Spotlight on new research publications in September

Neurocomputational Mechanisms at Play when Weighing Concerns for Extrinsic Rewards, Moral Values, and Social Image

ABSTRACT: Humans not only value extrinsic monetary rewards but also their own morality and their image in the eyes of others. Yet violating moral norms is frequent, especially when people know that they are not under scrutiny. When moral values and monetary payoffs are at odds, how does the brain weigh the benefits and costs of moral and monetary payoffs? Here, using a neurocomputational model of decision value (DV) and functional (f)MRI, we investigated whether different brain systems are engaged when deciding whether to earn money by contributing to a “bad cause” and when deciding whether to sacrifice money to contribute to a “good cause,” both when such choices were made privately or in public. Although similar principles of DV computations were used to solve these dilemmas, they engaged 2 distinct valuation systems. When weighing monetary benefits and moral costs, people were willing to trade their moral values in exchange for money, an effect accompanied by DV computation engaging the anterior insula and the lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC). In contrast, weighing monetary costs against compliance with one’s moral values engaged the ventral putamen. Moreover, regardless of the type of dilemma, a brain network including the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), anterior insula, and the right temporoparietal junction (TJP) was more engaged in public than in private settings. Together, these findings identify how the brain processes three sources of motivation: extrinsic rewards, moral values, and concerns for image.

Humanitarian Humor, Digilantism, and the Dilemmas of Representing Volunteer Tourism on Social Media

ABSTRACT: How is volunteer tourism practice portrayed and policed in an online setting? First, this article describes three humanitarian-themed campaigns—Radi-Aid on YouTube, Humanitarians of Tinder on Tumblr, and Barbie Savior on Instagram—to consider the ways edgy humor might be employed to rebuke and resolve problematic humanitarian practices as well as representations of the African “other” and the humanitarian self. Second, through an inspection of repeated semi-structured interviews and visual content uploaded to Facebook, this article shows how a group of UK-based international volunteers took measures to avoid “stereotypical” volunteer photography (embracing children, selfies) when communicating their experiences in Kenya to a public audience, determined to avoid the scrutiny of “in the know” audience members. We consider these counter-narratives in light of Jane’s concept of “digilantism,” an emerging style of networked response to injustice.

The Value of Scientific Knowledge Dissemination for Scientists - A Value Capture Perspective.

ABSTRACT: Scientific knowledge dissemination is necessary to collaboratively develop solutions to today’s challenges among scientific, public, and commercial actors. Building on this, recent concepts (e.g., Third Mission) discuss the role and value of different dissemination mechanisms for increasing societal impact. However, the value individual scientists receive in exchange for disseminating knowledge differs across these mechanisms, which, consequently, affects their selection. So far, value capture mechanisms have mainly been described as appropriating monetary rewards in exchange for scientists’ knowledge (e.g., patenting). However, most knowledge dissemination activities in science do not directly result in capturing monetary value (e.g., social engagement). By taking a value capture perspective, this article conceptualizes and explores how individual scientists capture value from disseminating their knowledge. Results from our qualitative study indicate that scientists’ value capture consists of a measureable objective part (e.g., career promotion) and a still unconsidered subjective part (e.g., social recognition), which is perceived as valuable due to scientists’ needs. By advancing our understanding of value capture in science, scientists’ selection of dissemination mechanisms can be incentivized to increase both the value captured by themselves and society. Hence, policy makers and university managers can contribute to overcoming institutional and ecosystem barriers and foster scientists’ engagement with society.

