The strategic logic of terrorism: Violent and non-violent responses

Dynamic Alliances: Strengthening ties between the GCC and Asia

Institutional antecedents and performance consequences of influence strategies in export channels to transitional economies

This study examines how the institutional environment of transitional economies impacts institutional arrangements in the form of influence strategies employed by Western exporters in managing relationships with local firms. Reflecting environmental components, a Western firm’s understanding of Eastern Europe’s regulatory volatility, foreignness, and partner’s control locus is posited to impact economic performance by affecting key coercive and non-coercive influence strategies. A model specifying the effects of the institutional environment on economic outcomes is developed and tested on data from US exporters to Eastern Europe. A structural equation analysis indicates institutional components have a differential impact on the influence strategies employed by these Western firms and on export performance. In particular, use of coercive legalistic pleas is increased by regulatory volatility but reduced by perceived foreignness while use of non-coercive recommendations is increased by the partner’s external locus of control but not by perceived foreignness. Importantly, the institutional environment’s impact on economic performance is shown to be direct as well as indirect through the influence strategies Western firms employ in Eastern Europe. The study concludes with a discussion of implications for managers and researchers.

What is the public value of government action? Towards a (new) pragmatic approach to values questions in public endeavours

There has been a resurgence of interest in values in recent public administration research, based on two distinct arguments. For different reasons, neither approach is likely to secure a robust normative basis for public endeavours. These reasons are assessed, using an alternative body of theory rooted in contemporary social theory that we term, 'new pragmatism'. New pragmatic ideas are deployed to critique the divorce of values from facts; the abstraction of values from concrete situations; the anthropocentric foundation to social choice; the poorly developed understanding of the process of governance, with its inherent pluralism; and the seeming reluctance to articulate principles of political discourse. © 2010 The Authors. Public Administration © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

How well do the theory of reasoned action and theory of planned behaviour predict intentions and attendance at screening programmes? A meta-analysis

Meta-analysis was used to quantify how well the Theories of Reasoned Action and Planned Behaviour have predicted intentions to attend screening programmes and actual attendance behaviour. Systematic literature searches identified 33 studies that were included in the review. Across the studies as a whole, attitudes had a large-sized relationship with intention, while subjective norms and perceived behavioural control (PBC) possessed medium-sized relationships with intention. Intention had a medium-sized relationship with attendance, whereas the PBC-attendance relationship was small sized. Due to heterogeneity in results between studies, moderator analyses were conducted. The moderator variables were (a) type of screening test, (b) location of recruitment, (c) screening cost and (d) invitation to screen. All moderators affected theory of planned behaviour relationships. Suggestions for future research emerging from these results include targeting attitudes to promote intention to screen, a greater use of implementation intentions in screening information and examining the credibility of different screening providers.

Bossnapping:situating repertoires of industrial action in national and global contexts

French industrial relations were shaken in the spring of 2009 by a series of labour struggles which featured the forcible detention of company managers and threats to commit major acts of sabotage. In this article I focus on the first of these two types of action, placing industrial sequestration in the context of the pattern of collective negotiation processes in France, and comparing it with previous cycles of the same phenomenon, particularly in the post-1968 period. I argue that the current cycle of sequestrations needs to be understood as a response to the deterritorialisation processes of neo-liberal globalisation, and is the product of asymmetries of power between the fixity of labour and the fluidity of global capital. I conclude by arguing that sequestration is a public melodrama of protest which might point to the development of a resistant politics of corporeality in France, in common with struggles in other social and economic sectors.

Survey of influence of biomass mineral matter in thermochemical conversion of short rotation willow coppice

Short rotation willow coppice (SRC) has been investigated for the influence of K, Ca, Mg, Fe and P on its pyrolysis and combustion behaviours. These metals are the typical components that appear in biomass. The willow sample was pretreated to remove salts and metals by hydrochloric acid, and this demineralised sample was impregnated with each individual metal at the same mol g biomass (2.4 × 10 mol g demineralised willow). Characterisation was performed using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and differential thermal analysis (DTA) for combustion. In pyrolysis, volatile fingerprints were measured by means of pyrolysis-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (PY-GC-MS). The yields and distribution of pyrolysis products have been influenced by the presence of the catalysts. Most notably, both potassium and phosphorous strongly catalysed the pyrolysis, modifying both the yield and distribution of reaction products. Temperature programmed combustion TGA indicates that combustion of biomass char is catalysed by all the metals, while phosphorus strongly inhibits the char combustion. In this case, combustion rates follow the order for volatile release/combustion: P>K>Fe>Raw>HCl>Mg>Ca, and for char combustion K>Fe>raw>Ca-Mg>HCl>P. The samples impregnated with phosphorus and potassium were also studied for combustion under flame conditions, and the same trend was observed, i.e. both potassium and phosphorus catalyse the volatile release/combustion, while, in char combustion, potassium is a catalyst and phosphorus a strong inhibitor, i.e. K impregnated>(faster than) raw>demineralised»P impregnated.