63 research outputs found
Rebuilding the Appalachian Economy From the Ground Up: Towards A Holistic Organizational Framework for Community and Economic Development in Rural Extractive Areas
Central Appalachia specifically and rural extractive areas more generally face some of the most challenging socio-economic realities in North America. Community-based organizations (CBOs) are an important tool for addressing these challenges. As governments intensify efforts to mitigate climate change, and as fossil-fuel industries contract, extracted communities are experiencing economic, cultural, and environmental upheaval. Many leaders call for a “just transition” away from fossil-fuels, which would make local extraction communities whole. However, achieving a truly just transition away from fossil fuels is extraordinarily challenging, and many extracted communities were never whole to begin with. I argue CBOs are the crucial vehicle through which effective community and economic development (CED) outcomes can materialize for distressed rural communities. Yet CBOs do not receive nearly enough funding, policy-focus, or high-level partnership. Technical assistance provided to CBOs is often ineffective, especially in rural settings. Evaluation systems for measuring rural CBO effectiveness are inadequate.
My research is primarily geared toward practitioners and aspiring practitioners. Findings, program designs and evaluative structures put forward herein are based on experience with Coalfield Development, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization I founded in southern West Virginia in 2010. Coalfield Development has essentially served as my research field lab. This dissertation provides four sections detailing organizational capabilities which local CBOs can develop and implement towards the goal of a just transition and improved quality of life for their unique rural place. In doing so, support is needed from funders and policy-makers in order to succeed. Much better evaluative systems are needed, as well, which could improve resource allocation decisions in these greatly under-invested communities and could also improve organizational effectiveness. The four capabilities and corresponding sections of this dissertation are: capacity building for rural CBOs incubating and investing in employment social enterprises human development for people facing barriers to employment and community-based real-estate revitalization
In this dissertation, I use mixed-methods to draw insights and best-practices from more than a decade of interventions through Coalfield Development including case studies, focus groups, surveys, cost-benefit-analyses, program designs and program evaluations. My research illustrates and articulates the value of all four capabilities, finding them each as essential components for CBOs working in extracted local economies. While this research is based in central Appalachia it is intended to be useful to practitioners, policymakers, funders, local leaders and researchers in other rural fossil-fuel communities throughout the world
Karl Timothy Johnson: Public Health Governance to Advance Public Health 3.0: Interrogating the Strategies and Structures of Local Governmental Health Departments to Address the Social Determinants of Health in North Carolina and Across the Country
Background: The Public Health 3.0 (PH3.0) framework emphasizes the role that public health should have in addressing social determinants of health (SDOH). The local health department (LHD), as the principal governmental authority within local public health, has often been identified as the primary agency to address SDOH. However, the local and state governance arrangements within which an LHD operates strongly influence their capacity for strategies aimed at SDOH. Local boards of health (BOH) have a particularly powerful influence on the decision-making capacity of LHDs; different arrangements and functionality of BOHs may in turn influence an LHD’s work to advance PH3.0. Objective: To advance to goals of PH3.0, this dissertation sought to analyze the strategies by which LHDs have addressed SDOH as well as the local governance arrangements that may shape those strategies. Methods: First, I performed latent class analysis with nationally representative data on LHD activity to identify common profiles of LHD involvement with policy development, followed by logistic regression to estimate how local BOH functionality impacts the likelihood of inhabiting different profiles. Second, I reviewed recent Community Health Improvement Plans from LHDs across the country to analyze the characteristics of strategies addressing SDOH described in such plans. Finally, I conducted semi-structured interviews with LHD directors and BOH members from across North Carolina to assess how variations in their governance arrangement impacted their work in the community. Results: I found the BOH is a core though often underutilized institution to enable the LHD to improve and expand its role in addressing SDOH, whether through directly proposing and passing local public health rules or through partnership engagement with other local community organizations. Variations in local governance models substantially impact this ability, however, with appointed BOHs composed of medical professionals who are comfortable exercising oversight and authority being the most likely to aid the LHD in addressing SDOH in the community. Contribution and Significance: To advance community health and eliminate health disparities, local public health departments must address the SDOH. This research may support LHDs to better address SDOH in their community by improving their local governance arrangements and the relationships therein.Doctor of Philosoph
A Design Science Research Approach to Smart and Collaborative Urban Supply Networks
Urban supply networks are facing increasing demands and challenges and thus constitute a relevant field for research and practical development. Supply chain management holds enormous potential and relevance for society and everyday life as the flow of goods and information are important economic functions. Being a heterogeneous field, the literature base of supply chain management research is difficult to manage and navigate. Disruptive digital technologies and the implementation of cross-network information analysis and sharing drive the need for new organisational and technological approaches. Practical issues are manifold and include mega trends such as digital transformation, urbanisation, and environmental awareness.