The Russian Imperative as a Mirror of Societal Logic

ABSTRACT: By separating and defining the use of infinitives and imperatives as directives it is concluded that the infinitive is used to issue prohibition or to give orders at the authoritative level of the Russian society, whereas the imperative is used in social problem solving among ordinary people at the non-authoritative level of the society. When dealing with single actions, it is demonstrated that the perfective imperative form is linked to alethic modality, i.e. laws of nature, while the imperfective imperative is tied up with deontic modality, i.e. laws of society. Compared to the individualist culture of United Kingdom that seems to be based on the alethic notion of possibility and compared to the collectivist culture of China that seems to be grounded in the deontic notion of obligation, the Russian society stands out as a third variety with a sharp distinction between two different types of societal logic: knowledge of what is possible, impossible, necessary or unnecessary and knowledge of what is permitted, prohibited, obligated or not obligated for specific persons in concrete situations. It is furthermore demonstrated that whereas the English society focusses on the hearer’s face and the Chinese society on the speaker’s face, the Russian society focusses on both the speaker’s and the hearer’s face. In that way, a problem is considered a mutual problem, a problem of society that has to be solved as quickly as possible. By constantly establishing contact between members of the society the imperative mood can be said to have a binding effect. This is part of the reason why the imperative itself has no negative connotations.

The Organization of Markets for Collective Concerns and Their Failures

ABSTRACT: This special issue introduces a new object of analysis: the organization of markets for collective concerns and their failures. This paper discusses how the study of this new object challenges key assumptions in recent social studies of markets. We focus on three issues, each related to the keywords of the title: organization, market, and concern. The first problem is the fluctuating conceptual value of the market-organization pair in the forms of expertise used to implement and repair markets for collective concerns. The second challenge pushes social researchers to develop a stronger analytical sensibility to the identification and understanding of the concepts of markets mobilized in their fields. Third, we show how the consolidation of professions involved in practices of market design challenges the political expectations found in social studies of markets.

House United, House Divided: Explaining the EU's Unity in the Brexit Negotiations.

ABSTRACT: The Brexit negotiations endured a turbulent year in 2018. 1 Nevertheless, member states and EU institutions were able to produce timely and coherent negotiating positions on Brexit. Just as importantly, they have appeared, by and large, united and have not broken rank in the negotiations despite some attempts by the UK to play a divide‐and‐conquer strategy (Kassim and Usherwood, 2018). This article sets out to explain the unexpected unity of the EU in the Article 50 negotiations. 

In order to explain the unexpected unity of the EU27 and the EU's institutions, this article develops and operationalizes four different models; namely, the rational choice model, the identity model, the bureaucratic model and the framing model. Building on comprehensive empirical material, this article examines the explanatory value of the models. Third, it concludes by reflecting upon the utility of the theoretical framework.

Allocation of the Taxing Right to Payments for Cloud Computing-as-a-service.

ABSTRACT: The author analyses the options available to user jurisdictions for taxing the value generated by cloud computing service providers. The focus is on the challenges of allocating the taxing right to payments for cloud computing provided as a service in the form of Infrastructure-as-a-Service, Platform-as-a-Service and Software-as-a-Service, deployed as both public and private cloud computing. More specifically, the focus is on mixed contracts, the distinction between business income and royalties and whether the provision of such services constitute a permanent establishment. The analysis is primarily based on the OECD Model Tax Convention on Income and on Capital, but some relevant derogations and national practices are also considered. Among other things, it is concluded that the user jurisdictions, pursuant to the current international tax regime, will, under certain circumstances, be precluded from taxing the income of foreign cloud computing service providers, as cloud computing service providers may be able to deliver their digital services from remote locations while structuring their business around potential withholding taxes. Against this background, value creation and the fundamental principles of legal certainty, neutrality and the ability to pay tax are discussed. Finally, it is recommended that policymakers assess the full effects of the changes made in the tenth update to the OECD Model Tax Convention on Income and on Capital (21 November 2017) before introducing new measures.
 

Corporate Brand Positioning in Complex Industrial Firms: Introducing a Dynamic, Process Approach to Positioning.

