Showing papers on "Restructuring published in 2011"

The Coalition Programme: A New Vision for Britain or Politics as Usual?

Abstract: The Coalition programme includes restructuring public provision through reforms and cuts which will take public spending in the Britain below that in the US. This article explores whether the Coalition agenda is best understood as a new approach to Britain's deep-seated economic short-comings or simply as the normal politics of gaining and retaining power. It analyses the current government's programme, identifies the common features across the range of policies and discusses how they are likely to develop as they encounter set-backs.

The paradox of liberalization – understanding dualism and the recovery of the German political economy

Abstract: What do the recent trends in German economic development convey about the trajectory of change? Has liberalization prepared the German economy to deal with new challenges? What effects will liberalization have on the coordinating capacities of economic institutions? This paper argues that coordination and liberalization are two sides of the same coin in the process of corporate restructuring in the face of economic shocks. Firms seek labour cooperation in the face of tighter competitive pressures and exploit institutional advantages of coordination. However, tighter cooperation with core workers sharpened insider-outsider divisions and were built upon service sector cost cutting through liberalization. The combination of plant-level restructuring and social policy change forms a trajectory of institutional adjustment of forming complementary economic segments which work under different rules. The process is driven by producer coalitions of export-oriented firms and core workers’ representatives rather than by firms per se.

Understanding and Controlling Crime: Toward a New Research Strategy

Abstract: 1 The Case for a New Crime Research Strategy: An Overview.- 2 What Have We Learned from Major Longitudinal Surveys?.- 3 What Have We Learned from Major Experimental Studies?.- 4 Prevention: Families and Schools.- 5 The Effects of Labeling.- 6 Restructuring the Juvenile Court.- 7 The Effects of Imprisonment.- 8 What Kinds of Longitudinal-Experimental Studies Are Needed?.- References.- Author Index.

Why Did ‘Zombie’ Firms Recover in Japan?

Abstract: The Japanese economy experienced prolonged recessions during the 1990s. Previous studies suggest that evergreen lending to troubled firms known as ‘zombie firms’ distorted market discipline in terms of stabilising the economy and caused significant delays in its recovery. However, the eventual bankruptcy of zombies was rare. The purpose of this study is to investigate why zombie firms recovered in Japan. We first extend the method of Caballero et al. (2008) and identify zombies from among the listed firms. Subsequently, we investigate the nature of corporate restructuring that was effective in reviving zombie firms. Our multinomial logistic regressions suggest that reducing the employee strength of zombie firms and selling its fixed assets were beneficial in facilitating their recovery. However, corporate restructuring without accounting transparency or by discouraging incentives for managers was ineffective. In addition, corporate restructuring lacked effectiveness in the absence of favourable macroeconomic environment as well as substantial external financial support.

Bulldozer Neo-liberalism in Istanbul: The State-led Construction of Property Markets, and the Displacement of the Urban Poor

Abstract: Istanbul is undergoing a radical and dramatic restructuring as the authorities seek to bring about a ‘Neoliberal Modernisation’ of the city. This centres on the promotion of market-oriented rationality, and private property. Current plans envisage restructuring huge swathes of the city to bring about functioning land and property markets. The resulting threat to residents and communities has provoked widespread but sporadic resistance. This paper sets the pressure for the social ‘purging’ of Istanbul in the context of the global spread of Authoritarian NeoLiberalism. After describing the main features of the Turkish variant, and noting the parallels to autocratic rule in late Ottoman Istanbul, it traces the impact on local communities. Three cases studies of responses to regeneration plans, drawn from both the European and Asian sides of the city, reveal the diversity of local responses.

Diversity in the lean automobile factory: doing class through gender, disability and age

Abstract: This study advances a critical re-conceptualization of ‘diversity’ through class. Drawing on the case of CarCo, the Belgian branch of a North American automobile company, I show how the discursive constructions of various socio-demographic identities reflect underlying class relations between labour and capital and are, in turn, implicated in their reproduction. Reflecting the instrumental conceptualization of labour as the source of economic value in the capitalist mode of production, female, older and disabled workers were discursively constructed as unable or unwilling to perform as expected within the factory lean production system. These negative identities in turn legitimized the elimination of ‘different’ workers in the company restructuring and the outsourcing of the phases of the production process that could be carried out by them, materially reproducing class relations. The analysis unveils the ‘dark’ business case against diversity at CarCo, a company which was renowned as a ‘best’ case for di...