A promising approach to solving these problems is the realisation of smart and collaborative supply networks. The growth of artificial intelligence applications in recent years has led to a wide range of applications in a variety of domains. However, the potential of artificial intelligence utilisation in supply chain management has not yet been fully exploited. Similarly, value creation increasingly takes place in networked value creation cycles that have become continuously more collaborative, complex, and dynamic as interactions in business processes involving information technologies have become more intense.
Following a design science research approach this cumulative thesis comprises the development and discussion of four artefacts for the analysis and advancement of smart and collaborative urban supply networks. This thesis aims to highlight the potential of artificial intelligence-based supply networks, to advance data-driven inter-organisational collaboration, and to improve last mile supply network sustainability. Based on thorough machine learning and systematic literature reviews, reference and system dynamics modelling, simulation, and qualitative empirical research, the artefacts provide a valuable contribution to research and practice
Suffolk University Academic Catalog, College of Arts and Sciences and Sawyer Business School, 2022-2023
This catalog contains information for both the undergraduate and graduate programs in the College of Arts and Sciences and the Sawyer Business School.https://dc.suffolk.edu/cassbs-catalogs/1184/thumbnail.jp
Colombian business and logistics environment by the year 2020
This thesis aimed to provide information on Colombia’s business and trading environment for companies interested in the market. The main focus of the analysis was on logistics performance. To put Colombia’s business and logistics environment in perspective, its performance was compared with that of its Latin American peers. An important concept for the context of this thesis is trade and transport facilitation (TTF), which means improving efficiency and reducing costs of moving goods across borders. This notion as well as indicators for assessing countries’ TTF performance are introduced in the theoretical framework. Also, studies on determinants of logistics performance are reviewed. Two types of factors were identified to affect countries’ logistics performance: infrastructure and institutional quality. These two types of indicators were used in the analysis of this thesis. The research approach selected for this study is descriptive and qualitative, as the objective was to create a comprehensive description of the Colombian business environment. The analysis consists of an outlook on Colombia’s economy and transport sector as well as on TTF performance in international evaluations. The research data included reports, statistics, and international rankings. The research framework is unique because it combines a transport sector analysis with a greater number of TTF indicators than seen in previous studies. The analysis covering data till the year 2020 showed that despite being ranked as one of the best business environments in Latin America, Colombia’s competitiveness is hindered by poor road and railway infrastructure, border management issues, corruption and insecurity. In turn, connectedness by air and sea as well as seaport infrastructure are very good. The US market is easily reached by air. Colombia enjoys the advantage of having access to both the Atlantic and the Pacific. It also has an extensive system of navigable rivers. However, port infrastructure in the Pacific is underdeveloped and rivers are currently not used at their full potential. Significant infrastructure projects have been planned for the 2020s, including increasing the cargo capacity of the rivers and developing inactive railways to create efficient intermodal transport corridors.Työn tarkoitus oli antaa Kolumbian markkinoista kiinnostuneille yrityksille tietoa maan liiketoimintaympäristöstä erityisesti logistiikan näkökulmasta. Jotta Kolumbiaa voitaisiin tarkastella kontekstissaan, maata verrattiin latinalaisamerikkalaisiin verrokkimaihin. Aiheen kannalta merkittävä käsite on trade and transport facilitation (TTF) eli kansainvälisen kaupan ja kuljetusten edistäminen, millä tarkoitetaan rajat ylittävien kuljetusten tehokkuuden parantamista ja kustannusten pienentämistä. Tämä käsite sekä valtioiden edistymistä alalla arvioivat mittarit ovat pääosassa työn teoreettisessa viitekehyksessä. Lisäksi tarkastellaan aiempia tutkimuksia logistiikan suorituskyvystä. Tutkimuskirjallisuudesta voitiin tunnistaa kaksi tekijää, jotka vaikuttavat maiden logistiikan suorituskykyyn: kuljetusinfrastruktuuri ja instituutiot. Näiden tekijöiden laatua mittaavia indikaattoreita käytettiin tässä tutkimuksessa liiketoiminta- ja logistiikkaympäristön analysoimiseen. Tutkimusote on deskriptiivinen ja kvalitatiivinen, sillä