Towards social and ecological corporate governance

The call for the integration of social and ecological interests in Dutch corporate governance is growing. Multiple proposals have been put forward to achieve such integration, both in literature and in legislation. This study provides a theoretical framework capable of evaluating such proposals.Dutch corporate law largely evolved in a dynamic between two theoretical perspectives of the corporation, viewing corporations either as partnerships or as institutions. This study distinguishes a third perspective, viewing corporations as ecosystems embedded in larger ecosystems. This third perspective allows for the introduction of new insights in Dutch corporate law from other fields of research, such as complex systems theory.Based on this theoretical approach, this study proposes twelve specific recommendations for the integration of social and ecological interests in Dutch corporate governance. These recommendations include an integrated definition of success, a responsibility for the board to function as an ecosystem steward, and a responsibility for the supervisory board to function as an internal corporate conscience.<br/

Designing Governance Structures for Performance and Accountability

Designing Governance Structures for Performance and Accountability discusses how formal and informal governance structures in Australia, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Taiwan may be designed to promote performance and to ensure accountability. The book presents a selection of papers developed from the Greater China Australia Dialogue on Public Administration’s seventh workshop held in June 2017 hosted by City University of Hong Kong. Insights are provided on both current developments in the different contexts of the three jurisdictions examined, and on broader institutional and organisational theories. Chapters cover theories of organisational forms and functions in public administration, the ‘core’ agency structures used in the different jurisdictions, the structures used to deliver public services (including non-government organisational arrangements) and other ‘non-core’ agency structures such as government business enterprises, regulatory organisations and ‘integrity’ organisations. A particular emphasis is placed on the institutional arrangements the executive arm of government uses for advising on and implementing government policies and programs. Although the book explores arrangements and developments within very different political governance systems, the purposes of the structures are similar: to promote performance and accountability. This book is a companion volume to Value for Money: Budget and Financial Management Reform in the People’s Republic of China, Taiwan and Australia (ANU Press, 2018)

A importância dos Fundos Europeus para o financiamento de um projeto agrícola

Nos dias de hoje, a agricultura continua a ser um dos setores de atividade mais relevantes a nível mundial. Com o crescimento da população a nível mundial, e como consequência uma maior procura por alimentos e de outros produtos agrícolas, é necessário existir uma evolução do setor. O setor agrícola continua a enfrentar desafios permanentes, nomeadamente ao nível da produção, do investimento e da sustentabilidade. O principal objetivo deste projeto é determinar a importância do financiamento europeu para a viabilidade económico-financeira de um projeto agrícola. Para atingir este objetivo procedeu-se à recolha de informação acerca da empresa em análise. A empresa estudada “Frutas Almério” além de uma pequena empresa, é uma empresa familiar com sede na região centro de Portugal. Sendo uma empresa de pequena dimensão e situada numa das zonas mais desfavorecidas de Portugal, que segundo o Programa de Desenvolvimento Rural 2020, “Designam zonas de montanha, e zonas, que não as de montanha, sujeitas a condicionantes naturais significativas e outras zonas afetadas”, o desenvolvimento fica comprometido. A importância dos fundos europeus e dos investimentos efetuados permitem a expansão da empresa. A estratégia da União Europeia através do Fundo Europeu Agrícola de Desenvolvimento Rural passa por melhorar a competitividade do setor agrícola através da reestruturação das explorações agrícolas, tendo em conta a sustentabilidade orçamental e social das zonas rurais, promovendo o emprego, e contribuindo assim para a melhoria da qualidade de vida das populações rurais. O PDR2020 abre as portas do setor a jovens investidores, promovendo o investimento, apoiando a aquisição de terras, a transferência do conhecimento, e a participação no mercado. Pretende também fomentar a renovação e rejuvenescimento das empresas do setor, aumentando a atratividade aos mais jovens. Neste sentido, através da entrevista realizada, elaborou-se uma análise da importância do financiamento obtido através dos fundos europeus, à qual a conclusão final deste projeto é que de facto é um fator determinante, se não o mais importante para permitir o crescimento da empresa estudadaToday, agriculture remains one of the most relevant sectors of activity in the world. With the growth of the world’s population, and as a consequence an increased demand for food and other agricultural products, there is a need for the sector to evolve. The agricultural sector continues to face permanent challenges, namely in terms of production, investment and sustainability. The main objective of this project is to determine the importance of European financing for the economic and financial viability of an agricultural project. To achieve this objective, information about the enterprise under analysis was collected. The enterprise studied, "Frutas Almério", in addition to being a small company, is a family business established in the central region of Portugal. With it being a small enterprise situated in one of the most less-favoured areas of Portugal, which according to the Rural Development Programme 2020, "Designates mountain areas, and areas, other than mountain areas, facing significant natural constraints and other areas affected", development becomes jeopardised. The importance of European funds and the investments made allow the enterprise to grow. The European Union strategy through the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development is to improve the competitiveness of the agricultural sector by restructuring agricultural holdings, given the fiscal and social sustainability of rural areas, promoting employment and thus contributing to the improvement of the quality of life of rural populations. The RDP2020 opens the doors of the sector to young investors, promoting investment, supporting land acquisition, knowledge transfer, and market participation. It also aims to foster the renewal and rejuvenation of enterprises in the sector, increasing the attractiveness to the younger people. In this regard, through the interview carried out, an analysis of the importance of the financing obtained through European funds was prepared. The main conclusion of this project is that the obtained European funds were a decisive factor, if not the most important, to allow the growth of the enterprise studied