Neoliberalism and the Global Restructuring of Knowledge and Education

Abstract: Introduction: The Contemporary Politics of Knowing and Learning 1 Changing the Soul: The Contours, Currents and Contradictions of the Neoliberal Revolution 2 The Machinations of the Managerialism: New Public Management and the Diminishing Power of Knowledge Professionals 3 The Neoliberalization of Knowledge: Privatization and the New Epistemic Economy 4 The New Marketplace of Ideas: The New Knowledge Makers and their New Knowledge 5 Creating the Clever Country: Neoliberalism, Knowledge Society Policies and the Restructuring of Higher Education 6 "An Island of Socialism in a Free Market Sea:" Building the Market-Oriented School 7 Aligning Markets and Minds: The Responsiblized Self in the New Entrepreneurial Culture

Rural Restructuring under Globalization in Eastern Coastal China: What can we learn from Wales?

Abstract: The differentiation of rural development in eastern coastal China has been exaggerated by the rapid rural restructuring under globalization, since economic reforms and an open-door policy were initiated in 1978. The problems associated with rural restructuring in China may in part be addressed by drawing on experiences and achievements from other countries, including Britain, which may have experienced similar developmental stages as part of their trajectory of rural progression. This paper examines the different trajectories of rural development and different policies and strategies for rural development in eastern coastal China and Wales, identifying points of convergence and divergence, and considering the possible lessons that China might take from the experience of rural development in Wales. Keywords: Rural restructuring, globalization, comparative study, Wales, eastern coastal China

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Abstract: One of the leading publishers of textbooks and other educational materials for the US K-12 educational instruction market has suffered a dramatic decline in sales and profits in the wake of the 2008-2009 financial market crisis and economic recession and is now overburdened with debt To regain its competitiveness, the company has to significantly reduce its debt by billions of dollars Company management is trying to decide which of several options is best for achieving this goal, including filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, restructuring its debt out-of-court, or filing a "pre-packaged" Chapter 11 bankruptcyLearning Objective: Understand economic tradeoff between legal bankruptcy reorganzation and out-of-court restructuring

The Impact of Corporate Board Meetings on Corporate Performance in South Africa

Abstract: We investigate the impact of corporate board meetings on corporate performance for a sample of 169 listed corporations from 2002 to 2007 in South Africa (SA). Our findings suggest a statistically significant and positive association between the frequency of corporate board meetings and corporate performance, implying that SA boards that meet more frequently tend to generate higher financial performance. A further investigation indicates a significant non-monotonic link between the frequency of corporate board meetings and corporate performance, suggesting that either a relatively small or large number of corporate board meetings impacts positively on corporate performance. Our findings are consistent across a raft of econometric models that control for different types of endogeneities and corporate performance proxies. Our results provide empirical support for agency theory, which suggests that corporate boards that meet more frequently have increased capacity to effectively advise, monitor and discipline management, and thereby improving corporate financial performance.

A New Form of Energy Poverty Is the Hallmark of Liberalised Electricity Sectors

Abstract: The restructuring of electricity sectors has resulted in households paying significantly higher prices. Some European prices rose by more than 100 per cent between 2000 and 2010. NSW households experienced an 80 per cent increase during the period 2007 to 2012. Growing numbers of low‑income and vulnerable households are spending higher proportions of disposable income on energy bills and, we contend, suffer deprivation and social exclusion as a result. This phenomenon, we posit, is a new form of energy poverty driven by rapidly rising electricity prices which are directly related to electricity sector restructuring. The energy‑impoverished population is estimated at 150 million in Europe, and growing. Policy responses are ineffective and poorly targeted, while Australian policy makers rely on measures which significantly understate electricity price changes. This article explores the prevalence and consequences of the problem of energy poverty and outlines the extent of its occurrence in Australia, the country hailed as an exemplar of electricity sector liberalisation.

Public Private Partnerships in Urban Regeneration Projects: organizational form or managerial capacity

Abstract: ____ Urban regeneration companies (URCs) are public-private entities appearing across Europe. They are created specifically to manage and implement more effectively urban regeneration projects. Core ideas behind the establishment of these newly emerging partnerships aim to tackle the challenging process of restructuring these organizations so as to function at arm's length from political oversight. However, contemporary literature on governance suggests that organizational form may be less a factor than managerial capability. Using survey data obtained from individuals who are heavily involved in Dutch urban regeneration partnerships, this article points out why twin URC organizational characteristics, i.e., functioning at arm's length from politics plus its tight organizational format, are not significant to their effective performance. Instead, use of multiple management strategies is ultimately more relevant to their effective performance.

