Inhibitors of Non-for Profit Organisations’ activities and survival in a crisis context

Purpose Tunisia has been living a decade of democratic transition since 2011. In this new context, the civil society has been fervently expressing claims for democracy and social justice through creating thousands of NPOs (23456 NPOs in 2020 against 9000 established in 30 years up to 2010). However, this shift seems to be misleading, as only 3000 NPOs are actually active, indicating that NPOs are struggling to sustain their activities and ensure their survival. The purpose of this study is to uncover the factors hindering NPOs activities and survival. Design/methodology/approach Semi-structured interviews were carried out using a purposive sample of 32 NPOs members in two main economic and touristic cities -Tunis and Sousse- selected using snow ball method. A considerable amount of qualitative data was produced (400 pages of text). This seems representative of Tunisian citizens’ inclination to protest in the new prevailing political and social context. The data collection benefited from the freedom of speech gained after the 2011 civilian uprising as interviewees were enthusiastic in voicing their opinions. Findings Two main categories of inhibitors were identified. First, endogenous inhibitors including (i) inhibitors under the control of the NPO (i.e. use of illegal and foreign sources of funding, limited financial resources, unavailability of NPOs’ members, short term planning, conflicts between managers, autocratic leadership, organisational support, activities diversification and organisational justice, leadership and communication skills, “NPO culture”, members’ opportunistic behaviour and, generation gap) (ii) inhibitors related to NPOs inter-relationships: stiff competition, unfair and dishonest competition, lack of collaboration, trust and communication between NPOs. Second, exogenous inhibitors, i.e. perceived unethical practices and image transfer, economic crisis, foreign funding sources and the media. Research limitations/implications This study has some limitations mainly due to the sample size and characteristics of the selected interviewees. In addition, data was collected in only two regions (Tunis and Sousse). Therefore, the results lack generalisability.   Practical implications The findings highlight the critical impact of the inhibitors under the control of NPOs compared to those out of their control. NPOs in crisis context, could overcome these inhibitors by ensuring congruence between the NPOs’ mission, objectives and activities and designing suitable marketing strategies. Originality/value This study contributes to elucidate this complex circular system of exchange and its inhibitors in challenging and understudied context. It offers support to Bagozzi’s (1974; 1975; 1994; 2011) calls for uncovering the factors constraining or facilitating exchanges that have an impact going beyond the relationship between three or more partners and the conditions that govern these exchanges. Moreover, and to the best of our knowledge, this is the first empirical attempt to support Bagozzi’s (1994) conceptualisation. It also brings an update to NPOs' data and marketing strategy in a region near the crossroads of Middle Eastern, North African and Western influences. Keywords: Not For Profit Organisations (NPOs), endogenous and exogenous inhibitors, NPOs’ inter-relationship, circular exchange system

On the interplay between phylogeny and environment on behaviour of two urban bird species, <em>Columba livia</em> and <em>Corvus corone</em> (Aves)

International audienceDifferent hypotheses exist to explain the ability of individuals or species to modify their behaviours in response to the urban environment. Our study addresses risk-taking in urban birds as an essential behavioural change in cities allowing the species to manage living in anthropic habitats. Specifically, we tested role of phylogeny and the environment on risk-taking, expressed in lower escape distances. We adopted a comparative approach and compared the flight distance of urban pigeons and urban crows in Paris with rural wild rock doves and crows in Sardinia, thus contrasting environmental conditions (urban or rural), species (columbids vs. corvids) and type (feral or wild). Pigeons had lower flight distance than crows in both rural and urban environments, and rural individuals of both species had higher flight distance than urban individuals. However, this intraspecific difference was higher in pigeons than in crows, and the interspecific difference was higher in urban than in rural areas. Our study shows that risk-taking in birds is the outcome of a complex interplay between several environmental and phylogenetic factors, and confirms the hypothesis of increased risk-taking in urban pigeons as a result of a pre-adaptation due to artificial selection, as often suggested but never scientifically demonstrated

Assimilating NOAA SST data into BSH operational circulation model for the North and Baltic Seas: Part 2. Sensitivity of the forecast's skill to the prior model error statistics

A data assimilation (DA) system has been developed for the operational circulation model of the German Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH) in order to improve the forecast of hydrographic characteristics in the North and Baltic Seas. It is based on the local Singular Evolutive Interpolated Kalman (SEIK) filter algorithm and assimilation of the NOAA AVHRR-derived sea surface temperature (SST). The DA system allows one to improve the agreement of the SST forecast with the satellite observations by 27% on average over the period of October 2007–September 2008. However, a sensitivity analysis of the forecasting system performance shows a significant impact of initial model error statistics on ice fields and bottom temperature. A reinitialisation of model error covariances in accordance with seasonality of the model error statistics was required in order to maintain the predictive skill with respect to these variables. The success of the DA system is quantified by the comparison with independent data from MARNET stations as well as sea ice concentration measurements. In addition, the Maximum Entropy approach is used to assess the system performance and the prior and posterior model error statistics

. In vitro antioxidant and antigenotoxic potentials of myricetin-3-O-galactoside and myricetin-3-O-rhamnoside from Myrtus communis:modulation of expression of genes involved in cell defence system using cDNA microarray

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Orientations d’acculturation et adaptation psychosociale des adolescents issus de l’immigration

International audienceObjectiveThe aim of the study was to explore the typology of adolescents with immigrant background based on the orientations of acculturation and to estimate the psychosocial adaptation of the various subtypes.MethodA sample of 228 French high school students with an immigrant background completed a questionnaire assessing acculturation orientations (Immigrant Acculturation Scale; Barrette et al., 2004), antisocial behaviors, depressive symptoms and self-esteem. Cluster analysis based on acculturation orientations was performed using the k-means method.ResultsCluster analysis produced four distinct acculturation profiles: bicultural (31%), separated (28%), marginalized (21%), and assimilated-individualistic (20%). Adolescents in the separated and marginalized clusters, both characterized by rejection of the host culture, reported higher levels of antisocial behavior. Depressive symptoms and self-esteem did not differ between clusters.DiscussionSeveral hypotheses may explain the association between separation and delinquency. First, separation and rejection of the host culture may lead to rebellious behavior such as delinquency. Conversely, delinquent behavior may provoke rejection or discrimination by peers or school, or legal sanctions that induce a reciprocal process of rejection of the host culture and separation. The relationship between separation and antisocial behavior may be bidirectional, each one reinforcing the other, resulting in a negative spiral. This study confirms the interest of the study of the orientations of acculturation in the understanding of the antisocial behavior of adolescents with immigrant background.Deux cent vingt-huit adolescents issus de l’immigration ont rempli des questionnaires mesurant les orientations d’acculturation, les comportements antisociaux, la symptomatologie dépressive et l’estime de soi. Une analyse classificatoire hiérarchique a dégagé quatre groupes : intégré (biculturel), séparé, marginalisé et assimilé-individualiste. Les groupes marginalisé et séparé se caractérisaient par un niveau plus élevé de comportements antisociaux. Les niveaux de symptomatologie dépressive et d’estime de soi ne différenciaient pas les quatre groupes