The role of trust and power in the institutional regulation of territorial business systems

This paper discusses the role of trust and power in organizational relationships. In its theoretical part it draws on conceptual ideas of Systems Theory, Structuration Theory and New Institutionalism. The empirical part investigates the English and the German speaking business regions within Europe as two distinct environments which in different ways shape the quality of organizational relationships. Depending the characteristics of these business systems, trust and power will be shown to inter-link with each other in quite specific patterns. The final part of the paper considers some conclusions relevant for European innovation policy.

Turning Contention into Collaboration: Engaging Power, Trust, and Learning in Collaborative Networks

Given the complexity and multiplicity of goals in natural resource governance, it is not surprising that policy debates are often characterized by contention and competition. Yet at times adversaries join together to collaborate to find creative solutions not easily achieved in polarizing forums. We employed qualitative interviews and a quantitative network analysis to investigate a collaborative network that formed to develop a resolution to a challenging natural resource management problem, the conservation of vernal pools. We found that power had become distributed among members, trust had formed across core interests, and social learning had resulted in shared understanding and joint solutions. Furthermore, institutions such as who and when new members joined, norms of inclusion and openness, and the use of small working groups helped create the observed patterns of power, trust, and learning

The German Public and its Trust in the ECB: The Role of Knowledge and Information Search

In this paper, we analyse the effects of objective and subjective knowledge about mone-tary policy, as well as the information search patterns, of German citizens on trust in the ECB. We rely on a unique representative public opinion survey of German households conducted in 2011. We find that subjective and factual knowledge, as well as the desire to be informed, about the ECB foster citizens’ trust. Specific knowledge about the ECB is more influential than general monetary policy knowledge. Objective knowledge is more important than subjective knowledge. However, an increasing intensity of media usage, especially newspaper reading, has a significantly negative influence on trust. We con-clude that the only viable way for the ECB to generate more trust in itself is to spread monetary policy knowledge

A decidable policy language for history-based transaction monitoring

Online trading invariably involves dealings between strangers, so it is important for one party to be able to judge objectively the trustworthiness of the other. In such a setting, the decision to trust a user may sensibly be based on that user's past behaviour. We introduce a specification language based on linear temporal logic for expressing a policy for categorising the behaviour patterns of a user depending on its transaction history. We also present an algorithm for checking whether the transaction history obeys the stated policy. To be useful in a real setting, such a language should allow one to express realistic policies which may involve parameter quantification and quantitative or statistical patterns. We introduce several extensions of linear temporal logic to cater for such needs: a restricted form of universal and existential quantification; arbitrary computable functions and relations in the term language; and a "counting" quantifier for counting how many times a formula holds in the past. We then show that model checking a transaction history against a policy, which we call the history-based transaction monitoring problem, is PSPACE-complete in the size of the policy formula and the length of the history. The problem becomes decidable in polynomial time when the policies are fixed. We also consider the problem of transaction monitoring in the case where not all the parameters of actions are observable. We formulate two such "partial observability" monitoring problems, and show their decidability under certain restrictions

Network Capital and Cooperation Patterns in the Working Groups of the Council of the EU

This working paper presents findings from a study of network capital and cooperation patterns in the working groups of the Council of the European Union. Two successive rounds of telephone interviews with Council working group representatives from all member states were conducted in 2003 and 2006. It is demonstrated that some member states have a consistently higher stock of network capital (having close ties to a large number of powerful cooperation partners) than others, over time and across policy fields. Size explains a lot of this variation, but there is also room for actor-based factors. For small states in particular inter-personal trust seems to have a positive effect. The findings also indicate that cooperation patterns in the Council working groups follow geographical patterns. The dominant North-South dimension is consistent across policy fields. Rather than having one 'core' the EU15 Council revolved around a North (the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK) and a South (France, Italy, Spain) center, connected by Germany. The 2004 enlargement did not change this pattern, but only added new groups of countries to the periphery around the two main centers. There is evidence to suggest that the geographical cooperation patterns are mainly driven by cultural factors, rather than economic interests or political ideologies.political science; COREPER; Council of Ministers; enlargement; power analysis; networks

Trustful Competitor & Distrustful Cooperator: Impacts of Assessment Biases on Trustworthy Coopetition in Policy

