NGOs, Networking, and Problems of Representation.

Networking is currently recommended as particularly suitable for NGOs to improve performance and enhance impact. Since many NGOs are small and dispersed, networking is commonly seen as a coat-effective means to share information and spread knowledge about grassroots' needs, solutions and best practices. Also, networking is believed to strengthen NGO's ability to speak with one voice and to significantly increase their impact as policy negotiators and advocating agencies. However, while NGO-networking definitely has a potential to improve the undertakings of NGOs and grassroots' organizations in LDCs, much of this potential is not realized. NGOs have been found not to share information voluntarily as they are often fierce competitors for funds, market-shares and clients and - particularly - for the right to represent other, smaller NGOs. The so called 'NGO-community' is heterogenous and there is reason to doubt that it should have only one voice. Too much networking is done to boost the dominance of a few large and well-connected NGOs while too little networking is devoted to practical and grassroot-relevant efforts on the ground.

Tender offers versus block trades: empirical evidence

In this paper we test whether the determinant of a block trade and tender offer probabilities differ and whether the relative magnitude of the security and private benefits can explain the choice of transfer mode. We investigate the Swedish market for corporate control and use the wedge between cash flow rights and voting rights as a proxy for the incentives to extract private benefits. Our results indicate the importance of considering the control transfers through takeovers and block trades as two distinctive events. The likelihood of a public tender offer (block trade) decreases (increases) with the use of dual class shares. The results are consistent with our general hypothesis that the likelihood of block trades relative to public tender offers increases with the incumbent’s incentives to extract private benefits

Method for Identifying Actors in a Knowledge Based Cluster

The objective of the paper is to develop a method through which we can identify the actors (industrial, institutional and individual) who are active in technology development in the same or similar knowledge fields. The paper is, thus, aimed to make a methodological contribution to the literature, which has emerged on the systemic nature of innovation. The method involves broadening out from a starting point in a specific patent class, which corresponds as closely as possibly to the technological area of interest, to a set of related patent classes by using co-classifications and citations. After close scrutiny of both patent classes and patents, the actors in the new classes, as well as in the original class, are then identified. We try out the method on radio wave antennas for communication technology in Sweden. We find a range of firms and other actors in a whole set of industries, which bear little relation to one another in an input-output sense. Although we can not ascertain the extent of linkages or relations between these actors, our hypothesis is that they constitute a cluster around radio wave antenna technology in Sweden.knowledge-based clusters, indicators, patents, similar and complementary technologies, horisontal linkages, knowledge spillovers, actors

ASSOCIATIONS BETWEEN EMPATHY-RELATED PROCESSES AND PROSOCIAL BEHAVIORS IN TODDLERHOOD

Different prosocial behaviors, such as sharing, helping, and comforting emerge during the second year of life. Empathy-related processes play a key role in the development of such early behaviors. Children can demonstrate empathy via personal distress or other-oriented empathy. Whereas personal distress is considered an aversive reaction, associated with emotion dysregulation and desire to reduce one own’s discomfort, other-oriented empathy involves a concern for others—a feeling that should motivate one to alleviate another person’s distress. There is a dearth of studies examining how these two theoretically distinct empathy-related processes relate to various prosocial behaviors in early development. Thus, in this study I examined the role of other-oriented empathy and personal distress in sharing, helping, and comforting during the second year of life. I hypothesized that whereas personal distress would be unrelated, or negatively related, to prosocial behaviors, other-oriented empathy would be positively associated with prosocial behaviors. Additionally, as comforting, in particular, requires toddlers to recognize and interpret another person’s emotions, I anticipated that other-oriented empathy would show the strongest association with comforting. Participants were 200 mothers (Mage = 31.02 years) of toddlers ages 15-21 months old who completed scales measuring helping, sharing, and comforting, as well as other-oriented empathy and personal distress. Other-oriented empathy was positively correlated with all three prosocial behaviors while personal distress was positively associated with sharing and comforting. After controlling for age and gender differences, other-oriented empathy was positively associated with helping, sharing, and comforting, with the strongest association emerging for comforting. In contrast, personal distress did not have a significant effect on any of the three prosocial behaviors. When controlling for the overlap among the three prosocial behaviors, other-oriented empathy had a unique positive association with comforting, but associations with helping and sharing failed to reach significance. These findings underscore the importance of making a distinction between empathy-related processes that are self- vs. other-oriented and studying their unique contribution to different types of prosocial behaviors in toddlerhood

Mikä Jeesuksessa on juutalaisinta – Osa 1

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