Carbon Management in Tourism: Mitigating the Impacts on Climate Change

Abstract: 1. Travel, Tourism and Carbon Management 2. Climate Change Mitigation: Reasons for Advocacy 3. Climate Change: The Physical Basis 4. Climate Change Mitigation 5. Tourism and Climate Change 6. Trends in Emission From Tourism 7. Understanding Emission Growth in Tourism 8. Mitigation: Systemic Considerations for Restructuring 9. Mitigation: Technology 10. Mitigation: Management 11. Mitigation: Education 12. Mitigation: Behavioural Change 13. Mitigation: Politics & Research 14. Planning for Change, Exploring Innovation

Financial repression redux

Abstract: Periods of high indebtedness have historically been associated with a rising incidence of default or restructuring of public and private debts. Sometimes the debt restructuring is subtle and takes the form of, “financial repression.” In the heavily regulated financial markets of the Bretton Woods system, a variety of restrictions facilitated a sharp and rapid reduction in public debt/GDP ratios from the late 1940s to the 1970s. In this paper, we summarize our findings for the post-World War II period for a selected group of countries and document the resurgence of financial repression in the wake of the 2007-2009 financial crises and the accompanying surge in public debts in advanced economies.

The Effect of Corporate Governance on Auditor-Client Realignments

Abstract: Events leading up to the implementation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) increased the public’s focus on corporate governance and increased regulatory scrutiny of corporate governance mechanisms. These events also contributed to a massive restructuring in the audit market which resulted in the transfer of a large number of clients from Big N to non-Big N audit firms. We extend prior research examining the determinants of auditor-client realignments by investigating the effect of corporate governance on downward (i.e., from Big N to non-Big N auditors) switching activity. We develop a corporate governance index comprised of governance characteristics that we expect auditors to find more desirable in their clients (specifically, board and audit committee independence, diligence, and expertise). The results suggest that Big N auditors consider client corporate governance mechanisms when making client portfolio decisions. Specifically, downward auditor-client realignments are more likely for clients that score lower on our corporate governance index. However, the influence of audit committee-related corporate governance components on downward auditor-client realignments decreased post-SOX. The reduced effect of audit committee-related corporate governance components is consistent with what would be expected if the audit committee-related rules imposed by SOX reduced the variation in audit committee quality across clients.

Do downsizing decisions affect organisational knowledge and performance

Abstract: Purpose – This study seeks to examine the impact of downsizing and restructuring decisions and processes on perceptions of organisational knowledge and effectiveness after downsizing and restructuring events in “successful” and “unsuccessful” organisations.Design/methodology/approach – The study proposes a conceptual framework hypothesising that the impact of decisions and processes on levels of organisational knowledge are key determinants of effectiveness in post‐downsizing and restructuring organisations. Data were collected using a survey instrument developed through review of literature along with focus group findings. Survey data are factor‐analysed to identify stable constructs for testing hypotheses using regression analysis.Findings – The findings indicate that the significance of the variables tested is found in those organisations considered by employees to be unsuccessful after downsizing and restructuring, rather than in their successful counterpartsPractical implications – The findings indic...

The Socio-spatial Restructuring of Łódź, Poland

Abstract: Most of the research on urban change in the formerly centrally planned countries has focused on the more prosperous capital cities of Warsaw, Prague, Berlin, Budapest and Tallinn Thus, our understanding of on-going urban transformations in this part of the world is skewed towards a handful of urban areas This paper takes a different approach by studying the post-socialist transformations of the socio-spatial structure of a second-tier city, based on data from Łodź, Poland The results reveal the socio-spatial restructuring of Łodź at both the macro and micro levels Most importantly, despite being organised at a wider scale by stable social areas, at the micro level there are dynamic processes of socio-spatial segregation throughout the city that contribute to the fine-grained fragmentation of social space From an empirical perspective, this means that either a stable structure or growing fragmentation can be identified, depending on the scale of analysis

The impact of urban growth on commuting patterns in a restructuring city: Evidence from Beijing

Abstract: Our existing knowledge of the links between urban growth and commuting patterns are dominated by cases from developed countries. This paper examines the impact of urban growth on workers' commutes using the case of Beijing, which is undergoing rapid economic and spatial restructuring. The results of an analysis of household survey data show that clustered and compact urban development in planned sub-centres is likely to reduce suburban workers' need for a long-distance commute to the city centre when the workers' socio-economic characteristics, the level of transport accessibility and household preferences for residential location are taken into account. Workers employed in the manufacturing sector tend to have shorter commutes and travel within the planned suburban sub-centres. This reveals that the decentralization of employment in the manufacturing sector provides more opportunities to enhance the spatial matches between household residential and job location choices. Household preferences for residential location have an effect on commuting patterns, and high-income workers are likely to accept longer commutes in order to fulfil their residential preferences. Dramatic urban restructuring, in conjunction with changes in lifestyle, is creating new commuting patterns in the rapidly growing cities of China.

