7,571 research outputs found
Boundary Spanner Corruption in Business Relationships
Boundary spanner corruption—voluntary collaborative behaviour between individuals representing different organisations that violates their organisations’ norms—is a serious problem in business relationships. Drawing on insights from the literatures on general corruption perspectives, the dark side of business relationships and deviance in sales and service organisations, this dissertation identifies boundary spanner corruption as a potential dark side complication inherent in close business relationships It builds research questions from these literature streams and proposes a research structure based upon commonly used methods in corruption research to address this new concept. In the first study, using an exploratory survey of boundary spanner practitioners, the dissertation finds that the nature of boundary spanner corruption is broad and encompasses severe and non-severe types. The survey also finds that these deviance types are prevalent in a widespread of geographies and industries. This prevalence is particularly noticeable for less-severe corruption types, which may be an under-researched phenomenon in general corruption research. The consequences of boundary spanner corruption can be serious for both individuals and organisations. Indeed, even less-severe types can generate long-term negative consequences. A second interview-based study found that multi-level trust factors could also motivate the emergence of boundary spanner corruption. This was integrated into a theoretical model that illustrates how trust at the interpersonal, intraorganisational, and interorganisational levels enables corrupt behaviours by allowing deviance-inducing factors stemming from the task environment or from the individual boundary spanner to manifest in boundary spanner corruption. Interpersonal trust between representatives of different organisations, interorganisational trust between these organisations, and intraorganisational agency trust of management in their representatives foster the development of a boundary-spanning social cocoon—a mechanism that can inculcate deviant norms leading to corrupt behaviour. This conceptualisation and model of boundary spanner corruption highlights intriguing directions for future research to support practitioners engaged in a difficult problem in business relationships
“Oh my god, how did I spend all that money?”: Lived experiences in two commodified fandom communities
This research explores the role of commodification in participation in celebrity-centric fandom communities, applying a leisure studies framework to understand the constraints fans face in their quest to participate and the negotiations they engage in to overcome these constraints.
In fan studies scholarship, there is a propensity to focus on the ways fans oppose commodified industry structures; however, this ignores the many fans who happily participate within them. Using the fandoms for the pop star Taylor Swift and the television series Supernatural as case studies, this project uses a mixed-methodological approach to speak directly to fans via surveys and semistructured interviews to develop an understanding of fans’ lived experiences based on their own words.
By focusing on celebrity-centric fandom communities rather than on the more frequently studied textual fandoms, this thesis turns to the role of the celebrity in fans’ ongoing desire to participate in commodified spaces. I argue that fans are motivated to continue spending money to participate within their chosen fandom when this form of participation is tied to the opportunity for engagement with the celebrity. While many fans seek community from their fandom participation, this research finds that for others, social ties are a secondary outcome of their overall desire for celebrity attention, which becomes a hobby in which they build a “leisure career” (Stebbins 2014). When fans successfully gain attention from their celebrity object of fandom, they gain status within their community, creating intra-fandom hierarchies based largely on financial resources and on freedom from structural constraints related to education, employment, and caring.
Ultimately, this thesis argues that the broad neglect of celebrity fandom practices means we have overlooked the experiences of many fans, necessitating a much broader future scope for the field
Traineeship Report at the European Banking Authority – A critical assessment of the EBA’s stance on its 10 years of activity
Internship Report presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Law and Financial MarketsFrom the outset of its edification, the European Banking Authority’s (EBA) governance arrangements, procedures, and structure have been called into question, in particular in the context of the establishment of the Banking Union (BU) and consequently the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM). The extant studies have been treating the EBA with open criticism of its powers, decision-making processes, and regulatory independence. Since the EBA just turned 10 years old, it is appropriate to consider the recent advances in the EU’s supervisory and regulatory landscape.
In the plea for a new fresh impetus on the EBA’s contribution to the Europeanisation of Banking Regulation and Supervision, this Report aims at shedding light on the academic research about the Agency, which was afforded by the unique opportunity of engaging in a traineeship at the EBA. Thus, we aim at answering the following research question by recuring to an interview process that collected the EBA’s staff viewpoints on the literature’s outstanding criticism points: Over the course of its 10 years of activity, has the EBA been meeting the expectations that were placed on it and rectified the shortcomings pointed out to its predecessor?
