Innovation and jobs: evidence from manufacturing firms

This paper is aimed at structurally assessing the employment effects of the innovative activities of firms. We estimate firm level displacement and compensation effects in a model in which the stock of knowledge capital raises firm relative efficiency through process innovations and firm demand through product innovations. Displacement is estimated from the elasticity of employment with respect to innovation in the (conditional or Hicksian) demand for labour. Compensation effects are estimated from a firm-specific demand relationship. We also assess the enlargement and weakening of these effects due to firm agents’ behaviour aimed at appropriating innovation rents. We find that the potential employment compensation effect of process innovations surpasses the displacement effect, both in the short and long run (when competitors react), and that product innovation doubles the expanding impact by unit of expenditure, but also that agents’ behaviour can seriously reduce these effects. The actual elasticity of employment to knowledge capital is estimated, however, not far from unity, while “passive” productivity growth is suggested to have null or negative employment effects

The Power of Myths and Storytelling in Nation Building: The Campaign for the Independence of Catalonia from Spain (2012-2015)

Background There is no nation without its origin story. The recent success of the Catalan campaign for independence (2012–2015) can be explained by a strong capacity to build and convey a story capable of informing, persuading, and eliciting emotional responses from Catalans and other Spaniards. Analysis The recent Catalan nationalism narrative has been forged by updating the foundational myths of Catalan nationalism through four main plots—quest, escape, revenge, and transformation—that with a pragmatic character have been able to integrate current affairs into the old myths. Conclusion and implications This article explores the elements of the new Catalan nationalism narrative by analyzing the interaction of foundational myths, the use of master plots, current affairs, and the means of dissemination

Nationalism and Public Opinion in Contemporary Spain: The Demobilization of the Working Class in Catalonia

This paper examines the relationship between nationalism and public opinion in the region of Catalonia in contemporary Spain. It analyzes the interaction of the climate of opinion, expectations, poll results, and political action. This holistic approach permits a conclusion that successive Catalan governments and the political class, in an effort to solidify their foothold in and emerging democracy, have been successful in creating a climate of opinion that has encouraged the nationalist part of the Catalan population, concentrated proportionally in highest socioeconomic strata, to be actively involved in politics, while at the same time demobilizing a significant part of the working class, the sector of Catalan society most resistant to nationalism, by ignoring other social problems

Challenging hegemony and power in the sixteenth century: The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude as antecedent of critical public relations theory

This article applies La Boétie’s concept of voluntary servitude to public relations historiography through a historic-critical analysis. Written in the same Renaissance era than other early history books of the history of public relations such as Machiavelli’s The Prince, The discourse of voluntary servitude (1552-1553) reveals to the publics the power that would lie in their refusal to engage with the authority (or in other words, the state, the prince or the monarch). The result is that, through a postmodern approach of emphasizing dissensus, the concept of voluntary servitude and its encouragement of activism and passive resistance can be considered an early precedent of critical public relations theory. Furthermore, without being judgmental, La Boétie invites us to a reflection on the role of self-responsibility of the publics in their power relationships with organizations

Using relationship management to legitimate the monarchy: An analysis of the reign of King Juan Carlos I of Spain

Abstract This article explores the management of relationships by King Juan Carlos I of Spain to legitimate the monarchy as an institution and build a new democracy after Franco’s death in 1975. The high level of public support during most of his reign shows there is a correlation between good relationship management and the loyalty of the subjects. Only when some basic relationship management principles of mutual benefit, such as trust and openness with his subjects, were violated the level of support of Juan Carlos I, and the monarchy as an institution started to decline. Nonetheless, the value of relationship management has proved durable since the new monarch, Felipe VI, was able to recover in a relatively short period of time the public support that Juan Carlos I enjoyed in the past. This fact indicates that even in the case of disruptive monarchies, such as Spain, the power of relationship management has shown effectiveness to legitimate the institution. However, at the same time it also points out that in a public opinion regime monarchies have to show exemplarity and that involves not only to create mutual benefit for the citizenship through good deeds, since Juan Carlos I always behaved professionally as a business and diplomatic representative, but that there is feeling of trust between the monarch and the subjects

El Imaginario de la Infancia en los Poetas de Chipre ante la Invasión Turca de 1974

To begin with, a brief overview of Cyprus' recent history is presented, and after that, a deeper analysis of the imaginary of children in Greek-Cypriot poetry since the invasion of 1974. This article is the result of conversations of professor García with authorities of the Cypriot Government, poets, historians and people forcibly displaced from their homes, all of which took place thanks to a scholarship granted by the Government of Cyprus, for which the author is grateful.    En el presente artículo, el profesor César García presenta en primer lugar un breve panorama de la última historia de Chipre, posteriormente ahonda en el imaginario de los niños en la poesía grecochipriota a partir de la invasión de1974. El artículo es el resultado de las conversaciones sostenidas por el señor García con autoridades del Gobierno de Chipre, poetas, historiadores y desplazados, gracias a una beca concedida por el propio gobierno de Chipre, que agradece.