Contesting the city: neoliberal urbanism and the cultural politics of education reform in Chicago

Abstract: This article examines the intertwining of neoliberal urbanism and education policy in Chicago. Drawing on critical studies in geography, urban sociology and anthropology, education policy, and critical analyses of race, the author argues that education is constitutive of material and ideological processes of neoliberal restructuring, its contestation, and the struggle for a new urban social imaginary. The paper focuses on neoliberalization of education as a social process. The data show that education policy is constitutive of racialized restructuring of urban space and managerial governance of the public sphere. While capital is a central actor, neoliberal policy also works its way into the discourses and practices of education through actions of marginalized and oppressed people working within constraints of the present situation. This suggests the need to address the (Gramscian) ‘good sense’ of neoliberal policy in a counter-hegemonic struggle for the city.

Quantifying citizens: neoliberal restructuring and immigrant selection in Canada and Australia

Abstract: This article analyzes the ways in which Canadian and Australian immigration policies represent causes and consequences of neoliberal restructuring. Interrogating neoliberalism as a series of political-economic and moral changes derived from the marketization of societal and governmental arrangements, it illustrates how numerically-based ‘points systems’ have been employed as mechanisms for: gauging human capital; establishing indices of risk and undesirability; and promoting the ‘responsibilization’ of incoming migrants. In doing so the points systems' historical trajectory is traced through a variety of administrative reforms characteristic of neoliberal government and flexible accumulation. Ultimately, this article contends that as rational, technical and economically guided systems of enumeration and assessment, both governments' policies mirror, enhance and extend neoliberal arrangements and sensibilities. In providing ostensibly objective techniques of evaluation the points systems have assisted in i...

Do Economic Globalization and Industry Growth Destabilize Careers? An Analysis of Career Complexity and Career Patterns Over Time

Abstract: We analyze the impact of economic globalization and industry growth on the complexity of early work careers in Germany. We conceptualize complexity as the absolute number of employer changes, the regularity in the order of job changes, and the variability of the durations spent in different employment states. Results from empirical analyses based on the German Life History Study (N = 5453) show only a small increase in the complexity of work careers over the last decades, but there was a shift in the prevalence of different career patterns. This suggests that effects of globalization might be counteracted or modified by other social changes that affected work careers in Germany during the last 60 years. In particular, we consider the possible impact of educational expansion, labor market restructuring, and women's increased employment. We find no evidence that industry-specific economic globalization impacts the complexity of work careers, but we find a U-shaped relationship between industry growth and career complexity. Careers are slightly more complex in industries with high or low industry growth. We conclude that, while there has been a shift in career patterns over time, the impact of globalization on career stability is possibly overestimated.

The Impact of Neoliberal Policies on Historic Urban Space: Areas of Urban Renewal in Istanbul

Abstract: The state's role in recasting urban space in Turkey entered a new phase during the last decade. The key difference compared with the past is that the inner city has now become the main source of capital accumulation. Interventions based on the rationale of clearing away obsolescent urban space to encouraging capital accumulation by private investors have led to the loss not only of local incomes but also of the cultural capital of local inhabitants. In addition, historical urban housing areas are no longer seen as ‘common public assets’ and designated renewal areas are not viewed as society's common cultural capital. This paper focuses on restructuring policies in historical urban spaces in Istanbul, as authorised by the Law on Renewal enacted in 2005. This law essentially defines the designation of renewal areas, instructions for preliminary and application projects, and the processes of organization, management, supervision, participation, and use. The paper critically analyses the ways local municipali...

Going global: the transnationalization of care.

Abstract: This article critically examines the contours of ‘care transnationalization’ as an ongoing social process and a field of enquiry. Care transnationalization scholarship combines structural understandings of global power relations with an emphasis on social interactions between defined actors in ways that keep sight of human agency, material welfare and wider social development. It has, however, tended to privilege particular forms, dynamics and sites of care transnationalization over others. The body of research on care labour migration, which is otherwise the most developed literature on care transnationalization to date, contains a number of biases and omissions in its coverage of border-spanning relations and their mediation across country contexts. At the same time, other significant forms of care transnationalization, such as those involving consumer-based care migration, corporate restructuring and the formation of care policy, have suffered from comparative neglect. Working towards an integrated agenda that addresses these diverse expressions of care transnationalization and how they ‘touch down’ in a range of sectoral, social and country contexts is of prime importance to policy research agendas directed at understanding the wider development impacts of processes of social and economic restructuring.