While touching upon the EBA’s role in building up a Single Rulebook, supporting national supervisors with the necessary technical expertise, and spreading good practices which are paramount to walking towards a ‘more’ European setting, this Report finds that the legislator’s expectations placed on the EBA of advancing micro-prudential supervision and mitigating its predecessor’s regulatory gaps are progressively being attained. Contrary to the academic literature’s scepticism, the EBA remains a valuable piece in ensuring regulatory convergence, and financial stability, and has proven to be properly equipped to adapt to the potential pitfalls that might arise within the EU banking supervisory and regulatory framework.Desde os primórdios da sua edificação que os mecanismos, procedimentos e estrutura de governação da Autoridade Bancária Europeia (EBA) têm vindo a ser postos em causa, especialmente no contexto do estabelecimento da União Bancária e consequentemente do Mecanismo Único de Supervisão (MUS). Os estudos existentes têm criticado fortemente os poderes, o processo decisório e a independência regulatória da EBA. Uma vez que a EBA celebrou recentemente o seu 10º aniversário, é pertinente considerar os avanços recentes no campo regulatório e de supervisão europeu.
Perante a necessidade de abrir espaço para uma nova perspetiva a respeito do contributo da EBA para a europeização da Regulação e Supervisão Bancária, o presente Relatório pretende dar a conhecer a investigação académica que foca na Agência, cuja oportunidade foi proporcionada pela ocasião de realizar um estágio na EBA. Neste sentido, procuramos responder à seguinte pergunta de pesquisa, recorrendo a um processo de entrevistas que visou recolher os pontos de vista dos funcionários da EBA sobre as críticas tecidas pela literatura existente: Ao longo dos seus 10 anos de atividade, a EBA tem correspondido às expectativas que lhe foram depositadas e retificado as deficiências apontadas ao seu antecessor?
Ao abordar o papel da EBA na construção de um conjunto único de regras para toda a Europa, num esforço para providenciar a sua perícia técnica aos supervisores nacionais e difundir boas práticas que são primordiais para caminhar para um cenário 'mais' europeu, este Relatório considera que as expectativas do legislador depositadas na EBA de promover supervisão microprudencial e mitigar as lacunas regulatórias apontadas ao seu antecessor estão a ser progressivamente alcançadas. Contrariamente ao ceticismo manifestado pela literatura académica, a EBA permanece enquanto peça essencial para garantir a convergência regulatória e estabilidade financeira, e provou estar devidamente equipada para se adaptar aos possíveis entraves que podem surgir no quadro regulatório e de supervisão bancária da União Europeia
Science and Innovations for Food Systems Transformation
This Open Access book compiles the findings of the Scientific Group of the United Nations Food Systems Summit 2021 and its research partners. The Scientific Group was an independent group of 28 food systems scientists from all over the world with a mandate from the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations. The chapters provide science- and research-based, state-of-the-art, solution-oriented knowledge and evidence to inform the transformation of contemporary food systems in order to achieve more sustainable, equitable and resilient systems
China-US Competition
This open access edited book brings together a closer examination of European and Asian responses to the escalating rivalry between the US and China. As the new Cold War has surfaced as a perceivable reality in the post-COVID era, the topic itself is of great importance to policymakers, academic researchers, and the interested public. Furthermore, this manuscript makes a valuable contribution to an under-studied and increasingly important phenomenon in international relations: the impact of the growing strategic competition between the United States and China on third parties, such as small and middle powers in the two arguably most affected regions of the world: Europe and East Asia. The European side has been under-studied and explicitly comparative work on Europe and East Asia is extremely rare. Given that the manuscript focuses heavily on recent developments—and because many of these developments have been quite dramatic—there are very few publications that cover the same topics
Economic and Social Consequences of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Energy Sector
The purpose of the Special Issue was to collect the results of research and experience on the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic for the energy sector and the energy market, broadly understood, that were visible after a year. In particular, the impact of COVID-19 on the energy sector in the EU, including Poland, and the US was examined. The topics concerned various issues, e.g., the situation of energy companies, including those listed on the stock exchange, mining companies, and those dealing with renewable energy. The topics related to the development of electromobility, managerial competences, energy expenditure of local government units, sustainable development of energy, and energy poverty during a pandemic were also discussed
EU Data Governance: Preserving Global Privacy in the Age of Surveillance
The thesis explores the EU’s Global Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), its human rights approach to data privacy, and its diffusion around the world. It asks the question: why would any nation, authoritarian or democratic, adopt Europe’s data privacy framework as a model for their country’s data governance? Accessing the theoretical frameworks of the Brussels Effect and the New Interde-pendence Approach, the research considers country case studies on China, Japan, and the US, comparing the different motivations and structural conditions that dictate how these three countries have adopted and adapted the GDPR framework. It finds a vastly different set of conditions for adopting the GDPR data privacy framework, none of which can be explained fully by either the Brussels Effect or the New Interdependence Approach. It also finds that none of the three countries embrace the language of human rights in their data privacy legislation. Of all the three countries, Japan has converged most closely with the GDPR in letter and spirit over time. While China’s legislation bears all the key features of the GDPR, the de facto reality is that data privacy regulation is a tool of state control. The United States case shows how a changing global environment forced the U.S. legislators to retreat from their market-driven approach to data governance in the direction of GDPR-like regulation
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Regulating Assisted Reproduction: Between Progress and Stagnation
This dissertation explores the increasingly complex legal challenges that the Israeli and American legal systems have faced with the development of assisted reproductive technologies (ART). It examines reproductive policies that prevail in both Israel and the U.S. that govern different utilizations of sperm, such as sperm donation, posthumous reproduction, and surrogacy, and the roles undertaken by—or assigned to—men in each reproductive context. Each chapter unpacks a set of questions arising at the intersection of such fundamental rights as autonomy, parenthood, bodily integrity, and equality in the ever-changing reproductive landscape. Together, they uncover how regulating reproduction shapes familial identities and institutions from legal and social standpoints while employing such critical theoretical lenses as feminism and masculinities.