Critical perspectives on open development : empirical interrogation of theory construction

Cross-cutting theoretical frameworks and analyses examine how open innovations in international development can empower poor and marginalized populations. Over the last ten years, “open” innovations—the sharing of information and communications resources without access restrictions or cost—have emerged within international development. But do these innovations empower poor and marginalized populations? This book examines whether, for whom, and under what circumstances the free, networked, public sharing of information and communication resources contribute (or not) toward a process of positive social transformation. The contributors offer cross-cutting theoretical frameworks and empirical analyses that cover a broad range of applications, emphasizing the underlying aspects of open innovations that are shared across contexts and domains. The book first outlines theoretical frameworks that span knowledge stewardship, trust, situated learning, identity, participation, and power decentralization. It then investigates these frameworks across a range of institutional and country contexts, considering each in terms of the key emancipatory principles and structural impediments it seeks to address. Taken together, the chapters offer an empirically tested theoretical direction for the field

Understanding Divergent Outcomes in Open Development Authors

After much negotiation, UCT settled on a mixed approach, with each department selecting an approach that they felt would work best for them. Departments in the science faculty offered material online but opted not to hold exams on the material, making plans to shift examinations and teaching of necessary components to the next academic year. The law faculty moved entirely online, offering laptops and mobile Internet to any student who needed them. The health sciences faculty shut down entirely, making plans to teach and hold exams on the material in a minisemester at the beginning of the following year. The outcomes of these diverse approaches varied; however, it became clear through protests against academic exclusion in March and April 2017 that the activists felt that these measures were insufficient. It should be noted that the shutdowns took place in October and November each year. These protests can be understood as a continuation of that campaign—addressing the rights of some of the student activists—but these were not at the same level as the shutdown. In spite of an initial desire to open access to teaching materials through public sharing of educational resources online, this case demonstrates some of the ways in which this access is actually negotiated. Merely putting the material online was not sufficient. The act of opening teaching materials entailed addressing problems of data cost, physical resource access, and personal skills

Manager’s and citizen’s perspective of positive and negative risks for small probabilities

So far „risk‟ has been mostly defined as the expected value of a loss, mathematically PL, being P the probability of an adverse event and L the loss incurred as a consequence of the event. The so called risk matrix is based on this definition. Also for favorable events one usually refers to the expected gain PG, being G the gain incurred as a consequence of the positive event. These “measures” are generally violated in practice. The case of insurances (on the side of losses, negative risk) and the case of lotteries (on the side of gains, positive risk) are the most obvious. In these cases a single person is available to pay a higher price than that stated by the mathematical expected value, according to (more or less theoretically justified) measures. The higher the risk, the higher the unfair accepted price. The definition of risk as expected value is justified in a long term “manager‟s” perspective, in which it is conceivable to distribute the effects of an adverse event on a large number of subjects or a large number of recurrences. In other words, this definition is mostly justified on frequentist terms. Moreover, according to this definition, in two extreme situations (high-probability/low-consequence and low-probability/high-consequence), the estimated risk is low. This logic is against the principles of sustainability and continuous improvement, which should impose instead both a continuous search for lower probabilities of adverse events (higher and higher reliability) and a continuous search for lower impact of adverse events (in accordance with the fail-safe principle). In this work a different definition of risk is proposed, which stems from the idea of safeguard: (1Risk)=(1P)(1L). According to this definition, the risk levels can be considered low only when both the probability of the adverse event and the loss are small. Such perspective, in which the calculation of safeguard is privileged to the calculation of risk, would possibly avoid exposing the Society to catastrophic consequences, sometimes due to wrong or oversimplified use of probabilistic models. Therefore, it can be seen as the citizen‟s perspective to the definition of risk

Exploring the potential development consequences and impact of return migration to Guyana