Electricity Transformed: Neoliberalism and Local Energy in the United States

Abstract: The concept of neoliberalism is explored with respect to the history of the electricity industry and policy in the USA. Rather than view “neoliberalism” as an all-encompassing form of governmentality or a hegemonic regime, it is instead situated in a political field of competing ideologies, policies, practices, and agents that includes social liberalism, socialism, and cooperativism, with hegemonic and redistributive forms of both social liberalism and neoliberalism distinguished. The field approach enables a dynamic interpretation of the history of the electricity industry in the USA that tracks the relative role of government intervention in the economy, scale shifts in the level of government intervention, and the extent to which the policies favor elite accumulation or redistribution to less favored economic categories. The field approach also enables an analysis of local responses to market restructuring that suggest some examples of redistributive politics, even local socialism, that have emerged as a consequence of marketplace restructuring.

Pricing Terms in Sovereign Debt Contracts: A Greek Case Study with Implications for the European Crisis Resolution Mechanism

Abstract: Conventional wisdom holds that boilerplate contract terms are ignored by parties, and thus are not priced into contracts. We test this view by comparing Greek sovereign bonds that have Greek choice-of-law terms and Greek sovereign bonds that have English choice-of-law terms. Because Greece can change the terms of Greek-law bonds unilaterally by changing Greek Law, and cannot change the terms of English-law bonds, Greek-law bonds should be riskier, with higher yields and lower prices. The spread between the two types of bonds should increase when the probability of Greek default increases. Recent events allow us to test this hypothesis, and the data are consistent with it. We suggest that sovereigns, like private entities, minimize their cost of credit by offering investors with different risk preferences bonds with different levels of risk, which is reflected in their terms, including choice-of-law clauses. The market understands this practice. This finding has implications for the design of the European Crisis Resolution Mechanism (ECRM), which is currently being debated. To the extent the goal of the new restructuring mechanism is to force private investors to take better precautions, ex ante, the restructuring authorities would be well advised to abandon the past practice of largely ignoring variations in the boilerplate of sovereign debt contracts and giving equal treatment to different types of debt.

Towards an organisation-wide process-oriented organisation of care: a literature review

Abstract: Many hospitals have taken actions to make care delivery for specific patient groups more process-oriented, but struggle with the question how to deal with process orientation at hospital level. The aim of this study is to report and discuss the experiences of hospitals with implementing process-oriented organisation designs in order to derive lessons for future transitions and research. A literature review of English language articles on organisation-wide process-oriented redesigns, published between January 1998 and May 2009, was performed. Of 329 abstracts identified, 10 articles were included in the study. These articles described process-oriented redesigns of five hospitals. Four hospitals tried to become process-oriented by the implementation of coordination measures, and one by organisational restructuring. The adoption of the coordination mechanism approach was particularly constrained by the functional structure of hospitals. Other factors that hampered the redesigns in general were the limited applicability of and unfamiliarity with process improvement techniques. Due to the limitations of the evidence, it is not known which approach, implementation of coordination measures or organisational restructuring (with additional coordination measures), produces the best results in which situation. Therefore, more research is needed. For this research, the use of qualitative methods in addition to quantitative measures is recommended to contribute to a better understanding of preconditions and contingencies for an effective application of approaches to become process-oriented. Hospitals are advised to take the factors for failure described into account and to take suitable actions to counteract these obstacles on their way to become process-oriented organisations.

A co-ordination theory approach to restructuring the supply chain: an empirical study from the focal company perspective

Abstract: In the wake of the global financial crisis, a growing number of firms have begun to reassess their strategic goals and subsequently restructure their global supply chains. Since supply chain restructuring often leads to dramatic changes in the business paradigm, there is a need to examine whether or not it affects the way that firms co-ordinate their business activities and integrate product innovations across the supply chain. Nevertheless, little has been known about the antecedents of supply chain restructuring and the impact of supply chain restructuring on manufacturing practices. To fill the void in this line of research, we propose co-ordination theory that can explain causal links between supply chain restructuring and key strategic variables essential for the supply chain success from focal company perspectives. These strategic variables may include the extent of co-ordination with suppliers, the degree of information sharing with suppliers, and the level of organisational integration. Our empiri...