Chapter one, Securing Posterity: The Right to Posthumous Grandparenthood and the Problem for Law develops the normative discourse regarding posthumous reproduction, focusing on bereaved parents' reproductive interests. Practiced since the late 1980s, posthumous reproduction—the retrieval and use of gametes of deceased persons to produce a child following the death of at least one genetic parent—raises moral, ethical, and legal questions over its desired regulation. Over the past decade, a novel application of this form of ART has emerged: Bereaved parents began presenting to hospitals and courts requests to use their deceased son's reproductive gametes to produce a genetically related grandchild. Unlike the rights and interests of other expected stakeholders—the deceased, his spouse, and the future child—grandparental interests have yet to be articulated and analyzed. This chapter shows how the bereavement process that follows the loss of an adult child provides a valuable social context to understand parents' motivations in pursuing this reproductive route. It then argues that posthumous grandparenthood’s ability to provide comfort and relief amidst grief may also explain their relative success among judges and legislators. Notwithstanding the prevailing normative stance that views parents as having no ethical claim over their children’s gametes. This compassionate use of law raises, in turn, broad questions I discuss in this chapter about the role of law, its prescriptive nature, and its ability to address the legal challenges posed by such newly formed and imagined families.
Chapter 2, Reproductive Dreams and Nightmares: Sperm Donation in the Age of At-Home Genetic Testing, explores a much less controversial use of ART: sperm donation. At its center is the widely covered story of Danielle Teuscher, who accidentally discovered the identity of her daughter’s anonymous sperm donor after using a 23andMe DNA test. Danielle’s attempt to reach out to the newfound family member was followed by a cease and desist letter from the sperm bank for violating their agreement. In addition, the sperm bank refused to give Danielle the four vials of sperm from the same donor, which she had reserved for future use, thus thwarting her reproductive plans to have genetic siblings for her daughter. Taking its cue from this case, this chapter shows how novel technological developments may challenge long-standing and well-established reproductive practices, illustrated by the fertility industry’s struggle to maintain gamete donor anonymity against the growing use of direct-to-consumer DNA tests. Using pre-embryo disposition disputes as a conceptual framework, it addresses the legal questions produced by this novel encounter between law and ART about the legal approach through which the dispute should be adjudicated, the nature of the rights at stake, and the harms imposed by forced or confounded procreation. It argues that in the social context of anonymous sperm donation, the contractual approach is a more appropriate—if insufficient—legal prism through which a dispute over the use of donated sperm should be resolved.
Chapter 3, Men, Fatherhood, and the Regulation of Assisted Reproduction in Israel, develops the discourse surrounding men and reproductive law by examining how the law factors men into the regulation of assisted reproduction. Taking the Israeli legal landscape as an illustrative case study, it analyses policies that govern gamete donation, posthumous reproduction, and surrogacy. This analysis shows how this body of law underestimates men’s desire to rear—not just to sire—children by valorizing genetic lineage and treating their procreative stakes primarily as financial. In other instances, men’s access to principal routes to biological kinship is contingent upon the presence of a caregiving mother or otherwise denied. To understand the meaning of these findings, this chapter employs the critical lens of masculinities theory. It argues that the doctrinal patterns found in ART law correspond with masculine ideals underlying traditional perceptions of familial roles. The result is a narrow, stereotypical understanding of fatherhood as a relationship divested of nurture and care reflected in this body of law. This chapter concludes by arguing that recognizing men and women as equal stakeholders in these reproductive contexts is necessary, if insufficient, step toward a more egalitarian ART regime
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