ABSTRACT: Approaches to positioning predominantly examine the input and outcome effectiveness of certain positioning strategies. However, less is known about the positioning management process and internal dynamics. This study remedies this limitation by identifying corporate brand positioning (CBP) in industrial firms as a strategic development process. Based on comparative case studies within two globally operating industrial multi-business firms, this study opens the proverbial ‘black box’ to reveal how CBP occurs over time and what the driving mechanisms are. Findings suggest understanding CBP as a recurring, multi-level process, making it more than just a corporate-level marketing activity. Positioning episodes are found to pass through seven stages, each creating enablers and barriers for change. CBP should be viewed as a political process that integrates stable corporate and business levels and temporary levels that emerge in micro-events of reflective strategic practice.

Automation and Productivity - a Cross-country, Cross-industry Comparison.

ABSTRACT: We investigate the effects of automation on total factor productivity (TFP). Using industry-level panel data for nine countries, we find that more intensive use of industrial robots has a significantly positive effect on TFP. Specifically, an increase of one standard deviation in the robot intensity is associated with more than 6% higher TFP. Moreover, we find that the robot intensity increases with Chinese import competition and that automation is associated with higher wages and unchanged or higher employment.

Geopolitical jockeying: Economic nationalism and multinational strategy in historical perspective

ABSTRACT: We explore multinational strategy formation in the context of rising economic nationalism. Specifically, we examine how firms develop strategies to capitalize on the historical and aspirational attributes of national identity. Analyzing the histories of two German multinationals in late colonial India, we find that these firms engaged in “geopolitical jockeying” to delegitimize rival multinationals and position themselves as complementary to the economic and political goals of the host nation. Toward that end they employed “aspirational political practices,” addressing the inherently future‐oriented character of nationalism, and invested in the development of political capabilities to gather information and shape perceptions of national contexts. The paper contributes to a more robust conceptualization of nations and nationalism and their role in the formation of international competition and strategy.

Constructing an Entrepreneurial Life: Liminality and Emotional Reflexivity in Identity Work.

ABSTRACT: This paper examines the identity work of a budding entrepreneur through a longitudinal case study based on his ongoing personal reflections as he tries to construct an entrepreneurial life. In particular, we investigate the role of emotional reflexivity and liminality, concepts that give us analytical purchase in exploring the complex dynamics of this identity work. The liminal condition of multiple identity positions enables our informant to experiment with and integrate several parallel identity narratives as he tries on socio-political constructions of ‘the entrepreneur’ for size; and it is the permanence of the liminal condition that makes emotional reflexivity necessary so he can handle the constant lack he experiences. The contribution of our work lies in exploring how the operation of the discourse of enterprise never closes on the centre of subjectivity that is imputed in that discourse, and how our subject, through emotional reflexivity, deals with this fundamental lack.

From Singular to Plural: Exploring Organisational Complexities and Circular Business Model Design

ABSTRACT: The purpose of this paper is to discuss how organisational complexities influence the design of circular business models, which have recently been introduced as a new panacea for aligning the interests of business with the needs of the environment.

The analysis highlights multiple challenges emerging when a fashion product with a significantly extended lifecycle passes through different users, organisations and business models. It is concluded that it is difficult to talk about a circular business model (singular) as circular economy solutions depend on the contributions of multiple stakeholders with business models.

Understanding Control in Communities of Practice: Constructive Disobedience in a High-tech Firm.

ABSTRACT: Communities of practice (CoPs) represent a broad range of work situations characterized by shared knowledge and situated knowledge use. Although CoPs have been studied rather extensively, discussions of control in CoPs are rarer. This is peculiar because CoPs are characterized by a common tension in contemporary work: on the one hand, CoPs are expected to autonomously “think together,” but on the other they are expected to be responsive to various managerial control attempts. We interrogate this tension in an ethnographic study of engineering work, where we found that in response to management control the engineering communities engaged in constructive disobedience – that is, subversion and displacement of rules and orders to construct a dynamic of control where work can be executed autonomously. By associating constructive disobedience with control in CoPs, our study contributes with insight into and theorization of how management control is dealt with and how control operates in work characterized by CoPs. The study also provides deepened insight into the limits of management control and how professionalism may be maintained despite increased management. These insights may support development of a more knowledgeable and nuanced approach to attempts at managing communities of practice.

