Bata Management System: A Built-In Resilience against Crisis at the Micro Level

The Bata Company became the largest and thriving global enterprise of the 20s and 30s, during the decades of economic crises. Why could Bata prosper when everybody around was contracting, laying people off and passively waiting for governmental bailouts and handouts? Our answer lies in the existence of a unique, inimitable, integrated management system—a rare thing among modern companies operating with patchworks of disconnected, dysfunctionaland non-synergistic, albeit fashionable methods and techniques. Roosevelt’s New Deal was the beginning of the end of management-employee cooperation, strengthening adversarial relations, trade unionism and the final emergence of so-called macroeconomics, reversing the promising microeconomic trends of the time. Resilient, flexible and human-oriented companies are the best protection against government-induced crises.Bata management system, microeconomics, creative destruction, autopoiesis, New Deal, macroeconomics, sustainability, resilience, added value, Austrian school

Service Quality and Customer Loyalty in a Post-Crisis Context. Prediction-Oriented Modeling to Enhance the Particular Importance of a Social and Sustainable Approach

Research into the influence of service quality on customer loyalty has typically focused on confirming isolated direct causal influences regarding particular dimensions of quality, usually undertaken in the context of positive, firm-customer relations. The present study extends analysis of these factors through a new lens. First, the study was undertaken in a market context following a crisis that has had far-reaching consequences for customers’ relational behaviors. We explore the case of the Spanish banking industry, a sector that accurately reflects these new relational conditions, including a rising demand for more socially responsible banking. Second, we propose a holistic model that combines the effects of four key factors associated with service quality (outcome, personnel, servicescape and social qualities). We also apply an innovative predictive methodological technique using partial least squares (PLS) and qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) that enables us not only to determine the direct causal effects among variables, but also to consider different scenarios in which to predict customer loyalty. The results highlight the role of outcome and social qualities. The novelty of the social qualities factor helps to underscore the importance of social, ethical and sustainable practices to customer loyalty, although personnel and servicescape qualities must also be present to improve the predictive capability of service quality on loyalty

A review of social protection in Latin America

This paper reviews social protection trends and policy responses in Latin America as part of a global scoping study on social protection commissioned by Ford Foundation (See Appendix One for ToR for this paper). The paper is organised as follows (following the paper contents as described in Appendix One): Section 1 identifies the main trends in poverty and vulnerability in the region, with particular references to rural-urban and life course poverty incidence. Section 2 provides a review of social protection trends. It discusses the two main areas of change and innovation in the last two decades: the reform of social insurance provision and the rapid expansion of social assistance schemes. Section 3 identifies some potential points of engagement between Ford Foundation work and the social protection policy agenda in the region

China Brand Homes: Business history and projects¿ analysis of China Vanke Co. Ltd., 1988-2016

L'abstract è presente nell'allegato / the abstract is in the attachmen

Utjecaj Europskog semestra na politike zapošljavanja u Hrvatskoj, 2013-2016.

This paper analyzes the effects of the European Semester, EU\u27s framework for socio-economic policy coordination, on change of Croatian employment policy. The case of Croatia is used to illustrate in what manner, under which conditions and to what extent the European Semester architecture actually influences Croatian employment policies. The focus is on two policy items: the Youth Guarantee and the retirement age provision. The findings on the Youth Guarantee lend crucial support to the expectation that intensified monitoring and reporting obligations will contribute to domestic policy change. Drawing on interview data, the author identifies administrative pressure and low familiarity with the European Commission\u27s modus operandi within the European Semester as two crucial elements of influence. On the other hand, Croatia repeatedly neglected EU\u27s recommendation to step up the harmonization of female and male retirement age. Reasons for low European Semester impact on this issue can be found in a number of constraining conditions that were at play: coalition politics, the stickiness of the policy issue, opposite policy beliefs and a highly uncertain political situation. These factors acted as factors from policy change despite potential EU sanctions down the pike.Članak analizira učinke Europskog semestra, okvira EU-a za socijalno-ekonomsku koordinaciju, na promjenu politike zapošljavanja u Hrvatskoj. Slučaj Hrvatske treba ilustrirati kako, pod kojim uvjetima i u kojoj mjeri arhitektura Europskog semestra utječe na politike zapošljavanja u Hrvatskoj. U žarištu su analize dvije stavke javnih politika: Garancija za mlade i dob za umirovljenje. Nalazi vezani za Garanciju za mlade podržavaju očekivanje prema kojemu pojačani nadzor i obveze izvještavanja pridonose promjeni nacionalnih javnih politika. Koristeći intervjue kao izvore podataka, auto pronalazi dva ključna elementa utjecaja: administrativni pritisak i slabu upoznatost s načinom rada Europske komisije u sklopu Europskog semestra. Istodobno, Hrvatska je opetovano zanemarivala preporuke za usklađivanjem dobi umirovljenja za muškarce i žene. Razlozi slaba utjecaja Europskog semestra na tom području mogu se pronaći u ograničavajućem efektu sastava koalicijske vlade, krutosti javne politike, suprotstavljenih uvjerenja i vrlo neizvjesne političke situacije. Ti su uvjeti bili čimbenici odvraćanja od promjene javnih politika, unatoč mogućim sankcijama EU-a

LEONARDO RICCI’S AMERICAN TRANSFER From the Research of the Synthesis of the Arts to the Realization of the “Open Work”

This paper originates from my PhD research on Leonardo Ricci’s2 exchange with the United States from 1952 to 1972, which retraced philologically the architect’s stages in the United States unveiling the premises and results of his American transfer in the period between 1952-1972 (Cattabriga 2021)3. Ricci’s activity in the U.S.A. was driven by four main vectors we are going to deal with: the research of the synthesis of the arts, teaching reform aims, research on Urban and Visual Design, and the conception of “open work” in architecture, which ostensibly includes and melts the first three