Education, Cultural Change, Territory. The Third Sector's Innovation. An Italian Case Study

This contribution proposes a theoretical-empirical reflection on the relationship among the three sociological concepts identified by the authors as essential dimensions of the innovation: cultural change, education, and territory. The aim is to illustrate the complex relationship among these dimensions and the implications involved in terms of s oci ologi cal perspectives and research tools, on the basis of the analysis of an emblematic case study: “FQTS”, Italian acronym of the project of Education of Executives and Leaders of the Third Sector in the Southern Italy. In particular, this investigation will be aimed at: (re)defining sociological concepts considered fundamental for the study of innovation; reconstructing the main empirical evidence emerging from the analysis of the case study; and summarizing the relevance of the research results, in terms of new themes and sociological perspectives, as well as of methodological questions

THE HORSE SECTOR: DOES IT MATTER FOR AGRICULTURE?

EU policies focus ever more on rural development initiatives. The horse sector provides some opportunities. An I/O model is used to examine the aggregate effects of the horse sector on Swedish agriculture. The maximal potential of the sector accounts for around 12% of the total contribution to GDP by agriculture.Horse sector, Input-Output, Livestock Production/Industries, Q19,

ASPECTS REGARDING TO IT RISK MANAGEMENT IN FINANCIAL-BANKING SECTOR

The paper treats the foundations of IT risks, in the framework delimited and expressed by some specific business characteristics, as availability, access, accuracy and agility. This elements have different representations, depending of various levels of analyze; for example - business executives which attempt to determine the most important items and the relative risk tolerance across different units or processes, while operational managers examine how the weakness and vulnerability can be regarded and mitigated in real time. The multilayered approach offer some advantages, as: creating strong connections at different levels of organization to work better, allowing to managers at different levels to make decisions based on the overall risk view at their level of decision, creating the solid basis to set up risk policies and standards for every level of organization. A modern vision of IT risk in an information society implies making connections between IT risk and the risk governance process, in a general framework of IT governance. The authors propose some directions for executives and for operational managers to improve and to implement IT risk governance process and consequently, the adoption of a key practices in the field of IT financial-banking sectorIT risk, business executives, operational managers, risk governance process, key practices.

Tourism curriculum in the University Sector: Does it meet future requirements? Evidence from Australia

In the contemporary competitive and globally connected marketplace, factors that guaranteed business success in the past may be of limited relevance in the future. Within the paradigms of today’s business, many successful operators continually introduce new products and services to maintain their market leadership position. Whilst firms in the tourism industry seek to maintain competitive position through policy planning, strategic marketing, budgeting and R&D, tourism education providers occupy a key position by seeking to enhance the skill levels of management and employees, both present and future. This paper reviews some Australian tourism and hospitality education programmes and course curriculum and briefly compares them with some trends in other English-speaking countries. The research explores tourism industry demand, trainees’ expectations and additionally identifies gaps and opportunities for the future curriculum content. The findings may, therefore, assist tourism programme providers with a broader perspective with which to shape future tourism courses

The outsourcing of social care in Britain : what does it mean for voluntary sector workers?

While recent decades have witnessed a growth in the outsourcing of public services in Britain, the post-1997 UK Labour governments have sought to put in place mechanisms aimed at encouraging long-term collaborative contracting relationships marked by less reliance on cost-based competition. This article explores empirically how far these mechanisms have achieved their aims and thereby acted to protect the employment conditions of staff, and links this exploration to debates concerning the employment implications of organizational reforms within public sectors internationally. It concludes that in terms of bringing income security to the voluntary sector and stability to employment terms and conditions these efforts have been unsuccessful, and consequently casts doubts on more optimistic interpretations of the employment effects of organizational restructuring in the British public sector

Freezing public sector IT – what is the government aiming to achieve?.

Public sector IT spending currently absorbs more than £17 billion of public spending annually in the UK. Under Labour, British expenditure in this area dwarfed that of any other European Union nation, with many contracts costing billions of £s and running for periods up to 18 years. The UK also has perhaps the most concentrated government IT market in the world. So the Treasury announcement of an effective freeze in central government IT spending has sent shock waves through a major private sector industry. Here Jerry Fishenden decodes what the new Conservative/Liberal Democrat government is seeking to do and why it has determined on such a radical stance.

Overspend? Late? Failure? What the Data Say About IT Project Risk in the Public Sector

Implementing large-scale information and communication technology (IT) projects carries large risks and easily might disrupt operations, waste taxpayers' money, and create negative publicity. Because of the high risks it is important that government leaders manage the attendant risks. We analysed a sample of 1,355 public sector IT projects. The sample included large-scale projects, on average the actual expenditure was $130 million and the average duration was 35 months. Our findings showed that the typical project had no cost overruns and took on average 24% longer than initially expected. However, comparing the risk distribution with the normative model of a thin-tailed distribution, projects' actual costs should fall within -30% and +25% of the budget in nearly 99 out of 100 projects. The data showed, however, that a staggering 18% of all projects are outliers with cost overruns >25%. Tests showed that the risk of outliers is even higher for standard software (24%) as well as in certain project types, e.g., data management (41%), office management (23%), eGovernment (21%) and management information systems (20%). Analysis showed also that projects duration adds risk: every additional year of project duration increases the average cost risk by 4.2 percentage points. Lastly, we suggest four solutions that public sector organization can take: (1) benchmark your organization to know where you are, (2) de-bias your IT project decision-making, (3) reduce the complexities of your IT projects, and (4) develop Masterbuilders to learn from the best in the field.Comment: Published in Commonwealth Secretariat (Eds.): Commonwealth Governance Handbook 2012/13: Democracy, development and public administration, London: Commonwealth Secretariat, December 2012. ISBN 978-1-908609-04-

The household enterprise sector in Tanzania : why it matters and who cares

The household enterprise sector has a significant role in the Tanzanian economy. It employs a larger share of the urban labor force than wage employment, and is increasingly seen as an alternative to agriculture as a source of additional income for rural and urban households. The sector is uniquely placed within the informal sector, where it represents both conditions of informal employment and informal enterprise. This paper presents a case study on Tanzania using a mixed approach by combining both quantitative and qualitative analysis to examine the important role of household enterprises in the labor force of Tanzania, and to identify key factors that influence their productivity. Household enterprise owners are similar to typical labor force participants although primary education appears to be the minimum qualification for household enterprise operators to be successful. Access to location matters -- good, secure location in a marketplace or industrial cluster raises earnings - and access to transport and electricity is found to have a significant effect on earnings as well. In large urban areas, the biggest constraint faced by household enterprises is the lack of access to secure workspace to run the small business. Although lack of credit is a problem across all enterprises in Tanzania, household enterprises are more vulnerable because they are largely left out of the financial sector either as savers or borrowers. Although HEs are part of the livelihood strategies of over half of households in Tanzania, they are ignored in the current development policy frameworks, which emphasize formalization, not productivity. Tanzania has a large number of programs and projects for informal enterprises, but there is no set of policies and program interventions targeted at the household enterprise sector. This gap exacerbates the vulnerability of household enterprises, and reduces their productivity.Access to Finance,Banks&Banking Reform,Labor Markets,Population Policies,Debt Markets