tavoite oli laatia yksityiskohtainen kuvaus Kolumbian liiketoimintaympäristöstä logistiikan näkökulmasta. Tutkimuksen viitekehys on ainutlaatuinen, sillä Kolumbian ja verrokkimaiden arvioinnissa käytettiin useampia TTF-mittareita kuin aiemmissa tutkimuksissa. Lisäksi analyysia täydennettiin tarkemmalla katsauksella Kolumbian kuljetussektoriin. Tutkimusaineistona käytettiin lähinnä kansainvälisten järjestöjen ja Kolumbian ministeriöiden laatimia tilastoja, arviointityökaluja ja raportteja. Valtaosa tutkimusaineistosta ulottuu vuoteen 2020. Vaikka Kolumbian liiketoimintaympäristö on Latinalaisen Amerikan parhaita, maan heikkouksia ovat maantie- ja rautatieinfrastruktuuri, tullimuodollisuudet, korruptio ja rikollisuus. Lento- ja meriliikenneyhteydet sekä satamainfrastruktuuri sitä vastoin ovat ensiluokkaisia. Yhdysvaltain markkinat ovat nopeiden lentoyhteyksien päässä. Kolumbialla on etunaan myös sekä Atlantille että Tyynellemerelle ulottuva rannikko ja laaja jokiverkosto. Tyynenmeren puoleinen infrastruktuuri on kuitenkin puutteellinen eikä jokien tarjoamia mahdollisuuksia ole täysin hyödynnetty. Mittavia projekteja on kuitenkin suunniteltu toteutettavaksi 2020-luvulla, kuten jokien kuljetuskapasiteetin lisääminen sekä käytöstä poistettujen rautatieosuuksien käyttöönotto intermodaalikuljetusten tehostamiseksi
Facilitating collaborative entrepreneurship within an SME network
Facilitating collaborative entrepreneurship within an SME network Miles et al (2005) describe collaborative entrepreneurship (CE) as an “organisation” composed of firms from different industries, whose collaborative abilities allow them to pursue a joint strategy of continuous innovation. Franco and Haase (2013) define it as “the creation of something of economic value arising out of new, jointly created ideas that emerge from the sharing of information and knowledge” (p. 681).
The success of small and micro businesses is pivotal to the success of the world’s market economies. The adoption of the CE model in the context of small and micro businesses, who often lack the resources to develop products, would seem logical, but this remains an under-researched field. The current study used an action research approach with the researcher’s business as a partner organisation in a collaborative venture and the researcher operating as facilitator. This study used a social capital theory perspective to understand the changing relationships, and how facilitation adapts to maintain knowledge transfer in a network of small and micro owner/managed business, as they use a collaborative entrepreneurial model to innovate products and services for the spray-tanning industry.
The study was conducted in a network of five business based in the UK, USA and India. Three of the businesses were actively involved in a traditional supply chain with the others becoming involved in response to changing market conditions.
Data was collected in a series of field diaries was over a 24-month period with sources including day to day business activities, formal and informal meetings, telephone calls and the researcher’s reflections.
The qualitative thematic analysis revealed different issues at different points in the life cycle of a collaborative entrepreneurship venture alongside insights into how potential challenges were addressed through facilitation.
Phase 1 – transforming – as new members were integrated into the group issues of trust related to the structure of the network and information silos were highlighted. An appreciative inquiry intervention was used to address these issues.
Phase 2 – stabilisation – deals with how the network managed innovation both in and outside the network. Maintaining momentum became a challenge as sales plateaued. Dialogue within the action research group that addressed issues of degeneration highlighted how tensions were managed.
The final phase – addressed issues of readiness and legacy and how the network was maintained as innovation slowed within the network and out-of-network innovation accelerated. Reduced contact among group members revealed differences in individual perceptions of the psychological contract developed during the collaboration and strategies were developed to ensure the network remained ready to collaborate and innovate as market demands dictated.
The study contributes to the theory of collaborative entrepreneurship within a small and micro business context through the use of a dynamic approach to self-facilitation with the role of facilitator rotating among the group members based on relevant skill and knowledge.
The study contributes to current knowledge of facilitation of small business networks and the use of appreciative inquiry methods in small groups.
A model of the dynamic nature of a collaborative entrepreneurship venture among small and micro businesses and the role that action learning can play, was developed
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