EU-ASEAN relations in the post-Cold War era:an analysis of the impact of normative factors on interregionalism

This thesis examines the relationship between the European Union (EU) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) with a focus on why their normative elements, e.g. values and norms, affect their ties in the post-Cold War era. Since the end of the Cold War, policy-makers and academics have become interested in region-to-region interaction, termed interregionalism. Though interregionalism is considered to have become an indelible feature of post-Cold War international politics, there are question marks over its importance. It is often argued that interregionalism reinforces the collective identity of the regional organisations involved. It is also maintained that its overall relevance to the international system depends on the level of actorness, which is primarily measured in institutional and material terms, of the participant regional organisations. This thesis contends that the normative components of the EU and ASEAN are also fundamental constituents of their actorness and, consequently, define significantly their interregionalism. This is based on a crucial observation that normative factors are of importance to the regional and international relations of the EU and ASEAN. Yet, while they strongly espouse norms and values to guide their internal and external activities, their normative premises radically differ from each other. Furthermore, these normative differences jeopardise their cooperation. Building on this observation the inquiry takes the normative components of the EU and ASEAN as the criterion as well as the focus for investigating their interregionalism. In doing so, it hypothesises that the EU and ASEAN are two different regional actors that adopt two dissimilar sets of norms to conduct their regional and international affairs and that such normative differences hinder their relations. Within this hypothesis, it seeks to address three central questions. First, what are the normative features that constitute the EU and ASEAN as actors in world politics and that make them different from each other? Second, what are the main sources of their normative differences? Finally, why do their normative differences become an obstructive factor in their relationship? To address these issues, the inquiry adopts a constructivist interpretation (of International Relations) and opts for a narrative and empirical inquiry, which is based on information and data acquired from official documents, scholarly works and interviews and questionnaires. In doing so, it finds that as they were born and evolved in two dissimilar temporal and spatial settings, the EU and ASEAN are two different norm entrepreneurs and normative powers. The former advocates a set of liberal cosmopolitan norms whereas the latter champions a set of traditional communitarian principles. Their normative differences become a major obstacle to their cooperation, especially when one regional organisation’s norms are refused or violated by the other. Thus, a key lesson drawn from these findings is that in order to explain more fully EU-ASEAN interregionalism, it is essential to consider their norms, the reasons behind their normative differences and the implication of those differences to their relations

Delegation of pricing authority to the sales force:an agency-theoretic perspective of its determinants and impact on performance

In industrial selling situations, the questions of what factors drive pricing authority delegation to salespeople and under what conditions price delegation is beneficial for the firm are often asked. To advance knowledge in this area, we (1) develop and empirically test a framework of important drivers of price delegation based on agency-theoretic research and (2) investigate the impact of price delegation on firm performance, taking into account agency theory variables as potential moderators. The study is based on data from a sample of 181 companies from the industrial machinery and electrical engineering industry in Germany. The results indicate that the degree of pricing delegation increases as information asymmetry between the salesperson and sales manager increases and as it becomes more difficult to monitor salespeople's efforts. Conversely, risk-aversion of salespeople is negatively related to the degree of price delegation. Furthermore, we find a positive effect of price delegation on firm performance, which is amplified when market-related uncertainty is high and when salespeople possess better customer-related information than their managers. Hence, our results clearly show that rigid, “one price fits all” policies are inappropriate in many B2B market situations. Instead, sales managers should grant their salespeople sufficient leeway to adapt prices to changing customer requirements and market conditions, especially in firms that operate in highly uncertain selling environments.

Action research at the Sea Fish Industry Authority:improving the quality of our knowing- how do practices achieve organisational learning and renewal and how does this change overtime?

DUE TO COPYRIGHT RESTRICTIONS ONLY AVAILABLE FOR CONSULTATION AT ASTON UNIVERSITY LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SERVICES WITH PRIOR ARRANGEMENT

Survey of teacher stress in secondary schools in the local authority

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The changing nature of financial management in local government 1980-85, with particular reference to a rate capped authority.

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A comparison of the local authority adoption of risk management in England and Australia

This paper analyses the context and use of risk management in local authorities in England and Australia. The basic structures of risk management were found to be common across all four local authorities in both countries. However, substantial differences were found in the national context in which risk management was used. The national context in each country was compared, and a large and small local authority in each country was used for illustrative purposes. The research findings were tested against institutional, contingency, resource dependence, and political perspectives. The research finding is that each theory was necessary but not sufficient and a pluralist approach was formulated to explain the similarities and differences in risk management in local authorities across two countries.