This thesis investigates the potential for return migrants to have an impact on development in the small-state case of Guyana, relative to the non-migrant population. To do this in a fairly comprehensive manner, three specific questions are posed. Firstly, what are the differences among return migrants, non-returning migrants, and non-migrants? Secondly, what are the determinants of return migration to Guyana? And thirdly, what are the potential consequences of return migration to Guyana? The first question allows for an understanding of critical differences among return migrants, non-returning migrants, and non-migrants. This provides information on where, potentially, return migrants show important differences relative to the other groups, and if those differences observed would be useful for development in Guyana. Further, I explore the sustainability of return migration through the concept of mixed embeddedness, looking into the influences of return migrants’ desire for re-emigration. Hence, answering the first question is an early signal of where, potentially, return migrants demonstrate attributes that arguably are useful for development in the origin country. In answering the second question, an insight is provided into what determines return. In particular, determinants of return take on a more real-world context, factoring a key eligibility of policy – that of duration of time spent abroad. Lastly, given the multidimensional link between migration and development, the final question tries to understand what the actual nexus between return migration and development is for the case of Guyana. Especially, I explore the direct and indirect impact of return migration, whether return migrants are likely to be of more use in development over non-migrants, and the measurable indicators of this nexus for Guyana. To facilitate the analysis, the thesis first justifies why it is useful to revisit return migration as a potentially useful impetus for development. Here is where the small state case is presented as still valid. It then delves into the relevance of return migration and development linkages for the particular case of Guyana. In the process, it reveals why Guyana is an interesting case, contextualizing the theoretical perspectives that help to rationalize the general arguments, for and against, why individuals leave and some return. The account then notes, where data are available, existing policy practices in some small states as they relate to how governments demonstrate an interest in return migration as useful for origin-state development. The above summarizes the content of chapters 1 and 2. Chapter 3 explains in detail the mixed-method approach used to collect the qualitative and quantitative data required to develop the critical arguments and research results presented in chapters 4, 5, and 6. A two-stage stratified sampling approach with disproportionate fractions was used to collect data on 451 return migrants and 528 non-migrants. This data was pooled with 210 non-returning migrants captured in an online survey using an ethno-survey framework. Additionally, qualitative interviews with representatives of several local institutions with responsibility for return migration policy, data, and concessions delivery were conducted to support the quantitative framework. Notwithstanding the fairly large sample size, the return migration and development story told in this thesis not only dwells on averages, but also on individual reflections of return contained in the data. For the analysis, a mix of standard and novel approaches is utilized. The transnationalism approach, which recognizes the current characterization of the fluidity of migration, combined with the capabilities approach to migration and development, enables a general view on how the nexus is manifested in development outcomes at the individual level. These are the main reference points adapted to guide the conversation on determinants and consequences respectively. Techniques employed for the analysis of determinants and consequences are survival analysis and exploratory factor analysis, including the OLS and Ordered Probit models. The sample demonstrated that return migrants were different on personal and socioeconomic attributes. Migrants returned mainly from countries within the CARICOM region rather than from those further away such as the North America and Other International areas. Return migrants have a tendency to remit prior to returning, even acquiring personal assets before, which can be linked to their duration spent abroad and their host location. On returning, returnees in the sample differed from non-migrants, especially in the areas of educational attainment and current earnings in terms of monthly household income. International migration in terms of the level of development at the host location is an imperative. Return migrants’ exposure and enhanced capacity are potentially useful for development. But, the jury is still out on whether this is harnessed to fill development gaps in the origin country Guyana. Nevertheless, returnees can be viewed as ‘elites’ which puts this group among those most equipped to (re)-emigrate. Hence, desires for re-emigration are vested not only in the institutional and structural stressors, but also reflect individual attributes of return migrants. Return migration thus does not necessarily complete the migration cycle. Return, demonstrated in the sample mostly by those in the CARICOM region, has been subjected to a number of personal characteristics – migration status among other reasons. Structural factors have not been captured well to reflect the differences in the host countries to that of origin, but something is definitely happening at host locations that engenders the agency of returnees. Capabilities and achievements of migrants returning are indicative of systems and structures at the host locations. Even in the presence of heterogeneity among returnees, return migrants seem to have a positive impact on development in Guyana relative to non-migrants. Returning was also importantly a function the migrant’s position/membership in the household at origin, as social attachments inclined them to return. But their contribution on return correlates with the duration spent abroad; the longer time giving migrants better opportunities to prepare, remit, and acquire local assets in some cases. The signal given, therefore, is that, while returnees seem positively related to local development through their human capital, there is no guarantee that they will be contributing to local development if the policy is not designed to extract necessary obligations. While return might be interpreted as success in some cases, migrants juxtapose economic and noneconomic factors in navigating return and re-emigration. As it already obtains, if migrants do not return some still remit which can also contribute to the development of Guyana. This happens if diaspora policy and thoughts of returning are engendered by the non-returning migrant. Transnational ties help to reinforce such thoughts. Notwithstanding, the transnational approach alone cannot explain the many contexts of migration and return. Such would require multiple contextual approaches. The relationships of the consequences of return migration for development in Guyana has been reflected in the extraction of 13 observable indicators. The variables give ideas into the relationship of return and development, that is to say the capabilities and achievements of returnees as compared to non-migrants. But return migrants’ achievements, even when this is above that of non-migrants, does not guarantee inputs to wider local development in the presence of structural rigidities. In fact, during the period of exchange rate and foreign exchange restrictions, non-returning migrants could not remit formally, intending migrants could not get access to passports at will, inter alia. The result was a massive underground economy as a coping strategy under import substitution development. Notwithstanding, in the presence of liberal policies and transnationalism, at minimum, migration does do something positive for the migrants and/or the households from which they originate, even if the models used in this thesis exaggerate these outcomes