The embeddedness of social entrepreneurship: Understanding variation across local communities

Social enterprise organizations (SEOs) arise from entrepreneurial activities with the aim of achieving social goals. SEOs have been seen as alternative and/or complementary to the actions of governments and international organizations to address poverty and poverty-related social needs. Using a number of illustrative cases, we explore how variations in local institutional mechanisms shape the local "face of poverty" in different communities and how this relates to variations in the emergence and strategic orientations of SEOs. We develop a model of the productive opportunity space for SEOs as a basis of, and an inspiration for, further scholarly inquiry.social entrepreneurship; Social mechanisms; poverty; opportunity; institutions;

Operating and Managing Street Outreach Services

Increasingly, cities have added street outreach to the mix of strategies used in comprehensive gang reduction efforts, drawing upon mounting evidence of impact. Street outreach relies on street workers to support and advocate on behalf of gang members, or those at high risk of joining gang, to change behavior patterns and link them to needed services and institutions. Street outreach workers work day and night to link marginalized and hard-to-serve individuals in communities with high levels of gang activity to social services, and play an important role in diffusing and stopping violence (Decker, Bynum, McDevitt, Farrell, & Varano, 2008; Spergel, 1966; Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention [OJJDP], 2002). These workers reach out to targeted community members at their homes, community events, on street corners, in parks, and in any neighborhood spaces where community members in gangs or at risk of joining gangs spend time (OJJDP, 2002, p. 54). Outreach workers often possess intimate familiarity with the communities in which they work. Their knowledge and skills allow them to work with individuals whom traditional service providers cannot access or support. California Cities Gang Prevention Network cities (the Network or CCGPN) note that street outreach services are an important piece of their cities' primary intervention strategies, with ties to prevention and enforcement. This bulletin identifies ways outreach programs can strategically support, care for, and hire outreach workers

How Does Positive Work-Related Stress Affect the Degree of Innovation Development?

Many studies sustain that work-related stress exerts pervasive consequences on the employees’ levels of performance, productivity, and wellbeing. However, it remains unclear whether certain levels of stress might lead to positive outcomes regarding employees’ innovativeness. Hence, this paper examines how the five dimensions of work-related stress impact on the employees’ levels of innovation performance. To this aim, this study focused on a sample of 1487 employees from six Italian companies. To test the research hypotheses under assessment, we relied on the use of the partial least squares (PLS) technique. Our results reveal that, in summary, the stressors job autonomy, job demands, and role ambiguity exert a positive and significant impact on the employees’ levels of innovativeness. However, this study failed to find evidence that the supervisors’ support–innovation and colleagues’ support–innovation links are not statistically significant. View Full-Tex

Roles, authority and involvement of the management accounting function: a multiple case-study perspective

Recent techniques and shifts in the environment are often foreseen as leading management accountants to adopt a business orientation. However, empirical evidence pointing to fundamental shifts in the roles played by management accountants remains relatively scarce. The authors explore this paradox and give sense to the various roles played by the management accounting function by focusing on how management accountants are involved in and endowed with authority in decision-making situations.management accountant; role; business partner

How Sustainable are Benefits from Global Production Networks? Malaysia's Upgrading Prospects in the Electronics Industry

The paper introduces an operational definition of industrial upgrading (IU and documents the emergence of complex, multi-tier "networks of networks" which provide new opportunities for IU, but which also raise threshold requirements for participating in these networks. I highlight structural weaknesses of the Malaysian electronics industry that constrain its upgrading prospects; assess current policies that try to link cluster development and global network integration; discuss adjustments in linkages with global brand leaders (OEMs); and ask to what degree linkages with contract manufacturers (CMs) can broaden network benefits. The paper concludes, by exploring new opportunities for international knowledge sourcing that could complement Malaysia's linkages with GPNs. A completely revised and updated version has been published as: "Global Production Networks and Industrial Upgrading -Malaysia's Electronics Industry", in: J. Kidd and F.J. Richter, eds., Trust and Anti-Trust in Cross-Cultural Alliances, published for the World Economic Forum, Palgrave, London, 2003.

Issues in corporate governance

On September 29, 2002, William J. McDonough, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, delivered the William Taylor Memorial Lecture in Washington, D.C., at an event cosponsored by the William Taylor Memorial Fund and the Group of Thirty, a private, international consultative group on economic and monetary affairs. In his lecture, Mr. McDonough describes the actions already taken by private and public sector groups to strengthen corporate governance and accounting standards and identifies areas where reforms are still needed.Corporations - Finance ; Accounting ; Risk management ; Executives - Salaries

From creativity to innovation

Talent is the bedrock of a creative society. Augmenting talent involves mobilizing culture and tradition, building institutions to increase the stock of human capital, enhance its quality, and instill values favoring achievements and initiative. The productivity of this talent in the form of ideas can be raised by nurturing wikicapital-the capital arising from networks. Translating creativity into innovation is a function of multiple incentives and sustaining innovation is inseparable from heavy investment in research. Finally, the transition from innovation to commercially viable products requires the midwifery of many service providers and the entrepreneurship skills of firms small and large.Education for Development (superceded),ICT Policy and Strategies,Tertiary Education,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,Cultural Policy