Normative contrast sensitivity values for the back-lit Melbourne Edge Test and the effect of visual impairment

Background: The Melbourne Edge Test (MET) is a portable forced-choice edge detection contrast sensitivity (CS) test. The original externally illuminated paper test has been superseded by a backlit version. The aim of this study was to establish normative values for age and to assess change with visual impairment. Method: The MET was administered to 168 people with normal vision (18-93 years old) and 93 patients with visual impairment (39-97 years old). Distance visual acuity (VA) was measured with a log MAR chart. Results: In those eyes without disease, MET CS was stable until the age of 50 years (23.8 ± .7 dB) after which it decreased at a rate of ≈1.5 dB per decade. Compared with normative values, people with low vision were found to have significantly reduced CS, which could not be totally accounted for by reduced VA. Conclusions: The MET provides a quick and easy measure of CS, which highlights a reduction in visual function that may not be detectable using VA measurements. © 2004 The College of Optometrists.

Constructing a normative national identity: the Leitkultur debate in Germany 2000/2001

In recent years, public discourse about German national identity has increasingly focussed on the large foreign population within Germany's borders. Whilst right-wing politicians such as Edmund Stoiber foster fears of identity loss ('Überfremdung'), more liberal observers, and indeed the ruling red-green coalition, acknowledge that multiethnicity has by now become an integral part of this identity. The debate experienced its provisional climax in late 2000 and early 2001. Friedrich Merz, then parliamentary leader of the CDU party, introduced the term 'Leitkultur' into the political discourse. The notion suggests the existence of a clearly identifiable spectrum of German cultural values and proposes that foreigners who wished to live in Germany should adhere to these values. Merz's proposal triggered a wave of highly controversial comments which have been evaluated for the purpose of this paper. It draws on roughly 350 newspaper articles and interviews and aims to introduce the English-speaking reader to the complex range of arguments. The Leitkultur debate is taken as symptomatic of the current state of public discourse about foreigners and national identity in Germany.

The Greater London Authority:problems of strategy integration

The Act that established the Greater London Authority (GLA) incorporated many of New Labour's aspirations for modern governance. Among those aspirations was the notion of policy integration, or 'joining up'. The Mayor of Greater London was required to develop a number of strategies, broadly in the planning and environmental policy domains, and to ensure that those strategies meshed into a coherent overall strategy for promoting London's economic, social and environmental well-being. How would this work in practice, given the need for coordination between the GLA and a number of related functional bodies, and given the political imperative for the GLA to make an impact quickly? Through our analysis of the strategy development and integration efforts of the GLA in its first nine months, we have gleaned new insights into the highly complex and difficult process of policy integration. We argue that the high aspirations of the Act for policy integration have not been met, policy integration instead being narrowly interpreted as the coordination of strategies to the Mayor's political agenda. Finally,we reflect on the likelihood of the GLA, as currently constituted, evolving to meet the functional requirement of policy integration.

Low-emission vehicle adoption in a UK local authority fleet:economic barriers and air quality benefits

Local air quality was one of the main stimulants for low carbon vehicle development during the 1990s. Issues of national fuel security and global air quality (climate change) have added pressure for their development, stimulating schemes to facilitate their deployment in the UK. In this case study, Coventry City Council aimed to adopt an in-house fleet of electric and hybrid-electric vehicles to replace business mileage paid for in employee's private vehicles. This study made comparisons between the proposed vehicle technologies, in terms of costs and air quality, over projected scenarios of typical use. The study found that under 2009 conditions, the electric and hybrid fleet could not compete on cost with the current business model because of untested assumptions, but certain emissions were significantly reduced >50%. Climate change gas emissions were most drastically reduced where electric vehicles were adopted because the electricity supply was generated by renewable energy sources. The study identified the key cost barriers and benefits to adoption of low-emission vehicles in current conditions in the Coventry fleet. Low-emission vehicles achieved significant air pollution-associated health cost and atmospheric emission reductions per vehicle, and widespread adoption in cities could deliver significant change. © The Author 2011. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.

Guiding schools to improved performance using data envelopment analysis:an illustration with data from a local education authority

The educational process is characterised by multiple outcomes such as the achievement of academic results of various standards and non-academic achievements. This paper shows how data envelopment analysis (DEA) can be used to guide secondary schools to improved performance through role-model identification and target setting in a way which recognises the multi-outcome nature of the education process and reflects the relative desirability of improving individual outcomes. The approach presented in the paper draws from a DEA-based assessment of the schools of a local education authority carried out by the authors. Data from that assessment are used to illustrate the approach presented in the paper. (Key words: Data envelopment analysis, education, target setting.)