Central Limit Theorem for Mean and Variogram Estimators in Lévy–based Models.

ABSTRACT: We consider an infinitely divisible random field in ℝd given as an integral of a kernel function with respect to a Lévy basis. Under mild regularity conditions, we derive central limit theorems for the moment estimators of the mean and the variogram of the field.

Emergence of Collective Digital Innovations through the Process of Control Point Driven Network Reconfiguration and Reframing: The Case of Mobile Payment

ABSTRACT: Decentralized digital technologies require multiple organizations to collectively create digital innovations. Control over the resources required for digital innovations is often therefore dispersed among multiple actors. Actors may have conflicting interests and business models which cause collective digital innovations to come to a standstill. While existing research suggests various factors that block collective innovation processes, there is still little understanding of how organizations can overcome standstills, and progress to bringing digital innovations to market. The main question addressed in this paper is: How do collective digital innovation initiatives overcome standstills in order to progress in bringing the innovations to market? We offer a novel perspective on the process of developing collective digital innovations based on a longitudinal case study of mobile banking in the Netherlands. Our case shows how parties have collaborated to learn about new opportunities for distributing control and framing solutions, while the actual commercialization of the mobile payment solutions was performed by individual actors. The framework shows how digital innovations emerge through a series of collective innovation processes that build upon each other through control point driven network reconfiguration and reframing.

Balancing Flexibility and Security in Europe? The Impact of Unemployment on Young Peoples’ Subjective Well-being.

ABSTRACT: We examine the relationship between ‘flexicurity’ systems, unemployment and well-being outcomes for young people in Europe. A key tenet of the flexicurity approach is that greater flexibility of labour supply supports transitions into employment, trading longer-term employment stability for short-term job instability. However, there is a risk that young people experience greater job insecurity, both objective and subjective, with less stable contracts and more frequent unemployment spells. Our research draws on data from the European Social Survey and uses multi-level models to explore whether and how flexibility-security arrangements moderate the effect of past and present unemployment on the well-being of young people. We distinguish between flexibility-security institutions that foster improved job prospects and those that provide financial security.

Contracting Development: Managerialism and Consultants in Intergovernmental Organizations

ABSTRACT: Intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) are now managed with an eye to managerial trends associated with transnational professionals, a view that has ramifications for how IGOs govern their policies and processes. Drawing on interviews and focus groups with staff in IGOs, we trace how managerialism in IGOs is changing how staff perceive work practices. We find that IGOs increasingly rely on consultants to enact policy scripts and to evaluate program success. This signals a subtle yet significant shift from expertise and bureaucratic impartiality, grounded in particular types of knowledge, to skills and flexibility to meet client demands and advance best practice norms according to prevailing world cultural frames. This managerial trend in IGOs is partly driven by stakeholder dynamics but is primarily a normative change in who is seen as having the authority to make claims over professional best practices. Such managerialism is contracting the development policy space. This contraction is partly driven by consultants, who defer to their peers and to donors rather than IGO staff and concerned member states. This work also depletes institutional memory for IGO operations. We trace how IGO staff perceive managerial trends and changes in work practices.

The Productivity Advantage of Serial Entrepreneurs.

ABSTRACT: Using panel data from Denmark from 2001 to 2013, the authors find that serial entrepreneurs—those who open more than one business—have higher sales and greater productivity than do novice entrepreneurs—those who open only one business. Specifically, serial entrepreneurs’ firms have 98% higher sales than the novices’ firms, and serial entrepreneurs utilize more initial capital and labor, and thus are 49% more productive. Further, certain subsets of serial entrepreneurs perform especially well; those who hold a portfolio of overlapping firms or who open as limited liability corporations (LLCs) are top performers. The authors’ findings suggest that 41% of LLC entrepreneurs are serial entrepreneurs, thus deepening the need to understand these types of entrepreneurs. Finally, female entrepreneurs are shown to realize sizable gains from serial entrepreneurship: The firms of both female and male serial entrepreneurs are twice as large as the firms of novice entrepreneurs of their respective gender.

