regional, interaction structures. ‘Embedding’ and cooperation are, however, constrained by market forces and competitive pressures, which manifest themselves in various governance dilemmas. Solving these dilemmas between institutional persistence and ‘economic imperatives’ constitutes a major organizational challenge for the sample firms.

The Importance of Context in Explaining Human Capital Formation and Labor Force Participation of American Indians in Rosebud County, Montana

Abstract: In response to recent recommendations to incorporate social, political, and cultural contexts into employment and poverty analyses for minority populations, this paper draws on several sources and types of data to examine the human capital and labor force participation patterns of Northern Cheyenne Indians and non-Indians in Rosebud County, Montana. Discussions utilizing human capital and economic organization data contribute to clarifying differences in poverty levels of the two populations. However, the "embeddedness" approach utilizes ethnographic data and recent analyses of schooling to illuminate the social and cultural relations affecting Northern Cheyenne employment patterns as well as the methods by which individuals, families, and communities adapt to the recent declines in economic opportunity and wages on the reservation. Such discussions suggest the need to reconsider policies designed to address American Indian human capital formation and economic development needs.

Change as "Appropriate Adaptation": Administrative Adjustment to European Environmental Policy in Britain and Germany

Abstract: This paper is looking at European environmental policy from the "second image reversed" perspective. Specifically, it investigates the conditions under which we see administrative change in the EU member states as a consequence of the implementation of EU environmental policies. We adopt a comparative research design � analyzing the impact of four environmental policies in Britain and Germany � to trace the conditions for adaptation in the context of different administrative structures and traditions. As a starting hypothesis we adopt the institutionalist expectation that administrative adaptation depends on the "goodness of fit" between European policy requirements and existing national structures and procedures. On the basis of our empirical evidence we further refine the notion of "goodness of fit" by looking at the level of embeddedness of national structures in the overall administrative tradition from a static and dynamic perspective. Furthermore, we develop an explanatory framework that links sociological and rational choice variants of institutional analysis

Social Embeddedness and Agent Development

Abstract: Two different reasons for using agents are distinguished: the `engineering' perspective and the `social simulation' perspective. It is argued that this entails some differences in approach. In particular the former will want to prevent unpredictable emergent features of their agent populations whilst the later will want to use simulation to study precisely this phenomena. A concept of `social embeddedness' is explicated which neatly distinguishes the two approaches. It is argued that such embedding in a society is an essential feature of being a truly social agent. This has the consequence that such agents will not sit well within an `engineering' methodology.

Historical Analysis of Law

Abstract: Kenneth Ledford's and Michael Meranze's insightful comments raise important questions about the nature of legal history in general, and of the history of punishment in particular. According to Ledford and Meranze, modem legal history is social history, to be distinguished from "old-style intellectual history."' A product of the latter "historical method no longer in favor,"2 "The Right to Be Punished" draws Ledford's and Meranze's criticism for its insufficient "root[s] ... in the soil of social history"3 and for its inadequate "account of the ... social basis of the modem will to punish"4 and "the social embeddedness of punishment."5 In this reply, I sketch an alternative to Ledford's and Meranze's implicit vision of legal history by focusing on the question, What is the point of legal history?6 One may of course do legal history for many reasons and a debate about what the point of legal history is would be as unproductive as classifying a work of scholarship as history, legal history, or a particular kind of legal history. I am not interested in such a debate. Instead, I outline one approach that strikes me as promising and that I call historical analysis of law. The point of historical analysis of law is to critique the legitimacy of a past or present legal practice. Analysis lays the foundation for critique. Historical analysis is only one among several modes of critical analysis of law. Others include the economic, philosophical, sociological, and psychological analysis of law. Historical analysis of law in particular charts the emergence and development of legal practices and their legitimation.

Learning, innovation and proximity. An empirical exploration of patterns of learning: a case study

Abstract: A growing body of theoretical research is addressing the importance of learning in the organisational and technological renewal of firms, and therefore in their efforts to improve competitiveness (Daft & Huber, 1987; Levitt & March, 1988; Huber, 1991; Dodgson, 1993; Blackler, 1995; Dodgson, 1996). In these discussions, regions are thought to have important features for facilitating innovation too (Florida, 1995, Cooke, Gomez Uranga, Etxebarria, 1997; Morgan, 1997). This paper reviews literature on organisational learning and networks, learning regions as systems of innovation, and the role of proximity in the transfer of information and knowledge. Literature on organisational learning and regional systems of innovation takes the embeddedness or relational perspective on innovation as a point of departure. Moreover, in studies on proximity the existence of embeddedness is often taken for granted. But, is embeddedness always as important for innovation as assumed? And is proximity really of importance in systems of innovations? In this paper, these questions are explored empiricaIly. After a brief discussion of theoretical literature on organisational learning, economic networks, and spatial proximity, the paper focuses on the empirical exploration of patterns of learning in a specific Dutch region. Learning organisations are depicted as problem-solving actors. In coping with innovation problems, actors participate in different kinds of networks. Finally, the spatial dimension of these networks is investigated.