Coopetition is a universal relationship in policy network where various organizations cooperate and also compete with one another. In addition, trust and distrust may coexist in any pair relations in policy network. As the coexistence of cooperation and competition, (and also that of trust and distrust), is somewhat inevitable in policy network, how can we make such ambivalent relationships more reliable and trustful? With the paucity of the multi-dimensional approaches to the trust and distrust in coopetition considered, this study explored the patterns and drivers behind the two paradoxes: trustful competitor and distrustful cooperator, by using the survey and interview with the nuclear-related public institutions in South Korea. The recent situation of the nuclear science and engineering in South Korea can be described as coopetition among nuclearrelated ministries and institutions in three domains such as denuclearization, nuclear waste disposal, and nuclear industry development. Under such multidimensional relations in nuclear policy network, the interviewed organizations were asked to give their own assessments about: (1) trust and distrust in their peer organizations in nuclear policy network, (2) stance on nuclear science and policies, (3) attribution of nuclear policy issues, (4) power of self- and peer organizations, and (5) contribution to nuclear policy issues. The findings of this study imply two major points. First, the degrees of assessment bias between nuclear-related organizations in South Korea may lead to trust in competition and also to distrust in cooperation. Second, as the view gaps beget trust in competition as well as distrust in cooperation, what matters in coopetition in policy network is not whether there is a view gap or bias between the network actors but when (or where) such gap exists so it can be beneficial or harmful to the coopetition. Based on the findings, the study suggests the theoretical implications and practical conditions of “trustworthy coopetition” in policy network, in terms of self- and environment assessments

Executive Agencies, Ministers, and Departments: Can Policy and Management Ever be Separated?

The creation of executive agencies outside core departments has been a major element of administrative reforms throughout Europe during the past two decades, driven by a managerial logic, which also has been at the core of most academic works on "agencification." In this article, the authors take a different perspective by focusing on executive agencies' influence in the policy process. The authors analyze the policy influence of a large executive agency with service delivery tasks in the context of a parliamentary system of government (Flanders, Belgium). A comparison of the agency's influence in two major policy processes shows that a complex interplay of policy content, patterns of interaction, and mutual trust with the political leadership and organizational characteristics helps in explaining the observed patterns of influence. The findings also raise normative concerns regarding potential problems of disconnecting operations from policy formulation via agencification. © 2012 SAGE Publications

The role of trust and power in the institutional regulation of territorial business systems

This paper discusses the role of trust and power in organizational relationships. In its theoretical part it draws on conceptual ideas of Systems Theory, Structuration Theory and New Institutionalism. The empirical part investigates the English and the German speaking business regions within Europe as two distinct environments which in different ways shape the quality of organizational relationships. Depending the characteristics of these business systems, trust and power will be shown to inter-link with each other in quite specific patterns. The final part of the paper considers some conclusions relevant for European innovation policy

Getting warmer: a field trial of heat pumps

Given the lack of data on heat pump performance in customers’ homes, the Energy Saving Trust in partnership with the Open University undertook the first large-scale heat pump field trial in the UK to determine how heat pumps perform in real-life conditions. The year-long field trial monitored technical performance and customer behaviour observed at 83 sites across the UK. The findings provide valuable information about the factors that affect the success of a domestic heat pump installation. Instead of revealing outcomes along statistical grounds, or acting as a “brand-vs-brand” competition, the field trial findings provide a discussion of key points of interest to potential consumers, including: • Measured coefficient of performance (COP) and system efficiency • Installation practices (both system design and performance) • Customer behaviour (contribution by the Open University) • Heating patterns and average internal temperatures • Economics This report makes recommendations for consumers, installers, manufacturers and policy makers, and identifies areas that require additional investigation and research

Networks in the shadow of markets and hierarchies : calling the shots in the visual effects industry

The nature and organisation of creative industries and creative work has increasingly been at the centre of academic and policy debates in recent years. The differentiation of this field, economically and spatially, has been tied to more general arguments about the trend towards new trust-based, network forms of organization and economic coordination. In the first part of this paper, we set out, unpack and then critique the conceptual and empirical foundations of such claims. In the main section of the paper, we draw on research into a particular creative sector of the economy - the visual effects component of the film industry - a relatively new though increasingly important global production network. By focusing both on firms and their workers, and drawing on concepts derived from global value chain, labour process and institutional analysis, we aim to offer a more realistic and grounded analysis of creative work within creative industries. The analysis begins with an attempt to explain the power dynamics and patterns of competition and collaboration in inter-firm relations within the Hollywood studio-dominated value chain, before moving to a detailed examination of how the organisation of work and reemployment relations are central to the capturing of value. On the basis of that evidence, we conclude that trust-based networks and collaborative communities play some part in accessing and acquiring leverage in the value chain, but do not explain the core mechanisms of resource allocation, coordination and work organisation