Communicating to and Engaging with the Public in Regulatory Science.

ABSTRACT: This paper presents selected highlights from the ‘Engaging with society’ session of EFSA's third Scientific Conference ‘Science, Food and Society’ (Parma, Italy, 18–21 September 2018). The social dimension for scientific advisory bodies largely concerns science communication and public engagement. The political, economic and technological transformation of contemporary societies is challenging conventional structures and approaches in these areas. The disintermediation of communication and the proliferation of misinformation, it is argued, herald the onset of the post‐truth society. A better understanding of the way individuals consume information today has led to the development of tools to guide mediators such as journalists and communication specialists in countering these trends. Public engagement can reinforce confidence in regulatory bodies and potentially contribute to the quality of the scientific process. Scientific advisory bodies in Europe have created strategies and mechanisms to engage the public that are designed to increase transparency and representativeness. To be effective, several engagement mechanisms are needed, although factors such as resource constraints, institutional culture and public/stakeholder attitudes may limit their development. In conclusion, a more vigorous role for social research is needed to place scientific risk assessment within broader socio‐economic and political contexts. Social science expertise can help to define more impactful public information strategies and to explore the potential opportunities that engaged stakeholders and citizens can make to sustain and strengthen regulatory science.

Breaking up a Partnership to Build a Competitive Market in Denmark’s Ambulance Service: How Can Studies of Contract Reversals Learn from the Sociology of Markets?

ABSTRACT: This paper analyses a case of contract reversal in the market for ambulance services. The paper suggests that the sociology of markets-literature provides insights into market institutions of importance to relations between government and contractors that will benefit contracting out theory. Building on document analysis and interviews with 19 key stakeholders, it is demonstrated how a regional government in Denmark tried to wrestle the service provision from a long-time private provider and create a competitive market, only to discover that the implementation of the new contract was beset by obstacles largely stemming from informal norms in the market and attempts of the existing provider to hamper market entry for challenger firms. The result was a contract reversal: from private provision to government-provided service delivery. The paper contributes to the contracting out literature by providing a more elaborate understanding of the institutional conditions under which contract reversals can take place.

The Terms of “Becoming Empowered”: How Ascriptions and Negotiations of Employee Identities Shape the Outcomes of Workplace Voice Activities

ABSTRACT: While empowerment practices have been the subject of considerable debate, little attention has been paid to how employees shape the outcomes of these practices through their active participation. Through analyses of interactions in workplace voice activities, this study shows how developing initiatives to improve the local organization of work is complicated by the fact that supporting initiatives as an employee can lead to undesired identity ascriptions from other participants, especially in relation to employees’ organizational identification or disidentification. By drawing on the method of membership categorization analysis, it is argued that the appeal of voice activities for employees depends on how the terms of “becoming empowered” are negotiated in practice, and that these negotiations shape the employees’ participation in the practices.

The Cultural Roots of Compositional Capability in China: Balanced Moderation.

ABSTRACT: A large number of Chinese firms lack the resources for having competitive advantages. Under this severe constraint, such firms are forced to find new paths toward developing certain competitive advantages, including the ability to combine ordinary resources into novel competitive advantages, which is referred to as compositional capability. Such a special capability underlying novel competitive advantages is related to certain cultural factors, such as the Chinese cultural tradition in the case of China. However, the potential links between compositional capability and the Chinese cultural tradition remain poorly understood and largely unspecified. This paper responds to the call for more research on identifying relevant cultural factors by explicating the inherent connections between compositional capability and the Chinese cultural value of balanced moderation.