Dimensions of Value and the Aims of Social Inquiry

Abstract: The articles in this issue of the American Behavioral Scientist present a critique of mainstream social science and outline an alternative hermeneutic or interpretive approach to human science inquiry. This hermeneutic view (a) stresses that the cultural embeddedness of all human endeavors, including social science, prevents us from ever obtaining a strictly objective or value-neutral account of human behavior. It also (b) claims that social inquiry can lead to a better understanding of the good life or what ends are worth striving for by humans. But why does rejecting objectivity not undermine any claim to a better understanding of what is truly good or worthwhile? This article explores how both cultural or historical embeddedness and claims to understanding the good might be harmonized within a conception of four broad dimensions of human values or valuing: elementary value experiences, purposive human activity, pursuit of the excellence of various forms of life, and the human sense of what is worthy fr...

Inter-firm cooperation in a transitional economy : comparative experience in two Polish regions

Abstract: After the collapse of the communist system in 1989, Poland embarked on the transition to a market economy. One of the main issues of the transformation is the creation of a strong private sector in the economy. The privatisation of state-owned enterprises has encountered considerable problems and lags behind expectations, whereas newly established small and medium-sized firms already play an important role both in terms of employment and output. These new firms, however, face problems which are peculiar to the transitional environment as well as difficulties which are similar to those experienced by small and medium-sized firms in more mature market economies. In response to these problems, Polish authorities and foreign donors are implementing support structures for small and medium enterprises which are based on Western models. Drawing on evidence from two Polish regions, this thesis compares the acceptance of these imported structures with cooperation structures that endogenously evolved between local enterprises. Apart from other local initiatives, two regional chambers of commerce serve as examples for transplanted support structures. Their role in the business environment is evaluated on the basis of a questionnaire survey among their members. This evidence is then contrasted with examples of informal inter-firm cooperation examined in four case studies. The social and economic relations between firms in these case studies are analysed following the embeddedness concept as developed by Granovetter (1985). The thesis argues that the import of formal institutions from Western market economies meets with difficulties regarding credibility and acceptance, since they reflect the specific conditions in the economies in which they evolved. Thus, the institutional support for small and medium-sized enterprises in Poland should take into account the case-specific structures of the business environment, which are rooted in the distinctive features of the transition process in general and of the regional situation in particular.

Kinship, Property and Stratification in Rural Java: A Network Analysis

Abstract: Kinship, Property Transmission, and Stratification in Rural Java Douglas R. White and Thomas Schweizer draft: March 1993, Kinship, Networks and Exchange, T. Schweizer & D.R. White, Eds. INTRODUCTION Kinship is a basic institution in human societies, ordering social interaction, reproduction, and the flow of resources. Despite questioning of underlying conceptions and definitions (Schneider 1984), it continues to be a central focus of anthropological inquiry (Shimizu 1991). The goal of this paper is to analyze and represent kinship structures in a precise and comprehensible way, focusing on rural Javanese communities and social strata. We combine cultural analysis of kinship principles (kinship as a cultural construction) with an analysis of differentiation in kinship networks. Specifically, we are interested in studying the linkage among kinship and property transmission in different social strata by means of rigorous methods that are capable of mapping, in concrete ways, the embeddedness of economy and society. In achieving these goals, we want to be able to map actual networks of genealogical (descent and marriage) ties, but we find the standard genealogical chart (from Rivers 1910 onwards) too crude a way of representing network structure. Genealogies, with symbols for distinct individuals, their (often multiple) marriage ties, and the relations between parents and offspring, are typically so cumbersome as to limit the number of actors, kinship ties, and property flows that can be brought into a comprehensive diagram. In any case they lack a simple visual gestalt. The standard genealogy also cannot be represented as a graph with points for individuals and different kinds of lines for relations between them. This is because one of the basic genealogical relations, that of parentage, is not between one individual and another, but between one individual and a pair of other individuals. One of our reasons for wanting a genealogical graph as a network representation is that older forms of structuralism have proven too crude at assessing patterns of ordering and transformation(Schweizer 1992): they provide broad views of structure, but are unable to cope with ethnographic details as they mesh into ensembles. Looking for new solutions to the representation problem of kinship and related domains we have been working in recent years with a joint US-French-German project concerned with ordering patterns in social data (discrete structure analysis). Discrete structure is the ordering pattern of qualitative or relational (binary) data. This approach provided us with a different perspective for analysis of social network data: